His stage name was `The Magical Marvo`, and he`d been a well known stage act in his time, but music halls were dying away, bookings were getting scarcer, the clubs only wanted strippers, and he`d not been able to break into T.V., so he`d finished up working on a cruise liner. Of course, it wasn`t like top billing in a theatre or a regular T.V. spot, but there was the advantage that the audience was different each week, so he could use the same tricks over and over again and not bother with inventing any new ones
Unfortunately, at one of the ports of call, the captain went and bought a parrot, and even more unfortunately the captain took the parrot with him to watch Marvo in action. The parrot was fascinated, and every week would demand to be taken to watch Marvo. Now the parrot was very bright (for a parrot), and after a while began to work out how Marvo worked every trick. Once he understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show: "Look, it's not the same hat!" "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" "Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?" Marvo was furious. The audience began to lose interest in his act, and laughed at the parrot instead, he but couldn't do anything. It was, after all, the captain's parrot, and Marvo could see his job steadily going down the drain.
Then, during a fierce storm, the ship sank. Marvo was able to get into an empty life raft just before at was washed away, and found himself alone in the middle of the sea. Shortly afterwards he saw a large bird approaching, and as it fluttered down and landed on the raft he saw that it was his dreaded tormentor – the parrot. They stared at each other with hatred but did not utter a word. This went on for a day, and then another and then another. Finally on the fourth day, the parrot broke the silence………
"OK, I give up. Where's the ship?
