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In the past I've been a little harsh on manipulators, even going so far as to damn some cardicians with the J word, but as I get to grips with the gryphon roll I'm starting to rather enjoy learning skills like this and I was looking at where to go next. My natural instinct was billiard or pool balls because they're a bit bigger and easier to see from a distance than coins and rings but less likely to go everywhere (like cards).

Are there any good resources for ball manipulation?

Specifically I mean ungimmicked pool or billiard sized balls, not the multiplying sets. I'm sort of kind of already trying to learn contact juggling with a big 10cm ball but that's going to take a while since I need a fair bit of space to practice and it isn't always available. Plus being able to do things with pool balls is a little more impromptu since most pubs have a pool table. I think it'd be kind of groovy to just grab a queue ball from a table and bust a few moves with it, maybe end on a vanish. Just need to know what moves to bust...

-Stacy

Check out Romaine ("monarch" of manipulation i think).

There's also plenty in CJ for single smaller (yes, I'm going to say it) balls.
Check out the archives or cj.org if you're not already onboard.

I assume you mean contactjuggling.org, which, though referenced in a lot of places online, is not loading. Do they suffer from frequent downtime?

-Stacy

The4thCircle wrote:In the past I've been a little harsh on manipulators, even going so far as to damn some cardicians with the J word, but as I get to grips with the gryphon roll I'm starting to rather enjoy learning skills like this and I was looking at where to go next. My natural instinct was billiard or pool balls because they're a bit bigger and easier to see from a distance than coins and rings but less likely to go everywhere (like cards).

Are there any good resources for ball manipulation?

Specifically I mean ungimmicked pool or billiard sized balls, not the multiplying sets. I'm sort of kind of already trying to learn contact juggling with a big 10cm ball but that's going to take a while since I need a fair bit of space to practice and it isn't always available. Plus being able to do things with pool balls is a little more impromptu since most pubs have a pool table. I think it'd be kind of groovy to just grab a queue ball from a table and bust a few moves with it, maybe end on a vanish. Just need to know what moves to bust...

-Stacy

Hello Stacy. How are you finding the sleights for the billiard handling? What I am talking about are the palming of the ball? Do you find your hands a little small?... Not sure how big your hands are? But a few have complained to me that there hands were not the right size for this type of magic.. Just a thought.... Regards Garry

My hands aren't exactly huge so I'm not sure if vanishing will be as simple as it is with coins, but I have had a few ideas involving other kinds of cover.

I honestly don't know how well suited my hands are for any kind of manip on this scale since I haven't had hold of a ball this size since deciding I wanted to look into it. I should have one coming in the post this week though so I guess I'll find out.
Yes I bought a single pool ball on the internet.
It's a #8.
If this doesn't work out I'm going to mount it on the gear stick of my car

-Stacy

The4thCircle wrote:I assume you mean contactjuggling.org, which, though referenced in a lot of places online, is not loading. Do they suffer from frequent downtime?

-Stacy

Dot org is moving to different servers at the moment and is down much to my chagrin.
Drew Batchelor's book on multiball contact juggling is a good resource that I go back to again and again.

Lawrence wrote:Check out Romaine ("monarch" of manipulation i think).

There's also plenty in CJ for single smaller (yes, I'm going to say it) balls.
Check out the archives or cj.org if you're not already onboard.

Yes Romain is the Monarch of manipulation but there is not a whole lot on line about him. He is a good friend of mine however. Also he doesn't have much in print except for some of his closeup work which is in Frank Garcia's The Man With The Million Dollar Hands. And while he is probably one of the best manipulators out there he is probably not what you are looking for due to your want of legit pool balls etc.

May I recomend Gary Savard? http://www.nowthatsmagic.net/ He is the first I ever saw using a billiard theme, He used the triangle racks, the cue's and of course the billiard balls. You may want to ask him for sources. If you choose to shoot him an email you can let him know that Brian from Perfect Magic sent you so he will know you are serious. He is a very nice guy and incredibly busy so he may not respond overly quick.