The Flying Dutchman and Other Folktales from the Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 by Theo Meder

A magician had a job on a cruise ship. While he was performing his tricks, there was a parrot III the room observing him closely.

At a certain moment, the magician conjured up a deck of cards.

The parrot shouted, "He took that out of his right sleeve!"

A moment later the magician conjured up a bunch of flowers.

The parrot shouted, "He took that out of his inside pocket!"

All of a sudden, a vast blow was heard. The ship had hit a reef; it took on water and sank in no time at all. '

The magician and the parrot were the only survivors of this disaster, and they sought refuge on the same piece of wreckage. There they sat, opposite to each other looking at each other in silence.

After a while the parrot said, "I give up! Where did you leave the ship?"

This joke was told in the first series of a Dutch television program called Moppentoppers (top jokers), RTL4, September-October 1994. It has been published in T. Meder, De magische vlucht (Amsterdam, 2000), p. 245.