Cups & Balls

For anyone not familiar with it, there is an online community and magic forum called The Magic Café. It is a place for magicians: professional, amateur or beginner to ask questions and share thoughts. With 43,459 members it is a resource like no other.

I have found the people there to be friendly and generous. I read a post in one of the forums where an individual was asking about the Cups and Balls. He wanted to know whether or not it was worthwhile to learn and perform the venerable effect. One of the respondents on the thread urged the poster to keep working on the trick. The reason, he said, was that a good Cups and Balls routine by its very nature requires all of a magician’s best skills. Misdirection, pacing, timing, presentation, and
quality sleight-of-hand. Lots of sleight-of-hand. I agree completely. It’s been said that the measure of a magician’s ability can be gauged by how well he performs the Cups and Balls. More chops are brought to bear in this one effect than anything else I can think of. So this week’s Magic Friday sampling is the ancient Cups and Balls.
25 years ago I purchased a beautiful set of copper cups from the great Ross Bertram.
These cups sing beautifully when they contact one another. They also have a wide top so the Charlie Miller bit of business (with multiple penetrations) works as well on the top of a cup as it does on the table. The only drawback is the balls used must have a diameter less than an inch for the cups to nest properly. And a smaller ball can look a little less impressive sitting on a large cup. But I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
I choose not to polish my cups very often. I prefer them to be tarnished for two reasons. The first reason is because it makes them look antique. If it’s antique, it couldn’t have come from a magic shop. Right? Even though the cups are not tricky or gimmicked in any way, a shiny pristine copper cup seems too well cared for (If that makes any sense). The other reason is more practical. I took the small crocheted balls and covered them with foil a la Cellini. After a few layers I got the balls to be as large as possible while remaining less than the critical 1 inch diameter restriction. Because the cups are a bit dull with tarnish the foil balls show up brilliantly in contrast to them.

This also serves to make them look bigger canceling out the size restriction stated above. Retention of vision is nice too.
So 25 years ago I worked on Dai Vernon’s Cups and Balls routine. I don’t remember how long it took me to work it out, but eventually I had it down. The problem was, I was either too chicken to perform it for a real audience or the venue wasn’t right for it. And when I went back to college 20 years ago, my beautiful Ross Bertrum cups (along with all other things magical) got packed up into a trunk and remained there until last August.

All this week I have been feverishly relearning Vernon’s routine. Although there are 1 or 2 minor changes I would like to make to fit my own style better, but I decided to play the routine straight from the manuscript. There will be time enough for variation later. Right now what I needed was solidity. By Thursday night I felt I had it ready. There were only 2 minor parts I was a little squirrely about. But when I showed the routine to my lovely wife she was blown away. She did manage to recognize one of the mildly rough spots. So I stayed up a little later and smoothed out the 2 points that were bothering me. Now I was set.
The last two weeks I was a little discouraged because “Silk and Silver” and “3 Ball Transposition” did not play as well as I had hoped. This was going to be a test for me. I really needed a boost. Well, I got it. And then some!
All 5 performances today went very well. Not flawless but good and solid. I had two slip ups during the 4th performance. The fumble was during the very first move. Unfortunately it was not well recovered. I was forced to restack the cups, put the balls back in my pocket and start again. Once I hit my rhythm all was forgotten and forgiven. The other slip was easily recovered and looked like part of the routine. By the time I got to the end and final revelation, they were amazed and responded by
breaking into applause. My only worry at this point was I feared that my earlier error would get inside my head and interfere with the final performance. I have been paying very close attention to my performances and what can be improved and how. Indeed, that is why this blog exists in the first place. This is only a personal journal of my return to magic. The fact that it is online gives me a sense of a deadline. I know myself. If I tried to do this in a bedside notebook I’d have only 3 entries. At any rate, for the final performance of the day I stayed focused and hyperaware. All went well. A few spectators held up their hands with fingers wide apart indicating an enthusiastic “10”. I worked hard on the routine and it payed off. It was just the sort of encouragement I needed. It was a great day.

Silver and Glass

I always loved “Touch of Midas” from Bobo’s “Modern Coin Magic”. It involves the magical appearance of 4 coins one at a time. It’s not easy but it’s a pretty and very practical effect. After all, if one is a magician, why not just produce from the air what is needed?
Long ago Jim Cellini asked me to do a trick for him. I was prepared and went right into “Touch of Midas” using half dollars. My handling and presentation were pretty sloppy though. Cellini was very kind and did not convey the coins to my colon! (Which he had every right to do)! Instead he remarked that I needed a bit more practice. (Understatement). He then asked to borrow the coins and went into a flurry of multiple vanishes and reappearances that made my head spin.

