By Jonas Cain
September 23, 2024

“You know that feeling you get when you’re in a rocking chair, and you lean a little too far back, and you’re about to fall? It starts in the pit of your stomach and works its way to a burning sensation in your chest. Do you know that feeling? That’s kind of what it felt like; the only difference was the feeling lingered longer."

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That’s the opening line of a story I tell to begin my signature keynote presentation. My goal with this line is to generate attention, interest, and desire—to compel you to want to hear more. 

When crafting a compelling opening line, my strategy is to provide just enough information to put you into the story, while at the same time leaving just enough information out to highlight a gap in knowledge or awareness.

This strategy generates what educational psychologists call epistemic curiosity: our natural desire to learn new information, solve interesting problems, and create order from chaos, to fill in gaps in our knowledge. 

This is in contrast to perceptual curiosity: attention generated by novel and interesting changes in our environment. Things like interesting sounds and visuals are great for generating instant attention, which is why using perceptual curiosity is useful as you craft an opening line, but perceptual curiosity itself isn’t enough, because in as little as 3-5 seconds, the novelty begins to wear off.

And that is where epistemic curiosity comes in, because it can last significantly longer. For example, my own epistemic curiosity has kept me studying magic, music, and storytelling for decades.

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Intimate Power
I was first introduced to the importance of crafting compelling opening lines in Eugene Burger’s book Intimate Power. Chapter Two of this book has probably had the greatest impact on my magic than anything else. In it, Eugene says: “Magic tricks really are not that entertaining in and of themselves,” therefore, the first job of a magician is to figure out how to get people interested.

Or as Henning Nelms once said: “If you were able to actually make an elephant disappear by the touch of a wand, people might still remain indifferent if you don't stage it properly.” And a key step for proper staging is the work of crafting a compelling opening line.

Today we will explore four specific techniques you can use to generate attention, interest, and desire from your audience—to not just watch and listen, but to become active participants in the experience of magic. We’ll see examples from magic shows and individual routines, and along the way you’ll be encouraged to think about the routines you’re working on and reflect how you might use these techniques to craft your own compelling opening lines. 


Opening Line Samples
But before we get to the techniques, we’ll do a quick activity to explore opening lines from music, books, and movies. As you listen to these opening lines, keep these two essential questions in mind:

1. Which opening line do you find most compelling?
2. How does it “hook and reel” your attention, interest, and desire?​

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Song Opening Lines

Book Opening Lines

Movie Opening Lines

​Discussion

• Which opening line do you find most compelling? How does it “hook and reel” your attention, interest, and desire?
• Can you think of any other examples of effective opening lines? Why do they work?

​Techniques for Hooking & Reeling Your Participants
What follows are some suggestions for crafting compelling opening lines that you may wish to experiment with: 

1. Open with a question.
In Intimate Power, Eugene says: “I want the opening line to hook them, so to speak, and therefore, I very often use the technique of the direct question—the question mark being the sign of the hook.”

As an example, Eugene Burger offers the opening line of his routine for Roy Walton’s “Card Warp”:

• “Would you like to see the greatest card trick of the 20th Century?”

Another example is Dr. Larry Hass’s opening line for Tomoyuki Takahashi’s “Fading Coin” routine:

• “Do you believe in luck?”

And finally, we have an example from Barry Richardson’s piece entitled “Do You Want Me to Continue?” As the title implies, that is the opening question:

• “Before I continue, I will offer you the opportunity to stop me now, and save yourselves hours of possible frustration. Do you want me to continue?”

This technique works because it invites participation and provokes curiosity. You can further capitalize on this innate wonder by not giving away too much too soon in the sequence that follows.

Reflection: Think of a routine you are working on and consider a relevant question that can help you get into it.


2. Open with a direct quote, startling statistic, or surprising statement.
An opening quote, statistic, or statement is a short and direct way of getting to the point of the presentation quickly. 

Dr. Larry Hass opens Max Maven’s “In No Time” with a direct quote:

• “Saint Augustine once said, we all know perfectly well what time is…until we try to explain it to someone else. Then we find ourselves lost in paradox and confusion.”

I open my Rubik’s Cube routine with a startling statistic:

• “There are over 43 quintillion solutions to the Rubik’s Cube. To put that in perspective, if we had a cube for every possible solution, they would fill the entire Earth’s surface…two hundred and seventy-five times!”

And finally, Derek DelGaudio opens In & Of Itself opens with a surprising statement:

• “I come here day after day after day and attempt to defy some odds. I don't expect you to believe anything you're seeing. Only a lucky few get to know how this story ends.” 

This technique works because the quote, statistic, or statement evokes curiosity to find out more.

Reflection: Think of a routine you are working on and consider a relevant quote, statistic, or statement that can help generate interest in what is to come next.


