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Hi all. I'm looking for a strong opening effect. It's for a comedy club audience so preferable something quick and perhaps a bit funny. I also love the bizarre or shock type stuff, but that's not vital. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

For a strong comedy opener trick, try and produce a bowling ball out of a briefcase, I saw a guy called George Egg do this at the Glee Club in Birmingham it was hilarious he had the crowd's attention after that.....

...anything with fire!

What about a burning bowling ball out of a briefcase?

leighton wrote:For a strong comedy opener trick, try and produce a bowling ball out of a briefcase, I saw a guy called George Egg do this at the Glee Club in Birmingham it was hilarious he had the crowd's attention after that.....

Loki did this with a crash helmet on Playing Tricks last night. it's rather impressive.

my favourate opener is bag to cape start with bag and say your going to do the rabbit vanishing trick, pull from bag 8'ft pole or wand saying ok i have the wand now weres the rabbit.
grimace and say i think the rabbit down a bit of poo, bring out poo bear puppet, finaly produce rabbit puppet next go through rabbit is in bag a wave and its gone, anouther wave and its back untill audience is preped then change bag to cape realy vanishing rabbit.

works well with kids and adults in most situations.

PB wrote:Hi all. I'm looking for a strong opening effect. It's for a comedy club audience so preferable something quick and perhaps a bit funny. I also love the bizarre or shock type stuff, but that's not vital. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Yep... you all guessed it... the Devil's Advocate is in the office :twisted:


How did you get the gig working a comedy club without an opener?

Oh! You don't have the gig yet, you are trying out for it...

Are you funny?

I'm serious... there is a major difference between someone the actually is funny vs. those that are simply rediculous or those that must lean on (hide behind) props in order to get a laugh... where do you fit in?

What's your style?

What's your look?

What are your interests?

What's the demographic element this club caters to?


Enough with the 100 questions... sort of...

This is the stuff YOU need to wiegh long before the audition or getting the opportunity to work a room.

a.) What works for me may not work for you
b.) What works in one room may not work in another due to demographic differences i.e. older vs. younger age groups; white collar vs. blue collar personalities; Sports Jocks vs. MENSA & MIT Geeks... Men vs. Women; Gay vs. Straight/Lesbians vs.Fagots....

Every one of these things makes a big difference in the kind of material you can do and what will work for both, the room you are in and the kind of personality you project.

Comedy in general, is one of the most difficult fields to work in due to all the vaiables and the demand placed on the performer to THINK ON THEIR FEET and at the drop of a hat, shift from what was planned to what will work. Which brings us to your experience level... how much time do you have on stage and of that, how much invested into comedy? How much formal education to you have when it comes to improvisational work in comedy, public speaking, the art of working a room?

Though I'm intentionally busting your chops, don't take it personal. You are not the only person in this forum that's placed the horse ahead of the wagon when it comes to this kind of thing or this type of post/question. We've all done it (including me) but, we must learn from it rather than seeking consignment from all our chums via the list of trick suggestions such as we have in the above.

NEWS FLASH... None of it will work if you aren't ready to work it!

Stan Allen, the publisher of MAGIC Magazine has the ability to walk out on a cold stage, not say a word and with a simple hand puppet, not even a Vent dummy, he slays the room... I'm talking about a major theater with over 6,000 magicians. For five minutes (if not longer) he had us all mesmerized and on the edge of our seat doing little other than interacting with this child's puppet and he had us on the floor with laughter and tears. That was his opening bit... it wasn't a trick, it wasn't something flashy, startling, trendy or involving a bunch of folks from the audience... it was simple manipulation of wonder --- MAGIC!

When you cultivate the ability to walk up with that much confidence and more importantly, that level of control, that is when you can look at independent "tricks" and wiegh them as to which might best work to you and your personality as well as your character and it's limitations.

Think about it

Now thats food for thought. Thank god I'm not a comedian! I'd have some serious thinking to do after reading that!