The Tarbell Course describes a bowl that's used for a multi-phase production.

The title is "Mystery of the Paper Ball Egg Frog and Baby Chicken"

Does anyone know if there is a manufactured version of the bowls available? I can certainly make them myself and likely I will anyway, but I'd like to have a functional unit for reference.

I think you're referencing Eliaser Bamberg's "The Frogs, The Fish, and The Bowl of Water" from Volume 5 of the Tarbell Course, Page 341. If that's not the one you mean, then I have no idea based on your title. If it IS the one you mean, then the bowl is not the important part of the trick and any glass bowl could be used, and probably many clear plastic bowls as well. You're going to have trouble finding hair-nets these days.

No, afraid not.
The trick is in the "oriental magic" section. I think it's volume 5.

You have overturns bowls on the table and one of the bowls produces different items when it's lifted up.

It's a heavily gimmicked bowl.

Good luck. You have a version of Tarbell's volume 5 that I don't have. But mine has page numbers, so if you ever actually look it up and can give both the volume and page number in Tarbell, someone else here might be able to help you with the "Mystery of the Paper Ball Egg Frog and Baby Chicken".

I have the PDF that Conjouring Arts put out a while back when the original course became public domain. It's not a proper book, it's scans of the original course, so mine doesn't have page numbers and they're not in the same order. Had the set back in the day, but it disappeared along with a bunch of my other magic stuff about ten years ago.

According the your website, it's Volume 8 (my bad there) lesson 96 page 131 - in the "Oriental Magic" section.

I'd like to buy one of the production bowls before I work through building one myself, but if nobody sells them it can't be helped.

I found it in Volume 8 as you said. It's "Rube Goldberg" * applied to magic. Using sleight of hand (and sleight of bowl and table) any regular deep soup bowl can be used without making an ultra complicated gimmicked bowl, which is probably the reason you don't see them for sale (if they ever were available in magic stores, which in my 70 years of magishing I have never seen). If you decide to build one following those strange instructions, let us know with photos so we can all have a good laugh.

A more practical approach, but still a little convoluted and unnecessary to a sleight of hand magician who can perform the Benson Bowl moves, would be to gimmick a table top with elevator wells to push the loads up under ordinary soup or cereal bowls. That's as "Rube Goldberg" as I care to get.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg

You've read the book, perhaps you should see the movie.
http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/10920

Riffraff, I already saw it. It's a clever effect if presented well. And the bowl is a utility gimmick if used wisely, I'm shocked the potential isn't bouncing around in your head, Jim.

I do have to disagree with the suggestion that it's a Rube Goldberg device - if so, then so is a holdout. It literally serves the same function "deposit pre-loaded item to given location". The suggestion that the same could be accomplished with sleight of hand is true, but so can most things sold through the magic nook. That's hardly the point. I also think its a bit funny that you wrote off a design with one moving part as overly complicated, then suggested a significantly more complicated elevator gimmick built.into the table.

Not surprised if they're not available anywhere, the original effect sucks and most magicians are lazy. If there's not an easily adapted version - don't bother building it. Since this is a build that would be entirely about presentation and the source material's presentation is terrible, I doubt there's been much demand, and if nobody is clamouring to get one then nobody is rushing to build them.

Riff raff,
That's a chunk of why I subscribed to Penguin's Tarbell course - Dan (for the small amount of time they give him) is excellent at updating effects and giving them reason to be/happen. He's been one of my favorite instructors going on about 15 years now.

If you had first mentioned that it appeared on the Dan Harlan Penguin Video of Tarbell 96, OR in Tarbell Volume 8, I might have had a better chance to know what the heck you were talking about. It still IS a Rube Goldberg trick (which is NOT an insult, by the way), but thanks to Dan, the building of it has been simplified and made less of a Rube Goldberg build. And you are right; Jack Miller's original holdout was also a Rube Goldberg device and Jack would have been the first to admit it.

