Phew! It’s all done.
As you can imagine, there are plenty of other videos besides the ones that got featured on their own days this month. I don’t know if everybody will agree with my choices… and if not, well, hopefully this will assuage some criticism.
Here’s Al Schneider performing a relatively abbreviated version of the Cups and Balls. One thing I love is that sequence that starts at 0:35 where the balls transpose from one cup to the other, one at a time. It’s a great idea, and aside from Schneider and Suzanne I don’t see many people doing it.
If you’re as interested in trying to find different 2 cup routines as I am, you might like this one from Tilman Andris…
Here’s Larry Jennings doing his one cup routine on Japanese TV…
And here’s few more conventional 3 cup routines for you… Here’s Michael Vincent doing his version.
And here’s Bebel…
And here’s Lance Burton…
And in this promotional video for the L&L DVD series devoted to the Cups and Balls, there are performances from both John Mendoza (different from the one done last week) and Marc DeSouza…
There’s a Shawn Farquhar clip out there somewhere showing his cups and balls performance for FISM. Searches on his name yielded no results, unfortunately — maybe you’ll have better luck. The climax is interesting, where the cups are shown to be solid steel with no opening.
Doug Atkinson, who runs a website devoted to the table of contents for magic books, has this page devoted specifically to references for the cups and balls. Also, Denis Behr manages an archive of various magic-related subjects (tricks and sleights, for the most part), and there are some entries there on the cups and balls (click on the arrow next to “Cups & Balls” to expand the menu).
Lance Pierce, in further communication, had this to say about the importance of the wand. I think there are some good thoughts here…
This is purely personal opinion, but I think the wand is crucial for several reasons. I’ve seen very, very, very few routines that didn’t use a wand that still looked good. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is that nearly every time, someone took what they knew of cups and balls and stripped it down to a routine that didn’t have a wand. This is directly opposed to starting with nothing and building a great no-wand routine from the ground up.
The thing is, almost all decent routines with no wand could still be made better by putting a wand in it. A simple stick can solve so many problems, it’s unbelievable. I did a sponge ball routine for nearly two decades, but when I found myself in south Florida working for a tougher crowd, I repeatedly got nailed. Were my previous audiences just being more polite, or was there something else amiss? It didn’t matter; I had to fix the problem immediately. I incorporated a straw into the routine (which served as a wand, of sorts), and literally overnight, all the troubles with the routine just disappeared. I was never called on any part of it again.
And if you think about it, isn’t a sponge ball routine in the hands and a cups and balls routine somewhat the same thing? In one, your hands (and at times, the spectator’s) are the cups, so topologically, at least, there’s not a whole lot of difference.
Regardless, for the Benson Bowl routine, I use a knife. The knife is also pertinent to cut the lemon open at the end, so it ties in there, but it also serves as a great wand throughout all the action.
So count me as a big fan of the wand, no matter what shape it takes, as long as its presence fits the routine. I wouldn’t for instance, try to jam a wand into an ace assembly, but for ring on string, it works really well, particularly if you end with the Jim Ryan climax that Charlie Miller liked so much. For the cups and balls, I would regard the wand as essential.
But that’s just me. 
Finally, here’s Kieran show-casing his impressive sleight of hand skills.
Some regrets for this month… Not being able to get a clip of David Regal’s “Cups and Balls and Cups and Balls”, not being able to get performance clips of some Vancouver buddies of mine, not being able to coerce either Lance Pierce or Tyler Erickson to get behind the camera, not finding performance footage of Bob Read, not getting a clip up of John Ramsay’s work, and heck, not getting behind the camera myself, if only to show that I can do more than just talk about the plot. I would have liked to get more product reviews up as well, especially since L&L has that sweet three volume series devoted to the plot. Still, I think, all in all, it wasn’t a bad month, and maybe some of that can be talked about next year…?
One Comment, Comment or Ping
Smiling Mule
Some engaging stuff here. Your posts deserve more conversation than they get. Although it’s not really surprising, as discussing anything beyond the “best double lift” is rarely met with more than a blank stare from most “magicians.”
The cups and balls is a must for anyone interested in magic, even if you never intend on performing it in public.
I’m all for simplification so the two and even one cup ideas are appealing to me, but there is still something very poetic about threesomes (down Freud, down!).
Reply to “Cups and Balls Week 4 Round-up”
You must be logged in to post a comment.