If your new to the idea of street performing, it's going to be OK! You don't have to do the cups and balls, or anything with a cup or ball for that matter. please don't buy into the hype that it's the definitive trick for the streets. you just don't have to! in fact we encourage you NOT to do that piece. seriously, just don't buy those cups thinking your gonna get noticed. you wont. your better off going to a second hand shop and buying your inspiration there. cups and balls is a great trick, don't get me wrong, but its so cliche' and even worse its so limiting, espically for a beginner. challange yourself, figure out how to do a ten minute show with a pocket hanky.

Yes! Nick! Very good advice.

Quentin Reynolds has a fine DVD. I believe it' called: "Firteen Minutes With a Handkerchief" and I would highly recommend it.

The late Charles Edwards used a handkerchief knot routine (the ancient vanishing square knot)and it helped him make a living for years. (The young guys would call it "Slydini Knots") Charley's routine is well written up in Lewis Ganson's "Routined Manipulation Finale".

The material in both Reynolds' DVD and Ganson's RMF is perfect for busking.

Give me a couple hankys, 3 pieces of rope, and an egg bag, and I could make a good living. Add a coffee can and a half dozen silver dollars, and I could make a very good living.

If I also had a TT, a couple silks, two Fakini balls and a shell and throw in 3 8" rings, and I would have two 15 minute shows.

Well thank goodness!

While I definitely have balls, I unfortunately have no suitable cups. I have been known to cup my balls, but I don't think that's the same thing.

I have been known to be in the cups from time to time, but that has never helped my performance.

Yeah a lot of people seem to think if your going to busk as a magician then cups and balls are the way to go.

Here are a few reasons I don't do cups and balls,
1, I tried but not could find my own spin on it,
2, I cant be bother to carry a table (I know it is possible to do it with out),
3, I cant be bothered to carry a few pounds of fruit with ,
4, I decide to build a routine I could source anywhere like rope for example,
5, Good cups, good pouch, good table and wand is quite a set up cost (this will pay for it self quite quickly),
6, What I have now works for me now,

My 5th point remind me of a guy I met and he said 'I started busking with a deck of cards, silk vanish, professor nightmare and a squeaker. my plan was to make the money to by a set of large quality cups. That was 45 years ago and I in that 45 years I could brought the cups 100 times over but never got to it and as you saw in my last show I used deck of cards, silk vanish, professor nightmare and a squeaker'

He pulled a big crowd and they hatted well.

I like the idea of this post and hope my additions help.

Yes exactly! That's all you need. I use a deck of cards, professors nightmare, and hopping halves.

Do What you LOVE the rest will work its self out

You can certainly buy a set of quality cups and get those beauties all banged up, then be sick or a week, or you can just do one of the impromptu Cups and Balls routines and get on with it. Pat Pages routine comes to mind, using ordinary tea cup, a mug cup, and a paper cup. Borrow 3 bills and crunch them up in a ball. Do the routine, then take the bill and throw them "the hat", give out the fruit. Hey, a hard working street guy got to eat. Carry the fruit for a double purpose.

Don't want to carry breakable tea cups and mugs. They do make them out of all kinds of materials. Tin, plastic, whatever. Again, double purpose, pass the tin cup and use it to pour yourself a cold drink.

There is a famous saying, "THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX". (note for picky members: This is not an email, it is writing, so is not considered yelling.)

I agree Bill, think out side of the box.
Cups and Balls can be so many different things as well. It does not have to the same as the next guys routine.

