The part where a spade was called a spade.

Lotta gass and water under the bridge here.watch voronin take magic shop props and transform them into art.young guys will always copy and grab the quick money.by the time they reach middle age they are either out of the game or embarrassing themselves.time wounds all heels.try to see the true light.as jack nicholson said,"be ready.you'll get your chance." quit looking back over your shoulder,just say,"so long,charlie..." and look ahead toward the finish line.

Voronin is wonderful.

I like this post, a lot of food for thought. Jimmy, I've been reading your blog and it's full of great information and has me thinking a lot. Here soon, when the schedule permits, I'm gonna hit the streets myself. Everything in my show is mine. Maybe the plots are the same, but they're all my tricks with my methods and presentation. I ain't going to bother with a table for a while, I want to do doorway shows so I can do more of them and learn better that way. They seem better for my areas I can get to too. I do the cups, but it definitely ain't Gazzo's cups routine. It's my own version, with two cups, and no fruits for final loads, I do something weird and different. I love something you said in an article; "did you do your lifes work or did you do some one elses?" It was in a different context in the article but it applies to this too. I want to get full hats for what I made, not someone else. Thanks for the interesting debate and thoughts.

Also, I do a card trick in my show, it's something I've done for a long time. When I do it, people cuss and yell and exclaim it's not possible, etc. I've had so many people grab the deck and inspect it afterwords that now I just give the deck away after the trick. Not all card tricks are boring, they are just a tool for the performer. People are boring sometimes though.

People are boring!

Best line in this whole thread :o) You sir, just won the Internet with that statement. Truth, in its truest truthfulness.

Ok, I'm bored. *poof*

Going back to the original post of the thread. I must say, I'm a huge fan of C&B routines. I used to mess around with the Gazzo routine, I have then moved onto the Table Hopping 2 Cup routine. I don't close with it, instead I use it in the middle-ish of my routine. My final loads are bigger spongeballs, in which after a breif pause to allow the magic to sink it and the clapping is done, I immediately move into a spongeball routine. I like when my tricks are tied together, one flows into another, as though it's a story that progressively gets better. As opposed to a routine made up of "just a bunch of tricks thrown together".
For me it works and gets me money, I am one of those guys that's not a professional, but I am ALWAYS reading books trying to learn new stuff or come up with my own variation. Sometimes, whether it's because I'm just slow or something I just can't seem to get the results that I want to work out. Sometimes I come up with an idea that to me and other magicians might seem pretty sweet, but when it comes to the lay audience, it just doesn't play as big as some of the classics. There's a reason they're "classics" afterall.
With all that being said, I would say, to each their own. People who do the exact same magic as the next person, doesn't mean they're a bad person with bad intentions, it just means they run the risk of their audience not being as "wow'd" as they could've been, which only affects them and their hat size. So I say to each their own. The more the next guy imitates, the more likelihood I'll get a job from being different.

Somewhat off-kilter here, but in one of those moments of remembering (had a DUH moment) something I had posted on this thread back on the 28th of August, I remembered crediting, or rather miscrediting a quote to Shimada: "Magic is not tricks, it is a way". I meant to say that it was Tenkai Ishida.

Okay. I feel better now.

Is this who was argueing with me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Nym8ebH......embedded

That is my City... For now.

I do that Coke in bag trick in my kids show, fools the 3 year olds every time

One of the really great threads, here in the Magic Café.
People put in a lot of thought,..and 'passion'.
Most stayed and talked,,.
,..and stayed really 'respectable'.

Jimmy could really inspire and provoke 'thought'.
...probably mirrors himself. 👍

A great read. Thanks.
Gallagher

As a teen growing up in NY watching many buskers and being inspired to do the same I never thought of the C&Bs as what you needed to do but I always wanted to do it kind of like emulating the big guys. Over the years I've taken it out and put it back in my street show but forced myself to come up with an original routine, using classic moves of course but with a story and color changes of the balls and I never do the hat load as a finale just multiple large loads over and over. I never thought I had to do the C&Bs to be a busker I just do it because I love it and hopefully may audience comes along for that ride.
Bruce

Gazzo's final sequence is not original to Gazzo. People have been doing load sequences for thousands of years. Gazzo is just the name that made it popular. I have been busking for almost 25 years now. When I started, there was no one around me to learn from and the people who did "street perform" did it in a way that I didn't like to perform. I didn't have the internet. I had books ( none of which on busking ) and VHS tapes. I started doing the cups as an opener and ending with one final load which tied into the ending of the show. I did that routine for almost 5 years. Then I was watching a Michael Close video. Michael Close, on one of his videos, gave me the idea for more than 4 final loads. With the cups I had, I started doing 6 limes and a coconut final loads and hat load. The same cup routine, which is a mix of a lot of different styles, just a different ending. The 6 live fruit loads are a terrific and stunning ending. Point is, it had nothing to do with Gazzo. The fact is, people see other people making money so their instinct is to copy that person because they think they will be making money by doing the same thing, Cups or no cups. There is a lot more that goes into a routine to make it "work" than a lot of people realize. People not understanding the psychology behind busking and street performing is what has led to the way things are now. Areas prohibiting street performing, try to get rid of performers, etc. In fact, different regions, have different performers that people try to imitate, it has nothing to do with the cups. No one should be copying any one. Do your own thing. Stop riding the coat tales of other performers who have put in the work. Make your routine you and don't try to make someone else's routine you. Put in the work. It is ok to use IDEAS from other performers but stop stealing their ****!! Sorry for the long rant. The morale of the story, it is not the cups! It is the way people think.

While having a large load under a hat goes way back......Gazzo's brilliance was how & when he got it under the hat. When he did the load.

When I first saw Gazzo at the Halifax Buskerfest, he totally got me with the final load. Twice. It blew me away....and I did the cups also at that time.

I believe Celini also did a hat load at the end of his routine sometimes....but the load was at the very end, after the fruit reveal.

Gazzo's slight change to all this was brilliant.

I was not trying to take anything away from Gazzo's routine. Honestly, there are parts that I don't like, however, Gazzo's routine works for Gazzo. The point that I was trying to make is that if someone does 6 load fruits and a hat load, a lot of people are quick to jump and say that it is Gazzo's routine. All I am saying is that, even though a lot of people do steal his routine, that is not always the case. There are a lot of, so called, street performers that steal routines with or without the cups.

I have to agree, people borrow or steal things off other performers but adding your own style is what is important.
A lot of street shows work on the same formula, in the end it is how it is presented.
Lets face it, a street juggler or a Peruvian band are the same all over the world..... its the jugglers humour and presentation that makes him shine!
Peruvian bands sound the same in every town!! Probably the same cd they all sell!!

I have been watching Gazzo for a few days now and have to say his routine is fun and a worker. He sells his DVD with the aim people will use his routine and I think it is a good place to learn misdirection and subtleties from his work. If people do see someone else do a fruit or melon load / finish and say that it's gazzo's routine then hats off (no pun intended) to him for getting himself that well known. I personally have really enjoyed learning from him.
Enjoy ...
SSR