I was wondering if any of you used this at the end of your shows to prelude your next???
I know a lot of buisness can be repeat and I think this would be a novel approach...
example, you finish the last story of the night and follow it with the first trick of your next show... build up interest with story on an object, lets say a sachel and finish it there... to be continued...
I know this works great with t.v. shows... lost and heroes are the only 2 I watch but they leave a feeling of wanting more... wanting them to finish the story... and I have read many a time that you should always leave them wanting more...
any ideas?

What you don't tell, what must be read between the lines, excites imagination.

Declanring

This is a very interesting idea! It must have impact and stir the imagination as the Curator has mention.

LOL...Yes, I like this!

Ray

Leaving a show or just a routine unfinished and advising the audience that if they hire me again, they will see how it ends, does not appeal to me.

Live entertainment, unlike tuning in every Tuesday night, or picking up a set of DVDs, is a rare form of entertainment. When I'm hired, I make the event as memorable as I can. Yes, I try to leave them wanting more by: a. Not overstaying my welcome, and b. Crafting presentations that live on in their thoughts long after I've gone.

Tony

I think you want to end with a line like: "Look at the time! There are a great many more mysteries I'd like to share with you, but I'm afraid we must save them for another day. I've enjoyed this past time with you immensely and hope you have enjoyed it too. Until we meet again... in this life or the next..."

George Anderson, in 'Magic Digest', tells the story of a fairground entertainer who used the 100 foot rope escape as a cliffhanger of sorts. If he was unable to escape in less time than it took to tie him up he would pay his five assistants ten dollars each. At his first show he failed to make the escape. He accused the timekeeper of cheating and complained bitterly as he paid off his assistants. At the next show he had the town marshal serve as the timer. Still he was unable to escape in the alloted time. He begrudgingly paid off his assistants and challenged them once again, this time for even more money. He succeeded in his escape in the third show and offered even more money if his assistants were successful in the forth show. They failed, he escaped. For the fifth show he was offerring one hundred dollars a man if they were successful. They failed and his show audience was the largest yet. Anderson quotes him, "Whenever the tip twindles , I let the towners beat me, and the take goes right back up. The towners'll pay time after time in the hope of seeing the city slicker taken by their pals."

Before I began studying magic a co-worker asked me to think of a card.
Idid.
He said he had to go back to work and he would be back later.
He came back a few hours later and revealed my thought of card reverses in a face down deck. Blew me away!
I didn't know how he did it until a couple of years later.

Yes, I was in suspense for a few hours.

I'm thinking suspense might occasionally work for you Cruise Ship performers? Captive audience and all

I'm not sure about about stage work (unless you have a captive audience, as Eddie says), but definitely 'tasters' can do wonders in generating bookings.
Check Docc Hilford's "$1000 Seance" for a neat way of presenting a small effect as a prelude to a booking.

I was thinking on the lines of when you've finish your last routine and are wrapping it up, you might be reminded of another story, lets say of a box... which happens to be on the table... as you talk about it a rather strange scraping sound can be heard... 'but we'll leave that story for another time'...
I believe that this can work in a bizarre setting very well... I find I have a lot of repeat customers and in thinking of the big picture... 5/10 yrs down the line... I figure it might be a gimmicky ending that gives them something to look forward to and weaves your last act into the theme of the next show... I agree give them what they paid for... and much much more...
DUM DUM DUUUUMM...

Nothing new here...we've been doing this for years with the box on the table as the finish...I wrote this up as way to make extra money years ago and I got the idea from the old 10 & 1 shows and the use Blade Box and Blow-Off. However there is a finish to the cliff hanger/tease when the silver piece changes hands and the customer gets to satisfy their curiosity through your skillfull manipulation.

However like Tony says above a cliffhanger with out an ending, unless you come back or re-book, will just REALLY tick 'em off and make them feel a bit cheated from seeing the whole show. HOWEVER having said that, if you have the cajones, it would be a nice way to set up your Sales Table after the show, if you sell photos or tricks or whatever. Do the set up and invite folks out to the lobby for a personal 'finish'. If you don't have after show sales, do your show that you got paid for and leave it at that.

My favorite way is to 'Medicine Show' it...after the show, have some tricks and color books for sale etc. and have a Zibit in the box...pitch the Zibit during a break in your show and offer to show it Free...just stop by the table after the performance.

Those who do not see their act as business but just mutual entertainment then just ignore the above.

So can we just say it all boils down into how you define "cliffhanger" then, and it what type of venue or frequency of performance to which you apply it ?
TonyI has a valid point, but then again, so do others who want to leave a little something unanswered in the backs of the minds of their patrons.

It probably should not be done in a matter which suggests there was supposed to be more to your show than you gave; that could make the patron feel cheated and leave you looking unprofessional.

