Corky chases after Greene in the woods and bludgeons him with Fats' hard, wooden head and then attempts to drag the body into a lake. Greene demands that Corky get help and leaves to make some calls to the doctors, but Fats convinces Corky to kill his agent. Corky pleads that nothing is wrong with him and that he is just rehearsing, so Greene puts him to the test, saying "Make Fats shut up for 5 minutes." Corky puts aside Fats, but is unable to last 5 minutes without delivering a rapid stream of speech through Fats. In the midst of an argument "between" Corky and Fats, Greene arrives unexpectedly and confronts Corky, discovering the truth about Corky's state of mind.
This sparks the jealousy not only of Duke, but also the dummy Fats. A magic trick with a deck of cards charms Peggy into thinking they are soulmates, leading to them having sex. In the Catskills, Corky reunites with his high school crush, Peggy Ann Snow (Ann-Margret), who is stuck in a passionless marriage with Duke ( Ed Lauter), Corky's friend from high school.
His talent agent thinks that Corky is "afraid of success." In truth, Corky does not want to take the TV network's required medical examination because the doctors might find out that he suffers from severe mental issues, and that even off-stage he cannot control Fats (a manifestation of Corky's id). Corky's powerful agent, Ben Greene (Meredith), is on the verge of signing him for his own television show, but Corky bails out for the Catskills, where he grew up. A year later, Corky comes back as a combination magician and ventriloquist with a foul-mouthed dummy named Fats, becoming a huge success. André) says that he needs to have a better gimmick.
After Charles "Corky" Withers (Hopkins) fails in his first attempt at professional magic, his mentor Merlin (E.J.