Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 27, 2020

Good morning™, prestidigitators!

If Presto can make a full-sized statue disappear, it would be astounding and spectacular.

Good morning™, presti-digital-ators !

This cagey bird bears watching. Nice big bald spot Vitamin’s got going in P.1. He could try doing a comb over.

Does Presto still perform with that bunny from the Pixar short? He could make that statue disappear with that magic hat, but that bunny’s more clever than him (and if that statue has diamonds, the bunny will do anything for karats)!

Emilio seems to have a vivid memory for cunning stunts.

Maybe the janitor is Sir Justin, Stargirl’s, the JSA’s, and The Seven Soldiers of Victory’s friend The Shining Knight!

Long ago one of our local TV stations had Presto the Magic Clown with his puppet friends Honey Bunny and J. Fred Frog.

Dick Tracy is never in the strip that bears his name, even in a make believe story.

Presto was the evil magician in a Pixar short of the same name (In the sense he didn’t feed his rabbit)

Presto, change-o! Emili-o now seems to remember. It seems that this long-forgotten Presto was an early version of the Big Illusion magicians like David Copperfield. But why at this point would he turn to a Life of Crime, unless he had some specific grudge against some individual in Tracyville?

Didn’t Houdini once make an elephant disappear?

Oh, Presto. I thought they were saying pesto and this was taking place in an Italian pasta restaurant. Or would that be pasto restaurant?

SUGAR DADDY: Do you know what a prestidigitator is, Emelio?

EMILIO: Si. I was quite fond of that before I married my Flooziella. Then I had no longer the need to digitate my own presti.

SUGAR: You would if you were married to Barber Pole. Sigh

Presto eventually escaped, went incognito, and sought fame and fortune on the Las Vegas nickle slots circuit. His talents ultimately resulted in national exposure and a residency gig at a local trailer park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtm4vp1X6fQ

Could there be a more generic name for a stage magician?

I just received the complete DVD set of “The Magician”, a Banacek/McMillan and Wife/Columbo vintage show starring Bill Bixby after he finally got tired of that annoying Eddie kid and presumably snuffed him. As usual for that era, he moonlights as a crime buster and fights nefarious villains with doves stuffed up his sleeve, flash power, and the lot. I had fond memories of this show when I was a kid.

Some things are best left remaining as memories. Especially if you have fond memories of particular mammaries. Mammary memories are the best.