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Heres a sponge routine I have devised after going thru the toolbox... I'm practising it at the moment and technically and patter wise its going great I'm just curious as to whether its to heavy i.e. to many trick (is there such a thing?).

Here goes:
Colour change yellow ball to red...then bring out another ball using purse frame...Transposition of balls into participants hand/ten count...bring out another ball and do 2 balls in hand 1 in pocket.

Patter wise I have 2 scripts:
1 all about genitaillia now that I think about it its not very good...
2 a running theme in alot of my tricks os that the props are trained animals so probably something along that line.

Any advice...
I might put up a vid later depends if I have the time or not.

I think it wold look more natural to use the purse frame for the initial ball appearence rather than have a first ball and use it to get a second. I think the purse frame has more impact when they have no idea what its use could be.

Totally agree with Craig, I'd got for the magical production of the first ball with the purse frame. I'm not 100% sure about the colour change but if you are going to use it, now is a good time. One way I do the colour change is pop the ball in my hand and ask the spec to name a colour. If they say red then your laughing. But even if they say another colour it doesn't matter, say 'ummm no, another colour' and if you still don't get red say something along the lines of 'no no no, you're meant to say red'. That can be quite good, a nice little bit of comedy coupled with a nice colour change.

And why not magically produce the second ball, pull the one ball into two or perhaps saw it with your finger. Oh have you ever noticed that if you give a sponge ball to a spec to hold and have them sing to it, it somehow splits into 2?

I'm not a huge fan of the 10 count, just doens't seem to make much sense to me, but perhaps it does fit in your routine.

2 in the hand one in the pocket is always a nice way to finish a routine.

As for patter, I've recently pinched the idea of Spongeballs as Martians from the toolbox. Opens up a few fun possibilities when it comes to patter.

Good luck with it

oh just had a thought, have you had a look at the routine in Mark Wilson's book? That's a very nice little routine and will introduce a couple of very nice, sneaky little ideas that the Spongeball toolkit doesn't mention.

Thanks guys loads of great ideas in there.
Like the one about sionging to the ball.

Haven't really taken an in depth look at the MW routine, ill give it a shot!

I've seen performers use the purse frame as almost a running gag. It's actually more impressive the second time it happens. In my opinion, you should avoid telegraphing its use on a second go. Just when people think your hands are empty, pick up the frame and take out another ball.

You need to have the moves nailed dead, to do this, though.

In your routine, I agree with the comments that the first ball should come from the purse frame. It's a fun way to start things off.

If you really want to use a colour change, you could say you need a second, matching, ball, then pull out the yellow one from the purse frame. If it's the right audience, ham up the fact that you now have two matching balls. They'll protest, and you could then do a colour change.

It could be done as a nice little 'wink, wink' trick, or you could play it like you don't actually notice the change. Some people might like to make it a 'sucker' trick, but I don't think it's a good idea. If you want to play it 'knowing', I'd suggest doing it playfully, like you're all having fun.

You are all having fun, I hope!

I have to agree that I don't really like the 10 count. It's OK, but I think it's a bit of a distraction in a full routine. If you just do a couple of bits, then want to 'explain' how you do it, then it's a nice piece.

Got my spongeball toolbox today...what a bit of kit for the money...

anyhow...based on an initial pass through I sort of thought of an idea along the lines of the spec squishing the sponges into the flat discs and saying something along the lines of I told you you have to watch what you're doing or when i said hold it tight.... etc. and then "breathing" life back into them by using one of switches shown on the DVD? just got through watching it to see what's on there before studying per se so this is all coming off the back of that.