When everyone thinks of magic, they always think of the Far East, especially the Indian Fakir’s and their marvels. I’m not going to teach you how to charm snakes, but I will show you a few of classic tricks from the Ori-ent.
The Cups and Balls is the oldest trick in magic. As stated in the introduction, pictures of this trick are on caves. Magicians from East India would sit crossed legged and do this with wooden cups. At the end, they would produce baby chicks. This trick made its way to the West. Art work about five hundred years old that show stroll-ing magicians, always show him performstroll-ing this classic. There are many versions of this. Some can be compli-cated and difficult to do. Sometimes the simplest method is the best. This is the first version I learned. It’s easy to do and looks great.
Effect: The magician takes out three cups and dumps out three balls from it. He places the cups in a row on the table. The magician places a ball on the center cup. The other two are placed on top of it. The magi-cian taps his wand on the cups and lifts them up. The ball magically penetrates it. This is repeated with the other two. Finally, the magician takes an invisible ball and places it on the center cup and stacks the others on top of it.
When the cups are lifted, a fourth ball is produced.
Props:
Three Styrofoam or plastic cups Four small balls
A wand
Preparation: Any set of disposable cups will do as long as they have a recessed bottom. Dixie has a nice set that are large and show up nice on stage. The balls
can be anything that is soft, but has some weight to it. This trick depends on gravity so you don’t want anything that will be too light. Go to a craft shop.
They have plenty of selections of these kind of things.
They must be squishy so when the cups are stacked, the balls will squash. In a pinch, you can take a paper napkin and rip up four pieces and roll them up into balls.
A B
Fig. 1
To set up, put the ball between the first and second cup so it is hidden.
Fig. 3
To practice, set up the cups as in above. Grip the bottom cup with the right hand as in figure 2. As you can see, the right hand is twisted. As you take the cup off of the stack, you are going to untwist your wrist and turn the cup over and place it on the table. You do this in one motion as you turn the hand over in an arch and place it on the table. See figures 3 and 4.
Fig. 2 Fig. 4
Grip the second cup now on the bottom the same way. The ball is in this cup. This time when you turn it over, the ball will ride along. Gravity keeps the ball in the cup for a split second as you place it down. Do this in a lazy motion. Don’t rush it. Practice doing it real slow, letting the ball fall. Then do it a bit faster. Keep doing this until you find the right tempo. It’s this even rhythm you want. This is the basic Cup and Ball method. Repeat this with the other cup.
Once you’ve practice this, set up the cups for the routine. Put the ball back between the first and second cup so it is hidden. To complete the set-up, put the three remaining balls in the top cup. You can put it in a black cloth bag like the pros do or to make it seem spontaneous, you can put the Dixie cups into the plastic bag is came in. Then open it up and take out three cups.
Place the three balls in the top face up cup. Then pour the balls out and do the penetration portion.
To perform: “This is the oldest trick in magic.With the left hand, take out the cups from the bag, making sure you keep the same order. “It involves three cups. . .” hold the cups in the left hand making sure to keep a grip on the three cups.
Continue with the dialogue, “. . . three balls,...” still holding all three cups, dump the three balls on the table. “...and a wand.” Take out your wand and place it on the table. With the cups still in your left hand, tilt the cups so the mouth is facing the audience as in figure 5. Then do the Cups and Balls move and put it on the table as in figure 6 and 7. Each time you take a cup, briefly show the inside of the stack cups. For some odd reason, the audience thinks you are showing each cup empty. In reality, you are just showing the inside of the same cup.
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Lay the cups in a row. A ball should be inside the center cup. See figure 8. Place one of the balls on the middle cup as in figure 9. “The first ball is just for fun...”
Fig. 8 Fig. 9
Stack the outer cups over the center one with the ball on top as in figure 10.
Tap the cups with the wand. With the right hand pick up the stack of cups and show the ball has penetrated. Transfer the cups to the left hand. Repeat the cups and balls move to place the cups on the table. When you get to the center cup, cover the ball that was just produced.
Now you should have the cups in a row with two balls in the center cup.
Place the second ball on top of the middle cup. “. . . ball number two is just for you...” Stack the two end cups on the middle one. Tap it with the wand and reveal the two balls. Repeat this with the last ball. “. . . ball number three. . .” point to your-self, “... is just for me.”
After you produce the last one, do the cups and balls move again covering the three balls. Look around, “...the fourth ball is... oops... there is no more balls left.”
Put hand on chin and think. Then look up as if you have an idea. Look out towards the audience and reach out as if you grabbing something. Pretend to take an invisible ball from the air. “Do you see the it? Of course not, it’s invisible.” Panto-mime placing it on the center cup as before. Stack the cups and tap it with the wand.
Lift up the cups and show the four balls.
Unstack the cups and place then on the table as in figure 11. “The oldest trick in magic... the cups and balls.” Spread your arms showing the cups. If the
spectators want to examine the cups, let them.