A little tease such as the aforementioned box, OTOH, sounds like an excellent way to say that's there's yet more to your persona, your knowledge, your "story" and life experiences, and that even though you fully delivered on your end of the deal, the customer stands to benefit even more from hiring you again.

I'm guess I'm saying, one way is to look at it like this:
If you play it as though you're a large puzzle, and an hour or two is only enough time to show a piece or two of this large and interesting puzzle, than it should be possible to "hook" a patron into hiring you multiple times in an effort to get the full perspective and satisfy their curiosity - providing you piqued it, amply.
This mandates, of course, that you actually have hours and hours of decent material to perform !

I have to agree with Tony Eye. Leaving the audience hanging with an incomplete performance is a bad idea. Any performance needs closure, and leaving them wanting more because you have not satisfied the expectations of the audience makes them feel your presentation was incomplete and not finished. It is bound to make the audience uncomfortable at a point when you most want them to feel that they have received what they paid for, whether or not they understand why they feel this way.

Bill

Now this would be a truly bizarre performance !!
Imagine not finishing one single effect/routine during the entire performance, but moving on to a different effect just before "delivering the punchline".. spectator torture. heh

Yeah, Myst. That reminds me of the guy who was walking his dog. As he was going down the street, he happened to come face to face with the mailman. As the dog approached the mailman, he

Bill

I have (at the suggestion of the Curator) put together what is basically a cabinet of curiosities for children. I display a number of artifacts and let them choose which ones they want to hear more about (yes, this means that I must be prepared to perform all of them, but I think it is worth it). They will choose two or three during the course of the show. As I am packing up, I am inevidably asked about artifacts that were not used. I simply reply "those are stories for another day."

I feel like this serves the purpose the declanring is talking about, but in a way that is more subtle and doesn't leave the audience feeling like they were shortchanged.

And Doug -- that is valuable advice. I really appreciate your willingness to share it with us.

Dave

Blackstone Jr. would almost cliff hang his first act to his second...I saw him while at school and he would buzz saw his wife at the end of the first...she would scream, curtains closed abruptly, lots of commotion backstage. Blackstone would emerge in a panic ruffling the curtains but would mildly announce intermission. Tension was released so no real cliff hanger.

I have never been on a cruise ship but I have the 1972 fantasy of a captive audience including Carol Lynley and Shelly Winters. If you had a guaranteed same audience two nights in a row then surely the mentalists at least can see an opportunity to play with the hours between shows. Empower some object and use it the first night in an effect and then have the ship audience pass it among themselves secretly and covertly throughout the day so there will be nooooo way you can find who has it in their pocket the following night. By the way Ernest Bourgnine was hiding the object in his pocket, Red Buttons slipped it to him before dinner.

Anyhow the ship flipped at midnight, someone yelled to the mentalist "You should have seen the wave coming."

There's got to be a morning after.

Dave, that is an excellent solution!

Bill

From my reading of this, and I have far less experience than many here, it seems that how this is handled or not depends upon the circumstances and type of audience. I say this because several of the suggestions above are radically different but nevertheless appealing and convincing.

Many of us remember what we in the UK called the sixpenny cinema. At the end of every film session was a cliffhanger but we were all pretty sure that the hero would survive, it was just a matter of how. Perhaps if someone got a reputation for this sort of shenanigans, he might always get two consecutive bookings from the same venue at a time; and that's no mean feat.

Ian

Wonderful ideas thankyou... my approach to magic is very personal... I make it so... I can often get the person hiring me ' in on it ' in exchange for a one on one show ( my personal favourite )... this gives me not only a wealth of information on the audience but creates a different work relationship with my employers...
this idea would work for librarys... 1st show on fairytales,which encomasses the following... second on mythological beings, third on wizards and witches, fourth on the the magic of life...
here are four shows that can all blend wonderfully into each other... and you promote it as such... you let the employer know... imagine the expectation and the growing crowds... and from this can come a lifetime of bookings...
if your good... that's what it comes down to... if you have enough material and the right material...
I can see this working for private partys... tell the employer about the seance routine you do and end your show with the box that contains the seance story... the natural progression of the routine would be to hold a seance... but the story has to end there... it does... you don't have the time or the setting to perform such a seance... imagine the seance held with the active involvement of the employer as in my approach...
living in l.a. I can see a plethora of employees for this kind of show in hollywood, beverly hills and the beach area's where people have the money to spend almost PUNKING there friends it feels like sometimes... and they've all got kids..............
nightclubs, bars and restaurants in the above mentioned areas would love a gimmicked show where the audience would want to come back the next week and bring their friends... they are starting to see the importance of spending money to get the 'RIGHT' people into their establishments...
school shows... now this is fun... they are soooooooooo excited to see you...
hospital shows... IMAGINE...
btw... my personal 'one on one' show I do I wrote for kids dying of cancer, a personal 'one on one' show... when I perform this I tell the employer so... I give them a very special gift very few will ever experience... imagine the rapport... the willingness to help...