Michael Ammar - The Magic Of Michael Ammar.pdf - M - animga

Chapter One

CUPS & BALLS

STAND-UP CUPS & BALLS

INTRODUCTION

Few routines in the history of magic have endured as have the Cups and Balls. Even the walls of

ancient pyramids record its performances. Since that time, been in the repertoire of virtually

every sleight-of-hand performer. In fact, many old-timers recall when a magician's ability was

judged by his performance of the Cups and Balls. *

As a result, I a strong responsibility as 1 this routine the magic world. It is difficult to

break new ground for this effect, of course, without losing sight of the things that make it classic.

However, I do feel it is possible to keep the basic effect, while adding new dimensions through

innovative routining and presentation.

We will look at this innovative routine closely. This is the routine I use professionally. I used this

in the show which won me Close-up Magician of the Year at the Magic Castle, and I also chose to

feature it on the Merv Griffin and Will Shriner TV shows. I sincerely hope that I am able to teach

you this routine. I will be explaining things as clearly and completely as possible. Not only will we

cover the Hows, but also the important

To facilitate your I wanted the moves to be very clearly illustrated. This is where Greg

came in. rare talent, Greg worked me for a year and half preparing

these illustrations. Greg is a professional animator having recently worked on the innovative

movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The Dai Vernon Spin, when correctly performed, is absolutely beautiful. However, you rarely see

this move performed. It's not just because it is a difficult move to execute; but it's difficult to teach.

(Things weren't helped by Ganson's unclear, partially incorrect description in THE DAI VERNON

For this reason I have taken the extra effort to try and correctly teach this move.

With these extra words and illustrations, if you ever wanted to do this move, you can learn it here.

BACKGROUND

The Cups and Balls, by close-up standards, involves lot of props. It is a relatively long routine. It

lasts almost five minutes, requiring three cups, four small balls, a wand, and four large final loads.

Fortunately, the routine has a strong impact when it has a solid, yet simple structure. When

properly developed, it seems impossible to reconstruct and the display at the end is both interesting

and unexpected. This makes it an excellent closer.

I have always thought the opening sequences of a cups and balls routine should be able to stand

The Magic

on its own; however, its REAL purpose is to "set up" the strongest ending possible. I believe this

because the climax, when properly led into, can completely captivate the mind of the spectator so

that it might be all that is remembered.

This aspect of the strong combined with the Dai axiom, "Confusion 't Magic,"

made me take a hard at opening sequences. As a general rule opening sequences are designed

more to please the performer than to serve the meaningful and worthwhile purpose of setting up

the strongest ending possible. Often the phases are repetitious and confusing.

1 developed the body of my routine through a process I call thinking. I looked at the

ending and its impact, then I tried to think the thoughts the spectators might Most people try

to solve the mystery by figuring out where those final loads come from. Were they there all along?

Did the performer sneak

When could it have been done?

did the performer get

them from?

This routine is intentionally structured to convince people the cups are absolutely empty until

the instant before the revelation of the final loads. The wording, actions and progression of events

are dedicated to that purpose.

I worry that unless time misdirection is properly applied, the and the where of the final loads

might be linked together by a perceptive viewer. For example, several trips to the pocket or lap are

made immediately before revealing the final loads, where the loads come from, and when they are

made can become obvious. At best, that only with the audience appreciating the skill

required to do this, and I don't think appreciation is nearly as strong of a response as amazement.

With this thought in mind, I decided to separate the loading of the cups from the revelations by

the widest gap possible. Meanwhile, I searched for the most interesting sequences to go between

the loads and revelations. I didn't want the opening segments to be dead time. I wanted them to be

interesting and entertaining in their own right.

Along the way, I hit upon the idea of eliminating a cup between each opening segment, and

loading the cups as they were set aside. I thought this was clever and I was proud of myself! Since

then, however, I found that other performers have had the same idea. fact, it was probably done

before I was born. Pat Page, for example, does a routine where he eliminates cups as he goes along.

This disappointed me at first, since I love to be original. But then I remembered my primary goal.

This routine was not designed to be "new." It was conceived and routined for performing. The bot-

tom line for me was to develop the strongest, most logical sequence of events possible for the cups

and balls, with impact, entertainment and practicality being the goals.

EFFECT: While no coat on, three cups and a wand are shown. Three balls are then

magically produced. The balls vanish one at a time and then reappear under the cups. Two more

short phases are performed,

both a cup and a ball being eliminated between each phase. At the

which completely the previously empty cups.

COMMENTS: Personally, I use fruit for the final loads. Fruit are the right size and unexpected;

also, there is something humorous about the sight of the fruit. Of course, there are lots of funny,

unexpected things that will fit inside the cups, and your personality may indicate that something

else would be better than fruit for an ending when you perform.

most cases, the cups and balls are more deceptive when performed while so I origi-

nally constructed this routine to be done standing. (1 don't always do it with no coat on, but I will

explain it that way here, because shifting it to be done out of the coat pockets

There are exceptions, of course, but standing seems to

be easier than to

end, the cups are lifted to reveal

pieces of

shift it from coat work to pants

Stand-up Cups & Balls

eliminate some of the potential sources for the final loads. So just where is the best place to secretly

conceal four large pieces of fruit?

The coat pockets conceal them, but in most cases they create a distracting lump, and might be a

clue to the source. Trying to hide the fruit in the front pants pockets can create an even more ques-

tionable bulge.

have decided the best place to conceal the loads is in the back pants pocket You will rarely walk

up to a table backwards, so for the most part the pieces of fruit are well concealed. Your coat will

also cover the fruit nicely.

