Hey, just a note for anyone in egypt or who has been there. Im aware of the tradition of cups and balls, gali gali men etc... in egypt. I will be there shortly and was wondering if anyone had experience picking up a set of cups there. A set of cups would make an interesting souvenir. Any tips are appreciated.

J

I wish I had some advice. I am looking for simliar info with India. I have a friend that is going there. I just asked him to look for a street performer and ask him where he can buy some. I told him a maximum price and they had to be hand made (in the Indian style).

Darren

Most of these guys make their cups themselves. If you approach a street conjurer in India with the hopes of purchasing a set, you may be met with derision. One of the ways these people made the cups was to take three similar elephant bells and cut off the lower part of them.

I still have a few of these sets for sale. You can see them at http://www.cupsandballsmuseum.com Right Bill? I have small, medium and large ones. From $90 to $120 a set.

Thanks Bill. What are elephant bells? I will retract my request for my friend to ask to purchase handmade C&Bs from indian performers. I went to the Tayade website, but did not see whether the family was still manufacturing any cups for sale.

Darren

Last I heard Tayade was making cups. They are good, but lack the extra nice striping his father's worker did. Again, go check the cups and balls museum and look for my Indian cups... they are made in such a way to conceal a ball totally original, easy to do (fool Ammar) and NO OTHER CUP can do this move.

I have a friend that lives in India but he uses the J.P. cups. I'll email him and see if I can find out anything of interest.

A Google search for "Elephant Bells" found this

There are several styles, but the one most suitable for cups is the round bell. Imagine cutting it in half at the mid line and see if it looks familiar.

I'd need to get the name of the individual street performer to find anything out regarding cups from India. From what I've been told most everyone over there uses products that are available here in the states. My friend will be returning to India soon and said he would contact a few of the street magician's that he knows to see if he can find out anything. Currently he doens't even have any of these 'self made' cups in his own collection, so Im sure he will try to come up with something.

If anyone is interested or has any info send me a PM and I'll see if I can help you out.

I can vouch for Pete Biro's Hindu Cups...look here:

http://www.cupsandballsmuseum.com/specialtycups.htm

It's the second set down...now mind you...this picture does NOT do these cups justice...the set I bought from Pete is stunning, to say the least! The inserts look like 14K gold! They shine brilliantly, and get comments everytime I show them!

At first, I kidded Pete about them being "expensive", as I was rather strapped financially at that time, but, if you could see the quality of Pete's Hindu Cups, you'd agree they are WELL worth it! These cups remain in my top five most beautiful magic props!

Cheers!

Doug

I have and use Pete’s offering bowl cups too. They are easy to handle compared to the more traditional Tayade Indian style or Hindu Cups (have a set but don’t use it anymore) and require no “tossing” move.

I tried the Charlie Miller “Indian cups” made by Morrissey and didn’t like them at all (sold it).

The antique bell looks great! But I would have to modify the rope hole also to make a workable cup.

I also use something that is similar to Pete’s with a similar hiding feature. They are old style aluminum ice cream bowls. I use one of each color (yellow, red, and blue). They work, not as smoothly as Pete’s because there is less of a neck on the base, but they work.

You can see a set at:
http://www.catalogfavorites.com/itemdy00......;PageNo=

Pete certainly makes great looking cups.

Darren

Funny thing: Im in Egypt this moment I surf the web in an internet Café (Under 1 dollar for 1 hour, cheap) in Downtown, Hurghada, Egypt: beside the tropical red sea with lot of cool fishes. There are lot of egypt things here to buy.
I have seen different cups that can be used for the cups and balls routine in the bazars. I also found stone scarabs the can be used for the shell game.
There are lot of ancient egypt boxes of many styles: they look very magical.
I think if you visit egypt you will probably find lot of stuff that you can use in your magic show that is unique. By the way, Its extremely hot in Egypt. Yo have to drink many litres of water every day: its like an sauna. I havent seen any magicians in this area, maybe in Cairo or Luxor. that's all for me...

http://www.hurghada.com/

I've always wanted to take a trip to Egypt, Im jealous!

I didn't think to look at the cups musuem, I'll send of the link to my friend. I thought that it was weird that he didn't know of any older cups since he's native to India and has lived there for 35 years. I'd figure that in his travles on the train a resident of India would come across all kinds of street preformers.

Then again I can only assume based on what I've read on India. Hopefully the link will help.