“[Alfred] Hitchcock defined suspense in terms of a bomb under a table: suppose you show the audience a bunch of men playing cards round the table and suddenly a bomb goes off - that’s a surprise. Suppose you show the audience the bomb being placed under the table first, and a clock ticking away as the men play on - that’s suspense.”

Suspense is what makes audiences yell at the screen. They are being manipulated by the storyteller who is keeping them in suspense.

Reminds me of the old joke: “How do you keep a moron in suspense?” When the person you are telling the joke to asks how, you refuse to tell them.

Speaking of jokes, have you seen “The Aristocrats” yet? It’s a great documentary about 100 famous comedians doing a variation on one familiar joke. It’s all in the delivery– the joke itself is not very funny, so it isup to the joke-teller to make it interesting and draw it out however they see fit.