The next point to deal with is immediate access to the fruit. If your pockets are stuffed, you

have an unnatural struggle when you remove your supposedly empty hand. It is crucial for the

hand to enter and leave the pocket smoothly with the secret load. Remember, your covering action

is the placement of a small ball into a large pocket Putting something into a pocket takes

only an instant, and the hand usually exits easier it enters. However, when taking something

from the pocket, there is naturally a delay and extra movement For the steal to be deceptive, the

hand must follow the timing and actions of a hand putting something into the pocket, with no

delay or extra movements.

To solve this problem, I had to enlarge the back pocket

to twice its normal si2e. Again, while this thought

was original with me, Roger orms me that Paul

Fox used, but never printed, this same idea decades ago.

At first, I formed one large pocket of the two pockets, like

old pajamas with the trap door. But this gave me more

room than I needed, and it made the pants look strange.

Now I widen the back right pocket by about two inches.

My right hand can then easily scoop out a piece of fruit.

By the way, with the proper misdirection, you can use

either hand and either pocket for the loads. Minor

changes in the flow of this routine will be necessary if

you change hands, but it shouldn't be a problem.

SET UP: When possible, I try to use a turnip, a lemon,

an onion, and a potato for the loads. These are solid

enough to withstand a crowded pocket, and they are the

right size. Also, as we will see later, these particular ob-

jects set us up for some interesting lines for our end-

ing. Place the potato into the lower far comer of the

pocket, with the other pieces of fruit placed around it.

This way, the potato will be the last item revealed.

The cups themselves are covered by a cloth bag. With

the cups, mouth up, the bottom two cups each secretly

conceal a single ball. The top is empty. Place the cloth

bag over the cups, and pull draw string tight, but

don't tie it. The two remaining are sniffed into the

top of the cups, where the bag helps to hold and conceal

them. This is similar to the way York transports

one of his final loads (FIG. 1). Have your wand handy, and keep the mouths of the cups facing away

from the audience. You can now do the routine at any time during your show.

se-

cretly into the top of the first cup.

The three cups are nested in the bag, with

secretly between the first and

cups, and one between the

third cups. Two other balls are

The Magic of Michael

OPENING DELIVERY: Since this is my closer, I try to lead into it with a certain attitude. I try and

verbally tie in this effect with whatever effect preceded it The transition from a card trick to

the cups, for example, must be bridged in such a way that the separate effects in your performance

seem unified.

"Of course, 1 know what you are thinking. You are saying to yourself, I'll bet just switched those cards

out his sleeves. The truth is that magicians have not used their coats to cheat for generations.

"But since my time is almost up, just to prove a point, I will actually remove my coat, and work only

with the simplest props.

that will be involved here, besides ten steel spring fingers, are three brass cups

and a wand.

cups are solid brass, and they are all absolutely identical... especially this one."

This opening delivery sets the stage. Removing the coat at the beginning will emphasize the

impossibility of the ending.

PROCEDURES: Show your hands are empty as you mention your steel spring fingers." Due

to our set up, we are actually four balls ahead, giving the impression of unusual fairness.

As you remove the cups from the you will steal the two hidden balls from the top of the bag.

As FIG. 2 shows, hand pushes the cups up from the bottom. bag opens as the cups move

up, automatically pushing the into the right finger palm. The right hand then continues

to help the left hand remove the bag from around the cups.

The left hand holds the cups mouth up as the right hand sets the bag to the right without going

out of sight. If your hand goes out of sight, you might create suspicion and ruin the effectiveness of

the secret steal of the balls.

The right hand swings taking the bottom cup. This is placed mouth down at the far right

position (FIGS. and 4). The hidden ball will stay in the cup due to inertia. Repeat the same actions

with the other two cups. The last cup, which is empty, is on the left end. You want the audience to

believe that the cups are empty, but since they aren't, we must be very subtle. is where the

"the cups are identical, especially this one..." comes into play. As you say this, casually pick up the far

left cup. The audience see the cup is empty, and the casual nature of the gag should convince

them you could have picked up any of the cups.

I use another process to get the point across, but it may involve a unique property of my cups.

When tapped with a wand one of my cups gives a different sound than the other two. If your cups

all sound the same you tap them with the wand, you can one make one sound

by tapping it in a different spot. After setting the cups down I tap them with the wand as I deliver

the about the cups being identical. There is something humorous about saying the cups are

identical just as the obviously different note sounds. a sure laugh when the timing is right. In

addition, it sets the next line up, making it seem more spur of the moment.

PRODUCING THE BALLS: "So we have a pretty simple situation, three cups and a wand. All I do now

is tap the left hand with the wand, and two things happen. First, a little red bruise appears on the

hand...Second,

a little red ball. Actually, it is a round piece cork with a tight red sweater, kind like

a disco cherry.

"That is for this cup right here. For the next cup, all

is spin and tap, and we get yet another ball."

As the right hand takes the wand, move one of the balls so it is held at the heel of the hand by the

tips of the fingers (FIG. 5.) FIG. 6 shows the audience view of the hand holding the two balls along

with the wand. This first move is actually the reverse of David Williamson's striking vanish. The

Stand-up Cups &

The left pushes the cups into the

hand, the out the top of the

bag. As this is done, the two balls move se-

cretly into the right hand.

The left hand holds the cups from above,

while the right hand, still concealing the two

balls, takes the bottom cup from the Black.

The bottom cup is placed mouth down on the

table in such a way that the concealed ball

stays inside due inertia. The right hand still

two

be-

tween the two cups in the left hand.

another ball is

Michael Ammar - The Magic Of Michael Ammar.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: