'Mamma Mia Magic' Aldo
Colombini
Classics Handed Down
from Generation to Generation ... Nobody Wanted
Them!
Aldo
Columbini
Michael Close and Jon
Racherbaumer have recently spoken on Cups and
Balls and given their opinions. I don't think
that I will be called pretentious for saying that
I too can offer a couple of thoughts about this
matter as I have deeply studied the Cups and Balls
(and won a F.I.S.M. prize for it...but please
don't hold that against me!). I have two routines
I perform regularly. One mainly for magicians
which is highly technical and may not be easy
to follow for lay audiences (all magic should
be simple to follow in my opinion) but extremely
challenging and appealing to the magicians who
are looking for new and (why not) revolutionary
moves. Obviously, being conceived for a competition,
I kept in mind, at the time, that I had only magicians
watching me perform the routine for lay audiences
(although I do perform it at the Magic Castle
but there I don't find a `NORMAL` lay audience
in the sense that it is a mixture of magicians
and lay people). I perform the routine for lay
audiences only in special circumstances or for
special people. I remember doing it for the tenor
Luciano Pavarotti and special guests in Italy
and the routine got a standing ovation. But then
again, they KNEW, they FELT, it was something
special.
Many
Cups and Balls routines are confusing, not easy
to follow. We forget many times that when we perform
WE KNOW what is going on. We have done the routine
countless times so we know the position of the
balls and so on. But, the audience doesn't. It's
not easy to follow three balls and three cups
at the same time. So, keep it simple. I have seen
magicians doing routines with two balls and three
cups or three balls and two cups. Why? It `s too
confusing. Three and three is logical and easy
to remember. Three, that's all. If you use three
balls and two cups they have already two things
to remember with the consequent challenge of following
the positions and so on. I have a second routine
that I perform regularly for lay audiences and
it is kept as simple as possible. By simple, I
don't mean necessarily simple to do, but simple
to follow. I use different colored balls, a few
penetrations, a couple of transpositions and then
go directly into the big load. I agree with Michael
that it is not easy to find patter for such a
trick. In fact, I perform the F.I.S.M. routine
silent sometimes with music as a special effect.
Some tricks do not necessarily require patter.
Nobody, to my knowledge, has done a dove act with
patter as there is no need for it...maybe. The
other routine is performed with patter, kept to
the essential. And I think it goes over well.
I partially disagree that the only thing that
spectators remember is the final load. It is the
same thing as saying that in the Ambitious Card
routine with the final leadoff the card in the
wallet, the spectators remember only the card
in the wallet. They may remember ESPECIALLY the
card in the wallet, as it is your climax and created
to be memorable. But they certainly remember the
phases in between. So it is with the Cups and
Balls. They may NOT remember each phase and how
many times the balls penetrate or transpose, but
they certainly keep in mind what happens. It is
the build up, the prelude to the final load. It
is like a piece of opera; you usually have a not
so difficult basic `aria' that gradually builds
up into the famous `tenor masterpiece'. And it's
this climax that pulls the thunderous round of
applause. Cups and Balls are the same.
Basically, I repeat, the MUST here is to keep
the routine as simple as possible; try to avoid
inserting EVERY move you know about the Cups and
Balls. When I created my original routine I bought
all the basics I could find about the Cups and
Balls. Gee, how many there were! I studied them
all and then tried to come up with something new
and different. Other magicians say that the Cups
and Balls are a puzzle. Well, if you think about
it every magic trick is a puzzle. It is in the
ability of the magician to change the puzzle into
ENTERTAINMENT. Also, the Oil and Water routines
have been labeled with the `boring puzzle' name.
Magicians tend to ignore such tricks because they
think they are boring. I disagree. Nothing is
boring if presented properly. (Except maybe an
Italian soccer match). As a challenge, I did my
Oil and Water routine at the Magic Castle knowing
that many magicians are always in the audience.
I got letters, E-mail messages and telephone calls
telling me how good the routine was. I know, I
know, you don't have to tell me. I would probably
have had a lot more phone calls if the people
who didn't like it had called me! However, you
get the point I am trying to make.
To me the biggest `doubt'
about Cups and Balls is : What do the Cups SEEM
to be to the audience or what exactly are they
meant to represent? Glasses? Containers? Why cups
with balls? Why hand-crocheted balls or miniature
golf balls? Or sponge balls? Why any particular
combination? Great questions! Aim afraid I do
not know the answer. Sometimes we tell the audience
that this is a very, very old trick seen in pyramids
and so on. Do they really care? I doubt it. My
solution is simply that I don't have one ! I just
do it. I never came up with a LOGICAL explanation
why we use cups and those kinds of balls (aluminum
or copper or whatever). Do we REALLY need an explanation?
We may say that these are a kind of replica of
cups from ancient times and the balls are replicas
of stones or small fruit used by ancient magicians
to do the trick. I just do the trick. Audiences
are so aware of the cups and balls (remember,
it is a classic) that I don't think we need to
explain LOGICALLY what they are. And if we think
in that way, so many other tricks would need an
explanation. Why do we light candles and then
use a silk to vanish them? Why do we use a cane
and then use a newspaper to vanish it? And so
on and so on.
Cups and Balls, like
Linking Rings are classic. I don't think that
audiences will ever get tired of the so called
`classics'. It's like music. Verdi, Mozart and
the likes are classic. You know them. You've heard
them over and over again, but from time to time
you want to hear them again. Why? Because they
are usually tied to some sensations, emotions,
feelings or romantic moments. Sensations that
stayed in your heart and you want them back to
relive from time to time when you need them or
just miss them. Even though you know it's just
music, you like it. The classics of magic are
the same (at least to me!). Even if you know (even
if the AUDIENCE knows) that you have an open ring,
a Linking Ring routine performed properly, I think,
is always well accepted. Because it is ALL in
the WAY you do it, your own personal and unique
presentation. Basically its a very simple secret:
There is no secret.
I am open to and welcome your comments,
Aldo Columbini
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