I saw Rafael Benatar give a lecture last night. If you ever get a chance to see him take it. He had some wonderful card work, and also a cups and balls routine that had some incredibly fine work in it. He talked a lot about timing in order to get the best reaction from a trick.

His DVD "Elegant Cups and Balls" is almost required viewing on the subject.

And elegant it is.

All of his material had a charm to it. His double lift work was incredible.

I met him in Blackpool 2005, an elegant man is what he is. What we see in his magic is a natural consequence. His interview with Benatar in 'Scripting Magic-Pete McCabe' is motivating.

I will have to look into this

Rafeal was between flights yesterday and stopped in for lunch at the Castle, then went shopping for a new GUITAR.

He was looking for a Dobro or something similar.

Benatar is such a welcome contrast to those performers who beat and bang the hell out of their cups almost as if C&B was an Extreme Sport of some kind. Surely, misdirection need not involve such violent exertions..........but then again we live in an age that celebrates loudness and violence. To each his own, I guess.

Fortasse

I know what you mean. There is no reason that a performer should bang his cups with a heavy metal or ironwood wand.

A six-shooter with .45 Long Colt is so much more effective.

It also keeps the audience on their toes.

Nice touch, Bill. But seriously what's with all this mayhem on the cups? Is there method to the madness (misdirection)? Is it because the audience responds more appreciatively? I honestly would like to know why because it really makes little sense to me. I can understand buskers like Gazzo doing this sort of thing because they're competing with a cacaphony of loud noises out in the street and all manner of passersby who need extreme inducements to pause and watch. On the other hand, when the audience consists of a half a dozen people indoors, why would you want to flog your cups to death with your wand or bounce them off the ground, etc?

Fortasse

I agree. Never understood slamming cups together, pounding them with wands, or many of the other things some folks do to their cups. Also, the 'crash vanish' has always seemed completely transparent from my perspective. Can't help wondering if non-magicians are actually fooled by that move.

I have never thought that beating your cups to pieces made any sense. However, Gazzo sure did gather a lot of people by pounding on his. And, amazingly, some people think this is a mark of dignity or something. When the Houston Museum of Natural Science asked me to allow them to display 10 sets of cups from my collection, one of the sets they asked for specifically was the set Gazzo used.

His DVDs are some of my favorites.

Doug, I think that the crash vanish translates poorly on video. It works much better when it's performed live before your eyes.
I say that because I've seen it done very well - live. I can't do it convincingly myself - like you, I'm not a "crasher".

Absolutely!