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I've recently started playing around with a Cups and Balls routine but I was just wondering what people would recommend for the final surprise loads. I'm currently using 3 sponge balls and then one changes to tangerine as an extra kicker but this is purely because I had those close to hand.

I'm not keen on the sponge balls as they're the same colour as the balls used throughout the routine and being sponge they're all squidgey and therefore won't be as surprsing when they appear under the cups.

I know fruit is the traditional thing but I'd be interested to know if anyone uses anything else and what sort of reactions they get.



p.s. there is nothing rude or funny about the words: cups, balls, loads, squidgey, close to hand.




p.p.s. Crevice is a dirty word

Have a look at Bill Malone's routine, I love his ending with the golf balls.

Anything that fits under the cup is a potential load, although I also don;t likie sponges when it comes to cups and balls.

I watched Carl Andrews doing the cups and balls and he says that it's not whaou use that counts with your audience, it's the surprise of just seeing somethng diferent that's larger.

More often than not I use a lemon and lime and will sometimes use a potato and an onion, all of which have been used countless times by others.

I wouldn't worry too much about it - just practice until you're perfect on getting whatever it is under the cup in the first place

you need to get a copy of knowing the chop cup. It contains Ken Brook's baseball player ending, which as far as i know inspired the original leather base ball balls, for the cups.

you could produce just about anything that fits, and maybe something that doesnt.

as a thought, if you do teh routine with small oranges, why not produce a tin of mandarine segments? Or some tinned fruit cocktail?

I once saw a guy do the cups and balls with a couple of borrowed crumpled up dollar bills (signed bills too I believe - this may then require the subtle use of a **p****te bill for some phases of the routine).

The climax was when then final loads turned out to be a 'nest of boxes effect' with the signed bills inside. It wasn't a bad routine, but I agree more with dat8962 - the larger the item, the bigger the surprise.

Personally, i'd get yourself down the supermarket with one of your cups and hit the fruit & veg stand. See what they have which allows the best fit.

Tommy Wonder did a great routine with billiard balls, which you can - at the end - clack together to show that they're real. I think stuff like that adds an extra edge to it - not only did you get them under the cups, but you got them under there without them seeing or hearing them. Anything that would ostensibly make a hell of a noise as it was loaded is probably a good idea.

a few years back, when i shared a flat with a magician mate, we spent a drunken evening comming up with some really odd endings for the cups.
One that i did, and will for ever live in my memory, was...

I did a cups routine using real potatoes.

the final load, was a handfull of real, hot , freshly cooked chips.( we lived next to the chippy),and a packet of tomatoe sauce.

now what would be really cool, if you can do it....

is after the chips, you pour out of the cup some water, and a gold fish.

daleshrimpton wrote: the final load, was a handfull of real, hot , freshly cooked chips.( we lived next to the chippy),and a packet of tomatoe sauce.

I love it! A traditional British ending to the routine there indeed. Chips under one cup, a battered mini fish under the second, and a few packets of condiments under the third. Fair play. Blackpool pier here I come....

you can make the fish and chips out of foam rubber.. its just we had just had dinner, and some were left.

You really need to do two things; Review routines others have done over the years so you have some ideas. Malone is a great example but there are others who switch in special cups such as those that are solid and not a cup at all or else they use a special cup from the start, such as one that fills with liquid...
... I had a set of the latter made long ago for a show I was doing for Bacardi Rum. The routine included the production of three small fishbowls with live fish, three little bottles of rum as well as the final liquid load (Pina Colada... of course)... the cups looked like Coconuts and the balls were small rubber Pineapples.

So just get some ideas and then sit back and think about things and what you want the feel to be. You'll find the right material and loads that work best for you.

Craig Browning wrote:... I had a set of the latter made long ago for a show I was doing for Bacardi Rum.

Ive done shows for free drink too. ( though i prefer cash )

Your final load would really depend on what type of routine you perfer. Potatoes and Kiwi are just inherently funny. Chicks, are always fun and they really upset PITA people.

daleshrimpton wrote:

Craig Browning wrote:... I had a set of the latter made long ago for a show I was doing for Bacardi Rum.

Ive done shows for free drink too. ( though i prefer cash )

Yea... but I don't know many in this business that didn't take a night of booze in exchange for 20 minutes of silliness

Thanks for the suggestions, I've got plenty of ideas now. It's just a matter of weighing up my options. Do I want it to have a funny ending or end up annoying animal rights extremists?- both equally valid endings.

All I need to do now is practice for a couple of years and I should have a pretty good routine.

I use those little fluffy, goggle eyed bugs that you get from charity collectors and have some patter about gremlins (the film) with the final load being some horrible looking gremlin monsters.