I saw Michael Skinner perform the ball vase on his excellent tapes and he made a miracle out of a $2 trick. I purchased the brass version, and do his routine all the time. Does anyone else do this routine or have their own version?

I don't have his routine, but I am interested in putting together a good routine for this. I plan on making a ball and vase at my shop. I think I'm going to make it the same size as my billard balls to integrate it into that. What's his routine like? What else is on his tape?
Jim

How big is the brass one? Will it fit in your pocket, and where did you get it?

It's around 2.5" like the plastic one, and comes with a black and a white ball. If you do the Skinner routine, you will need an extra black ball. It is available at Hank Lee and the page is:
here

Ouch! $75 needs to be approved through my budget director (wife). I was thinking about this one since it's got an extra gimmick built in (and it's in the no approval needed, it's cheap enough category).

http://themagicwarehouse.com/closeup7.html#mm2644

I bought one with my allowance I saved up (my wife gives me 50 cents a week) and it is beautiful, and worth the $$. I figured I would go all out and feature this item in my close up show.

It's hard to tell from the Hank Lee pics, but it looks like a nicer design.

Skinner's ball vase routine augments the standard presentation with additional transpositions and concludes with a color change, which can be revealed by a spectator. This is on "Professional Close-up Magic Volume 3." The other effects are all card effects except "The Flying Eagles." There are also a couple interview sections with Skinner and Roger Klause. They are more interesting than informative.

I've always thought the ball vase should be used in conjunction with other ball manipulations to strengthen the effect.

I bought the wooden vase with ping pong ball from Hank Lee a while back. The nice thing about that is that extra balls (and in different colors) are readily available and cheap. The drawback is that ping pong balls can be tricky to manipulate if one's hands are too dry!

That's correct, Paul, and the balls that come with the brass vase are like marbles and difficult to palm, so you improvise with the f****r p**m.

If you can do a basic French drop you can make the ball apparently penetrate through the bottom. (Looks weird.)

Just French drop the ball and pretend to find the ball in the vase (really the gimmick), Pick up the vase with the hand holding the ball, positioning the ball at the bottom of the vase. Put the cover on, tap the top, and allow the palmed ball to drop. It's a nice penetration.

Joe

That's right, Joe; and Skinner uses a similar move in his routine.