Andrew,

Thank you for sharing some of your work with us.
It was a pleasure to watch.

Your clips have made me more appreciative of just how entertaining a well thought out and performed cup routine can be.
Seeing the astonishment on the faces of your audiences has almost proved something that I've thought for a while now.
Although we, as magicians, think of the cups and balls as commonplace, many, many non-magicians have never seen it performed although they may have heard of it.

Once again, Bravo!

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen...

ajp

Andrew,

Excellent routine! It's rare when I enjoy watching a routine over and over.

A few things.

First, for the magicians who are not as deep into the C&Bs as Pete Biro, Bill Palmer or Kent Gunn inter alia, the cup through cup sequence should not be confused with the Charlie Miller move.

The cup through cup is a sequence which exists in the earliest books on the C&Bs and wasn't meant to really be an effect but was a misdirection to conceal that one of the cups was already containing a ball. In modern times, only an early Raphael Benatar routine (not the one translated in English) has been using it for its real purpose. This is probably the reason why there are comments about the context, but such a context for this common visual illusion is rarely established.

Regarding Pete Biro's tip on Senor Mardo's move (published as "the Pounding"), it refers to a very smart move for the ball to get through the bottom of a mouth down cup non covered by another cup. I did many years ago some work on this move and made a variant (without a name) where the ball was also stolen along the way by the (upper at the end of the move) hand which is not closed as a fist but placed flat (with the ball in classic palm) on the other one resting on the bottom of the cup. Both hands are pressed down and briefly stretched, and then the upper hand which was suppposed just helping pressing down, moves away for the other hand (supposed to have pressed the ball through the bottom of the cup) moves up revealing the vanish of the ball.

I like that last bit... will try it when I get home and have some cups to use (early next week). Leaving in a few minutes for a weekend trip to Carmel to work on our retirement home!

Posted: Nov 14, 2008 12:38pm
I don't have the video handy, but didn't Johnny Paul also do the cup thru cup to conceal the extra ball?

Pete,
The idea behind this variant of Senor Mardo's move is to have a less violent gesture than the hammering by the right fist over the left hand supposedly covering the ball.
The ball is resting on the bottom of the mouth down cup (a ball secretly under the cup). The open hands get in front of the cup and start moving up slightly arching (allegedly to cover the ball) and with the right fingers overlapping the left ones. The inner side of the left hand at the base of the first finger (about at the level of the second phalanx of the thumb) pushes the ball now screened by the hands almost into right classic palm. Both hands are now heavily arched over the bottom of the cup (the arched left hand is under the right, supposedly covering the ball), the ball is under the right palm but not yet fully inn classic palm position. Both hands flatten wiht fingers spread as for pressing the ball through the bottom of the cup. The upper right hand is tilted forward in order to conceal the diameter of the ball, and the left lays flat, fingers stretched, over the bottom of the cup.
The right hand moves up classic palming the ball for the left to be able to move up and be turned palm up displaying that the ball has gone through the bottom of the cup (flashing its palm) as the right tkes the cup by the side and lifts it up to reveal the ball which was previously under it.
As usual the move must be one fluent and brief unhurried gesture with only a short pause before the flattening of the hands over the bottom of the cup.

I hope that this explanation is clear. I know it looks very different from Senor Mardo's move (and more gentle), but I'm sure that you will recognize the lineage.