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In defence of sponge balls. Now in a few post I have noticed that many of the newer types of magician have a scant disregard for sponge balls I know shocking isn’t it.

With transpositions ,vanishes and reproductions the sponge balls are one of the strongest slight of hand tricks about hands down .

Now we all know the image of Wizo the wizard pulling 30,000 little sponges his pockets and giving the whole nine yard on “where they come from it’s a mystery” well its time to stop that right now.

Ok what tricks we do is a matter of opinion and what our “style” is but the sponges don’t have to be like that no siree Bob. I have found one of the strongest tricks you can do with a spec is take a ball put it your hand , take another put it in the specs and then they have two. Ok for the forward thinking spec its not the worlds hardest magical mystery to solve but people are shocked when they open there hand they have two. Or five or six.

A good sponge vanish is just as good as good coin vanish in my opinion. And of course the sudden production of anything coin , dove , silk or JCB is all ways good. And you can get a lot of audience reaction just asking “Do you know what this” Johnny Thompson in his sponge act uses the line “Do you know what this is? Neither do I but I know you can get them from adult book stores now days”
Ok of course you don’t have to use that line but I have and it raises a laugh. My sponge ball routine for table hopping always starts with a bagless purse production, pulling sponge out of just a purse frame is a good opener and shows your skill, without being knuckle busting. My walk around starts with a ball from out of no where after showing both hands empty. I find this a better way of showing I am the magician and I know what I am doing then just asking someone if they would pick a card.

Ok a bag less purse isn’t exactly a coin in a soda can or saw. But it’s a nice little opener and the audience are more them welcome to look at the purse frame. After the productions and vanishes I always ask do you know where it went? And I will always get the its up your sleeve well nine time out of ten, where I say “no it is up yours” and produce it from there sleeve. See I havent once made a million little red balls come out of my pocket in fact in my routine I use two. There is so much magic in showing your hands empty and pulling the ball from some ones sleeve its almost “true” magic in that its what people expect magicians to do.


This it what I am saying the sponges can be so much more then a kiddies trick or a comedy routine I feel comfortable doing this at all sorts of functions. And the beauty of it all is a box of sponges are not going to cost the earth.. And if you have not got any sponges with roll a napkin up. Impromptu sponges…..

Now I hope I have changed peoples minds on the sponges so here is a couple of sources and where I draw my ideas for the sponges from.

Mark Wilsons complete course in magic
David stones real secrets of magic
The worlds greatest magic sponge balls.

If they are good enough for Eugene Burger they are good enough for me.

Just to add a few more points on this because I love the sponges so much. Jay Scott Berry a very much traditional magician has a fantastic routine called the magic of the spheres including colour changes, vanishes and reproductions this all done on the stage.

I have made this point in a few post but I will try to expand on it the best I can. The sponges are ideal for people have difficulty doing coin magic. The mechanics of the vanishes and productions are almost the same in some cases and it’s a lot easier to conceal a ball that compresses down and lets your hand be more natural. Take a coin then a sponge and you will see what I mean.

I know there already have been some treads discussiong spongeballs. Does any of you have any recomondations for a strong spongeball rutine that involves at least two spectators?

The worlds greatest magic sponge balls, mentioned above, has a few involving more than one spectator.

Soren, I like to have modular routines. So its a bit like jaz put a bit in take a bit out. If i do a transpo of the ball in to the specs hand then I will do the ball going in to the sleeve of a diffirent spec. I belive i cant remeber but the worlds greatest magic spong balls DvD has Al Goshman none the less performing for two specs. And Flip has quite an intresting idea with two specs.