Hi There fellow magicians and magicianettes, I always got directed to this forum whatever I search so I thought I need to register here. I´m practicing magic since about 15 Years now. I had a dozen small Shows for kids and adults and stuff always using the same close up principles over and over again. Well still love those principles but well I´m 30 now and I was always interested in a bit bigger Illusions. So I bought a lot of Literature from Paul Osborne, Andrew Mayne and stuff. well and I´subscribed to tha Tarbell Course in Magic from Dan harlan. (Highly Recommened by the way). I just had the chance to start a pretty Interesting new program. Well a friend of mine is the owner of a good ole german restaurant and they offer a medieval dinner with entertainment. I´m the entertainer since the former entertainer started to become a bit less trustworthy.

don´t mind. I planned a little act and used a little magic and the customers seemed to like it a lot. I think it´s something new for them to see a real magician in action not only doing card tricks over and over again.
at first I like to tell you my "problem" or what I´m searching for for the act and then I wanna tell you a little bit about what the show is about to get you in the right mood for it.

I´m searching for some nice illusionideas to end with. like a closing act. I thought about something meaningful (because the rest of the evening is funny).
now to the act itself to get you a deeper understanding of what i´m searching for.

the customers are a group of minimum 10 people and it´s a private circle. We start with one of my maids (in full a historic correct costume) telling the group to welcome the baron (me). I enter the stage and welcome them. I then start to introduce what is going to happen on this evening. I then let the group decide who is going to be the leader of the society. a little later I tell them that I had lied to them and the only reason why they are here is, that the duke of Wuerttemberg (in germany) needs soldiers, brave knights for his war and that the leader of the society (usually the guy who had ordered the dinner) planned with the duke taht he will bring him three of his best men (sometimes women too). And I´m here to find out who is qualified to become a knight.

The Idea is, that three brave men (or women) are picked out of the group and they have to prof that they can pass my exams. don't want to go into much more detail. But that seems to be the plot. Now to the tricks I use til now.
- I used a flash paper appearence of a laurel wreath for the leader. He needs to wear it the whole evening.
- then I use a little funny things in between like paperballs over the head and stuff.
- the exams are sometimes connected to the meal itself and are no magic routines.
- one exam is the proof that the esquire is brave enough. (I used an andrew mayne method from his penguin live lecture (the one with the monkey king)) to make fun of the esquire. Then the guiolltine comes in (it´s the finger guiolltine-illusion).
- another illusion I use is a headswordbox out of cardbord.
and I usually end with the puzzle of life-Illusion (I guess it´s the farini-puzzle in germany we usually call it puzzle of life). (this is what I mean with meaningful).
The whole show has come to an end and I once more appear in the parlor to make the puzzle of life illusion to music and then I quick say goodbye and leave the stage. the puzzle stays there for examination (in the original routine it was not prepared for examination I figured out a way to make it examinable) I end up clean and the people go home with that nice warm feeling of I had a great evening (well I hope;-))

now to the point do you have any Ideas for that kind of closing acts? I loved the closing act from lance Burton with the dove cage and elvis who had left the building. but i´m not into dovemagic at all. I thought about the snowstorm in china ending like Copperfield did (without the whole now i´´m a kid again procedure). Just straight original Snowstorm in China (but I guess I have to clean up the mess afterwards).

Do you have any ideas?

Sorry for the long post next time I bring some potatoes with me;-)

wink to penn and teller;-)

Something with a personalized message on it could play well. For years I used Duke's Dye Version as a flexible ender. The silk could be the royal banner. The paper tube could be in parchment color paper with a "royal decree" from the Duke with the group's name on it.

Recently based on Julian Mather's course I have been trying fireball (ie. FP to message effect). He uses it as an ender for kid shows but I found it has an impact far in excess of what one would expect for families and adults with appropriate changes in presentation. But since you used FP earlier in act it may have less of an impact.

Giving this more thought, a nice silk blendo routine could also work well. You could hold up each individual silk in reference to each of volunteers and tell how they overcame their challenges. Then tell a story of how, like all great epics end, they are now bound together for life by the experience. At this point you would produce the blendo ending with how much of a pleasure it was to join them on the journey.

If you want a medieval theme, you could do worse than study Master Payne, a true virtuoso of character magic. Here is his closing effect at a medieval faire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWImtgLU28s
(simple effect, wonderful presentation)

Although not medieval, I love this routine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx85OGLjxWY

Another favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv5SVh36ZFI