Ricky Jay's Cups and Balls

you know until johann nepomuk options are called playing cards the poetry of magic a conjurer skill was determined entirely on his ability to perform one effect that was called the cups and balls there are many people who tell you it's the oldest effect in the history of magic and on the tombs of the King Beni Hasan of ancient Egypt there are representations of Nile magicians doing the cups and balls I'm not one of those people I will tell you the game was known to the Greeks and Romans that Seneca wrote about it that the earliest iconography in our venerable are the famous planetary drawings of Ulm in the 15th century do show cups and balls conjurer's the game has been played continuously for hundreds if not thousands of years with your kind permission I'd like to end my performance this evening by showing you my version of this classic which I called the history lesson in 1584 Reginald Scott wrote the first practical treatise on conjuring in the English language and in it he spoke about putting the ball under a common object like a candlestick he also said one might use a salt cellar a bowl or even a cup and if the conjurer was clever he could make the ball vanish and appear almost it will only a short time later the game was played with bowls of China played in the Orient anthropologists loved the concept of independent invention in Western Europe it was played with cups of cheap metal a tin which on occasion had the strange ability to seem penetrable this evening I'm going to use cups of spun copper personal favorites for a reason I will not reveal one of the things I love about this game is it independently exists in the genre of the gambler as well as the magician this is a scene you may remember as the old three shell game I mean Inglis raced courts it was called thimble written in the language of The Hustler it might be known as the hints the Dinks the blocks or the nuts the idea that you'd either put a ball or pretend to put a ball under one of the cups but the ball would appear where it was least likely once again if I place the ball over here and I move this moving these cups you might think the ball here but it jumps to over here one last time this is why people have been known to lose houses and even clothing playing this little game one last time if I place the ball here and move that to here the ball now jumps as well now a conjurer would do this in a slightly different fashion the conjurer would take the object put it in his hand make it vanish using a magic wand Conger is also cheat they use many of these actually the game was traditionally played with three cups and three balls I'm going to show you an actual sequence of events from a 17th century bestseller called hocus pocus jr. the idea here that I will cover the center ball with a cup and place one on top then I'll actually cover this and try to make the ball penetrate solid through solid joining its mate below now that you know the sequence why don't you follow it again this time a ball penetrating through two solid copper cups this method a personal favorite of mathieu Buchinger the little man of Nuremberg he was only 28 inches tall the cups obscured almost his entire body look that's enough for three balls to appear below Matthew Buchinger had no arms or legs but he did have 14 children the most famous man to ever play the game the Italian Bartolomeo Bosco Bosco appeared in the beginning of the 19th century cut an unusual figure on stage he wore a black satin weskit black velvet trousers he made sure his sleeves were carefully rolled up he took out his magic wand and polished the tip a wand which he said was made of a strange amalgam of metals known only to himself and Erasmus of Rotterdam above this table was a brass bell he hid the bell and said the word spirit I mean the finale of edite infernal spirits obey my command Bosco sequence with the cups and the ball vada Zhu Bo Solera turn three gone and yet three returned Bosco had only one contemporary rival the slightly older Frenchman named CONUS who in 1795 announced that he would make his wife who was five foot seven appear under one of the cups practice though I have I've been unable even to get married wouldn't even touch these with his hand actually he said the only reason the magician used three was to confuse you so he took one ball and placed that aside miss papa he took the second ball and also placed that away it still left one ball over here but it didn't explain how this ball came back CONUS explained he said the magician did a feint he only pretended to take the ball actually what he did was to pretend put his hand back and then insinuate the ball under the cup CONUS said i do no such thing when i place the ball in my pocket it really stays there how could it come back and indeed where perhaps back to the 16th century many of you may prefer the game the way it was played in the Orient with two balls and you might prefer the European version with three cups and three balls and if you have been paying attention you know there would be one ball under the center cup but now there are three and that's the way the game was played for another hundred and twenty years until it was revolutionized once again by Max Malini the man I spoke of earlier Malini would take three glasses and wrap them in newspaper he would take a cork from a wine bottle and cut it into three sections he would take the three sections of cork and place them in his pocket then fashioning an impromptu wand out of a celery stalk or an asparagus spear the glasses and say spits I mean finale of edite or anything else that came to mama and that's the mystery

Channel: Success Blueprint

Views: 311,228

Rating: 4.9149194 out of 5

Keywords: Coin, Revealed, Illusion, Magic Trick, Cool, Trick, Cards, Tricks, Gets, Card, Blaine, Magic Tricks, Magic (illusion), Card Trick, Amazing, Criss, Magician, David, Magic (paranormal)

Id: QwF1ec4Ji7Y

Length: 7min 4sec (424 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/tknames]

I'm sure no one will see this, but this man is Ricky Jay. I'm 40 now, and when I was 10, I came across his special one day on HBO. He was instantly my favorite person. I loved he magic, the illusion, but his delivery was the real hook. Since then, I have followed his career somewhat. He is spectacular in EVERYTHING. I'm a fanboy to be sure, but if you get a chance, consume every product he touches. He makes the world magical again, even to this day.

And goddamn, anyone that is funny, makes you believe in magic when you know no such thing exists, and has his rich sense of tradition, history, and lore; should be treasured. He is the last of his kind. I will mourn his passing when it happens. Until then, I keep watching through the eyes of a 10 year old.

[u/From_H_To_Uuo]

Pen and Teller explain this trick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8osRaFTtgHo

[u/rabbitsnake]

I wonder what Underwater Demolition is.

[u/pyxistora]

Dude had stuff coming up through the table top when he hit a button

[u/zBriGuy]

Underwater Demolition