Life — August 5, 1926 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This comic strip satirizes a traveling magician's homecoming and domestic chaos. The narrative follows a magician arriving at customs with luggage, then returning home where his family—a woman and child—react with escalating pandemonium to his magic tricks. The joke centers on the contrast between the magician's professional success abroad (suggested by customs inspection and travel) and his domestic life, where his magic acts create increasingly wild disorder at home: the child's reactions intensify, bottles scatter, and by the final panels, complete mayhem erupts with the woman appearing distressed amid debris. The satire appears to mock both the performer's inability to control his "act" in a domestic setting and the family's exasperation with his antics—suggesting magic tricks lose their charm when performed repeatedly for captive household audiences.