When the peoples guard is down
	On a day like today
	Overcast and gray
	Bells were all ringing
	The birds stopped their singing
	The wind caught in the trees
	Screaming to be free
	He alights from the platform
	In his usual uniform
	His skin looks like he slept in it
	Or had something rotten kept in it
	And snakes stir in the thistles
	Back of cats neck bristles
	'Round vicious lips the fur is stained
	The disillusionist is back again

	They say that he's famous from the waist down
	But the top half of his body is a corpse
	His gold won't buy him sleep
	His poverty runs so deep
	In winter he cracks, in summer he warps

	Hang around the backstage door
	But he knows what you're waiting for
	You rub yourself against his fame
	Already ready to bear the blame
	He asks you "Did you like my show?"
	As if he really wants to know
	Then doesn't wait for your reply
	He just pulls you back inside
	You've started feeling dizzy
	It isn't you or is he
	Persuade you mentally
	Undress you incidentally
	Down the swaying corridor
	People you feel sorry for
	But when he puts the gaze on you
	You're amazed at what you'll let him do

	He can turn wine into water
	Mother against daughter
	Juggles busy deadlines
	Gets himself off headlines
	Surrounded by his minions
	Who never have opinions
	Performing little tricks for you
	Puts it in a fix for you
	Smashes your watch with a hammer
	Caresses you with camera
	And says the magic words
	That nobody's ever heard
	Now the slur is fading
	Reality all-pervading
	It only makes you want him more
	It only makes you fawn him more

	And he does the Indian rope trick
	The one that makes you seasick
	And he keeps on filling up your cup
	But you keep on filling up
	And some of it's done with mirrors
	And some of it's done with scissors
	And some of it's done with cables
	And his hands under the table
	It doesn't matter you want to believe
	It doesn't matter if you have to leave
	You won't escape his orbit
	And the things that you must forfeit
	And the audience seems familiar
	Some of them in particular
	Bet you they are his plants
	When he plays the game of chance
	He reads the minds of jilted girls
	And the story really unfurls
	Cast a fortune for the man in the suit
	Who's suffering is very acute
	There's a rabbit in his hat
	But I thought I smelled a rat