Cups and balls
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The cups and balls trick is an old magic effect that has spawned a variety of adaptations. The effect known as acetabula et calculi was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago. One popularly circulated painting of a man holding two inverted cups over two small round objects has been taken as evidence to erroneously suggest that the effect dates back as far as Ancient Egypt.
The most widely performed version of this effect uses three wide-mouthed cups and three small balls. The magician makes the balls pass through the solid bottoms of the cups, jump from cup to cup, disappear from the cup and appear in other places, or vanish from various places and reappear under the cups (sometimes under the same cup). The trick frequently ends with larger objects, like fruit, larger balls or sometimes even livestock appearing in the cups in place of the balls. The magic duo Penn and Teller performs this act with clear plastic cups, claiming that they will reveal the secret. But with four hands in motion it becomes impossible to follow, and it ends with a mystery as a large object (a potato, a lime etc.) turns up inside each cup.
Although traditionally cups and balls are used in the trick, many other types of small objects and covers can be used. The classic shell game con is taken by some to be a variant of the cups and balls.
Cups and Balls uses many of the basic principles of magic: palming, false transfers, and misdirection. The performance of the effect and construction of a routine is a complete study in the art of magic.
A basic routine is to start with a ball secretly concealed in the palm, the cups being nested in a stack. The three cups are set down in a line with the concealed ball being now under the center one. One of three visible balls is put on top of the center cup and the other two cups nested above. With a tap of the wand, the three cups are lifted, revealing that the ball has "penetrated" the cup. (There is now a new ball secretly concealed in the center cup). Again the cups are set in a line, the middle cup covering the ball which has already penetrated making two balls there, while the audience thinks there is only one ball. Another of the visible three balls is placed on top of the centre cup and covered with the other two cups, the cups being tapped and lifted to show the second ball has penetrated. This is repeated with the third ball at which time there is a ball still secretly concealed in the cups, and the performer is ready to go into the next phase, perhaps making use of the extra ball.
For a sleight of hand routine, a typical move is to transfer a ball from the right to the left hand, really retaining by finger palming it in the right. A cup is then lifted to show there is nothing underneath and when it is put down, the finger palmed ball is released under the cup. The ball is now shown to have "vanished" from the left hand, and the cup lifted to show the ball has "traveled" there. In skilled hands, the illusion is perfect.
Many other secret moves are possible. These include the loaded lift where a ball is pressed against the side of the cup with the little finger as it is lifted, effectively showing the cup empty, and an extraction steal where the cup is set down over a ball but the little finger removes it to a palm at the last minute before the cup comes down. In this way, the performer is always ahead of his audience; the appearance and vanish of balls being quite miraculous. It must be stressed however, that the actual performance of these moves convincingly takes months and years of study and practice.
In the basic effect, often three balls are on view but as noted above there may be a secret fourth or fifth ball which the audience doesn't know about. The balls are made of soft material so you can't hear if a secret ball is in the metal cups. At the end of the effect, the performer will often "load" large balls or fruit inside the cups for the climax. A load is a secret move which puts the object inside the cup, usually when the audience is misdirected (e.g. by another ball appearing).
A fairly modern development is the "Chop Cup". This cup has a magnet inside and a magnetic ball is used. The ball will stick in the top until the cup is set down with a little bump which releases the ball. The ball "appears" when the cup is lifted This cup was invented around 1954 by Al Wheatley who performed with his wife in a Chinese-costumed act called "Chop Chop and Charlene" (Wheatley is also the inventor of the "Dove Bag" production.) The Chop Cup is a variation with one cup and (apparently) one ball, hugely popular because it requires only a very small flat area to perform, unlike the considerable table space needed for the classic three-cup routine. The Chicago close-up magician Don Alan performed his streamlined Chop Cup routine on television and was immediately copied by magicians all over the world. The Chop Cup can be handled entirely by the top, fooling people who know about "loads".
The three shell game mentioned in the description above is similar in some respects to the three cup routine. In this so-called game, the main move is a steal of the pea from the back of the shell. This achieved by using a flexible pea and performing the trick on a soft surface. The pea is squeezed out under the back of the shell into the fingers in the act of pushing the shell forward. In a similar way, the pea can be introduced under a shell by drawing it back. These moves are made casually in swapping the positions of the shells. The spectator is supposed to follow by eye which shell has the pea, but in reality, they have zero chance of success.
