His personality and how he comes across is why D.A. can get away with his actions and comments in his routine.

I have a TV show on tape and he had to really work to 'save face' with a woman because of too many comments about her 'doing trix'. He lost her after the 3rd comment- only later to once again win her over.

To me that's what was so amazing about D.A.- his ability to be so crass, and still win over audiences leaving them asking for more.

MM

Something that I think of when I see Don's routine is something that Eric Falconer pointed out to me after the HAOM/SAM meeting this evening. It has to do with a line in The Secret Ways of Al Baker. Al said,"The shortest distance between two points is a straight line....in magic, the best way to present a trick is by the simplest and most direct methods."

He continues by saying that anything that tends to confuse the plot or the magic should be eliminated.

Don Alan's routine is like that. The patter is very simple and is actually just enough to justify the props. The moves are straightforward and plain -- nothing to obfuscate anything. And the final loading sequence is right on target.

Almost all of Don's magic was like that. There was very seldom any unnecessary overlapping from one trick to the next.

One of my friends said that all of Don's tricks were "closers." He was absolutely right.

Bill, you keep using the past tense with Don's name. Has he passed on?

Yes..unfortunately, april 15, 1999..after a couple of years suffering from Alzheimer decese..

I'm so very sorry. Even though I've never met him personally I feel like I just lost a friend.

He was one of my biggest inspirations.

I have just started to learn the Don Allen routine (Magic Inc). I have just seen this video, and despite knowing each move STILL cannot see when teh loads are done. Brilliant stuff - what a master. Rgds - Bruce

Actually, that was the cloud I was referring to in an earlier post. His father had Alzheimer's. Those of us who knew him could actually see symptoms of it far earlier than one might imagine. It explained a lot of his behavior.

I disagree. I learnt his routine (very simple to learn if you know the secret of a chop cup and the simple moves) and have successfully peformed it about a dozen times.

What a joy to finally see this routine that so many have refered to!!

Great stuff, encouraged me to dig out my choup cup!!

Kindest Regards

DAK

Since I've heard of his death I can't stop doing the chop cup. I am still saddened. I'm going to keep doing it until I'm as good as he. Did you see the final load in the video? Kathy actually started to get up from her chair!

What you've seen is the result of around 35 years of
praxis/working with the Chop Cup before paying audiences...
Nobody can ever get as good as him, unless the same conditions come into play...

Don had a very interesting way of handling a recalcitrant spectator. I saw him do this at It's Magic in Dallas. A woman he had picked to help him started giving him some trouble, so he went into the ashes on the palm. His presentation was a little different from Burger's though. He would get "the necessary" on his finger, then take a silver dollar and hold the spectator's hand. He would tap the spectator on the back of the hand with the edge of the silver dollar. HARD!!!

Then he would say, "How did you like that?"

"I didn't like it."

So he would rotate the silver dollar 90 degrees vertically and rap her on the back of the hand again. HARD!!!! and say, "Did you like that?"

"NO"

"No matter which way I turn, I can't make you happy. But you have a soft spot in the back of your hand now." And he would rub some ashes on the back of the hand. Then he would rub them off. And the ashes would come through to the palm of the hand.

The remainder of the ashes on the back of the hand concealed the bruise.

Werner, I'm sitting here with my chop cup and thinking, "35 years isn't such a long time."

It's good to have a goal.

Enjoy pratcicing and playing.. .

My remarks most certainly where not to disencourage you..just to make you aware of that it takes time to get *that* good.

On the way to that goal you might find out to alter handling and stuff to suit you better -which not necessarily lessens the impact and effect to *your* audiences- but there is/was only one Don Alan, and also it is good to start studying and practicing *his* routine, one should *be oneselfes* suiting actions, matters and manerisme as well as patter to ones own needs and style..

I know similar has been said so many times, but seldom people realize, that also this takes time..to find ones style, but the reward will be that one is MORE confident with the result/the routine, then when just doing/coying others work..the thing flows better when it is ones own natural actions coming into play...

