The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
Kent Gunn
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The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » July 17th, 2013, 8:50 pm

http://youtu.be/wksAZSAccvQ

Unlike you professional-types, I struggle to find my magical voice.

This is the first time I have a full script, edited with some attempt at tying this all together into a presentation that doesn't involve a rambling tirade, any swear words nor my normal level of intensity.

Feedback gloriously accepted.

KG

Richard Hatch
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Richard Hatch » July 18th, 2013, 6:35 pm

Really a nice "nostalgic" presentation. Fooled me a bunch of times! I've sent a link to it to a friend of Marvin's, so maybe he'll see this tribute!

Frank Quiroz
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Frank Quiroz » July 18th, 2013, 8:13 pm

thank you, i enjoyed that. the blue ball vanish from under the cup was very nice
Frank Quiroz

Jim Riser
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Jim Riser » July 18th, 2013, 9:07 pm

Kent,
I like the slow and deliberate presentation. No fast moves. No banging on cups.

Cups and balls is a tough number to pull off on video due to the nature of the medium. You succeeded. Well done. Technique has improved vastly in this presentation.
Jim

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Steve Bryant
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Steve Bryant » July 18th, 2013, 9:40 pm

Neat!

In previous versions I was laughing so hard at flights of language I figured it was easy to fool me. Have no clue how you fooled me so often with this version.

Kent Gunn
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » July 20th, 2013, 3:05 pm

A former denizen here left me this comment on youtube.

You asked for comments on your work here on the Genii Forum. However, since I consider that dreadful place to be a site where the blind leads the blind I shall comment here.
Your technique is good and there is nothing wrong with the routine itself. Alas, you TALK FAR TOO MUCH. You badly need to cut the yap. And the slow and deliberate pace that has been praised elsewhere is deadly boring. I do commend you for elimating the profanity in the previous version so there is still hope for you.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was starting to miss the old codger. I'm better now.

Steven Keyl
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Steven Keyl » July 22nd, 2013, 2:50 pm

Your technique, as per usual, is excellent. Perhaps I'm in the minority here but I rather miss the salty language. That's the Kent we all know and love... well, that's the Kent we all know. Let's just leave it at that.
Steven Keyl - Magic Book Report

Kent Gunn
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » July 23rd, 2013, 8:13 pm

Richard,

Thanks for the connection to the magicians in Utah, land of my birth.

James, thank you for the feedback.

Steve's, the florid language version is always at my beck and call.

Frank, that blue ball thing is a favorite of mine too. I'm happy I finally learned to communicate it's singularity.

To all that watched it in various incarnations, live and on-line, thank you. This trick has taught me more about magic than anything else.


KG

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mrgoat
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby mrgoat » July 24th, 2013, 4:36 am

Wonderful wonderful wonderful

x

Jonathan Pendragon
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Jonathan Pendragon » August 21st, 2013, 6:22 am

Brett Sherwood's Silver Engraved! Sorry, I missed the routine.

KIdding, beautifully done.

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CraigOusterling
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby CraigOusterling » August 21st, 2013, 5:14 pm

I've never seen you do a G rated version before! Nice! I'm happy to see you still using that wand too, gives me the warm fuzzies.

Kent Gunn
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » August 21st, 2013, 10:12 pm

Craig,

I have two wands made by friends of mine. Yours and Mr. Fenton's wand trade off. I like them both and try not to play favorites.

Only one set of cups though.

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Gordon Meyer
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Gordon Meyer » August 23rd, 2013, 11:59 am

Hi, Kent - Thanks for posting this. I worked at The Fun Shop for about 10 years (starting in 1977). Sold many a set of Cups and Balls over the magic counter in the back. It was a real treat for me to hear you speak fondly of the place, albeit years before I was going there myself. I like your routine a lot.

Kent Gunn
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » August 24th, 2013, 9:44 am

Gordon,

The Fun Shop was the first magic shop I was welcome to hang out in. Buma's shop in SF was not welcoming to snot-nosed-brats.

I only remember Marvin as the proprietor. Was he still there during your tenure?

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Gordon Meyer
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Gordon Meyer » August 24th, 2013, 3:55 pm

Terry Arnell (R.I.P.) was the owner during my tenure. Not only was he great at magic, he was also an acolyte of Ed Parker (founder of American Kenpo Karate). Terry used to tell great stories about sparring with Elvis Presley and Bruce Lee.

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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Jonathan Townsend » August 24th, 2013, 5:53 pm

@Kent, that blue ball vanish may setup well with the scotty york X in terms of getting ahead with the magic so the performer can put more effort behind his presentation. Final load as method? :D
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

Kent Gunn
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » August 24th, 2013, 9:56 pm

Gordon,

I did know Terry. I took lessons at his studio for quite some time. He was the greatest practitioner and teacher of Kenpo I've ever met. Lost track of him, long, long ago. He took a skinny kid, afraid of his own shadow and made him into a very fit kid, afraid of his own shadow.

Jonathan,

That routine I do and Scotty York's X-Rated routine are so far apart from method and sequence that your statement makes zero sense to me. There is no way to do any of the opening sequences that show the cups empty with what I think you're suggesting.

For me, showing the cups unmistakably empty is astonishingly important. If I have real people in front of me, I ask them to look at (examine) the cups and speak briefly about them for a bit. I'm quite certain that without that emphasis, the smart guys will assume you started off with the loads in the cups. In all the clips I've seen of Vernon doing the cups, he chats jovially to the audience and shows the cups empty, (except for the oft-quoted bit of guile). I gleaned from that, Vernon thought it was important. Good enough for me.

The fragment after it that you end in a question mark has no meaning to me. I genuinely try to follow your posts and value your input. I think I'll give you a call for translation purposes. Thank you though.

As for putting more effort behind the presentation, I can assure you me efforts are quite genuine and that I've spent more time trying to figure out how to present the trick well than I did in coming up with and rehearsing the mechanical portions. Who knew that presenting a complex trick well was harder than practicing the rote portions of a physical sequence?

KG

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MagicianShaunATL
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby MagicianShaunATL » October 7th, 2013, 9:37 pm

Kent,

No matter how many times I see "Fun Shop Cups and Balls" I smile and drift off to a place where magic real, if just for a few minutes. Thanks for a great piece of magic!

rlmiller007
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby rlmiller007 » December 29th, 2013, 10:43 am

First let me be clear. I am strictly an amateur but I have loved magic for almost 50 years. For me the pace was to slow. If this had been part of a full show I would have been wanting to see what was next. I think the patter suffers from the pace, too. Story telling is more fluid.
The technique (for me) was flawless.

Kent Gunn
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Kent Gunn » December 29th, 2013, 4:58 pm

Mr. Miller,

Thanks for the feedback.

I've found slow to be preferable to the speed with which most perform the trick. I fear my real failing is not having a strong enough script.

I appreciate that you took the time to comment.

As I mentioned in the opening post, I struggle with this routine.

KG

PS

Thank you Shaun! Missed your earlier post.

Ross Welford
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Re: The Cups and Balls ca. 1963

Postby Ross Welford » January 31st, 2014, 10:01 am

I normally hate the Cups and Balls, mainly because
a) it's rushed
b) it's therefore confusing
c) everyone seems to be doing their own lame version of the Vernon routine
d) everyone's loads are screamingly obvious
e) it's written into magical law that you must do this trick to be any good

This was great! It fooled me! I didn't see the final loads coming and that blue ball, well...that was magic!

Thanks!


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