MUCH EARLIER THIS YEAR I PUBLISHED A PIECE about sponge balls and many magi have asked if I could repeat the blog.

Certainly!

So – do you do sponge balls? Of course you do. Everybody does but I think we are all guilty of unwittingly revealing the secret.

Let me tell you a story. When I was seventeen I did a show for a scout troop and performed a sponge ball routine. Two years later after my national service I was asked to present another show at the same scout troop. The organiser said “will you do that trick whereby you put a ball in a boy’s hand and three came out?” “Oh” I replied, “you mean the sponge ball trick” “Oh” he said “they’re made of sponge are they!” And I realised I had blown the method.

Since that day I have never called them sponge balls which we all do in the magic vernacular. If you avoid the noun “sponge “and call it a ball, the participating spectator may know they collapse in his hand but there could be a hundred people out in the audience who think they are solid balls. And with the close-textured Goshman balls made today, it is easy to believe that they are solid.

Some of the great sponge ball workers never called them “sponge” Don Alan would show a ball in his hand and joke “I have a small red ball – but I do the best I can!” Likewise Billy McComb would say “I have a small red ball – which was of great concern to my parents!”

Similarly when I do a vanishing cane in newspaper I walk into the booking with the cane already set and make a great play of showing it, tapping it on the floor and pointing to things.

Then when it vanishes, they think “where the devil did the solid cane go.” If you walk in with a small bag and suddenly appear on stage with a three -foot walking cane, it could begin to suggest that it’s collapsible.

It’s little things like that that can give away the beginnings of a secret. I do a book test and put on my glasses to read a crib for the word revelation. A very intelligent  lady – a chemistry professor – said “Why do you put your glasses on when you reveal the word to the spectator ?” 

I quickly re-routined the effect and put the glasses on way, way ahead of the actual revelation. It’s important to view your magic from the audience’s position. It can be very revealing.

Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Thoughts