Pauly, I'm curious to know why you think the balls are terrible. Are they too small or too big? Is the texture too sticky or not sticky enough? ... If you want near-enough-to-Fakini balls, look at the site I recommended earlier in this thread.

Al, for this effect, the balls range in size from 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches depending on the size of your hands. Silicone juggling balls are too big, unless you want to use one as a final load.

In that case your only choice is Fakini

The balls that I got with the routine are 3/4 inch silicone balls. I think that they are too slippery. the size is fine but I don't like the feel I don't fel as if I have total control of the balls. Is the Roth routine on the Stars of magic vid?

I thought so when I first tried a set, but soon realized that the "slip" in the balls help make the slight undetectable because of how they aid each other in their movement. Once you have tried a set of knit balls you might have a different opinion- it depends on your personal preferences.

MM

Try rinsing them in warm water and toweling them off. These balls are dustt magnets. Often it is the dust that makes them so slippery.

the roth routine is on a stars of magic sampler vid with garcia, dingle, bilis, Harris,de camps, and roth. I agree, you must wash the balls.
dug

Kmart has a package of nice silicone balls. You get about 6 small balls and one large one. You will have to buy two packages to get enough of the same pattern. I bought some as well at the dollar store. They are all nice silicone.

John

Dennymagic.com has some really good quality ones.

Alex

Dollar store silicone balls sounds a little hard to believe. What makes the Fakini silicone balls so expensive? Are you sure they're not just hard rubber, or super balls that you buy at the dollar store?
Al

Bill Palmer:
I always respect your advice. I too have dififculty believing that WalMart carries silicone balls and not just some form of synthetic rubber. I have many toy store balls that I have used for multiple color changes with my 1 3/4 fakinis as well as the 1" white fakiniballs that I have. I do notice a difference in the ease of gripping howeve,r between freshly washed toy store balls and the fakinis. Please clarify-as I think some of the responders here are calling any "rubber" (most of not real rubber) ball as "silicone". I am sure that is not the case with you.
David

Yeah I washed the balls with warm water and then practiced the routine and it made a big difference. How does the Archer double roll up compare to the move Roth uses? Or is the take two any different?

The roll up itself is the same and is neither Roth's nor Archer's, but is variously attributed to Oscar Pladick, Ed Marlo and others. The move differs in the "take" at the end of the roll up; Roth takes in low finger palm, Archer in thumb palm.

Yeah I really don't like the whole thumb palm thing in the routine from archer. like who throws a ball up in the air and catches it in thumb palm? I think a finger palm would look more natural. thanks for the advise.

Superballs are silicone balls. They are not rubber.

There are different grades of silicone balls. The ones Fakini makes are made of a very high grade of silicone compound and are assembled under great heat. The molds are precision made and all traces of "flash" are removed from them.

Regarding the balls that I have seen at Wal-Mart and other places, I can only go by what the people advertise. Since the mail order houses that I purchase these from are calling them silicone balls, and they are the same in appearance and feel as the balls one finds at Wal-mart, it is not a leap of faith to assume that the Wal-Mart balls are also silicone balls.

There are many different kinds of balls available at Wal-Mart. They have the small high-bounce balls, which are silicone balls. These are knockoffs of the original Wham-O® Superball®. The Superball® was the first of the silicone balls.

Remember, the Fakini balls are basically the same kind of ball as a Superball®, just a bit higher quality and with a greater range of sizes for use by the magic community and for jugglers as well. They are not mass produced. The silicone balls from the dollar stores and from Wal-Mart are mass produced in China, for the most part.

Wal-Mart also carries "rubber" balls. They have their "Spring Balls," which are a hollow rubber ball, and sometimes they have heavy sponge rubber balls. They also have rubber balls of various types in their pet department for your dog to play with.

I have also seen some rubber balls at the dollar stores. The differences are obvious. You can tell the silicone balls by the way the surface feels. They are almost greasy. This may be from the mould release. The Fakini balls generally don't feel like this, possibly because they are cleaned before they are sold.

The silicone which is used for these balls is, almost by definition, a form of synthetic rubber.