When my parents hired a magician for their party a while back, he did some table hopping etc, and before he went he stood in the centre of eveyrone and did knife-through jacket as well as a jumbo-card trick. This seemed to me a nice way to end - eveyrone can see he's doing one last big effect, and then htey can give him a round of applause and he can leave.
When I've done gigs however I just seem to have a word with the host, collect my money ( ) and leave, fading away into the background. What do you guys do, and what do you think is appropriate?

//Nik

Good question.......I usually say "well you guys are my last group for the night, don't forget to thank Mr ______ for his idea to have you entertained this evening" 3 or 4 times to different groups right before I leave to let them know my time is up. Then I go pack up, and come back in the rooms with my magic suitcase and stand there looking for the owner or making small talk with the people that enjoyed the magic the best. People will see you are about to leave and for me, that's when they come ask for business cards..

I think doing a big trick at the end could work as well.. But I only do it if they request it, (which as you can imagine, is not often)...(sometimes fading away in the backround is the best thing to do, you're not the main focus of the night, their event is)... I cant wait to see other posts to this query

I usually end a performance night by walking out the door with everyone saying goodbye!

I don't do anything big, I get my money and leave. Occasionally I stay and eat if offered by management to a free meal, however I don't usually eat at my restaurants simply because when I am out with friends, that time is for them and I don't want it spoiled by the management to ask me to do a few tables. This is speaking from experience.

I don't usually do a big trick at the end but there was this one time I did. Now you might be thinking what big trick did he do? Brace yourself the big trick was................................ the card trick oscar. Now we all know that this is not very big trick but I got really lucky this night. Here is what happened I had one guy in the audience that was a nut. He was just so lively and loved being the center of attention. I used him as my asisstant and he totally made this trick. It has been a couple ayears so I don't remember exactly what happened but I do remember everyone laughing so hard they looked like they would wet themselves. When I turned over the card and it was Oscar all the laughs turned into thunderous applause. Thank god that guy was there.

I agree this was a great way to end the night. It is too bad I couldn't plan this for all my gigs. I think doing one last trick for everyone is a nice exit move.