There is little doubt that well performed lecture demonstrations play an important role in science teaching (Straits and Wilke 2006): for many students, exciting demonstrations are what keep them interested and motivated. The demonstrations also help the instructor to change the pace of the lecture and prevent students from losing their concentration. In this article we describe a case study of interactive lecture experiments in a large introductory physics course. The impact of this pedagogy on student learning and motivation is also discussed.