Hi all.

It can seem a silly question (and maybe it is), but I have never seen "outs" for cups and balls.

Outs seem to exist for almost any kind of magical mistake, but not C&B...

In fact, I started not long time ago in performing a "simplified" routine with only a couple of risky moves ("elevator" and
"click" performed with the ball on the third cup) in order to get confident.

And a "personal" out (idea taken from Penn and Teller) just in case something went wrong.

Thanks for helping.

Cheers

Stefano Mambretti

"Outs" are pretty much based on the individual situation.

Ball rolls off the table: produce another magically and continue.

One of the 3 cups rolls off the table: continue with a 2-cup routine OR have some clever lines ready to fill time while you or a spectator retrieves the cup.

Other situations? Post it here and I'm sure all of us can brainstorm to come up with something.

It happened once, I didn't catch the ball during the Vernon wand spin vanish.

So I said:

Don't pay attention to that ball, it's just the double; he skipped the practice session before so we'll see if he can vanish like the others did. Either the audience was kind or they believed me. However, they laughed and I could finish the routine without them suspecting anything ... I think ... !?
Btw, it turned out the double could vanish as smoothly as the rest of them

Three weeks ago, I watched a friend's show at a local pub. He suddenly noticed a quite well-known magician in the midst of his audience. He obviously was very surprised and didn't know how to continue. Well, he started juggling the three balls, all the while chatting with the audience and ultimately continued with the routine.

Donc, enjoy yourself & have fun. Somehow you'll get over it.

In better magic,
Chris

Nice recovery.

Next time, have a ball hidden inside your coat. As you're searching for "an extra ball," drop it down your wand-hand-side sleeve. Give up looking when you remember where you can find a ball! Put the wand under your other arm as it lifts the cup to produce the ball and hands the cup over to your other hand which then loads the sleeved ball.

This will allow for a dropped ball during the VWSV but also let you pick up (no pun intended unless you found it extremely funny in which case, yes, I meant it) from where you left off.

If, by some wild twist of fate, you should happen to actually catch the VWSV ball, you can save the backup ball for another day. No one will know this but you.

Not even us.

Maybe just by having such a backup will make your VWSV a no-sweat, no-brainer!

You roll off of your chair: give the bottle a rest.

Regards,
Thomas Wayne

Or,

You roll off of your chair: switch to flat-bottom pants.

Or, WEAR a cup! You don't want to hurt your ...

well, you get the idea.

In my 'Cups & Balls' routine I use a set of cups that are shaped in a style 'similar' to that of the design of the Paul Fox cups. I purchased them from a friend of mine who made them in his private workshop.

Last year whilst performing at a private function for the organizing committee of the
'World Full Contact Origami Championships', Jeff Busby stormed into the room with five or six of his legal representatives. He'd been issued with a Supreme Court order granting him permission to confiscate my cups because they breached his copyright of the Paul Fox cup design. They took my cups away. I was unable to finish the routine without the cups. It was a traumatic experience.

I now have an 'out' to cover this contingency. Whenever I perform with my newly acquired set of Paul Fox like cups, I always bring along my own team of lawyers to challenge the legality of any confiscation during a paid performance. As you can appreciate, I've had to raise my fees considerably to cover the cost of meeting my legal expenses.

If this 'out' fails, I have a further 'out' a baseball bat that I'll be 'swinging like a beserk Viking' if anybody ever tries to confiscate my cups again!

Living here in Minnesota, I know a lot about "berzerk Vikings."

(For those of you who are practicing your Classic Pass constantly, have no life whatsoever and, consequently, aren't up-to-speed on US national sports, it's our local pro football team)

And now that I think about it, they all have cups, too...

We once had the Oilers here in Houston but I don't think we ever used the adjective "professional".

There was a story that a car was parked in a mall parking lot with two Oilers ticket on the dashboard. When the owner returned, the windshield had been broken and there were FOUR tickets on the dashboard.

Of course, the difference between "professional" and "expert":

"Professional" means you get paid for what you do.

"Expert" means you DESERVE to get paid for what you do.

I stand by my earlier statement...The Vikings are a PROFESSIONAL football team!

Unfortunately, many magic performers are merely professionals, and not experts. If they WERE experts, they'd be prepared with outs for, say, a cups and balls routine.

(I bet you all were wondering just how I was going to find my way back to the real subject of this forum from the football part of my post, huh. Well, me too.)

I never said the Vikings were not a proffessional team. I was saying that the Oilers were NOT a 'professional' team.

I like your diferentiation between a professional and expert.

John-

That is a VERY funny story. A little too close to the truth, but VERY funny!

BTW--I think somebody must have confiscated my set of the Braue Notebooks in the mail before they arrived at my house. I never received them. I guess I should have insured them, because I've been out a couple hundred bucks for about a couple of decades....

Well, in my (few, so far) performances with C&B everything was smooth.

But when I was trying, I found that mainly in my (easy) routine can happen:

- a ball I try to secretly put under a cup rolls out in clear view;

- when performing the click move on a cup, I hit the cup, which rolls on the floor and discover the hidden ball.

The main "psycological" problem for me is that I think if someone can see there is a fourth ball, the idea of magic disappears.

Thanks for helping

Cheers

Stefano Mambretti