While you are busy with your build of the Rube Goldberg production bowl, I'll be working on using Dan's great ideas of signed dollar bill, golf ball, gold coins, and squirmy worms with two ordinary ungimmicked plastic bowls and some simple sleight of hand. That's what went bouncing around in my head when I watched Dan's performance. I may just add the ideas to my Benson Bowl routine, or I may write them up in a future e-Book for a future issue of The Wizards' Journal if I live that long. Good luck, long life, and prosper!

Nor is it an insult to say that many things on magicnook can be done by sleight of hand instead of with the apparatus.
I've bought four or five of your DIY instruction sets over the last month because I like to know how to build things myself - lets me customize them.

Like I said before, while it may be true (sleight of hand can do the same thing) it's hardly the point.



I should have it assembled this week or next. Dan's design is pretty simple, but I think I can simplify it a tiny bit more while beefing up the gimmicked section to make it capable of handling a heavier load. Based on the plot I'm coming up with for it, it should also hide the trigger fairly well.

I don't think sleight of hand could do this effect for more than one person. Essentially it is doing the same trick with same apparatus multiple times in a row. M********tion needed for sleight of hand would be very difficult.

I really like Dan's construction. His patter is well motivated too. These "unique" effects are so rarely seen. It is great to see people performing them. At next Ring meeting I am going to do the mirror card routine in episode 94 along with some mirror illusions like the ambiguous cylinder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWfFco7K9v8. These types of things really get the ideation going.

Good luck with the build. I look forward to hearing the result.

While putting the finishing touches on my "Cubey-Doobey" e-Book in The Wizards' Journal #37, I figured out that the prop I'm calling a "Chop-Chop Can-Can", CAN-DO the entire routine that Dan Harlan put together for use with the two gimmicked bowls all by itself (along with some sleight of hand). The cost of the production items (golf balls, plastic gold coins, and soft rubber worms) came to $14.35 on Amazon, according to current September 2018 prices and with free delivery on all. I didn't enter this thread expecting to come away with a brand new magic routine for my "Cubey-Doobey Chop-Chop Can-Can", but I'm not going to let this one wiggle out of my fingers. No can-do!

I decided that my newest creation, the "Chop-Chop Can-Can" deserves an e-Book all by itself, so it has been pulled out of the Cubey-Doobey e-Book (although you can still use it with Rubik's Puzzle Cubes, both regular size and mini-cubes). You'll find it under its own name in The Wizards' Journal #37, as item 9. Previous purchasers of "Cubey-Doobey" will continue to get free updates on the new e-Book just as if they had purchased it separately. New purchasers who want both will have to buy each e-Book separately...or not, since they are no longer connected to one another. However, the Chop-Chop Can-Can is the one to use in order to duplicate the effect known as Tarbell's "Mystery of the Paper Ball, Egg, Frog, and Baby Chicken" described in volume 8 of the Tarbell Course, and re-created as a "Signed Dollar Bill, Golf ball, Gold coins, and Wiggly Worms" by Dan Harlan, all mentioned in previous posts here. If anyone finds this confusing, you can PM me or e-mail me for clarification.

I found a source for wooden, chopped Benson bowls. These are beautiful and sold for $60 shipped in CONUS or Western Europe. For $75 he will include a matching wand. No balls are included, but I would use rings n things adjustable boards, because the craftsman is not a magician and you never know about polarity. The rings n things 1 & 1/8 balls are perfect for this for this bowl. These are made of Limewood which is quite light. Extras would include a dimple on the top of the bowl (I wish I had thought of that), A heavier wood or special stain. He will make up some sets with heavy wood, a dark purple stain on the inside of the bowl, a dimple and a matching wand for $100 shipped! I do not have the patience required to post pictures here, but PM me with your email and I will send them to you. I should note that I am not associated with this company and do not profit from the sales. To contact the craftsman email crazylegskev@msn.com

Eric Hansen also makes turned wood bowls for Chop Cups: https://www.magicnook.com/EricHansen/EricHansen.htm

No prices posted, but you contact the wood turner Eric Hansen using the information on the site and tell him what you are looking for in terms of size, type of wood, etc. THEN he can give you a price. If you like it, you may buy. If not, you are under no obligation to buy. It's called "shopping."

It’s called, “sarcasm!”