Bill Palmer,
Thanks for for your observations.
1. I agree now with you on David Blaine.
2. What I meant is that performing cups and ball without a table is difficult.

The rest of what you said is correct.

I feel sad that some outstanding performers in India did not permit me to capture them on camera because of fear that their trade secrets will be stolen. I am still asking them for permission. If I had a YouTube post on my favorite IC&B performer, this discussion would have been totally different.

I'm certain that it would have.

By the way, although I don't know of any three cup routines that are performed without a table, there are several of us, Dennis Loomis for example, who perform the chop cup right in the spectator's hand. I, too, have done this. It makes for some very interesting situation comedy.

Thanks for bringing Dennis Loomis to my notice. When Googled, there a book by this gentleman 'Dennis Loomis Cups & Balls Routine - Dennis Loomis'. Is there any video on Dennis Loomis performing Cups & Balls in spectator's hand?

The one that he performs in the hand is the micro chop cup routine.

The three cup routine is performed seated at a table.

SPEAKING OF LANGUAGE.... I have done both the Indian cups and the Vernon-style cups speaking a fake double talk. I started fooling around one night doing an "IMPRESSION" of Shankar Jr. the first time I saw him. He was very young and had a vary high voice. So, I said words that meant nothing in a squeaky voice. Phrases like, Shishmama o kooba nee karamba.... It played well. Then another time, took this same idea to the western cups doing a fake Hungarian accent (I am partly Hungarian) with fitting double talk.

Peter Rosengren's Cups & Balls in spectator's hands is both elegant and published.

Today I watched Steve Darci performing Indian cups and balls in his DVD 'Steve Dacri - No Fillers, vol 2'. He performed it on table.

"This is Charlie Miller's routine," he says. "Charlie Miller, Dai Vernon and I spent days together for creating a routine."

I am really impressed by some of the simple and deceptive loading methods used by this gentleman, which really justifies with the traditional one.

Charlie Miller's 'grass mat' is a wonderful addition to the trick from time immemorial.

Steve Dacri does some very nice work on that series.

In his articles on the Indian cups that appeared in Genii Magazine, Charlie Miller said that many of the Indian magicians made their own cups from elephant bells. He described the process in a fair amount of detail. I made several sets of these in different sizes.

Is Charlie's information correct?

In old times, Indian magicians used coconut shells as cups. Coconut shell craft exists here for centuries or more. Later, some used wooden shells. Certainly there was some and is a few magicians who use elephant bells. Now, the cups seen mostly are wooden-dealer cups and steel or brass cups which are used for other purposes.

I enjoyed Dacri's routine as well in that video. Someone get that guy a pair of nail clippers, though. Blech!

Here is listed Charlie Miller performing Indian cups
http://www.magicproshop.com/greater-magi......577.html

Has anybody see this video? Greater Magic Volume 29 - Charlie Miller and Johnny Thompson - DVD

Sherifmayika, this is not so much a recording of a performance, rather Charlie Miller being interviewed by Thompson - and demonstrating certain sequences and moves. As others have mentioned, it would be a pity if Charlie Miller was remembered on the basis of this footage. These recordings were made late in his life...
As for the Indian Cups and Balls, as far as I remember, he just imparts very basic knowledge (such as that you use the classic palm, the way balls are loaded under cups from the palm, how you can pretend that a ball penetrates the cup by 'pressing it' through the top of the cup while really palming it - nothing more as far as I can remember). He does not say anything about the way performers of Indian Cups and Balls are seated and how they use their seated position to conceal balls.
If you want to get a sense of Charlie Miller as a person, these are valuable recordings, but as a source of knowledge on the Indian Cups and Balls, this DVD certainly won't tell you anything new.
(BTW, I have only seen the footage pertaining to the cups and balls - not part II and III on Egg Bag and Cards.)

Tilman,
Thanks for the review.

And, to my knowledge, the little cups sold with Charlie Miller's name on them were actually small metal end caps used on large drapery rods. They are really too small to do much with.

They were definitely not any kind of "Indian" cup.

I will ask Indian magic historian and India's biggest magic collector, Nk sekar, for a clarity on cups. I have never seen anybody using elephant bells as cups, but I have heard once.

Offering Bowls are often used. I have a lovely, very old set in heavy brass and use an antique opium pipe for a wand.

I tried to work out a routine that used a bong, but I kept getting confused.

Dang it, Bill - I just about choked on my coffee...

Thanks for starting my day with a laugh!

I believe that this routine is one of the better and very direct:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xejx3_indianstreetmagic

It seems that the T-palm is used instead of the C-palm. It seems much easier to use the T-palm.