I have have worked a show and now produced a DVD called "Clap & Cheer Cups and Balls"
It is about thinking out of the box with Cups and Ball's

IT has got some great reviews

The latest was published in the MUM Magazine
Reviewed by Master Payne

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Does the world really need yet another Cups and Balls DVD? The answer of course is, no, it doesn’t really need one, but that being said you’re really going to want pick up a copy of this one. Mario Morris has created a routine unique amongst the plethora of presentations currently out there. And, I’m sure against the urgings of all his friends and colleagues, has released his signature routine to the magic community at large. Clap & Cheer Cups & Balls is a time tested and street perfected routine that has taken its creator Mario Morris around the world. Unlike every other cups and balls routine currently out there Clap & Cheer Cups & Balls requires no special props or equipment. Everything needed for the routine can be purchased in the local shops of whatever locale you find yourself in. Instead of using expensive and unfamiliar spun metal cups. The Stand Upo & Cheer routine employs common crockery coffee cups. The loads, instead of fruit, are, save for one lone lemon, jars filled with whatever curios or applicable objects you deem appropriate for your venue. But what makes this routine most memorable is that it ends with a tablecloth pull where the magician yanks the tablecloth off f the table leaving all the fragile crockery cups and glass jar loads safely in place. Mario Morris is a Welsh busker who runs the School for Busking in Cardiff. He teaches the yearly Focus on Street Performing class at Jeff McBride’s Mystery School in Las Vegas and this routine has been a featured part of his repertoire for over a decade. While there is nothing new in this routine from the perspective of the moves and feints. It is the structure that devotees of the cups and balls will find of interest. Mr. Morris has overcome the problem of having ones tip disperse after the final load sequence by having them stick around, money in hand for the tablecloth pulling finale. Everything in this presentation has been created with that finale piece in mind. The only issue I have with this DVD is that Mr. Morris makes the routine look deceptively easy to perform. Since there are no difficult sleights to learn the novice may be lead to believe that they too will be raking in tremendous hats mere moments after watching the recording. But like all good presentations this routine, with its simple props and straightforward structure showcases the performers showmanship skills and allows them to shine, or crash and burn depending on their skill level and performance experience. The DVD is well produced and features three separate performances of the routine on the street in front of real audiences. Everything is clearly explained and demonstrated and the DVD is full of valuable tips and suggestions that should answer any questions the viewer might have about the routine. It even contains a bibliography of other DVDs and books the novice student might wish to peruse. Highly recommended.
http://www.schoolofbusking.com/product-page.html

Yes Bill!]]

Once again: THE PERFORMER IS MORE IMPORTAND THAN THE PROP(S)!

I learned the Misers Dream in the 1940s, with a coffee can,and a handful of coins. The MD is a MONEY trick. It'a NOT a CHAMPAGNE PAIL trick!

Gee Mario! I wish I was 18 again! I never learned a good cups & balls routine. Yours (above post) sounds like a worker!!!

No more cups and balls.

now I understand why the masked magi exposed the effects the way he did...

It's 5 minutes with a handkerchief.. Unless you want to have a full magic act that only uses a handkerchief. You better be funny... Great thread nonetheless

OOPS! Thanks G. Gilbert! I usually do a better proof read before I hit the submit button! They "do" heart transplants! I wonder if they do memory transplants!!!

FIVE minutes is correct! My pal Jim Jayes could possibly do TEN (?!?)JIm is a pupppeteer, magician AND clown! I wish I was as funny as Jim!

You "got" me thinking...With all of the old Tom Osborne "Napking Folds", a few of the old knots from Tarbell, plus the "mouse puppet", and Seymour Davis's "wand penetration" thru handkerchief, it COULD be done! It would definiely be a case of "The performer, more important than the prop"!

I just remembered...Bill Larsen SENIOR did "FATIMA" in his club act. That's a minute right there. Yes! it COULD be done! Perhaps it would be better as a close up, or parlor routine. --I think thet you are right, though ("...you better be funny...")

Oh... Osborne's Napkin Folds was a "kind of" Trouble Wit routine. It was part of his night club act, and, yes, he "killed" with it.

Posted: Jul 9, 2014 05:57 am
Ha! I forgot "MY" vanishing watch gag with a handkerchief. The (now) ancient "Smart Talk,Smart Comedy, Smart Business" patter books of the '50s (George McAthy)had a gag: "...the clock wasn't gone--but, it was going!"

I "switched" it, and have used it for years to segue into the "explanation" for the color changing silk routine. Yes! another 30 seconds!!!