Just remembered. Years ago Lloyd E. Jones BOUGHT Harry Stanley's complee collection of films, which included a lot of Ken Brooke stuff )Ken worked for Stanley until he paid off his bankruptcy debts). Anyway, I carried ALL THE FILMS from London to Oakland for Jones. I don't know what happened to them. I wonder if Byron Walker got them when he bought Jones' library? Or... could Busby have gotten his mitts on them?

Also, the Brooke cups and balls routine was posted by "Fonddouble" He and his daughter to a KILLER two person cups and ball routine. He owns "The Double Fond" club in Paris. Anyone recall his name?

Part of it is from the Vernon routine.

Thanks for sharing! What a treat to watch!

David

Would that be Dominique Duvivier, Pete?

Right, thanks Mitch...

I agree that it is mostly the change that shocks the audience...

But...

If the load appears to be too big to fit into the cup, my own opinion has been that it adds to the buzz.

So, to be clear, yes, it is the change. But the size *can* add a few bonus thoughts in the specs' minds.

YMMV, but that has always been my own experience.

Just remembered a great illustration of this. I waqs doing magic with my mini Don Allen copper chop cup and had loaded it with a standard golf ball load....as I revealed it I had another surprise waiting for my friend I was performing for.....a full sized 8 ball dropped out and he was totally shocked as it was huge in comparrison to the cup. He had no idea how I created the illusion of it coming out of the cup.

Gazzo's routine with endless fruit also comes to mind.
Bigger loads can be a real shock to people.
Who was it that made their shoe appear under a cup at the end? That was a total shocker too.
Mobius

Link got edited out somehow now repaired.

Finally got home and could view the Video. That is NOT the old Ken Brooke routine, but what he did after spending time with Vernon. You should search on that site to find his Linking Ring routine. What is Ken's is the count and the way he pivotes a ring, or rings, around his wrist. Beautiful handling.

The SHAME is this set of images was shot silently in studio and if they had done it is sound with him talking in a real performing setting you would have seen the real Ken Brooke.

Posted: Nov 18, 2008 1:44am
What a great clip, thanks Robert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYSbUOoq4Vg

the music is Nina Simone

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/magici......60087773

mr. biro the linking rings. you are right the ring handling and twirl is a beauty. thanks for bringing this up. see we younger magicians can still learn form the past.

Robert, I am in your debt! Thank you for identifying the music!

Even if the routine is influenced by Vernon, there are many touches that are typical of Ken, which Pete Biro could confirm.
The way he uses the wand to cause every move is something we can learn from in this video. It's vvery subtle and someone looking at it would notice that it is varied.

The smooth or round way he handles the cup was also a trade mark.

There are no hurried moves.

Naturally what Pete already stated about the change versus the size was also something Ken was dead set about. To complete Pete's record of Ken, Ken was very set on the fact that the final loads should be common objects not larger balls.

One final memory touch: Ken's initial routine was based on the Burtini's cups and balls (at least this is the way he showed it to me). The fact that magicians here recognize some of the Vernon moves doesn't make the routine the Vernon routine. I'm a great fan of the Professor which I consider having brought as much to the XXth century than Robert Houdin had brought to the XIXth.

However Dai Vernon assembled in an original way sequences which pre existed (I traced them all: none was created by him and it doesn't prevent his routine from being recognized as original: an interesting lesson for magicians desperate to be different). Thus when one recognizes a sequence that the Professor used, it doesn't make it a variant from Dai Vernon's routine (it just betrays some lack of magical culture by the one making the comment)... and Dai Vernon never claimed that any of the sequences was original: he only made a very justified claim for the Vernon touch.

In Ken's routine, therefore we should learn the Ken's touch rather than the originality of sequences. As always, according to what we look for, we get the replies to our questions. If we look for the wrong thing, we miss the real lesson that we could have received.

Thanks to Kent for this emotional rememberance and the opportunity to get what we can receive from this video. IMHO Magic is all in the nuances. This video is full of them.

You are so right about Ken. I remember one night when he was working with me on Chase the Ace. He grabbed the cards (very large ones) and started to swat me with them... he said, "Hold them still.. hold them still.. nobody can see what they are when they're moving."

I wish he was still with us so I could ask him more about the cups. Especially about not using the Mora spin vanish. I have a feeling he hadn't learned it yet, as this was shortly after Vernon's visit. Altho I don't ever remember seeing him do it.

"Who was it that made their shoe appear under a cup at the end? That was a total shocker too."


I'm sure that was Dominic Duvivier, from his book "The Magic of Dominic Duvivier.
The routine calls for the production of a forth cup, which is where I stop, but the notes say he has also produced his shoe at the finale of his routine