I recently bought the Miracle Magic (made in India) small plastic chop cup in order to see if I like the routine enough to spend more on a good cup. I was trying to find a good final load at WalMart when I discovered foam practice golfballs. The make great final loads for the chop cup and my small cups and balls set. I then walked over a couple of aisles and found smiley face AND alien head antenna topper balls and they both work great too. Just thought I'd pass this info along.

Sammy the Kid

Ah! A K-Mart shopper! Next to dollar stores, my favorite place to buy magic equipment. However, in the dollar store, I recently located a little wind-up toy car that spins around in circles for a few seconds, if you want a noisy and animated final load. It was in the toy section. Now I'm looking for a tiny radio controled car that could also serve the same purpose, but under the guidance of a secret assistant, could also be programmed to drive around a card circle and stop on a freely chosen card. Very unwizard-like thoughts these days!

In the cover story of the November 2002 edition of MAGIC they said the guy would do a watch steal and have that be the final load.

Anyway...
What about a ball of play dough?
A partially inflated balloon
A stuffer animal.
Various sponge shapes, maybe?
A paper weight (be careful about it breaking!!!).
If the chop cup is big enough you might fit a deck of cards inside (I don't know if they even make them big enough since I never had a chop cup).

I found some small soft rubber sports balls at Academy that fit perfect. Imagine the surpise, a basketball comes out, then a soccer ball, football, etc.

I've used regular golf balls with the plastic cups and balls. They fit perfectly. I found it really adds to the effect if you bounce the first one on the floor right after you produce it. The first thing that seems to go through people's minds seems to be that the final loads are fake and can be compressed really small to hide them in the cups. By bouncing the golf ball, people instantly know it is solid and real. Besides, the "thunk" sound the golf ball makes quite an attention getting device.

Thanks,
Richard

What exactly is a final load?

A final load is what you produce at the end of the routine (hence 'final load') in the cup...it is there in lieu of the ball(s) you have been showing them.

Oh. thank you

I was checking out of hobby lobby with a handful of raw materials (craft string, beads, small steel rings) when I ran across these 99 cent articukated toy stuffed bears. I bought one on a lark and foubd it to be the perfect size for a final load. I love it when cheap and good come together...

Djbilan,
I found one of the 99 cent stuffed rabbits that also fits in my cups for C&B final load on the Ron Bauer routine.

At an euro store I found an amazing assortment of artificial fruits and vegetables which are used for decorations or store displays. The quality was excellent. Went back the next day with my cup and started testing and left with a huge bag of stuff.

I've always liked theming cups and balls or chop cup with the final loads. The same old, familiar routine is brand new when its themed. For a football club I used small footballs (from a toy store), at Halloween small pumpkins (artificial, of course) and for kids small vinyl statues of Disney characters. I bought small plastic shot glasses from Ikea (I think Eugene Burger uses's them in his "shotglass surprise") and I am working out a routine using shot glasses as final loads or something-its not very far yet, just testing different ways so far.

How about this:

You do your chop cup routine.
Then you use your final load.
You now load a roll of film for a 2nd final load.
You tell them (as picking up the cup showing the roll) "That's the photo finish"

2 cents on the cup load,

I had this problem a long time ago. I use the mini cup so my final load requirement is minimal but important never the less. for a large cup (for intermediate or final load) I settled on Nerf gun foam balls. They come in a 4 pack, they are super light, about 1 3/4" round, and the 3 most important reasons 'I' choose them:

1) They look completely different than any other ball I would normally use

2) They have a brilliant Yellow color that only the legally blind can't see.

3) For the mini cup, they fill it completely and they can be lightly "stuck" into of the cup with the slightest of finger pressure and is easily dislodged.

Good Luck.

Here's a final load I used to use for my cups and balls routine. I used a BIG wad of cash! (Fake money rolled up with a real bill on the outside.)

"Now folks, before I was learned the cups and balls I spent four years doing pickpocketing magic. But don't worry....you're all safe with me. (A Big Smile) Isn't it funny how everyone always takes a giant step back when I say that? Ok we'll take that last ball, and put it into the pocket and....there, I did it again...did you all see that? You see the way I snuck it back under the cup? Well here it is....WHOOPS! How did that get in there?"