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Absolutely - Pop off knots - The fact that you can trim off the excess rope knots after the switch has been made really proves to the audience that the rope has been cut and is in 3 pieces joined via knots

Let us know how you get on Zack

Cliff

I have found sponge balls to be great with kids. Not only for the volunteer who nearly passes out with joy but for all the spectators as well. There is something joyous to a child when they feel like something has happened in thier own hands. A big production is lovely as well.

theres some lovely effects with sponges, you could do a whole set for a very cheep price.

multiplying sponges colour changing sponges ball to rabbit rabbit to growing ball ball to square colour changing square sponge ball to thankyou silk for a finish

Sponges are great - the only thing I have found when performing magic for children is that the sponges need to be very soft when your routine includes sponges traveliing from your hands to theirs. Their hands are smaller than ours and even though you help them to close their hand / roll it palm down / and tell them to squeeze tight things can go wrong.

What really revolutionized my kiddies sponge routine was to give the sponge ball personality. I read this somewhere and sort of stole the idea - and it works really well. I give the first sponge ball a name (Mr Squishy) and then he plays hide and seek, does magic like walking through the wall of china - being my pants pocket (from the Mark Wilson routine), then I 'cut him in half ' etc. I use red sponge balls - so once I've 'cut him in half' and have two, I put the balls between my lips to make them look like a really big pair of lips and try and talk to the kids. I put them over my eyes and act scary(subject to age group). When I finally get to 3 balls in my routine I juggle a bit but pretend to foul it up and the balls end up in the crowd. I usually get them back in one piece. The kids are usually quite hysterical with laughter by then - it's lots of fun

Great ideas taneous! You've got me thinking about my routine......

Have you tried Dean Dill's spotlight? I think this would work well into your "give the sponge personality" theme - and lead in nicely to d'lites

Thanks for your ideas

Cliff

the two most important slieghts in sponge magic are the false take and the french drop, practise thease and you'll be a sponge expert in months.

I'm a big fan of the toss vanish(finger palm) and the pinch vanish. I can't seem to be able to work the french drop with a sponge (coins and billards are fine though). The growing sponge is great for audience participation. Also a chop cup would be a useful thing to use, they can be picked up pretty cheaply and theres so much you can do with it, especially with a suprise load at the end.

I also use the finger palm and pinch vanishes. The pinch vanish was the first one I learnt for sponge balls. I suppose french drop could work fine with 1" sponges. I like to use 2" sponges. I usually wet them a bit b4 a performance - that way they're even bigger and have a bit of 'bounce' to them. It adds to the 'impossibility factor' of it all - and that's where the pinch vanish works nicely.

I was actually thinking about adding a chop cup to my routine - mainly for the surprise ending. I really like the thing Paul Zennon does with a mouse - where he says "actually I had a helper" - then produces a mouse from the chop cup. That could work well at a kid's show (although I now have a rabbit and a guinae pig, so I really don't think i could convince my wife that I need a mouse). I'm thinking of getting a nice brightly colored plastic cup - and then gimmicking it myself if i ever want to make an Aardvark disappear

Yes i love paul zennons work, he's a bit like a british jay sankey but more sarcastic. Anyway the trick was with a coin where two spec's had to guess whether it was heads or tails after a couple of attempts he loads the mouse.

p.s I was going to use it as part of a resteraunt routine but i don't think it would go down too well.