On Mike Ammar's Cups and Balls tapes, he said Vernon told him that the final loads should be varied ( potato, tomato, etc. ) but any video I see of the Professor, he never did that.

I have seen cups and balls routines without final loads and they were very entertaining. But when I see them with final loads, the audience goes nuts. You can do an audience pleasing routine without the final loads, but it's not the same reactions.

I don't think you need 3 cups. Two works just as well from what I've seen. Some have one cup ( not a chop cup ) but I don't think that's as good as two or three.

No, you certainly don't need 3 or even 2 for a great routine. Being a restaurant/bar worker I don't have much opportunity to do a 3 cup routine. I usually save that for private performances. At the bar, I normally do a chop cup routine with 2 limes as a final load. Limes because it is a copper cup and I talk about my favorite cocktail being a Moscow Mule. when you're talking final loads, it's also a HUGE surprise to have more loads than you have cups. For example, 2 limes from one cup, 4 pieces of fruit from 3 cups. It takes almost no extra effort and is really worth it. I will produce the first 3 quickly then pause as all 3 cups are stacked over the last one...and just as the applause is starting to die down, I tilt the cups back revealing the 4th. As I said MUCH earlier in this thread, I really prefer to have 3 congurent, and one non, or vice-versa...3 non and the last one congruent. And in back to the discussion of congruence....take a look on youtube of clips of Vernon doing the cups. While he normally used balls instead of fruit, you WILL see that he used 3 white balls, and the last one was red. 3 congruent...and one not.

I use lemons for the final load in my two cup routine. I get the lemons from the walk in cooler of the restaurant. One of the things that gets the guests is that the lemons are cold.