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Hi all -

I've been playing around with spongeballs recently and I can eke out a basic routine now with a couple of retention vanishes and so on. They seem to get people's attention alright too, I guess they're more interesting than a pack of cards.

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to flow from a spongeball routine to cards without having to emit some awkward line of patter that's not really funny... . I was thinking along the lines of doing a jumbo production-esque move but with a pack of cards instead, but I couldn't really work that out properly.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Kati

no idea if this will work, but could you try and bleach a sponge ball with a card name? And use that as a reveal?

Or maybe produce a sponge ball from between two cards in the middle of a card effect?

abraxus wrote:no idea if this will work, but could you try and bleach a sponge ball with a card name? And use that as a reveal? Hmm...I like the idea (and I think you can buy white sponges too!) but to reveal a card you need to have the pack out already!

Or maybe produce a sponge ball from between two cards in the middle of a card effect? Or how about both, produce a sponge ball with the card on it!

Hehe, thank you!

..i just thought - if you performed a card vanish, you could then ask the spec to open the card box and have a look...only to find a squeezed up sponge ball with the missing card name dyed onto the ball?

and then go into a routine using your sponges...

card name ball dissapears, splits into two lower denomination card values - jumps between hands...or a sponge ball matrix kinda thing?

or some kind of page number force (using cards?) the spec opens a book (strapped up with rubber bands to stop you tinkering you could say) and they open the book to find a load of sponge balls instead...

i dunno, never used sponge balls...this is all off the top of my noggin...

This is starting to become a routine!

Say you force the 2D and the 2H to a spectator. Open the card case and show a spongeball with a red 4 - then split it into the 2D and the 2H. Then you can start pattering about how they follow each other and so on, maybe 3 spongeball monte with an AS...*must buy*



Kati

..im pretty sure you could buy a little slab of sponge (of a complete deck of cards proportions) and make a template out of a card and bleach your force card onto it...then turn the real card into the sponge one?

You can get cookie cutters in the shape of Hearts, Clubs, Spades, Diamonds from many cookshops - especially those associated with garden centres. Warm them up gently and they will burn outline shapes into foam sponge and you could remove the rest with a hot knife or other instrument as required. Be careful of the fumes though, they could cause problems if you breath them in.

hmmmmmm....fumes....

Wear a face mask, have en electric fan blowing acros the sponge so all fumes are directed well away, if possible do the work outside - also with an electric fan and a mask. I do this when dealing with sheet expanded polystyrene - I believe those fumes are carinogenic and not to be absorbed into the lungs at all!

Kati, you might want to check this out, as well. It's a routine that uses cards and sponges. It's an effect called Pips-a-poppin.

http://www.emagictricks.co.uk/Pips_A_Poppin_Sponge.html

Mandrake's suggestion was a cool one - and this set has already done that work for you.

It's actually a pretty neat routine that I think is a pretty strong bridge effect from sponges to cards (or vice versa)

I can't remember the name of the trick, but derren brown has a trick in both "Pure Effect" and "The Devils Picturebook" where a card visibly changes to lots of rose petals.

Im sure that this effect could be easily recreated by changing the card into a couple of sponge balls, which would launch you straight into a sponge ball routine.

I'm sure magicdiscoman has Pips a Poppin... he might have some ideas for you too, Kati.

Aaugh! No! I must not buy anything! Not one....little.....thing?

kati

have a few balls packed into the bottom of a card case (may involve trimming your cards a touch here), so when you get a pack of cards out of the box it's followed by a mass of sponge balls, enter "oh, they get everywhere these things" patter and go on with something.