I am looking for help with an effect where basically you pour water in a cup like a red solo cup and when you turn it over the water is gone or does not spill out. Any help would be be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

SLUSH POWDER

Fantastic, thank you.

...or a sponge.

Julie

There are ways to be able to re-pour after showing nothing comes out

- make a Foo Can type of gimmick in the cup

- reverse the effect of the slush powder (Scott Alexander teaches a wonderful "Water Monte" (guess where the water is, in his Midnite Show)

- Scott Guinn also has a nice water monte effect in his "Great Scott It's More Magic"

Hood: I have a red Solo cup in which I use slush powder. I found that sometimes it will plop out if the mixture is not quite right. I glued in a circular piece of plastic with 1/8" diameter holes. Now you can vanish the water and even shake the cup up and down - nothing comes out. The only downside is the clean-up - you can't use it for two shows in the same day - you need to rinse it out (I use my garden hose outside) or let it completely dry and then rinse it out.

Jim, it takes some testing before use. If you are making runny goo, then you need to adjust your ratio.

My ratio is 1 tsp of slush powder to 8-ounces of water and I never had an issue.

Not every brand of slush powder is the same, take Bills idea and test. tbaer gave a good start to testing.

Slush powder is the best. But make sure you test it out the ratio before performing.

Believe me I did a lot of testing. My mixture is on point. The red Solo cups are very slick inside and shaped like a shallow funnel. The trick is much easier with foam cups.

Part of the reason why the ratio will change from person to person, could be that the water is different.
My understanding is that impurities in the water (e.g.; salts) can affect the setting-up. Hence, you could find differences from your water and that available at your show. Although I have't hear of anyone trying this, distilled water may give you the most reproducible results. Another factor could be temperature - you may see a difference between boiling water, and room temperature.

I think I've seen some talk of these types of problems with milk (maybe the fat in it?).
Hence, the advice to test, and test with what you will use in your show, is good advice.

John

Experiment between a plastic and styrofoam cup to see which works best.

In a restaurant once I put some in hot coffee, it foamed up and over the cup. It was nothing but runny goo.

I had a similar problem once, I think milk or cream will interfere with it setting up.
If straight coffee, the issue might be the oils in it.

Another approach is to only give illusion of water pouring into cup. The easiest way to vanish something is for it to never truly be there in the first place! Look at some of the "baking cake in hat" routines which utilize gimmicks to create this illusion of actually seeing liquid pour. Or the venerable milk pitcher where subtleties are used.

For a different solution besides slush powder: in my "Genii In The Bottle" from the Wizards' Journal #29, I show how to make a “Self-Drinking Wonder Bottle” in which a soda straw is placed into clear bottle (or plastic "glass") and the liquid inside is apparently visibly sipped up by a Genii or some other invisible being. At the end the transparent glass or bottle is empty with no clue as to where the liquid went.

If you can use colored liquid, try looking into my Evaporation gimmick.

I'm surprised that this hasn't come out earlier.
If I understand the method, I saw something like this back in the 60's being sold as a toy, but you made it a useful prop.

John

The foo can idea is good, although every time I have tried to make it, it leaks. If you're not better at crafts than I am, I'd go with a commercial version.

I use coffee with slush powder all the time, and have no problems. The trick, aside from the ratio, is to use a cup with straight sides, not sides that slope outward as it goes toward the top. Also, the surface can make a difference. Paper is better than kiln fired cups, and styrofoam is better than paper. I use a straight-sided standard coffee mug, and enough slush powder to cover the bottom of it. I can then fill it about 2/3 full with black coffee and it works fine.