At a family party I was doing the cups with my three year old son. He loaded an orange under one of the cups for me - no-one saw him, including me. I have no idea where he got the orange. My reaction and his giggling got a big laugh though.

That's funny Volto, train him up right in the beginning, and you may have a cups and balls miracle worker within a few years. Take Shankar Junior for example, he started learning as a child, and he has a masterful cups routine.

Considering I've done the cups for quite a while (and sold quite a few sets from the magic shop); you would think I'd have more funny stories, but I oddly don't recall anything worth telling.

However, like Gaddy, I've made some money, and have, hopefully, started a new generation of cups workers by selling them at the magic shop.

I'm not sure this fits here. It isn't a best story really but I will submit it anyway.

I once had just gotten done performing for a group of Cub scouts they are all about 10 or so maybe a bit older. Anyway as I was packing up my things to leave I over heard a couple of boys discussing my performance and the C&B's in particular. One of them said. "At the end I had no idea where the limes came from. I know they didn't come from his pockets I was watching!" Little did he or the other one know. I thought it was interesting. I thought "I must be doing something right'

Similar to the Cups and Balls or a Bowl Routine...

I got my start in close up working behind a bar at a restaurant. On one night there was a small group of people (maybe 10 or 12 people) having dinner in the bar. There was also one small kid with them; he was probably 5 or 6 I think.

Anyway, as kids sometimes do, he wandered over to the bar to swipe some cherries or olives. I decided to show him a magic olive. I'd put the olive under an hourglass jigger, and when I'd say the magic words, the olive would have disappeared.

He wanted to try it, so he put an olive under the hourglass, and try as he did, the olive wouldn't disappear. I kept encouraging him to try and believe harder. He did a couple more times and finally, I decided to look myself.

Ok, the olive was there so I put the hourglass back over it, but stole it out as I did. I got the kid to try all kinds of magic words and finger wiggling, and when he lifted the hourglass the next time, the olive had indeed disappeared!

He jumped down off the barstool, took off on a dead run back to his table, screaming, "MOM!!!!!!!!!!!"

Congrats RS1963! Great story Michael, I'll bet that kid still remembers that event.