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“Hey, can you make my bill disappear?”

Every restaurant worker in the world hears this on a nightly basis. Every restaurant worker in the world quips back with an equally stock line. What else can we do?

Let’s find out.

Pit Hartling (pronounced “the man”) has a wonderful essay in his book, Card Fictions, which deals with inducing challenges. It’s a fantastic essay, oh no wait, I already called it wonderful, so let’s stick to that; it’s wonderful and I urge you all to read it if possible. He demonstrates the power of accepting challenges from the audience and successfully completing them, but more importantly, he discusses how to induce specific challenges that you are fully prepared and capable of performing so it appears as though it wasn’t part of the plan, but rather just something done on an audience driven whim.

But for restaurant workers, sometimes just approaching the table is enough to induce challenges without any further effort. The simple fact that you’re a magician will create open challenges, usually involving something you couldn’t possibly deliver on. The aforementioned bill disappearance challenge is easily one of the most common ones suggested. I guess they just want us to perform something with a practical application that will actually accomplish something tangible for them. Have you ever noticed that these greedy buggers never ask for world peace?

I know I just stated that we can’t actually accept most of these challenges, but is that really true? Here’s another way we can respond to this challenge:

Just do it. (I claim independent invention from Nike)

Honestly, make their bill disappear. This common and cliché challenge has just become a great marketing opportunity for you and your restaurant. Have a talk with the General Manager and arrange to have one bill promoed each night that you’re at the restaurant. The costs for the restaurant are negligible, especially considering they’re already paying you in the six figures each night, so this should not be a bone of contention for the management.

With this system in place, just wait. Once a table asks the magic question, it’s your chance to hit one out of the ballpark. Say “Sure,” and proceed to literally make their bill disappear. They will probably think it is a joke at first, but assure them “On behalf of myself and the restaurant, your bill has in fact vanished. Seriously. Thank you very much for coming by tonight, and we hope to see you here again on a Thursday night [or whatever].”

Although please make sure they are still aware they should tip their server, and tip them generously. The wait staff still worked hard for that table, and there’s no reason they should get stiffed just because of a magic trick / promotional offer.

I personally feel it is much better to change their bill into a bill with “$0” on it, rather than making their bill physically vanish. It adds a little more credence that something did in fact happen, versus you just playing around with them. It also acts as a type of “ticket” to show they were in fact the recipients of the trick, and prevents other less
trustworthy people from leaving the restaurant without paying, claiming that the magician made their bill disappear and therefore have nothing to show for it. Again, it’s the tangible nature of the beast that strengthens the experience. It also gives them something to take home.

And therein lies the real power, taking it home and showing it to friends and family. Just imagine the word of mouth it generates. If a magician were to make my bill disappear on command, you can bet your hiney I would tell everyone I knew (although I’m not sure what I would use as collateral against your hiney). It becomes just as much promotion for the restaurant as it does for yourself. If the restaurant were to just go around and give one random table a free meal every night, sure it would generate interest, but within the context of magic, it becomes all the more relevant.

It also gives you and the restaurant the opportunity to hand pick the type of clientele you would like to return to the establishment. For instance, if there is an incredibly fun table who is treating the staff well and having a great time, they are the people you want to bring back. A table full of belligerent cranks should never be rewarded for their behavior. For some reason restaurants have been training people to become rude for many years, by only taking something off the bill if the person raises a stink, whereas the nice people who put up with bad service and cold hairy food without creating a scene, or just politely mentioning the issues, tend to pay the
full price. This promotional trick gives you an opportunity to counteract that by rewarding the people who have their good karma coming to them. You’ll only be giving one free bill out a night, so make sure it’s a good one.

If for some reason you go a full night without anyone asking for their bill to disappear, don’t force it. Accepting it as a challenge it really the only way to make it “real”. Although if you start implementing this into your work, you probably won’t go five minutes without hearing it, let alone a full night.

Now if there were only some way we could make some dude’s wife disappear…

Tyler