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hey all not posted in awhile been rather busy with work and a wrist injury, but I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we thought up an effect we think will look fantastic, the problem being we have no clue as to how we would do it. The general jist of the trick is to be juggling three balls in a regular cascade pattern, and from this pattern vanish all three balls. We have the situation to do the trick just need a method, this is proving to be difficult, we already have a method for vanishing one and two balls from the pattern, all three is proving a task. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

some sort of black art topit or you could just palm off each ball but carry on the patern possibly.

palming them was my first thought, the problem with that is juggling balls even the smaller ones are hard to palm all three in that quick succession and get them hidden before the next ball is due to be caught palmed and hidden one more, without looking obvious that something fishy is happening. my second thought was to try juggling sponge balls, as they are easy to palm quickly and can be squeezed and hidden at the same time, but due to their light weight build they simply are to difficult to juggle well enough they just float around. something else i was toying with would be do a squeeze of two balls in one hand faking a high throw and hoping to high heavens everyones eyes follow the "high throw" whilst pocketing them quickly into the jacket im making for it.

Why Not incorperate a really high throw to draw peoples eyes skyward and then secreet each ball in a chosen pocket/place?

Alec

that is the method i use for vanishing two balls, the problem being that the third ball being the high throw is still there, im beginning to think i may just have to work that into the trick and vanish the two balls rather than all three, not as nice an effect but it will do i suppose. thanks for the input so far all.

jtCardMagic wrote:that is the method i use for vanishing two balls, the problem being that the third ball being the high throw is still there,

Unless you throw it high enough so that someone out of sight above the stage can catch it. The old trampoline vanish, as it were.
It won't be so magical I guess but maybe worth a think...

its not a trick im working on for a stage performance unfortunately otherwise that would work, its a trick im planning to use to transition the show from my friends juggling into the magic performance, it will mainly be for private shows so will not generally have a stage.

Gotta be a toppit I reckon with a bit of misdirection as has been said before. Do you have toppit experience? I hadn't until about 10 months ago but really enjoy it & it's easier than you think once some early principles are thought through.

cant say that i have, any recommended reading??

It's not really something you can read up on & then have a go at. You either need to buy a pattern for the gimmick to make up yourself or buy a ready made one. I think the generally considered best are Michael Ammar, Pat Page & more recently David Penn (which you get a dvd & the toppit with too). I have the David Penn one & have made a spare myself using his design. The downside (if you require it) is that you can't then go into the outside jacket pocket to retrieve the objects, you have to go into the toppit gimmick itself. I don't see this as a problem as I only use it to vanish things I don't need to retrieve. You could always have duplicate objects I suppose to 'retrieve' from elsewhere.

That sounds perfect as I don't need to retrieve them afterwards so you would recommend David Penns then??

could yopu switch one out mid routine (sorry my knowledge of juggling is limited) for something like a water baloon, then throw the water balloon high, vanish the two others and allow the balloon to fall to the floor, so you have a transformation and vanish?

For the last ball you could probably use some form of pull devise?

Or you could do Poi and just swap them at the point all the audience is looking for something else to look at

Why not have a table with a servante set just infront of you and slightly to the side (so you arent't quite behind the table), then as you bring the ball up to throw, bring it past the servant and ditch in the same movement. Keep on going up without a pause and throw the imiginary ball, then immediately continue the cylce so as not to make it look like a move. You should end up with spectators only realising a ball is gone later, when it hits them that you are only juggling two, then one, then none. Don't know if this could work, I don't juggle, but it's just a thought.