Wow!

I never expected my question to generate such an amazing and wide ranging source of information! Thank you to everyone that replied! I'll let you know when my cups arrive!

Justin

Cups and Balls will always generate responses. It is, in my opinion, the perfect magic trick. It has everything that makes magic great, vanishes, productions, transpositions, and surprises.

Magicians love the trick. I also get to use my wand which makes it even better for me.

After all this discussion of high-class sets of cups and balls, I encourage you to also practice with impromptu items -- tea cups, coffee mugs, paper and styrofoam cups, rolled up dollar bills or napkins, etc. Get a nice impromptu routine together that does not require any stacking of the cups and you'll have something of great practical value. I recommend the Dai Vernon impromptu routine. I don't know where it is written up. I learned it from a performance by Bruce Cervon on a videotape that a friend made of an old TV special on Dai Vernon. I think Cervon used coffee or tea cups and olives.

You can get the Vernon Impromptu Routine in the little green booklet on cups and balls from Fun, Inc. I do have some of those.

PM me if interested.

I would recommend staying away from styrofoam cups. They have a tendency to be attracted by static electricity. This can mess up a routine if you prematurely expose a ball. Paper is less problematic.

Do cups and balls really get a great reaction, it doesn't sound as enticing as card tricks but you never know.

The cups and balls get great reactions, as with most anything, when performed well.

They arrived!

I received my "Bazar De Magia" cups a short time ago and I'm really, really pleased with them. It seems like I got lucky with the weight, as they feel really good in my hands, not too heavy nor too light! Im working hard with the Michael Ammar material and would be interested to know if there is any other material worth researching into for the cups and balls? Maybe some unusual/quirky routines or ideas?
Thanks, once again, for everything everyone!
Justin

I just wanted to point out, I'm not at all taking anything away from the Michael Ammar material, just wanted to possibly look at other reference material for the C&B, as well! Just thought I should mention that!

Justin

I have an affection for Carl Andrew's "Table Hopping Cups and Balls" routine. It uses just 2 cups, but I bring in the 3rd in later to produce a load.

To give one possible answer to Strider's question, I feel the Ammar material is the best because it does NOT give you a specific routine, but rather, breaks the effect down into its component parts, and shows you different ways that the various aspects of the effect can be accomplished. Thus you have the "nuts & bolts" of the trick, and can construct your own routine, of a length and degree of difficulty that is exactly right for you.

Ammar does discuss the Vernon routine and his own routine, but it's really just to give an example of what can be done. He expects (and so should you) that you will devise your own handling.

In my search for ideas about the Cups & Balls, I have purchased a few other Cups & Balls books and pamphlets, such as Frank Garcia's "The Very Best of the Cups & Balls," the Laurie Ireland routines, Bruce Elliot's routines, the old Kanter pamphlet by Tom Osborne, and routines by Professor Hoffman, Ron Bauer and Gazzo.

But I still feel that Ammar's book represents the best value, contains the most information, and presents it in the most readable and learnable way. If you digest and apply everything (or even almost everything) in Ammar's book, you will know more about the Cups & Balls than most magicians do, and you should be able to develop a routine that is uniquely suited to you. SETH

You're probably joking, but I'll play the straight-man and answer this - the truth is that some lay people who otherwise like magic don't like card magic.

I don't want to make the tons of card people out there mad, but a well-performed C & B routine will appeal to more people than a well performed card routine. One reason for this is simply that many lay people have already seen (or even learned) a few card tricks at some point in their lives and, while they may be impressed, it's not particularly novel. It really doesn't matter that the particular effect itself may have never seen by them before and is performed entertainingly and flawlessly, it still hearkens to old Uncle Ned or some nebbish who used to do card tricks all the time to try and impress people. When people have had the misfortune of experiencing bad magic, it's frequently involved a card trick or two. Or three. There are even magicians, presumably more fond of the art than most laypeople, who roll their eyes at "yet another card trick."

In contrast, though the Cs&Bs predate cards by many centuries, not as many people have actually seen it done or even heard of them when compared to card tricks. Even a standard c & b routine will probably feature vanishes, appearances, transpositions, penetrations and transformations. Card routines seldom incorporate all these types of effects and, if there were a card routine that did so, it would be hard pressed to match the continuity and ease of transitions between effects that the Cs&Bs have. Cards are everyday objects, and there is a gambling element that can be called upon to generate interest in a card trick (though this alienates people who aren't familiar with the particular game), but even this gambling hook can be called on in the cs&bs since it resembles the shell game - which is readily understood. The only card game involving gambling which people can pick up as quickly as the shell game is three card monte, but there are reasons not to perform this. . . .


Another point is this: if you look at how artists have depicted street magicians in the last few centuries (for example, look at the colour illustrations in the Annals of Conjuring), they may show a deck of cards on the table, or occasionally a magician doing a card trick, but they more frequently show a magician doing the cups and balls than any other trick. There's a reason for this - it's usually the strongest, most memorable and dynamic part of the act. It's no surprise then that it has been, and still is, the finale to so many street shows while the card tricks, if any, are relegated to earlier in the show. While it could be argued this is due to cards not reading well from a distance and being more of a close up item, this is simply not true. Card effects have in fact have been performed on stage succesfully by some of the greatest magicians in history. I think the real reason cards, or anything else, generally don't follow the cs & bs is that the cs&bs are just so strong that anything after them is anticlimactic.

The pluses for cards are their portability and people's familiarity with them as everyday objects - though this familiarity is not always positive. That said, cards lend themselves to impromptu magic and don't have the taint of being "prop-ish" in the way that most cups and balls sets do. I would feel much more comfortable borrowing a deck of cards and performing an ambitious card routine than in borrowing cups and balling up some dollars for a C&B routine.

Thanks all for the information regarding c and b and routines. I am starting out and currently referencing Mark Wilson's book and Greater magic for learning some of the common handling. I am just scratching the surface and I now know that I have embarked on a life-long journey with the C and B.

I agree with Rik.
And I do see him buying a set of Sherwoods, except I see him buying them for me.

He's such a nice guy!

Thanks in advance Rik.

Frank