The best & funniest opener is to immediately produce a wad of money. I've seen it work many times.

Why is this funny? I myself laugh, because it works almost every time.

When we did the show at The Funny Bone in Pittsburgh a few years back we came in carrying the skeleton from Barclay Shaw's Cremation Illusion and then the confetti cannons. Whatever Koz does works. He has a knack for it. Amazing Jonathan too.

Sometimes I go back to my mime days(these days I call it silent comedy) and to start bits/things without talking.

1. Use of a feather duster including balancing, object freeze/imitations, and as per instructions...then pause...turn to the audience and quietly say..My wife wants me to more of this at home.
2. Flight of a fly ..followed by a story about a heroic fly or obit to a good Fly.

other times I go straight into talking bits..

3. Memories of Romper room and the Magic Mirror..(she never said Hi Harris) done very seriously with the Circle to square simple magic prop
4. Use of Nigel (vent bit)

I always like your ideas Nigel... well, "almost" always. lol

For example, I've been using the "Use of Nigel (vent bit)" for many years now, with great response.

Max

I open with the king chair (a la John Ferrentino), the stool that suddenly drops and when you stand up, there is a vertical pole sticking up out of the middle where you were just sitting...

I start off sitting front and center, talking to the audience like I just want to get to know them a bit before I get the show started. After a little back and forth, I say, "Okay, enough of that, let's get into the magic now," at which point I swivel in the chair to grab my first trick. That's when the collapse happens.

Always works!

My opening line is: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tony, and I am your ventriloquist for the night. I talk a lot through my arse.

There follows a series of gags, before I produce a balloon and do some more gags, leading to eating the balloon, and taking a mouth coil from my mouth (where else?).
Then comes the baby gag. By now the audience know I am not taking things too seriously, so they will go with me on the mentalism or hypnosis.
For kids I open with eating a balloon, or doing a routine with sponge bananas. Heavy emphasis on the gags in both presentations.

Opened last night with introducing myself from backstage (And now, direct from a week in Las Vegas.....), came out lip-singing to Tom Jones "It's Not Unsual". One verse in, my partner comes out yelling, grabs my handheld mike and tells me...."It's a MAGIC show.....NOT a MUSIC show". Did it just for the fun of it......but, it got a great response. Think I'll keep it in.

Magicgeorge...."cake or death" HAHA!! You never fail to make me laugh lol

While it's not really an opening trick, Tom Mullica's "Opening Trick" is funny as heck. If you're not familiar with it, he performs it AFTER he's done a few card tricks and then blurts out "Hell I forgot to do my opening trick" and he does card to zipper. Gets me every time.

Here's my opener:

Say before you start the show you want to show everyone a picture of you're favorite magician. In fact, this magician is making a guest appearance in the show today. Ladies and gentelmen, boys and girls... ME!!! (pull out a huge autographed picture of yourself) Then, ask someone in the audience if they would be impressed if their name was one the back of the picture. Then, turn it around revealing, "their name" or "your name" on the back of the picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDVlVzA9WiE

Isn't that "I've been seeing other audiences" Julian Barratt's line?

I first saw Spill do that on TV back in the eighties. The video is from a TV show called Comedy on the Road from 1990 and the clip is on the Ten Years of Steve Spill dvd 1980-1990. My guess is the Barratt guy got it from one of the sources. I like the burnt bunny opening.

I posted that because the bunny bit is a great opener. Actually everything on the 10 Years DVD is hilarious. I used to have the two VHS tapes that were combined to make the DVD back before DVDs were invented, I wore them out.

I don't know why either, but it strikes me as absurdly funny. That's good, George

I've seen this live and it is very, very funny.

Not sure if it's the funniest, but... I used to come out and stand next to my prop table and ask the audience, "Does anyone have a $10 bill I could borrow?" I then take the bill and hold it up (eye level) and fold it in half... then in half again... and again, until it's a small square. I then bend down and place it under one of the legs of my table... Then I stand up and with my hand, gently shake it back and fourth and say, "There... that's much better." I then proceed with my show. When I finish the show (almost as an afterthought) I say, "I almost forgot... here's the 5 dollar bill I borrowed at the start of the show." This again gets a laugh, especially if the spectator verbally reminds you that it was a $10 bill. Of course, I return his $10.

Unfortunately, this wasn't an original idea. I had seen it years ago, but can't remember who. Maybe some of the historians here at the Café can shed some light.

Dave

One of the funniest, most original openers I've ever seen is by Rafael during his nerd act. I don't even want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it.

8 minutes without a single stock line.

Steve Spill should be the model we all work towards.

Bill Abbott Five Card Opener is a great little warm up, opener all built in one effect. Plus it has a lot of room for scripting to make it fit your character and add your own lines and bit too it.

http://www.billabbottmagic.com


Fill free to PM me if you have any questions about it.