Tomorrow I'm performing at the new season product launch for a sports-stuff manufacturer - think Foot, Knee, Tummy and keep working your way up - you'll get it).
They wanted me to use their company's products in some of my effects. That sent me off in a cold sweat, and one of the two dealer items I bought to accomodate the request was Stephane Bourgoin's Tennis Chop Cup.
The Effect
It's a chop cup routine - cups and balls with only one cup and one ball.
Here, however, the cup is a tennis ball tube, and the ball is a miniature tennis ball.
Cost
£29.99 from Dude That's Cool Magic
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)
How long is a piece of string? It could be a 2 if you take no chances. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, you could make it a 5.
The supplied routine is definitely a 2, however.
Review
Most of you will know the Chop Cup (if not own one or more of them). For those that don't, it's a one-cup and one-ball approach to the Cups and Balls effect. Many performers play it like a swindle or gambling game - 'is the ball in my pocket or under the cup?'.
Done well (see Paul Daniels or Danny Tong), it's a hilarious and headspinning piece of magic. Done badly, it's obvious, transparent, repetitive, overlong and dull.
Stephane Bourgoin's Tennis Chop Cup is designed to put the Chop Cup into context - for those who feel like they need to explain what their little cup and ball are for. The logic behind this isn't as sound as it might first appear - for a start, the ball we're using is rather ikkle (it has to be, as it's a chop cup ball). And secondly, you then need to explain why you have tennis stuff with you.
It's nowhere near as discreet as using, say, a coffee mug Chop Cup and a chopped olive - or Brad Manuel's Dice Stacking Chop Cup, which is a thing of beauty, can be used for genuine dice stacking seperately or as part of the same routine, and which I quite simply Want One. Those are the ways to go if you want your Chop Cup routine to 'make sense' and avoid the need for any explanation or justification of the props... that or just accept the fact that this is a magician's cup and a magician's little crochet ball...
But for my purposes, in needing a tennis whatnot for my performance that fits with sleights and routining I already know, this does the job nicely.
The cup itself is plastic, and fashioned out of a tennis ball tube. It's naturally not as robust as a metal or wooden chop cup, and so will need need to be packed and carried with care.
While the cup in all the retailer product shots show a tube bearing the logo for the US Open, the one I received had a company logo branded on it - and it wasn't the company I'm due to be working for - or so I thought until I met with the client on Monday, and discovered that their company and the one branded on my Chop Cup were one and the same. RESULT! (but it's something to consider if, like me, you're buying it for corporate gigs, where company branding is a big issue).
There are five balls supplied - a chopped yellow mini tennis ball, an identical (non-chopped) ball, a miniature ungimmicked orange tennis ball, and two full-size tennis balls (one yellow, one orange). They're all excellent quality, although the minature balls have some real weight to them, meaning that the gimmicked ball will generate a lot of noise unless you're using a decent close-up mat! The weight of the chopped ball also means that it won't work wiith other Chop Cups (I've tried with bazar De Magia's, Morrisey' s and Uday's).
The mechanics of the gimmicks aren't as intuitive as with other Chop Cups. There's a 'jelly mold' shape to the bottom of the cup, with the gimmick positioned bang in the centre. So, while other Chop Cups will do their thing effortlessly while you casually shake and invert the cup, this one needs a little more intervention on the part of the performer - either shake it til it works, or have a bloody good aim. I'm used to very casual handling of a Chop Cup, so this took some getting used to.
Stephane Bourgoin's published routine is reasonable, and brings together some nice moves, gags and bits of business from a variety of sources. One of the phases, which happens in the spectator's hands is lovely on paper, but having tried it in practice with Mrs Pete, I find that a timid or surprised spectator will end up dropping the cup. That's best left on paper, methinks...
While the routine is a good one, Stephane only really makes mention of the tennis theme during his introduction. After that, it steps well away from the rules and conventions of tennis, and becomes the old familiar Chop Cup swindle. This is justified with the mention of 'miniature tennis' (a bit like miniature golf), and while there's precious little mention of the rules of 'miniature tennis', they obviously have little or no resemblence to the rules of ordinary tennis...
Thankfully, I've managed to come up my own justification and narrative spin, which I'm quite tickled with - it justifies the use of teeny tennis balls, involves the whole audience and avoids the gambling tones. And that's all I'm saying about it, cos it's mine. D'ya hear me?? MINE MINE MINE!!!
...ahem...
Overall
The handling of the Tennis Chop Cup is more high-maintenance than I'd have liked. This is the result of it being fashioned from a genuine tennis ball tube.
The teeny-tiny tennis balls are cute, but they're heavy - and noisy unless you have a decent close-up mat.
The supplied routine is technically quite good, but narratively weak insofar as it doesn't exploit the tennis theme well enough and quickly becomes just another generic chop cup routine.
Despite the tennis theme, the props STILL need explanation and justification. In that respect, you're not much further forward than with a basic aluminium cup and crochet ball.
If you REALLY want to be discreet with the Chop Cup, here are my best recommendations:
Coffee Cup Chop Cup - Thomas Wayne
Chopped (fake) Olives - also available unchopped for Cups & Balls routines! (Look under Balls)
Combine the above, and you'll find that little or no explanation is necessary, as they're such familiar items.
Or, if you're adept at dice stacking, or willing to learn disce stacking as part of your repertoire, Brad Manuel's Dice Stacking Chop Cup is a thing of beauty. It will be mine... Oh yes... it will be mine...
As for the Tennis Chop Cup, I found it cute and fun, but no mammoth step forward aside from the fact that I need a tennis themed something for tomorrow's gig.
Anyone who wants one can make me an offer on Friday...
On the whole, I'll give it:
7/10
