On Mar 18, 2017, Tony Venetico wrote:
I just ordered it from Penguin yesterday, thinking it was the new one. Is this the new version, Ken? I sure hope so.....

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S22472

On Aug 29, 2016, Brainbu$ter wrote:
I have Mr. Goldenballs.

The bag itself had a stray thread coming out when I took it out of the tube.
Hope that won't start unraveling.

My balls are sticky.
It must be the paint he used.
I purchased some clear lacquer (or clear varnish)
for $4 and sprayed it on my balls. A couple coats.
With that finish, my balls feel amazing and they look shiny.

I'd prefer however that when I purchase something that it's ready to go
and won't need improvements.
I got the idea from a guy in the facebook group, who suggested applying clear varnish to make the balls less sticky.

When I performed it for the first time,
I did not include the prediction at the end, "Performer was left with the black ball."
I decided to scrap that because I felt it very weird for the routine.
Why would you do kurotsuke, have 4 people reach inside a bag to pick a ball so that you can sniff out the gold one,
only then to take out a ball for yourself? It doesn't make sense except for your prediction.

Not only does it not make sense for the main effect,
but also I think it may dilute the overall effect.
You are presenting "mindreading" or detecting whether someone is lying or telling the truth,
then at the end you pretty much show everyone that you knew beforehand what the outcome would be.

Turns out I might've been wrong.
I stayed after the show and performed close-up.
Two people, in conversation, told me, "You should be doing THIS on stage. This is amazing. Not that goldenballs stuff." (or words to that effect).
One couple said that what I did (Mr. G Balls) was easy,
and anyone in the audience would have a good chance telling who had the gold ball.
I feel that the funnier the questions you use, the less impressive it is, and the more mundane questions, the more impressive (but not funny).
For example, "What's your mother's maiden name?" Not funny. But impressive if you can tell whether he's lying.
On the other hand, "If you could kiss John Goodman or Danny Glover on the mouth, who would you choose?" (I just made that up just now).
That's a funny question, but his response ... actually that may qualify as impressive.
"What's your worst or most embarrassing habit?" is funny but NOT impressive, because in my limited experience,
one of the men said something ridiculous ("I watch Pitch Perfect 2, three times every day"). The audience laughed. Good thing.
However, it was extremely obvious that he did not have the gold ball.

In short, they were underwhelmed by Mr. G___balls (at least without the final prediction).
This was just one event, so it's not enough to draw any firm conclusions.
But I'd have to agree that discerning whether someone is lying or not (a 50/50 shot) is fairly boring (unless you're Derren Brown,
but even then, I personally find it some of the least entertaining effects he does).

I will say, however, that my presentation of it, with MY questions, was very funny (though not impressive, according to reports).
In my opinion, the questions Ken Dyne gives in the provided Powerpoint presentation are not that funny.
In fact, one of Dyne's "Sample Comedy Questions," is "What's your star sign?" and another is, "What color car do you drive?"
He had two that I thought were funny.

In contrast, my third question is (and I use only male volunteers to make this question funnier),
"If you had to pick, which of the other contestants would you go on a date with?"
This is funny because I've chosen all male contestants.
Then the next question is even funnier (sorry, not giving it away here).

One thing I don't like is that, if any of your audience googles "Mr G___balls,"
the only links that come up are Ken Dyne's website selling this trick, and this very thread.

You don't think they'll google it?
For this trick, two types of people may google it--not just the ones who want to know how it was done.

First, those who want to know how it was done (though it's mostly just funny).
That first group will DEFINITELY remember the NAME of the trick, since "MR G____BALLS" is shown on the big screens behind you as you perform it.

Second, and this is what makes this trick the most dangerous--because this is probably a much larger population--,
those who simply think the term, "Mr. G---balls, " is funny, and they simply want to look it up.
Ken Dyne came up with it. I know because I googled it for THIS reason. I just wanted to know more about the phrase,
and whether it was popular in America as well as in the UK. The links that came up were for this trick (including this thread).
Google it yourself right now and you'll see what I mean.


If I saw ANY performer or speaker mention that term and talk about what it means,
there is a GOOD CHANCE I would google it at some point. And I would be directed straight to the website where I can buy the trick.

How would you like it if every time you perform the Inv D_ck,
the title, "Inv____le D__k" were displayed on the screen behind you, and the announcer said, "It's now time for the Inv_____ D__k!!"

One other thing I dislike is that I feel that one of the important parts where you NEED patter,
specifically a joke or something misdirecting, is when one of the contestants is about to reach into the bag.
Between one contestant and another contestant, you need to be talking. Otherwise it will be obvious you're doing something unnatural for no good reason.
Dyne didn't address this in the teaching video.
What I used was, "Are you right-handed or left handed?" and "What's your name and occupation?" and "With your favorite hand, reach inside and you grab a ball." You can't, for example, simply let the 4 players reach inside and grab their balls.
You have to do something (obviously with the bag since you're holding it).
Since it should take you only half a second to go from one player to the next,
you should (I would think) turn to the audience and say something in between the players,
to give you a reason to fiddle with the bag.
This was not discussed in the teaching video.

I agree with those above who mentioned that the ad video for this trick is the funniest I've ever seen.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who appreciated how hilarious the advertisement was.

One more thing... on my first performance,
since I didn't do the prediction at the end,
I used 5 instead of 4 contestants.
By doing this, yes, I discarded the prediction at the end,
but at the same time I made the overall effect clearer (lie detection)
and more impressive as far as the main "lie dectector" effect goes (5 people instead of 4),
and funnier (because I could ask one or two more funny questions).

On Mar 22, 2017, illusioneer wrote:
I understand that the bag is a new and different design than what was used on the Lecture. However, can the bag now supplied still be utilized as a sw***h bag outside of the MR. GB routine?

On Mar 23, 2017, Mindpro wrote:
Is there a benefit or advantage to ordering this directly from you vs. Penguin or Murphy's?

On Mar 23, 2017, Ken Dyne wrote:

Quote:

On Mar 23, 2017, Mindpro wrote:
Is there a benefit or advantage to ordering this directly from you vs. Penguin or Murphy's?

Not really, only that I make a couple of extra pounds and I can personally kiss the box for you. Other than that, your local brick magic shop will be able to carry Mr G and I think it's important we support these as they are getting fewer and fewer every year now.

On Mar 23, 2017, Ken Dyne wrote:

Quote:

On Mar 23, 2017, Mindpro wrote:
Is there a benefit or advantage to ordering this directly from you vs. Penguin or Murphy's?

Not really, your local brick magic shop will be able to carry Mr G and I think it's important we support these as they are getting fewer and fewer every year now.

On Mar 23, 2017, The Duster wrote:

from what I understand they couldn't match the direct price - though [the implication was] they 'should have - but that's another story'

This works out as over £90 from shops, and £65 direct

So I bought this directly from you