The "Heimlich" Illusion

It was their trademark trick and grand finale.

Butchering some famous aria at the top of his high rodent voice, Winston would slip down and out of sight. He could still be heard, muffled but no less enthusiastic, until Stella would bring silence with an emphatic gulp. Stella would invite an audience member onstage, to confirm via stethoscope that Winston really was inside her and still alive and "singing".

Stella would then beg a hen's egg from the audience. Somehow, someone always had an egg. Stella would hold the egg to the light, hold it to her ear, tap it, scowl at it, then gravely nod. Holding the egg up to the audience, she would declaim an outrageous pig-latin "incantation", her voice rising slowly from a mutter to a near caterwaul. On the last syllable she would rip the shell apart with her claws. A very ordinary raw egg would splot down onto the stage.

Stella would feign panic, staring at the egg, trying to look under it, appealing for a mouse doctor etc., until a "random" audience member (usually one of Stella's cousins) would have a coughing fit and disgorge a bedraggled Winston.

Stella and Winston never divulged the secret, but they assured reporters that the swallowing part was quite real and just a matter of good nerves and throat control.

***

I definitely owe  Vempyremon and  Voraciousopolis for inspiration with their much better-drawn trick. :)