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10 to 300 guests · about an hour

A comedy murder mystery show for parties and banquets

Your entertainer is running late. Then he's dead. Then it turns out one of your guests did it.

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Cris Johnson in a top hat and goggles, mouth open in mock horror, a bloodied knife apparently through his forearm
Cris Johnson peering over a length of yellow CAUTION tape stretched across his face

Nobody has lines. Nobody gets a packet in the mail.

This is not the murder mystery where your guests are assigned characters three weeks out and somebody has to commit to an accent. No homework. No costumes. Nobody has to be a good sport about wearing a hat.

Your guests show up as themselves and they leave having solved a murder. That's the whole arrangement.

How the evening opens

Your guests are seated for what they've been told is a magic show. The entertainer gets an introduction, and it does not go well. He's Binky the Clown, fresh off house arrest, and he'd like everyone to know about his hand puppet.

Music plays. He doesn't appear.

Guests along a banquet table, leaning in and watching something out of frame

His assistant does, apologizing. Then the phone rings, and the entertainer has been murdered — and the police believe somebody in this room is responsible.

From that moment on, your guests run the show.

The investigation

Then your guests take over.

Your guests do every one of these themselves. I'm just the one who gets blamed.

Two guests are deputized as detectives and given a quick lesson in handcuffing, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

One of them turns out to have a surprising knack for naming the time of death.

Your Chief of Police — also one of your guests — decodes what the killer left behind.

I'm blindfolded with black duct tape while your guests draw what they saw at the scene. Then I describe their drawings.

One of your guests names the killer. Not me. Them.

Then we establish how it was done — the one moment I tune to your room. The standard version involves razor blades. If that isn't your crowd, I have a tamer one, and I'll ask you which during booking.

One guest has been holding a sealed envelope since before any of this started. We open it last. I'm not going to tell you what's in it.

A formally dressed crowd on their feet, laughing and applauding

The part that makes it work

Nothing is arranged. I have never met anybody in the room. Nobody is a plant.

And I don't know who the killer is when the show starts, either — your guests decide that over the course of the hour without realizing they're doing it.

So when the ending comes, the whole room is already in on it.

No lines to learn. No characters to play. No homework for anyone but me.

Ten guests or three hundred

There's a living‑room version for ten people that sets up in about ten minutes, and a stage version for three hundred that I bring my own sound system for. Same story, same ending, built for the room.

This is the show I've performed the most, in the widest range of rooms, for the longest. If you've got a banquet hall and a headcount and a date, this is the safe answer — and "safe" here means I can tell you exactly how it's going to go.

The details

Guests
10–300. Different versions for each end of that
Run time
~60 minutes
Setup
30–40 minutes · in‑home version, about 10
Pack-up
20 minutes after the show
The room
Living room to ballroom. Guests seated, facing one way
Sound
I bring my own PA and microphone for larger groups
What I need
A place to stand and an electrical outlet
Where
Based in Niagara Falls. Buffalo, Rochester and all of Western New York, plus Pennsylvania and Ohio
Ages
16+. Comedy is adult but clean — this plays at company banquets
Your call
One sequence has a tamer alternate version. I'll ask how squeamish your crowd is when we book

Right for

  • Company banquets, holiday parties and awards nights
  • Fundraisers — it gives you a room that's paying attention
  • Milestone birthdays, anniversaries, retirements
  • Reunions and association dinners
  • Any room where you want everyone talking to each other by the end

Wrong for

  • Anyone under sixteen
  • A cocktail hour — this needs seated guests looking one direction
  • Hosts wanting guests to play assigned characters. That's a different format and I don't offer it
  • A room that's really just there to drink
A seated conference audience laughing, delegate badges visible

The rooms this was built for

Banquet halls, awards nights, association dinners and company parties — the rooms where an hour of everybody paying attention to the same thing is worth more than the catering.

Who's booked this one

General Motors · United Airlines · Verizon · Bank of America · The Home Depot · Corning · Purina Nestlé · Foot Locker · Canadian Tire · US Foodservice

"I was worried and stressing a little over how the night would play out and just the schematics of the whole thing, but he made everything so simple and easy. I could just sit back, relax and enjoy the night. Everyone loved the show and it was the talk of the office the next morning. Thank you Cris for making my first year planning our company Christmas party an awesome success!"Company Christmas party — first-year event planner
"Being one of the hosts of the party, it is always nerve wracking to be the one in charge of picking the entertainment. People are saying it has been the best entertainment we have had for our yearly event. Cris recommended his Murder By Magic show given the info I gave him, and it was a hit."Annual company event

Planning a murder mystery party or banquet?

Tell me when, roughly how many, and where you are. You'll have an exact price the same day.

Check your date or call (716) 940‑8963
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