Many of us have heard Professor Hoffman quoted as saying that the Cups and Balls are literally the foundation of all legerdemain (or something near that), and having studied them for a while, I can see why. They teach you so many basics of the art - what the art is based on really. So, that said, is that the one true foundational effect, or are there others? Are there other effects one must study in order to truly call himself a magician?

Well, there are others. Take a look at "Classic Secrets of Magic" by Bruce Elliot. Good effects are "classics" for a good reason - they have everything, or almost everything!

The classics of magic are The Balducci Levitation, The vanishing hanky into the TT, using the "little finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger, Thumb" method, and a very wrinkled red silk that is no larger than 6" square, and hot rod.

NOT!!!!

I don't know Bill Jeff Hobson turns the vanish of a six inch silk into a great opener. Maybe not a classic of magic, but a great example of what can be done with something seemingly trivial.

I'll bet Jeff uses a much bigger silk than a 6 inch one. Mine is a 12 inch.

I get five solid minutes out of the Miracle of the Little Red Handkerchief. But most people still perform the Wretched Red Rag trick.

Bill--

I believe I may be one of the offenders offering up a piddly wrinkled 6"-8" silk--does it help if it is purple instead of red? Given space limitations involved in disappearing a silk, I would appreciate any advice or resources you can offer or point me towards--if not here then in secret sessions or a PM--that would allow me to do credit by graduating to a 12" silk. I notice Cellini has an improved method for disappearing a silk in his 2nd Street Magic DVD.

Thanks--

Flimnar

Cellini uses a move that I invented. Harry Collins invented it, too. So did Salvano. So did Jay Scott Berry. We all learned from Cellini that Slydini had invented it before we did! Any move that has that many inventors, including Slydini has to be very good!

Now the secret is to use a really thin silk, and a really big TT. Get the longest one you can find and fit it so it perches on the end of the T. If you need info on how to fit it, I will PM it to you.

Remember, sometimes silk dimensions are given as diagonals. So sometimes when you get a 12 inch silk it is really 9 X 9.

That is still bigger than what most people use.

If you will wash your silks in warm water and spread them out on your bathroom miror, they will dry looking like they have been ironed.

Isn't that odd? My bathroom mirror is vertical. How would I spread out any silks on it?

Ah, that's another effect

You do this while the silks are wet. They will adhere to the mirror. When they are dry, they fall off. The trick is to either catch them before they fall into the lavatory or put something below the silks to catch them.

I would not trust Angelo Lewis (Professor Hoffmann) about which tricks are classics. He was writing at a time when much traditional material and much greatly prized private material was mixing freely in magicdom. From Bosco's and Conus's work with the cups to Hofzinser's material with cards and other props, and even Karl Germain's ... all visible and all being taken as food for interpretation.

If you look in those books you will find a non-magnetic version of the chop chop cup. At that time the mulitplying billiards was not yet a classic, it was novel.

If you want to know about the classics, have a look at MUCH OLDER BOOKS.

The wonders of pebbles under goblets and things done using mirrors await.