Hey!
Ive seen several performers of a cups and balls routine do a vanish with the ball in one hand, the wand in the other. They strike against the open hand with the ball, and as the wand touches the palm with the ball, the ball is gone.

I have a good idea on how to do it. But is this some move with a certain name that I can investigate further? Really want to learn this properly as I am working on to be able to preform a cups and balls routine, and I really like this move. Looks so clean.

At the moment I only do the chop cup with great success, but I would love to improve my cups and balls and start to preform it.

Ronnie

It is legitimately called, wait for it, the strike (or striking depending on where you learn) vanish, I guess because magicians have to be creative with their moves, they have no creativity left for naming them, it's a david williamson move I believe, but can be learned all over, I learned it from the magic makers cups and balls dvd that comes with these plastic cups http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMAZING-CUPS-AND......c13e34f4 but I'm sure there are better sources, anyway I'm pretty certain it's SUPPOSED to be called the strike vanish, but can be found jsut as readily as striking vanish

The strike vanish (I think) was developed to be used with an improvised wand like a pen or table knife. Something short so your hands are relatively close together. Few magicians I've seen can accomplish this convincingly with a longer object like a traditional wand. Most performers "cheat" by making an obvious (to me) tossing move with the ball hand. It doesn't take much more than a twitch and forward movement of both hands to let inertia move the ball to it's final resting place.

It's totally possible with enough practice, I don't personally use it, but I've seen plenty of people do it really well.

David Williamson and Michael Ammar both do a very convincing strike vanish with a full length wand. Both are good sources to learn it, too. Both have books and DVDs that teach it. If you want more specific references, please drop me a PM.


Mark

Williamson developed it and Ammar was one of the first to publish it. It really needs to be worked into a routine - not effective on its own.

Don't make it obvious throw it up. I use it in the middle of a quick routine with a borrowed coin and Sharpie.

A busker in London taught me it. I don't want to give to much away. but the wand hand moving over the ball and swing the wand can help. Also hitting the hand make the ball jump as well.

I don't know good resouces but have fun with it.

Great! Thanks a lot for all the tips, hints and advice! Helps alot. I have decided to get Michael Ammars cups and balls dvd (1 - 2). I really like his other work and have been a big fan of his since I got into magic.

I realise it should be used in a routine. I was thinking to mix the vanishes of the ball up, to make it less repetative and obvious.

I to have seen some very good people do it with a wand very clean. I guess its just about practice, practice and more practice like with everything else

Thanks people. Ill start to dive into the frey. I guess Michael Ammar's cups and balls dvd is a good place to start to evolve my routine.

Also I have heard great things about Gazzos street cups. Guess I will look into that aswell.

Ronnie

David Williamson has an excellent teaching session about the striking vanish on his DVD "Magic Farm".

Cool, I will check that out aswell. I am sure there is plenty of more interesting stuff on that DVD to justify the buy. Thanks for the tip!

Ronnie

Jay Sankey also teaches it, look for his trick Leaving Home, which is a key on string trick.

Ronnie, Michael Ammar is an excellent teacher. I think it's a great place to start. Enjoy and good luck!

Ronnie, you made the right choice.

'A striking vanish' by David Williamson is taught on Magic Farm with a bunch of interesting variations involving balls, coins, cards and other items. Dave also explains why he no longer uses it in his C&B routine, and how he prefers to use it.

Magic Farm is a fantastic dvd.

Greg Wilson had a chop cup routine using Hershey Kisses, a can of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, and used a spoon to do the strike vanish. This Shorter length "wand" lookrs great and the shiney bowl of the spoon striking the palm added to the effect a bit w an audable as well as visual aspect.

Ammar's Cups and Balls 1 and 2 is a GREAT set of dvds for learning many of the sleights for building up your own routine!

The short "wand" is much safer to use with this vanish, mainly because there is a shorter distance for the object to travel. Very few magicians do this well with a full-length wand, unless they grip it near the center.

With a full length wand I prefer the wand spin vanish rather that the Striking Vanish. I have to agree with Bill, the striking vanish is too hard for me with a full length wand.

Yes Michael Ammar has done a tremendous job on the C&Bs for our community, really fantastic

... and even if you can do a proper Striking Vanish (using Bill Palmer's advice) it would be dammageable to the move to repeat it too many times in your routine but it blends well with the Mora wand spin and there is no preference to have here (just a good brain to use them properly in combination)

You need however other vanishes as well and you can find them either in Audly Walsh or Garry Ouellet or Franck Garcia or David Roth (on his balls video). Just study also the position of the receiving left hand: if you close your left hand into a fist naturally, your fist looks empty. Try bringing the tip of your curled middle finger to the inner knuckle of your thumb and curl the oter fingers along the second finger.

Two more points on vanishes: if one wants to fool magicians who know about the Mora wand spin, it's a simple matter to use Richard Hatch vanish and then perform the wand spin managing for the hand holding not to pass under the one holding the ball to vanish, just the tip of the wand.

For the fanatics about David Williamson's Striking Vanish who want to kill even its originator, use a looped ball (check Now U see it now your don't by Meir Yedid) and hit the left palm with the very tip of the wand in a way that the Striking vanish could not be done... and then use the ball just as a regular ball....