3. Open by dropping them right into the action.
Jumping right into the action is an effective way to begin because it pulls us right into the story. The action may be a pivotal moment, a point of conflict, or an unusual situation filled with surprise or irony.

Bizarre magic uses this technique to great effect. I’m reminded of Kevin Dunn’s story for “The Haunted Key,” about a mischievous man named Toby who found himself locked in jail one fateful night:

• “The day was dying and the wind was sighing as I lay there crying in my prison cell. And the auld triangle, went jingle jangle all along the banks of the Royal Canal.”

Jeff McBride has a compelling story for Ralph Wichmann’s “The Object of Desire” that pulls participants right into the story:

• “Imagine it is a bright sunny day and you are walking around your favorite city. You walk into a store and see something you really want. Focus on your object of desire.”

The opening line I shared at the beginning of this class today, about the feeling of falling backwards in a rocking chair, is my own attempt to pull people right into not only the action, but also the sensory experience of it. The story goes on to tell of the time I was mugged while on tour with my magic act. The opening provides a sensory allegory that prepares the audience to feel what comes next.

This technique works because it activates our senses and imagination, while also capitalizing on our natural desire to resolve conflict, tension, and mystery. We make sense of our world through stories, and studies show that when we hear a story, the brain is activated as if we were actually participating in the experience. The stories serve as mirrors that help us see ourselves more clearly, compelling us to become active and emotionally invested in the experience.

Reflection: Think of a routine you are working on and consider how you might be able to jump right into the action in a compelling way.


4. Use buzzwords in your opening line.
Carefully curated words can serve as cues and triggers for an emotional and behavioral  response. These high-emotional words are what Euguene referred to as buzzwords, and they work by naturally stimulating interest through what people already care about.

Eugene offers an opening line that uses a buzzword as part of a question: “Do you believe in ghosts?” Whether or not you believe in them, the word ghosts is sufficient for eliciting an emotional response that gains attention.

I use this technique in my routine for the Imp Bottle, opening with: “Do you believe in genies?” After hearing and responding to their answers, I continue with: “I didn’t believe in genies…until I found this.”

This is an effective technique because unique and intriguing words help to create an emotional frame for the experience. Used correctly with vivid imagery and other sensory details, this technique can effectively move people to feel what you want them to feel.

Here is a brief list of buzzwords that can inspire specific emotional responses:

• To evoke curiosity you can use words like secret, confidential, and underground.
• To evoke urgency you can use words like revolutionary, bargain, and left behind.
• To evoke doubt you can use words like uncertain, disillusioned, and vulnerable.
• To evoke anger you can use words like scandal, frustrated, and vindictive.
• To evoke satisfaction you can use words like accurate, delighted, and authentic.
• To evoke happiness you can use words like joyous, child-like, and optimistic.
• To evoke inspiration you can use words like enthusiastic, hopeful, and confident.
• To evoke peace you can use words like serene, grateful, and relaxed.

For a complete list of buzzwords aligned with emotional responses, check out this article on 380 High-Emotion Words by persuasion consultant Bushra Azhar.

Reflection: Think of a routine you are working on and consider the action you want participants to take and the emotional state they need to be in to take that action. What buzzwords might you use in the opening line to evoke that state?


Discussion

• What routines are you working on?
• Which technique will you experiment with to craft a compelling opening line?

Final Thoughts
The purpose of the open line is to quickly generate attention, interest, and desire, so people will stick around to find out what happens next. Effective openings can introduce the main idea, set the tone, elicit emotion, and provoke questions. Using the techniques shared here, you will be able to craft opening lines that touch on one or more of these key points, effectively hooking and reeling people in to be a part of the experience.

Crafting compelling opening lines is a deliberate process of trial and error. As Eugene reminds us: “When I begin to work on a new presentation, I usually spend the greatest amount of time on the presentation’s opening line.” There is no shortcut for this. It’s done by going out there and trying an opening. If it works, capitalize on it; if it doesn’t, then try something else.

To help you in this process, consider the truth of this statement: How will your audience be excited about what you have to share if you’re not excited about it? Whatever you are sharing, show your excitement, by how serious you are about what you are sharing, by your passion for it, by making a genuine effort to share good things with good people to the best of your ability with no insistence on what the outcome should look like. Don’t force it. If you’re being authentic, whatever it is you do or say should come off naturally. 

In other words, if you want your audience to be interested, you should also be interested. Be bold. Make the first move.

And finally, remember that a show will have many opening lines, including transition lines between individual routines. Treat those transitions like you would an opening line.

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About Jonas Cain
Jonas Cain is a storyteller, magician, musician, and facilitator of fascination for Hashtag Positivity, helping individuals, teams, and communities experience abiding joy—at work, at home, and wherever life takes you.