talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect

Click here: http://www.penguinmagic.com/europe/product.php?ID=462

And here’s the blurb…….

After working restaurants for over 20 years, Carl discovered that 3 cups are just one too many. A single cup isn't interesting enough, but two cups is just right.

As you’ll see, Carl Andrews' Table Hopping Cups and Balls is a 2-cup routine that travels light but is full of laughs and surprises.

You start by making the balls vanish and then reappear – instantly – beneath the cups. Next, the balls travel through the cups, then in one of the most magical phases, one ball appears magically on top of the cup–in full view!

Then come a series of lighting quick vanishes and reappearances climaxing in the revelation of the final loads – sponge balls! Carl uses these balls right afterwards in his signature Ain’t No Mo sponge ball routine (also explained).

Due to the construction of the routine, you can perform Carl’s Table Hopping Cups and Balls without a jacket, and the routine is completely angle proof.

Cost

£11.17


Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

I’d give it a 3. There are sleight but they’re taught and fairly east to do after practice.


Review

As I’ve stated in a different review, I’ve recently taken up cups and balls in an attempt to learn more and perform effectively. A number of years ago, more than I care to remember I bought a set of Marvin’s magic plastic cups and mastered these. Somehow, and I don’t know why, I always had the impression that these worked with a different set of basic moves than a proper full size set of cups and balls. Of course I now know that I was wrong after I bought a booklet explaining the basics. Having practiced on and off for a couple of months with full size cups, learning both stand up and sit down versions along with a variety of loads, I now wanted to move on and experiment, and also learn more technique, particularly using jumbo loads, chop cups etc. This DVD interested me for this reason.

The DVD teaches a full routine and includes an introduction that explains the thought behind this particular routine and how it differs from other, before moving onto a live performance using two cups. This is a very slick routine and it certainly has the wow factor and half way through the routine the cups are put aside and the specs hands are used as the cups, using a set of sponge balls. Now, I’ve done some sponge ball stuff in the past so knew what was going on but the performance still looked slick.

You then get the explanation from the front and from the rear angles. You’ll need to watch a fair few times and I thought that the explanation was a little too hurried although everything is there. What’s nice is that the rear explanation uses a different commentary but again, it’s just too rushed.

Finally, coming up for breath there’s a studio performance included which is performed at the now standard lightening speed.

Overall

A fine routine in my opinion and you can’t go wrong at this price. If you’re fed up with seeing the same cups and balls routines using three cups then I think that this fits the bill.

I give this an 8.5 out of 10, let down due to the speed of the performance and also the picture quality is slightly grainy, although still acceptable.