You'll most certainly find out.. , the most important thing in the first place is one has pleasure in playing around with that stuff, but the next step is -and that one is even more important-, to go out and do it..for PEOPLE!
Their reactions, the mishappenings that will occure (to everybody, me included) will start the *thinking*-process and how to improve..its a constant process..

Werner:

I couldn't have stated it better, myself. I'll explain why I say this. For so many of us, the "basic" cups and balls routine has been the Dai Vernon routine. The Don Alan Chop Cup routine bears the same relationship to the Chop Cup that the Dai Vernon routine bears to the cups and balls.

Years ago, when I first started working with the chop cup, I learned the Don Alan routine, and realized very quickly that I wasn't Don Alan, and I couldn't do his patter or his routine the same way he did it.

So I worked out my own presentation, which was a modification of his.

When I started working at Renaissance Festivals, I needed a short, entertaining "set piece" that I could do either on stage, in the path or in a booth when it was raining. So I brought out my leather chop cup. I soon realized that the bad weather we so frequently have at Renaissance Festivals was going to ruin the leather cup, so I had a friend of mine make a couple of them for me. Eventually, he made a total of six of them. I still have three, Peter Rückert has one, and I sold a couple to other people.

I used the same routine I had developed from Don's, but I did it in my own style, with my own pace and timing, and in about a year of performing it, it finally became "mine." I'm not saying it's an improvement over Don's routine, but it fits me and my personality.

And that is a goal to strive for.

Hmmm, I think that I didn't make myself clear. When I said that I'm going to keep practicing the chop cup until I'm as good as Don Allen at it, I didn't mean practicing Don Allen's routine! Of course I'm practicing his routine but I've added a couple of moves of my own already.

I teach Kung Fu and once shared the rent on a building with a Karate master. We often would sit in on and even participate in each other's classes. I invited him to sit in on an instructor's exam for one of my students. The student was doing the 9 dragon form and, as we were judging I gave him very low marks. The instructor was surprised and said, "But he did it precisely as YOU do it." I told him that was the problem. He hadn't made the form "his own".

In my style there is a rank called Founder. It's the highest rank that you can achieve. You get it when you know this style so very well that it no longer resembles T'sai Li Fu but is now an entirely different style.

That's my goal with the chop cup. Practice Don Allen's routine until my own style emerges like the Phoenix from the ashes.

Great , just one thing to watch..don't milk the principle..don't make the routine too long..
NOT longer then Don Allans, f.ex.

Because all they remember later are the final loads..built up to that climax as fast as possible without hurrying the basic effect...
I've seen a lot of perfomers continuing endlessly..with variations like a silk, ball vanish from silk to cup aso. aso-it's even in the otherwise very fine Ken Brooke routine.. my advice is to skip all this..keep it straight..

Any thoughts about whether Chop Cup is better done standing, or sitting?
No matter what I try to do with either Cups and Balls or Chop Cup, I cannot do them sitting, so a few of the references to l*****g need to be reworked.

I almost hesitate to pop in here re that..
Thing is, times have changed..
Though one still can be lucky to do a *sit-down* act, the tendency is to work stand-up..

Restaurant-work, Street-magic, Trade-shows..

One still can possibly do a sit-down act, when invited to a private party, being a *guest* and participating in the whole party and later performing there..

Still...IMHO, these days one should strove for doing as much as possible standing up.

Well, whenever you are in doubt re what you mentioned re loading from your l**, just watch Don Alan.
I'm pretty sure nobody can do equally deceptive and invisible final load(s), the way Don Alan did, but one can get very close, also standing up..

Believe me I know..I'm pretty satisfied the way I do the final doubleloads standing up, but still, nobody does it better then Don Alan in a sit-down situation..

BrucUK, it's pretty much the same as any other magic you perform. Do you perform standing or sitting and why?

Larry D.

P.S. - I perform standing.