I once declined help with a suitcase and, a few steps later, had to ask the same person to hold a door. I remember making the second request rather carefully, as though it needed to be kept separate from the first offer.
Reading Houdini's promotional account of his career, full of handcuffs and escapes, made me think about how much more awkward that sort of distinction might become with a reputation to maintain. This is an invented moment after a performance, when the audience has gone home.
Comic transcript
Panel 1. Backstage, Houdini's coat lining is caught over the rounded top of a wooden chair. A stagehand offers help. A poster reads "HOUDINI".
Stagehand: "Need a hand?"
Houdini: "I can get out."
Panel 2. Houdini supports the coat while the stagehand lifts its lining over the chair's rounded top.
Houdini: "Just lift the lining, would you?"
Houdini: "It's a good coat."
