Cups and balls

The cups and balls is a magic performance with countless variations. Street gambling versions used by con artists were called Bunco Booths. A standard routine incorporates many core magic effects: balls can vanish, appear, change places, reappear, and change form. Essential skills like misdirection, manual dexterity, sleight of hand, and managing the audience are also crucial. Because of this, mastering the cups and balls is widely seen as the ultimate test of a magician's ability with gimmick-style tricks. Magician John Mulholland noted that Harry Houdini believed no one could be considered a true magician until they had mastered it. Professor Hoffman called the cups and balls "the groundwork of all legerdemain." Instead of cups, other covers like bowls or hats can be used. The shell game is a dishonest variant of the cups and balls used as a confidence trick.

**History** The effect, also called acetabula et calculi, was performed by Roman conjurers two thousand years ago, as mentioned in Seneca's 45th Epistle to Lucilius. A well-known image, thought to date from 2500 B.C. on a wall in a burial chamber at Beni Hasan, Egypt, shows two men kneeling over four upside-down bowls. Early Egyptologists Wilkinson and Newberry took this as evidence that the cups and balls effect, or the related deceptive gambling game thimblerig, might date back to Ancient Egypt. Modern Egyptologists, however, consider the image a game using pots or cups, but the rules are unknown. The illustration is unique in ancient Egyptian art, so whether it involves sleight of hand may never be known unless a future discovery provides a similar image with more context.

**Performance and variations** The most common version uses three cups and three small balls. The magician makes the balls seem to pass through the solid bottoms of the cups, jump from one cup to another, disappear from a cup and appear elsewhere, or vanish from various places and reappear under the cups (sometimes the same cup). The routine often ends with larger objects, such as fruit, bigger balls, small animals like baby chicks, or a mix of different final loads. Many magicians use fruit because each piece differs in shape and size, increasing the surprise.

**Basic routine** The routine starts with three cups lined up and three balls visible. One ball is placed on top of the middle cup, and the other two cups are stacked above it. With a tap of a wand, the three cups are lifted to show the ball has "penetrated" the cup. The cups are set in a line again, the middle cup covering the ball that already penetrated. Another visible ball is placed on top of the middle cup, covered with the other two cups, tapped, and lifted to show the second ball has penetrated. This is repeated with the third ball.

**Medieval cups and balls** In 1584, Reginald Scot wrote *The Discoverie of Witchcraft*, describing tricks with balls. He recommends using candlesticks with a hollow underneath, bowls, or salt cellar covers. He describes a routine with three or four balls and as many covers, placing a ball under each cover, lifting them to show the balls vanished, then having them all reappear under one cover. Although Scot describes a method, magicians consider it unlikely because some moves would be impossible to perform invisibly.

**Indian cups and balls** In India, the cups and balls (called Cheppum Panthum) were performed seated on the ground, with the audience standing or sitting in chairs around the performer. This unique line of sight led to distinctive sleight of hand moves. The cups are shaped like shallow bells, with a small knob handle on top, often held between the first two fingers. Because the cups are shallow, a large item cannot be produced at the end, so the routine often ends with the production of many same-sized balls. Shankar Junior, however, would end by producing black powder from one bowl. The number of cups and balls varies, with one to five balls and two to four cups in play.

**Owan To Tama** Owan To Tama, "The Turning of Bowls," is the Japanese version. The magician uses three bowls, traditionally four soft silk-covered balls, a fan, and three final productions—either oranges or boxes, sometimes of cigarettes. The movements are based on Japanese classical dance. A display called "Owan-Gaeshi" shows the bowls empty in a dance-like manner, passing them from hand to hand. The routine has a reverent, ceremonial air. It was performed kneeling on the floor for a kneeling audience. Unlike other cups and balls routines, the Japanese magician usually worked indoors, to music.

**"Bean sowing"** The Chinese routine is often called "The Immortal Sowing Beans" and originated in ancient agricultural society before the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE), possibly as early as the Longshan culture period. Its name comes from the saying "Plant melons and you get melons; sow beans and you get beans." The props include a fan, a mat, between two and six bowls, and between three and ten beans. The most common variant uses two bowls with either three or five beans. The Chinese method is unusual because an extra bean or ball is rarely used, and it employs atypical methods of hiding the beans. Traditionally, the routine was performed on the ground.