Simply stating that you do not find a routine entertaining or that it appears, to you, to be "a mess" does not strike me as necessarily mean-spirited or non-constructive. I have seen many "creative" routines that failed to entertain. No point in having a discussion forum if you can't freely say what you think.

"Mo Water" that's what Cas Boxley called it in the late 1940s when I saw him do it with two tea cups. It is in print in an old German book. Palmer will know the name of it. Such a simple thing but with great presentation... a killer. McBride is the best that I have seen do it.

Thank you Pete, that's great to know. Good to hear Jeff get such fine testimonial as well. I agree.

Btw Bill, Ich verstehe sehr gut.

MOX NIX

One of the cold, hard facts about this routine is that some of the parts everyone seems to think of as original have been pinched by Latko. He seems to be able to get away with it, because he won FISM. But the bottle production from the cups is not his.

I like him more when he talks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8cv9uEOXhU&feature=related

Clever and creative but ... he sure telegraphs a ton of moves with awkward hand positions, unmotivated handling of the cups, the "something's going to appear behind that brochure" brochure, etc.

One after the other after the other....

Much too unnatural for me to rave too much about anything except the creative concept.
Especially after just watching a John Carney lecture where everything was so very natural and well thought-out and motivated.

I've seen other stuff of Latko's and he's a good performer, for sure. This just has some work left to be done.

The brochure botch is the worst offense because, done better, it could have been a great surprise.

Be honest.. anyone surprised that the brochure was hiding something? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? I didn't think so. Notice that it didn't matter what it was. We knew something was back there so the magic was lost.


Many flaws but I applaud his creative efforts.

I just came across this thread and video. A little too involved for me, but I love to see new ideas with the Cups.

The idea of who is the creator of what in magic is interesting. I do not know for sure what the DeCamps principle involves, but I used the same idea for a final load back during the American Bicentennial (1976) using Pavels Super Cups. A set only cost about $5 back then. I painted them white, used a red close up mat, blue crocheted balls, and a mini Statue of Liberty as final load.

I never did any more with the idea after that because I did not feel that the final load looked that great coming from stacked cups. It just did not seem that amazing seeing the height of both. Maybe I had the "Magician's Complex." I'm still not convinced, but maybe the glass of liquid adds more mystery than a solid statue.

I'm interested in your thoughts about the "illusion" of the tall glass appearing. Please pm me if you are interested to share.

Terry