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Mikey.666 wrote:Michael, I do believe this is how the cups and balls should be performed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gdnN08JY5I

Hell yeah! That was stunning. I could watch that over and over.

me too!

heres another great one
its buy this dude named Dai, hes pretty cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpC4fvrdiUk

I love it

Some guy named Dai you say?

I hear he was also pretty good with a deck of cards as well

pfft... the guy who created Triumph, now HES good with cards!

Yes The Professor certainly is one of the greats with cards, if not the best.

Yes, I know this isn't standard Cups And Balls, but I thought I would try something a little different. It WAS well received in competition.

I love this idea of presentation with glass cups - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ie6Tfa_zI

Wow Jason Latimer is amazing with the glass cup and balls! I also saw him on YouTube manipulating a baseball and making a bat appear. He has a very good presentation style as well.

You know, young Mr. Kras takes a great deal of stick on this forum. Now, please don't get me wrong, I'm not defending him, just pointing out that things like "Kras-Hole" and so forth should really be below the members of this forum. Gotta tell you guys, I'm a bit disappointed.

I have written some scathing posts to Mr. Kras, but I never spoke anything but the unadulterated truth and I didn't lower myself to direct insults, such as above. I'm all for blunt honesty, but this...

Michael, before they started posting other cup and ball routines, you were given some very good advice from several of the members. I can only repeat what they've said. Your work on the cups and balls isn't bad. Not great, but not bad.

Now, if you were of a mind to actually take some of the advice on board, follow it and keep working on your routine as it is, I do believe that you are capable of polishing it down to a much better presentation.

Let me just quote those posts, so you don't have to try to dodge between insults:

...be wary of some of your pickups there being telegraphed, by that i meen you spend a few seconds too long retrieving them and you look at what your doing.

...your hands fidgeting behind the briefcase, this brings instant suspicion to the act. Also the fake cover was fairly obvious but that may be because i knew what i was looking for.

When your doing the penetrations (balls through the top of the cups, it is painfully obvious that you have palmed them even to a layperson.

I think you should have kept your head in the shot which might have given us a little misdirection, a little glance to the camera and we might just look back at you instead. As it is we're burning your hands all the time and we're seeing more than we should.

I would say loading the larger balls should be done a little quicker and not so much fidgeting, but if I was watching you live instead of through a computer screen, your patter would have led me away from your hands and up to your face, but of course I couldn't see your face

If anything you could do a different vanish when the balls are ontop of the stacked cups. Might be because I know whats going on, but I still don't think a spectator would see how you did it, especially when you did it twice in a row.

...I would recommend refining your loads a bit more, and the "penetrations" of the balls was a bit obvious.

As for that penetrating the cup bit all i was thinking was "er.. yeh... you just picked the ball up" and 'some' of the loads were a touch on the obvious side....

Your presentation is still pretty poor. Far too many vocal fillers and your voice is still incredibly nervous. You're holding your breath as you speak, which is distracting and very amateurish.

1. The quality of recording is much better

2. Your ditches and loads are far too obvious

3. Your patter is still nervous, jerky and unrehearsed, it breaks the flow

4. Who have you studied in cups and balls? I think you need to re-pace the whole routine and get it a lot smoother and snappier. Cups and balls is a beautiful thing done properly. You make it slightly tedious.

5. The premise of having the 'stage' raised on your briefcase looks really odd, and begs the question 'what is going on behind it'. Of course, we all know that's where your stash is.

Basically, you need to VERY MUCH polish your routine and patter. All the 'umms' and 'errs' and pauses while you remember your lines is another example of why you can't really call yourself a professional.

You seem to have the basic moves down, but it's all in the presentation. And sadly, your presentation may appeal to a roomful of patronising grandparents, but not to your average Joe.

You should use the Miller move for the penetrations. It'll look much smoother.

Now, from me:

Don't do the striking vanish twice in a row. The first time you did it, it took me completely off guard and looked magical. The second time you did it, you were teaching the method.

DO NOT do the striking vanish twice in a row.

Mike.

Michael Jay wrote:just pointing out that things like "Kras-Hole" and so forth should really be below the members of this forum

I have to agree - previous uses of that phrase have been deleted so can we in future just stick to plain, honest and socially acceptable phrases?

Michael Jay wrote:Michael, before they started posting other cup and ball routines, you were given some very good advice from several of the members.

I posted the performance of that cups and balls routine as I thought it would give Michael some ideas and something to aim for. I posted it to help him, not to mock him. I hope Michael didn't think the latter.

Mikey.666 wrote:Michael, I do believe this is how the cups and balls should be performed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gdnN08JY5I

No worries, it was worth watching that vid for it's own sake - even if it does use a chop cup !

No worries, it was worth watching that vid for it's own sake - even if it does use a chop cup ![/quote]

You see I don't perform cups and balls. But I've wanted to for a while. Reading talks on the subject I clicked on what a chop cup was and it explained a lot

I thought it was a chop cup, just not sure!

I'll agree with the others when I say this is Kras's best video yet. Unfortunately, that's not saying much . Mike, what you need to do is to work on your palms diligently. You might as well have been trying to hide a volleyball, it was just too obvious. Also, you want to try and do the dirty work for a trick under misdirection, not behind a briefcase. Other than that, my comments would be nice lighting.