For those of you who have the well-reviewed tome Benson by Starlight, how did you find the write-up of the his bowl routine compared to the Bruce Elliott version in Classic Secrets? Are they the same or noticeably different? Thanks.
David

Well, we can start by saying that the Bruce Elliott book devotes 8 pages to the Benson Bowl Routine. Benson by Starlight devotes 26 pages to it. The Levent treatment of the routine is exhaustive.

Some seem to think that Don Alan got his version of the routine from Classic Secrets of Magic. He didn't. If you read the Elliott book you will see why that is impossible.

The bowl routine goes back many many moons. The Japanese did the bowls as did Rezvani looooooooooooong before Roy or Don. And Roy's routine was actually part of the Rice Bowls. Charlie Miller did it with Hats... as did Malini.

Not to mention the famous Pete Biro plunger routine, which was prematurely purloined and published.

Would it be that plunger routine where you can cleanly show the "bowl" empty and have a ball appear underneath it? Also, utilizing the handle as a magic prop?

I don't know whether Pete ever published that routine himself, but it was published pretty much as you describe. The handle served as a wand.

Pete told me about his routine a couple of years ago. It sent me straight to the hardware store with a sponge ball to try it out.

I was impressed. I don't use that routine but only because it really doesn't fit my character.

It might now, Rick. Now that you have moved down to Mississippi, you will find that for some people, indoor plumbing is a new thing!

I say this as a fellow whose grandparents on both sides lived in Mississippi.

Years ago, long before I ever heard of the Magic Café, Pete Biro, Bill Palmer, Danny Doyle, etc. etc. and all you fine folks- all I had was some measley Dover books on magic, not one had a Benson Bowl routine in it, but I did see a Frank Garcia video at a friends house and on it was a Benson Bowl routine, good stuff, but I never did it...ever, never had a Benson type bowl.

Then one fateful day while sitting in my bathroom, not thinking about much, but wishing I had eaten more fiber the day before...I spyed with my little eye the PLUNGER, it looked like a Benson Bowl...and...and by God, the dang handle could sure act as the wand!

I thought I was onto something, I spent weeks coming up with a routine and funny patter pertaining to the props themselves and then one day I get a computer and go online and brag about this fantastic routine I came up with.....

I'm sure you can finger out the rest of the story...

johnny

I'm glad you 'FINGERED' it out????????

Hey Johnny,

Do you have any more info on the Garcia performance of the Benson bowl routine?
I know it was on the Don Alan video years ago, but don't remember anything by Frank anywhere.

Thanks,
Tom

I know danny tong has a real nice benson bowl routine?
its on his finally dvd set

Lots of great suggestions. Bruce Elliott’s ‘Classic Secrets…’ is a favourite of mine: it’s a fantastic resource. I don't know of a Garcia routine - there's not one in the Encyclopedia of Sponge Ball Magic.

Others worth a mention:

Don Alan’s routine was published in Jon Racherbaumer’s ‘In a Class by Himself: The Legacy of Don Alan’ and also by Harold Martin in The Linking Ring (November 1964). Al Goshman’s presentation is given in ‘Magic by Gosh’ and uses different coloured sponge balls. John Mendoza’s ideas were presented in a set of old lecture notes, and also on his latest DVD set ‘My Best’. John Thompson published his routine in Polished Polish Prestidigitation (Busby, 1981). Trevor Lewis’s routine was published in ‘ESOLC (That's Close Up)’ written by Phil Willmarth. Takeshi Nemoto has a Japanese bowl routine in ‘Tokyo Trickery’.

Ralph Marcom has a presentation with an unusual final load in a routine called ‘Keeping Abreast’ in ‘Marcom Presents Magic’. Maybe not suitable for a family audience (the title of the routine suggest the nature of the final load). There are some juggling/stress balls currently available that would be ideally suited for this.

More recently, David Ben had a piece on the Benson Bowl in the Ross Bertram tribute issue of Genii (March 2003).

I think the first publication of Roy Benson’s routine was in Phoenix in July 1948 (please correct me if I’m wrong).

Richard

You can get a nice one in K-Mart. Corelle Rice Bowl. About six inches across and two - three deep.

I have found two different sizes at estate sales under $10.00. The best part is they are quality silver plated footed bowls, one is made by Gorham, it is a copy of an original "Paul Revere". It is about 2 ½” tall foot including the foot by 4 ½ “ wide it is heavy enough to hide a sponge under the foot like Pat Page does in his bowl routine. The other is a large footed bowl with only a markers mark I’m not acquainted with, it is 4 1/4" tall by 6" wide. I works well for Page’s routine also. With this one, you could go to a 2 ½" sponge if you wanted to.

The BEST handling, by far, is Johnny Thompson's--in that the misdirection fot a final load beats 'em all. It is now what I use. The bowl doesn't matter.

I learned the routine from two sources: the Bruce Elliot writeup and the Mendoza routine. I kind of melded them into my own routine. Now that the Benson routine is published in an extensive format you have plenty of sources to learn this absolutely killer routine. The methodology is so straight forward that it seems too obvious, but it's a fooler and very strong. Good luck!

Patrick Page also has a version of it on his Secret Seminar Spongeball dvd. It was the first time I had ever seen the Benson Bowl routine, and I knew as soon as I saw it that it was something that I wanted to learn.

I like Patrick Page’s routine a lot, but I like all the bowl routines I've seen so far. I think they are simple, play well and you can move to and from the bowl routines easily.

I would really like to see Johnny Thompson's handling. Pete has got my curiosity up, when thinks enough of something to adds part of it to his routine, it must be good.

For the Benson Bowl routine, I personnally use an old P&L rice bowl and a simple wooden stick with a coton thread as an handle in the middle of the wand.

The first time I discover this fabulous routine was on Allmagic website.
This routine is the opening door to the oriental and extream oriental bowls games.
This is a very good exercise to do before trying to play the Medjid Rezvani bowls and tomatoes game or the Shigeo Takagy bowls routines, wich are a pur gems!!
I do not know Pete's routine with the plunger, my english is not perfect so, I am not sure what is a plunger, is it a tool that you use when you have trouble with your toilets....I mean some kind of ...well...traffic jam? Please pard me for my english, I already heard some gentlemen laughing in the back....ah ah ah...

just be serious, does anyone here can tell me where to find Pete's routine about this "plunger".
Thank you gentlemen!!!