talkmagic.co.uk

Again it is YOU who arrogantly thinks he knows what sort of magic I perform.

An hour or more with a pack of cards is more than possible in fact a performer of Ricky Jays stature can hold a whole evening show with little more than a deck.

However, spongeballs are not a deck of cards, and are not capable of that level of variety. they do produce an audience reaction way out of proportion to the level manipulation required, which unfortunately can encourage some magicians to extend their routines beyond (sometimes far beyond!) the cababilities of this props magical effect.

Somebody of the ilk of the late Billy McComb might do an 'hour' with two or three spongeballs. The actual effect though would be five minuets at the most the rest of the time would be Billy's repartie.
This is fine and Billy was a master. however, this is a raconteur with an interesting little effect (quite short I might add) thrown in. Billy could have held his audience without the magic, and the routines he used were direct and to the point.

If you are using Magic as your entertainment medium more has to be done to introduce variety into the effect and to understand that effect on the audience. If you are primarily using comedy or repartie, then I rather take the view of Tommy Wonder, that why not use the inherent entertainment in the magical effect OR just stick to the comedy/repartie and forget the magic all together.

All the best,
John.

Thank you. I will take the advice from a world famous nobody like yourself.

You seem to just want to arrogantly attack without offering anything interesting or constructive in return. What's your problem? Sponge balls a bit out of your reach?

Comedy and magic does go together, but then again a dour person like yourself doesn't understand what it is to entertain. If the audience are ones who want things to move quickly, I'm capable of guaging that.
Also, you have no idea what kind of routines I do with spongeballs and what other effects I am incorporating them with so you really have no criteria on which to comment.

Obviously ventriloquism is something you are an expert at, as you seem to be able to talk out of your backside rather convincingly.

Ouch!

Go Freddie! Spongeballs CANNOT be disputed as an excellent comical and magical performance! Even a small routine from Mark Wilson's or the most basic two in hand one in pocket can entice an audience often a lot more than a card trick!

I am going to take my ball home now as you dont seem capable of a disscusion.

I would point out however that I have not attacked you once, you have attacked me on every reply and added nothing in the way of intelligent discussion.

I hope the ladies enjoy squeezing your little red balls and watching you wave your 'ding dong' around while boring them interminably.

Max was right 'magic is dead'

Have fun (I am of course expecting one of your childish unintelligent responses)

John.

Well, to be honest, your ball was never welcome here. Comparing spongeballs into a silly sexual pun shows how little intelligence you already have.

Hello Wildcard,

May I suggest you read the thread before posting??

Never once did I say that spongeballs were anything less than a brilliant magical effect, I use them myself on a reglar basis.

The sexual innuendo was my comment on the level of Lord Freddies presentational ability, based on the lack of inteligent discussion shown in his posts.

John.

Thanks John. You sound like man who needs to release a lot of pent-up frustration. You have been nothing but argumentative, judgemental and arrogant on this thread and have contributed nothing of worth.

Before you came along and soured the atmosphere it was all going jolly nicely. I'm sure your deadpan act sours many atmosphere's too.

Good day!

john1960uk wrote:Hello Wildcard,

The sexual innuendo was my comment on the level of Lord Freddies presentational ability,
John.

Which you have never seen. Judgemental. Or just plain mental.
Either way, you are a dullard who obviously has lot of pent-up sexual frustration. The George Roper of magic?

What a plonker I am to have got involved. Sorry John, Sorry Freddie!
I have 15 mini sponges, 4 1 1/2" balls. I have an average routine with pretty basic stuff..

You guys reckon this is gonna aid me at all? or just an addition?

john1960uk wrote:I am going to take my ball home now as you dont seem capable of a disscusion.

I would point out however that I have not attacked you once, you have attacked me on every reply and added nothing in the way of intelligent discussion.

Which is somewhat odd, when a little while earlier, this was posted:

john1960uk wrote:Lord freddie wrote

If you know how to engage an audience, a 10 min routine can be kept entertaining if you use variety and of course talk to the audience and interact with them. If you have the personality to carry it off, you can do amything rather than robotically perform "tricks" which is what you are implying you do.

Actually I'm implying it's what YOU do, dragging out a perfectly good effect, without so much as a thought for the audience, classic case of the magician loving his own routines but not responding to or interacting with his audience on any level.

Clearly you have a different interpretation of 'attack' from me. However, Lord Freddie does sometimes have a rather grandiose style of argument (which I usually find amusing and he is lord, after all...), so I thought I'd chip in with some sensible discussion for you.

As I read it, Lord Freddie's position was that:

a) It is perfectly possible to do a 10-15 minute sponge ball routine, and still keep the audience entertained.

b) You seemed to be suggesting that the people on this thread, in particular Lord Freddie himself, could not keep people entertained with sponge balls for 15 minutes.

You have already conceded that it is perfectly possible for a performer who is entertaining to do more than 15 minutes of entertainment with sponges. There is a difference between 15 minutes of entertainment with sponges and 15 minutes of sponge ball effects. Lord Freddie was clearly talking about the former.

As to point b), I think you have to also concede that you haven't seen Lord Freddie perform, so you have no basis for an assertion, or implication (which you made in print, quoted above) that Lord Freddie cannot keep people entertained for 10-15 minutes with some sponge ball effects, in the context of a full routine.

You have raised an interesting point about whether comedy and magic should be kept apart. It reminds me a bit of Andy Nyman's comment about comedy magicians (which he then had to caveat in John Archer's 'Educating Archer' DVD!).

I think that the answer depends on the performer. A strong magician who happens to be a strong comedian too can mix the two elements. He could probably do a straight comedy set, or a straight magic set, and any combination in between.

Isn't the ultimate test whether the audience has a good time?

One might think that playing an intrument and being a comedian are things that don't sit well together, but the late Victor Borge did it brilliantly, and Bill Bailey does comedy and music together amazingly well.

From a purely personal point of view, I think that a ten minute sponge ball routine can be kept entertaining without resorting to too much pure comedy/repartee, especially if other little effects are included. A great routine is Kenton Knepper's one from 'Klose Up and Unpublished'. I have a couple of short extra bits I'd tag on near the beginning and end and I think the total running length would be about ten minutes.

The toolbox? If you are interested in sponge magic, Mr Wild Card, you will benefit from it greatly as it's an excellent little package and for the price is one the best magic bargains around. The DVD has LOADS of stuff on it (it's 2hrs long) and the props are all great quality.

You won't regret it!

Wild Card wrote:I have 15 mini sponges, 4 1 1/2" balls. I have an average routine with pretty basic stuff..

You guys reckon this is gonna aid me at all? or just an addition?

Yes.

Next question.

Just a quick question:

What are the size of the spongeballs you get with the toolkit?

They're 1 1/2", you'll get 4 reds and a yellow as well as a few other little goodies that are fun to play with.

For those interested in sponge balls Jay Scott Berry has some realy amazing sponge routines.

http://www.vigilstudios.com/vsn/ sympthony of the speheres