I'm not sure if this would work so any opinions would be welcomed.

When performing the cups and balls I have been using fake eggs made from super ball rubber. Before I start the C&B I mention that everyone must see my egg trick, I promise that I'll do it at the end of the act. As I perform the C&B I ask people to remind me what it was I was going to finish with a couple of times. Once the final loads are under the cups I ask again. When I get the reply I pause then reveal the loads saying, "That's the egg trick."

I've done this twice now to very good reactions, but there is a nagging voice in my head that says that I may be distracting the watchers from what is going on during the C&B. What do you think?

Tom

It's not what we think... it is what the audience thinks. Maybe baby chicks? "I waited too long to produce the eggs.... "

My gut reaction is that if the audience reacts the way you want them to, then you have just led them down the garden path and turned on the sprinklers.

Sounds good to me. You might even produce an ostrich egg as a finale.

Check out the video clip of Nick Nicholas performing the Cups and Balls. He has a great "callback" for his loads using a similar concept.

Thanks for that Pete, I laughed so hard I think my pants will never dry!

Tom

Pete's and Bill's idea on the chick and ostrich egg is wonderful.

To add on to that, have two cups producing chicks and the third one the ostrich egg. I kind of like that idea myself.

Bill,
I love the ostrich egg idea, sorry for not mentioning that in my last post.

Dave, I can't find Nick Nicholas' cups and balls, do you think you could give me a clue?

Now, where can I get an ostrich egg...?

http://www.indianpointranch.com/ostricheggs.html

contact Christine at:
Indian Point Ostrich Ranch
661-822-9131 ext. 113
E-mail: thenest@indianpointranch.com


kOnO

Try http://www.nicknickolas.com Click on Street Magic.

Thanks guys, jeez you're quick, 6 minutes to find out where to get an ostrich egg and 8 to go to Australia!

BTW, kOnO how did you know that????

Best,
Tom

Mediocre news, Tom:

US egg raisers cannot ship to the UK; however, there are ostrich, emu and rhea egg suppliers in the UK. So go to Google and do a search on Ostrich Egg, Rhea Egg and Emu egg. Emu eggs are a nice deep blue-green.

Thanks for the gen Bill. The Emu egg sounds nice, Ive seen ostrich eggs before and they are quite plain so I think that the emu egg would be better.

BTW, what about the ethics of using "exotic" birds eggs in an act. OK, I know that ostriches aren't endangered but it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Tom

The ostriches, emus and rheas are all farm-raised. The eggs are already blown, so you don't have to pay extra for shipping a 2 kg. egg through the post. You would be receiving an eggshell, not a complete egg.

Since these eggs are produced partially for food and partially so people can make works of art from them, unless the government puts some kind of ban on the sale of the shells, I wouldn't have any negative feeling about it at all.

Thanks for that Bill, I'm glad that that's the case. It was really bothering me.

Best,
Tom

I understand. CITES is one reason that the eggshells can't be shipped internationally, even though these birds are being farm raised. CITES is the Committee on International Trade in Endangered Species. Sometimes things get put on the list that don't belong there, though, because sometimes, their "experts" don't have complete data on a given species.

As an example, one of the fellows who was on the board of CITES was a director at Kew Gardens. He put a cactus species Opuntia Linguiformis (cow's tongue prickly pear) on the list. He claimed it was extinct. Well, he was totally wrong. The stuff is a nuisance plant. It grows wild all over West Texas. It almost cannot be exterminated. It's also a sterile mutation. It grows by dropping its pads on the ground. When I drove Ted Lesley from Houston to El Paso, I found a section of I-10 that had this stuff growing alongside it for 10 miles!

Strange.

Bill,
I understand about CITES, I keep a marine reef aquarium at home and you cannot get the same livestock that you could a few years ago.

Luckily, a few years back I started "cutting & pasting" with soft corals and now I have a tankful! I don't buy any from pet stores now.

I'm out of the cactus biz now, but I used to have some rare ones that had been raised from cuttings. There is this one cactus called Aztekium Ritteri, that is truly a primitive plant. It is native to one tiny section of northern Mexico. When the Mexican government started building their section of the Pan-American Highway, this habitat was completely destroyed.

A local cactus aficionado and operator of a boy's shelter offered to go in and collect the seeds from the plants. He was willing to transfer the remaining plants to pots and take care of them. The government refused permission.

A group of Japanese collectors came in the dark of night and harvested some of them. The rest were PLOWED UNDER BY EARTH MOVING MACHINERY.

That makes my gorge rise.

Whenever I need ostrich eggs this is where I go

Just stand behind her with your hat underneath her.

They can run 65 mph...