Just posting to see all the different types of patter used with spongeballs during kid's shows. Feel free to post any new/creative ideas you have come up with.

I'll start off:
Seeing as both my parents are teachers, and I usually perform for small groups in schools, I begin my spongeball routine that what the math kid's are learning in school is completely wrong (haha). Then I proceed to use the balls as counting tools, and fire off math questions. One ball plus one ball = three. I do a few different vanishes and appearances with that type of patter, then proceed to have a volunteer play some basketball (toss the spongeballs into changebag). I magically switch the balls into ropes, or anything else I will use for my routine and then carry on with the show.

Any others...?

In my opinion, a nice bit of patter for spongeballs comes from Carl Andrew's "Ain't No Mo", which is on a couple (?) of his DVDs.

It's a nice routine, but not educational. The patter I like. It's light hearted, got a pun or two in it, easy to follow, a fair bit happens, it builds nicely and ends with a punchline. It's probably a two minute routine and plays for most audiences. You can use a couple of volunteers in it.

I guess your own needs dictate if you'd buy a dvd just for a nice sponge routine, but if you can ever see it performed I'd check it out.

Not the most difficult routine, possibly too cute for some, but I think it's got charm.

When I make SB's dissapear and go to their hands I just tell them the balls really like them.

Ken Scott has a routine called Peanut Butter and Jelly. You can get the script from his website.

I use the names Peanut, Butter and Jelly for my sponge balls too but the routine is way different.

Uh, that'd be my routine--unless somebody named Ken Scott stole it.

But I no longer have a website. However, the routine is available as a PDF directly from me for $7.50 via Paypal.

Not mine. Don't see that on my site????

Scott, Ken Scott stole what??

That was tongue-in-cheek, Ken. No offense.

Scott's sponge ball routine is wonderful. I bought it, I use it all the time. It kills. I end it a bit differently but it's a great classic structure. Can't be beat. Thanks, Scott. Why no more website?

Jim

I think I saw Scott do this a while ago, and liked it. But the memory is a bit blurry.

Scott, did you ever lecture in Illinois?

As for what I do, I don`t really have patter or a story, I just like to do it as it is and make jokes and funny things.

Scott's PB&J routine is great, but be aware that it works better with super-soft balls, and you'll also need a purse-frame and a certain gimmick that your local magic dealer may not carry.

If you have balls of different sizes, you can do a sponge bunny routine using balls instead of bunnies. You can say they represent microscopic organisms - so you have papa microscopic organism, and mama microscopic organism ...

Or you can hack up your balls a little bit with a pair of scissors and present them as dust-bunnies, at the end showing how they seem to reproduce just like real bunnies.

Just a note to those looking to get into Scott's wonderful sponge-ball routine - he is selling his DVD with the PB&J sponge ball routine in the Café Buy/Sell forum for only $7.50 - limited quantites.

Also includes his ring and rope routine, and his jump rope routine.

To me (and to many others I have performed for) a red sponge sphere looks like a clown nose. So I figure rather than argue that it isn't a clown nose, but a sponge ball (used for what? - I might add - "here is the red sphere made of sponge that I keep in my pocket to amaze you"), I would just call it a clown nose and structure my routine around my short-lived career in the circus. I tell some circus jokes during the routine, give a reason to put one in my hand and one in yours, etc. I think this is one of the few sponge ball routines I have seen that makes sense.

"I haven't always been a magician, you know. I used to work in a Minute-Made factory ... but I got canned ... because I couldn't concentrate. I then attempted to labor in a Bazooka Joe plant ... but I blew it ... and the boss chewed me out. I went back to medical school to become a doctor, but I just didn't have any patients. So I ran off and joined the circus. The ring master first hired me as the human canonball. I shot my mouth off and got fired (I borrowed that last one from Michael Close). He re-hired me with the stipulation that he would demote me to the lowest rung on the ladder and he gave me one of these (introduce clown nose)." etc.

FC

Sorry Scott,
It was you I meant to say.
Both names had Scott and I got them mixed up.
Sorry also to Ken.

That last routine is hilarious!!!

I like to save the sponge balls for the heckler in the audience. I invite him on stage and do a routine that usualy keeps him quiet for the rest of the show

I introduce one (a red one) as Fred, from Pluto. You can tell the Plutonians from the Martians cause Martians are green (show a green one). Plutonians build big loud colorful spaceships called... clowns. They guide the clowns from a seat on the area we would call a face. Now, some of these spaceships can juggle, some do balloons, but all of 'em come from Outer Space (no offense meant towards any clowns reading this). Then I go into a 3 to 5 minute routine where Fred's friends Marv and Janie join the show, appearing and disappearing all over the place.

Just my take on 'em,
Sammy the Kid

Hey Ken,
What is the best magic prop you have ever had or did you ever see a great prop that stop you cold. Looking for that special trick or prop Birthday shows.
Fred

I use an idea from Mark Leveridge's routine by saying they are created from dust. I pretend to take bits of dust from the children's hair telling them that's what happens when you watch too much TV. I then produce the first ball...
Mark

In the movie "magic for humans" it has a good trick for sponge balls!

starts with an ordinary drinking straw!