NOTE: Proscenium Magic ---> high tech version is done in blackness. Low tech version is getting everyone to close their eyes.
Proscenium Magic:
Ladies and Gentlemen.
We have gathered here tonight to experience the magic of theater.
To gain the desired effect we will need your cooperation and active participation. Stay calm. Remain in your seats. Do not panic.
In a few moments, the darkness will end, the lights will come on. When they come on, they will be trained upon an opening at the end of the room. Your seats have been arranged, so that, by simply sitting naturally and comfortably, you will be in a perfect position for experiencing what is to happen when the lights come on. When the lights do go on, they will perfectly frame the opening at the end of the room. You can't see it now, but at this moment, the opening at the end of the room is covered with a curtain. When the lights go on, we shall, momentarily, see the curtain framed by the opening. The lights will come on. Then the curtain will open. It is at this moment that we will need your active participation.
And now, while the lights are off and the room is dark, is the perfect time to explain what will be required of you and to elicit your support in achieving the task at hand. The task at hand is a leap of the imagination. Stay calm. Remain in your seats. Do not panic.
Here in the darkness, we are free to imagine. In the darkness, we can entertain fantasies and visions of people, activities, conversations occurring between people. We can see all this with the mind's eye.
When the curtain opens at the end of the room, the light trained in that area will reveal people engaged in converstions and activities. The people engaged in these activities and conversations are actors. The activities, conversations, and the characters who seem to be having them are not real, but are fabrications, artistic creations. You will be asked to use your imagination to pretend that what you are seeing is real. Using your imagination, you can pretend that the actors are real people and that their conversations and actions are real.
Additionally, you will be asked to perform a second act of the imagination, and that is to imagine that the people who are the actors performing the pretend actions and conversations, are not real, but are themselves merely figments of your imagination.
Further, you will be asked to imagine that their pretend conversations and actions do not exist. And finally, when the lights come on and the curtain opens, you will be asked to imagine that the curtain, the lights, the frame, and the opening itself are non-existent and that they too are but figments of your imagination. If you are willing to do this, then, we can proceed. Now please indicate that you are willing to undertake this multi-faceted act of the imagination by saying, "proceed". If you are willing to proceed, then we can proceed.
Again, if you are willing to proceed, please indicate by saying "Proceed".