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Cups and Balls
Lesson time 10:24 min
Once you’ve mastered the French drop, you can expand upon that method to develop a routine with cups and balls. Penn & Teller demonstrate a few of the countless variations you can do with cups and balls.
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Topics include: Cups and Balls
Teach the Art of Magic
In their first-ever MasterClass, Teller breaks his silence as he and Penn teach their approach to creating moments of wonder and astonishment.
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[SAXOPHONE PLAYING] - When you have the French drop, you get that down, then you have to put it into some sort of routine like a cup and ball thing. - Yeah, I mean, you asked a very good question earlier when you said, you know, once it's gone, won't they ask-- won't they ask where it went? And the answer in this case might be that it goes, boom, from here to there. - Okay, what? [MYSTIFIED LAUGH] - We're using a venerable magic method called a duplicate. - Huh. - Oh. - And we're going to give you all duplicate balls so that you can each learn to do this. And we're going to combine that with what in magic is called a load, which is almost a self-explanatory term. It's the movement where you sneak a ball underneath a cup. - Hmm. - And in this case, this is a very simple operation. Hold the ball-- you're going to hold the ball like this, just in your little finger like that. And then you're going to take the cup and just place it on the table and let the ball sit underneath it. Really nothing to it. You just-- you take the cup, and you set it down right over the ball. And it's good to have-- instead of having the ball on the outside, have the ball right underneath there. - So that's like this? That's right, exactly. So when you set the cup down, it's the most natural thing in the world to set it down. And of course, you could do that long before the audience expects the ball to appear. They think there's only one ball in play. - Yeah. - So here we are again. And that's-- when I did that for you the first time, I just sort of waved this cup around as if, you know, as if I was not interested in it and did my load very quietly there. - Hmm. - And now you go back and you do your French drop vanish once again using your wand. Let's try that. Tim. Yeah, that's right. So we take it. We put it in our hand, supposedly. We tap the magic wand there-- boo. And then we tap there, and there's the ball. - Boom. - Now we're in a very interesting position here because watch what happens. Here's where I've been left. I've been left with this ball is here, right? So if I if I go this way, boom, and it goes there. And I lift it up. I can show this ball and secretly load this at the same time. - Oh! - So it becomes a little-- so it has this little, slightly cascade effect to it. So there it is. Just watch how that sequence might work. You go here, bang, there, and oh my goodness, there's the ball. Well, let's do that again. Boom, boom, boom, and there's the ball again. And you can do this till you're blue in the face, or at that point you could take this ball and say, well, I'm just going to put the balls away now. Oh my goodness, it's back again. Oh, my good-- [GLEEFUL LAUGHTER] What's interesting about this is that each magical surprise is covering the next move, right? When the ball first appears-- first appears under the cup, it just appeared and, oh, people a...
About the Instructor
With more than 40 years performing together, Penn & Teller have sold out shows around the world, earned a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and created the longest-running headline act in Las Vegas. Now the legendary magicians are taking you behind the curtain. Learn fundamental magic tricks and the psychological tools that create amazement, at home or on stage. Expand your perception of the possible.
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Penn & Teller
In their first-ever MasterClass, Teller breaks his silence as he and Penn teach their approach to creating moments of wonder and astonishment.
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