The4thCircle wrote:Blue sky thinking: if I was going to do a routine along these lines and the opening gambit was (for example) three paper cups, one of which has a spike under it, I would want to end with the opposite effect, where after supposedly randomly picking a first smash, I lift the other two cups and they *both* have spikes. I set these down on top of the space left by the safe cup, with nothing under it, and then bring out a piece of fruit, bring it down on top of these two cups and as they are demolished, the fruit is impaled on a third spike beneath it.
Or something to that effect.
Wouldn't be too hard to achieve either, just load the extra spikes using cup & ball final load moves.
I would also present it in the style of the Monty Hall problem and all it's mathematical headscratching.
-Stacy
Part of the effect, at least when I do it, is that after the spectator has mixed the cups I don't touch them other than to smash my hand down. Picking them up and applying a load would be seen as some kind of jiggery pokery in the audiences eyes no matter how well you do it. The fact they are mixed and then you smash down on them without moving or touching them shows that the spike is exactly where the spectator left it.
Plus if something is hidden under a cup and you pick one up to place the load, it will seem odd. If it's under a cup which you supposedly don't know about, why would you pick one up?