Not long after that I met Dan Fleshman at a North Carolina magic convention. It was the first day and I didn't know anybody. Dan came right up, introduced himself and started an interesting conversation. He did not mention he was one of the event’s lecturers. (Along with Daryl and Steve Beam to name a couple). During his performance/lecture he blew my mind with his coin and card work. All the while his demeanor was friendly, confident and soooo smooth. Truly, Fleshman has got to be one of the most decent and gentlemanly pros out there!

Indeed, for most of us our goal is not to challenge, fool or trick people. Who likes being fooled? The goal of a joke is not to tell a lie, but to create laughter. By the same token the goal of magic is not to trick people, but to entertain, amuse and create a sense of joyful wonder. To tickle the inner child. It’s not a battle of wits. It is (at best) an astounding joy ride. I see my role in this not as a “wonder worker” but rather, a “tour guide”. If that involves a little back stage deception so be it. We want the audience to like us personally. Unless of course we’re playing a character of some kind. Personally, I could never pull off the “fast talking wise guy” act. The reason is simple. I’m neither.

During that convention in 1988 I purchased Dan Fleshman’s lecture notes. In “Close Up with Dan Fleshman #2” there is a snappy little “Coins to Glass” number. So last week I started working on it. 22 years late but who’s counting. I found the perfect glass at the Goodwill store. (Goodwill is a magician’s paradise)! And I built a routine that combines “Touch of Midas” with “Coins to Glass” and a few sundry vanishes, reappearances and flourishes. My coins of choice are 1923 silver Morgan Peace Dollars. I like their weight, milling, visibility and the beautiful singing they create when tossed into the air or a glass. As a bonus 1923 is also the year my Dad was born.


As recent as last night there were still a few bugs in the routine. I must be blessed that I have my planning period during 1st period this year. This gave me time to smooth out the wrinkles. After about 40 minutes I felt it was ready to go. I was a little worried about the heal clip / Han Ping Chien action. I was afraid that my hands, being so close together at the crucial moment, would broadcast that there was something devious afoot.
As it turns out my fears were in vain. Each performance was smooth, magical and exciting. It looked good. It sounded great and my 5 audiences were enthusiastic in their response. I even told them that this was my first time performing this effect and asked if it was a keeper. The response from each audience was the same: “Awesome”!
Everything was going so well that before the final performance of the day I kind of got into my own head and missed the glass during one of the moves. Nothing was exposed though. (Big sigh of relief). I just picked up one of the coins and dropped it into the glass with the others. Apparently nobody thought anything of it.

God has been very patient with this thick-witted old knucklehead. Years ago I buried the gift He gave me under a tree. It just might have stayed there for the rest of my natural life too. I am grateful for the wake up call I received just about a year ago. Since August I have been working harder than ever before to become a skilled and competent sleight-of-hand performer. It doesn't feel like work though. I am getting there. I am a better magician today than I have ever been. Tomorrow I will be better still. Today's performance was everything I hoped for it to be. The difficult sleights, careful routining, and practice paid off in a successful and pretty performance involving 4 silver dollars and a champagne glass. I only wish Jim Cellini were there to see it.


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Be Natural and Use Your Head

Now That I'm officially over the hill, I just can't believe how utterly blind I was as a young man. So many things that were hidden from me when I was younger are clear to me now. It is most powerfully true in my spiritual life. But it is also true for my family life, my professional life and even to my return to magic.
For example, I have owned Jean Hugard’s “Expert Card Technique” for 30 years. It is an essential book to be sure. But perhaps the best part is the last 3% of the book. There are several essays on misdirection, humor, presentation and the like that are gold. When the author speaks of the greats of magic he has these words: “…it is not the tricks they perform that are important, so much as the illusion they create about themselves”.


Hugard goes on to instruct the reader on the proper attitude and discipline required to become a respected and well-loved artist rather than just a guy that does tricks. Gold I tell you! As a young man I entirely ignored this section of the book. “Words”, I thought. “The dusty old fashioned words of a dead guy”. Then I’d continue riffling through the pages. “Tricks” I would have thought, “Must find more tricks”.


Another good example is chapter 2 of “The Dai Vernon Book of Magic”. “USE YOUR HEAD” The Professor instructs. Even when someone sat me down and handed wisdom to me on a crystal plate, I quickly forgot what little I listened to.


Case in point, I knew master magician Jim Cellini for a short time. He had great wisdom and advice for me. Unfortunately his gems and pearls bounced right off my knuckleheaded bean and fell to the floor like rejected pixie dust. One day at my job a young lady I worked with told me she was at a club owned by Cellini. She then told me about a visiting guest of the owner. "He was a funny old man with an accent". She said he was standing up on a chair doing a rope trick. “I was afraid he would fall off the chair” she said. “He was really funny, and the best magician I’ve ever seen”! “Dear God in Heaven” I thought, “Was his name…Slydini”?

