Cups and balls - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The cups and balls is a classic performance of magic

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

with innumerable adaptations. The effect known as acetabula et calculi was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago. One popularly circulated painting of two men holding two inverted cups over two round objects has been taken by some as evidence that the effect dates back to Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

, though experts now doubt that that is what the picture shows. Indeed the more commonly accepted view now is that the image depicts something rather more mundane: the baking of bread.

The most widely performed version of the effect uses three cups and three small balls. The magician makes the balls pass through the solid bottoms of the cups, jump from cup to cup, disappear from the cup and appear in other places, or vanish from various places and reappear under the cups (sometimes under the same cup), often ending with larger objects, like fruit, or even chicks or mice, appearing under the cups.

A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic, including vanishes, appearances, transpositions and substitutions. Basic skills, such as misdirection

Misdirection

Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another....

, manual dexterity, and audience management are also essential to most cups and balls routines. As a result, mastery of the cups and balls is considered by many as the litmus test of a good magician. Indeed the late magic authority, John Mullholland, wrote that no less a person than Harry Houdini had expressed the opinion that no one could be considered an accomplished magician until he had mastered the Cups and Balls.

Instead of cups, other types of covers can be used, such as bowls or hats. The classic shell game

Shell game

The shell game is portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud...

con is a rogue-variant of the cups and balls.

Performance and variations

A basic routine is to start with a ball secretly concealed in the palm, the cups being nested in a stack. The three cups are set down in a line with the concealed ball being now under the center one. One of three visible balls is put on top of the center cup and the other two cups nested above. With a tap of the wand, the three cups are lifted, revealing that the ball has "penetrated" the cup. (There is now a new ball secretly concealed in the center cup). Again the cups are set in a line, the middle cup covering the ball which has already penetrated making two balls there, while the audience thinks there is only one ball. Another of the visible three balls is placed on top of the centre cup and covered with the other two cups, the cups being tapped and lifted to show the second ball has penetrated. This is repeated with the third ball at which time there is a ball still secretly concealed in the cups, and the performer is ready to go into the next phase, perhaps making use of the extra ball.

For a sleight of hand routine, a typical move is to transfer a ball from the right to the left hand, really retaining by finger palming it in the right. A cup is then lifted to show there is nothing underneath and when it is put down, the finger palmed ball is released under the cup. The ball is now shown to have "vanished" from the left hand, and the cup lifted to show the ball has "traveled" there. In skilled hands, the illusion is perfect.

Many other secret moves are possible. These include the loaded lift where a ball is pressed against the side of the cup with the little finger as it is lifted, effectively showing the cup empty, and an extraction steal where the cup is set down over a ball but the little finger removes it to a palm at the last minute before the cup comes down. In this way, the performer is always ahead of his audience; the appearance and vanish of balls being quite miraculous. It must be stressed however, that the actual performance of these moves convincingly takes months and years of study and practice.

In the basic effect, often three balls are on view but as noted above there may be a secret fourth or fifth ball which the audience doesn't know about. The balls are made of soft material so you can't hear if a secret ball is in the metal cups. At the end of the effect, the performer will often "load" large balls or fruit inside the cups for the climax. A load is a secret move which puts the object inside the cup, usually when the audience is misdirected (e.g. by another ball appearing).

The cups and balls is the epitome of all magic tricks because it incorporates a plethora of magical sleights integrating the gamut of sleight of hand techniques used in the art of prestidigitation. Many magicians have used this effect in magic competitions and won, due to their skill in performing this trick, as well as the fact that it depicts such a wide range of magical skill.

Chop Cup

A fairly modern development is the 'Chop Cup'. This cup has a magnet inside and a magnetic ball is used. The ball will stick in the top until the cup is set down with a little bump which releases the ball. The ball then "appears" when the cup is lifted. This cup was invented around 1954 by Al Wheatley who performed with his wife in a Chinese-costumed act called "Chop Chop and Charlene." The Chop Cup is a variation with one cup and (apparently) one ball, hugely popular because it requires only a very small flat area to perform, unlike the considerable table space needed for the classic three-cup routine. The Chicago close-up magician Don Alan performed his streamlined Chop Cup routine on television and was immediately copied by magicians all over the world. The Chop Cup can be handled entirely by the top, fooling people who know about loads.

Three shell game

The three shell game

Shell game

The shell game is portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud...

is similar in some respects to the three cup routine. In this so-called game, the main move is a steal of the pea from the back of the shell. This achieved by using a flexible pea and performing the trick on a soft surface. The pea is squeezed out under the back of the shell into the fingers in the act of pushing the shell forward. In a similar way, the pea can be introduced under a shell by drawing it back. These moves are made casually in swapping the positions of the shells. The spectator is supposed to follow by eye which shell has the pea, but in reality, they have zero chance of success.

Penn & Teller

The magic duo Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...

performs a unique version of the cups and balls trick in their act. Initially, they perform the trick with small aluminum foil balls and plastic cups. The trick ends with the appearance of larger foil balls under the cups, and the surprise appearance of an extra unrelated object, such as a potato or a lime, under one or more cups. They then repeat the trick using transparent plastic cups, claiming that they will reveal how to perform the trick. However, as part of the joke, they do the trick so fast as to make it difficult to follow. They claim that this version of the cups and balls breaks all four rules of magic: not to tell the audience how a trick is done, not to repeat the same trick twice, not to show the audience the secret preparation, and the 'unwritten rule' never to perform the cups and balls with clear plastic cups. They claim this version of the trick got them kicked out of The Magic Castle

The Magic Castle

The Magic Castle, located at 7001 Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, is a nightclub for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It bills itself as "the most unusual private club in the world."-Nightclub:The Magic...

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