I have been working on a billiard ball act. In a begining part of it I have a ball palmed in my left hand. I have a silk scarf in my other. I need a way to produce the ball using the scarf. Without doing the typical universal method of draping it over my hand and saying whala.

I don't want to use any gimmicks. Do to my hands halve to be clean beforhand for other things. Plus they should be clean after as well. Anyone have any thoughts?

Maybe you can do a knot in the scarf and make the knot to a ball by pulling the (slip)knot off the silk scarf.

-Fred

There are a number of effects, including productions, vanishes, color changes, that use just a ball (or two) and a handkerchief (no gimmicks). Jay Lessie has several on his "Ball Manipulation for alls skill levels" DVD.

A simple stroke the scarf move that looks as if you have "milked" the ball from the scarf as it is pulled through the hand looks nice and is easy to do.

You should go to the following site and pick this billiard ball holder up. It is from Lynetta Welch, and it fits really nicely into your suit jacket.

http://www.fabricmanipulation.com/magict......0-4.html

Without having to palm the ball, this will allow you to get a lot more creative. Let me know how it works out.

-Anthony Cap

If you wear a jacket and the ball is not too big simply drop it down your sleeve and go form there (Jack Devlin produced four balls from his sleeves).

I agree with Fred-Erik, the "knot" to ball is very simple, yet very effective. Showing a hole in the silk after is a nice touch and my favorite part. It's difficult to add humor to a manip act and this always brings a smile to people's faces.

AFA ball holders, I'm all for sparing no expense if it will make a significant improvement in your act and I'm a huge fan of Lynetta Welch's products, wonderful stuff. But having said that if you use Fakini balls or any ball with some grip to it then I would also have to say that there are some really good ball holders available from a variety of online sources that IMHO are every bit as good and secure and sure-fire as Lynetta's but cost one tenth the price. I would not say that Lynetta's are over-priced, it's more a case of the ones costing 2 bucks being underpriced. But that's the price so who am I to argue?
Here's just one example:
https://loomismagic.com/alpha.php?type=p&letter=B
BTW, if using wooden balls just wrap the prongs in tape or rubber bands or something simple like that.

Best,
Bill

This might be a good opportunity for a loop ball.

I 2nd Harry's suggestion about getting the Leslie DVD.

Jeff Mc Bride has a nice little routine called "Ball and Silk" on his 3 volume DVDs "The Art of Manipulation with coins, thimbles and balls".
Very nice, short and easy to learn.

Oliver.

You might consider searching for some of Anverdi's lecture notes, especially Volume 1. He had some outstanding ideas with silk and ball manipulation, including steals and productions. Although Anverdi is perhaps more widely known for his electronics effects, he also had some novel ideas with silks, balls, thimbles, and other items.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I suspect you do not want to use a shell, but a shell can make the ball appear to be hanging in the middle of the fabric, visible on both sides. You then pull the silk slowly away leaving just the ball (and shell) and leaving no hole in the silk.

(Laflin's Sequences and Steals has this I think.)

-Daniel

I have found that the answer is not how you produce the ball from the scarf that matters -- only the ability to show both hands empty during the process. If you learn to manipulate the ball between you hands without it being seen, then you can alternate how you use the scarf: 'over the hand', 'milking the silk', "knot to Ball', 'bag and drop', 'through the silk', etc.

maybe I should do a ShareBook on this. PM me if difficult

I pinged Sterling Steal on this and he says:

"Hold the silk by the corner, in the rt hand, drape the silk over the lft hand, stroke the silk with lft hand in an upward motion , retaining the ball in the lft hand palm toward you, the 2nd time stroke the silk in a downward motion, stealing the ball into the rt hand which will show the lft hand empty as it will be palm tword the audiance as it is finnishing the stroke of the silk. this will leave you with the silk & ball in the rt hand still holding the silk by the corner as you slightly trn to the rt. lft hands now comes up in front and top of silk as the lft fingers go around the silk they steal the finger palm ball in rt hand as it strokes down the silk, producing it at the finger tips of the lft hand !! Or you could just produce the ball in the 2nd stroke without steeling it with the rt hand, hard to put into words but is very fast and easy you end up showing both hands empty and produce the ball from the silk with lft hand"

Hope that helps.

TC

I don't know where you are at in your routine when you perform the ball from silk manipulation, but I usually start my show with a ball manipulation which is actually a stone, but I place it in the crook of my elbow and then do the old pull my sleeve up and show my hand empty, steal and switch to the other sleeve, empty...

After both hands are shown to be empty just pull the scarf from your breast pocket and drive on.

A great reference is the video/DVD lecture by Shimada. He has some wonderful moves with ball and silk that I have studied and adapted to my own act and routines. It is certainly worth looking into.

Kyle

You can see some of my ball stuff on you tube sterling steal rabbit in the moon
or sterlingstealmagic.com