“Yes” she said, “That’s it”. (Insert foul expletive here). If I had been paying attention to my life I could have spent the night sitting across the table and learning from TONY SLYDINI! One on one with the Grand Master of close up magic! And where was I instead? I was out with my drinking buddies. No doubt dropping tequila shots, releasing many yahoos and chasing women. A waste of time, money and energy on pointless revelry and foolishness. Say the words with me now... “Owha…Tafool…Iyam”…I have a permanent divot in my left buttock from 20 years of kicking myself in the ass!

I’m just grateful that today I have a little more sense. Because of my attention to the “dusty old words of dead (and living) magicians” My present (third) incarnation as a magician has so far been successful. Last week’s presentation of the Page/Cellini color changing handkerchief routine exemplifies my point. I heartily took the advice of Cellini, Hugard, Tarbell, LePaul and countless others including my newest hero Patrick Page. Mr. Page says…”Magic should be a performance. Otherwise it’s just a dry technical demonstration. So learn six tricks, practice them well and go out there and perform them!” I love this guy! So I followed the advice of the masters. My practice and confidence were such that I was able to focus on the audience and my by play with them instead of “pulling off a sleight”. I learned this from “The Importance of the Inconsequential” Hugard (Page 444), and From Dai Vernon, whose battle cry is..."Be Natural". This is new and exciting to me. Instead of watching my hands and worring, I was watching the smiles of the audience. There was joy in what I was doing because I was free perform the routine as though it was really magic. I could focus on my presentation persona like never before. And now that I can see it, I can develop it. The handkerchief routine could stand a bit of polish and refinement, but was very successful. But the bonus is even better. That is, I am now beginning to understand what Jim Cellini was trying to tell me long ago. I now understand how to move beyond the level of one who indulges in hoodwinkeries to the level of “artist”. This is my goal. It’s a lot more work. But the payoff is priceless. Will I ever get to that level? If I don’t, it won’t be for lack of trying.




The Passages on the mystique of magic from Hugard, Tarbell, Vernon or any other quality book on magic are often just as valuable as any of the effects therein. Such essays teach how to turn an ordinary trick into a miracle. They also show ways to influence how an audience responds to and remembers the magician long after the tricks are forgotten. I am taking the time and relishing the words of the Masters. I am learning now what I was not ready to learn as a young man. Be natural and use your head. Great advice for anything worth doing. The masters speak their wisdom. I will continue to listen with enthusiasm.

As with so many aspects of my life, I was blind, and now I see.

Two Giants

Many years ago Master magician Jim Cellini taught me his color changing handkerchief routine. In his expert hands it was a beautiful thing to experience. For some reason I can’t imagine, that knowledge drifted into an old and dusty corner of my brain; All but forgotten. When I recently brought my old trunk down from the attic and opened it, I was overwhelmed with memories. Each item had a story. Every 10” ring, billiard ball, giant coin, plastic egg or sundry gimmick had been infused with my spirit from all the countless hours of practice and performance. Like the exuberant tail-wagging of happy dogs, I think they were pleased to see me too. Among the carefully boxed gaggle of thimbles, sponge balls, wands, silks and copper cups I spied my old dye tube.


I remembered Jim Cellini and the beautiful routine he taught me. The only problem was I couldn’t remember the handling! Oh well, I thought, in time…
Two weeks ago while surfing the web I ran across a gentleman I had never heard of before. Patrick Page. A Scottish magician of the highest caliber! There were videos of Mr. Page performing the most beautiful classic effects. His manner is enthusiastic, humble and very friendly. His timing and handling are as good as it gets. I also found a 4-part interview with him that was fascinating and motivational. Some very practical wisdom being shared in parts 3 and 4. This gentleman has precisely the kind of style, timing and naturalness I aspire to. I feel ignorant that I was previously unaware of him. Now however, he is my newest superhero! Patrick Page you are AWESOME!


In one of the videos he performs his handling of the color changing handkerchief. I can’t remember Jim Cellini’s routine that he taught me, so I don’t know how similar the two routines are. But Mr. Page reminded me of just how beautiful this effect is. So after seeing it performed by Patrick Page, I was once again inspired and motivated to work out the handling, practice it faithfully and perform it. The handling I'm using is not exactly the same as Mr. Cellini's or Mr. Page’s but probably a mix of both masters. Either way, the basics are of course the same.
When I was young I was okay with some degree of sloppiness. Okay, a lot. I figured misdirection and timing would carry me. (Most of the time it did since I performed mainly in bars)! Not anymore. My goal is to achieve nothing short of veteran professional quality. I may never fully reach that goal, but I’m giving it all I’ve got. Attention to every detail. Strive for naturalness. That's the stuff. I plan to perform this Page/Cellini conglomerate handling of the color changing handkerchief on Friday. Mr. Cellini, Mr. Page, I promise to make you proud!