Chop Cup

On August 2nd, 1982, Martin Breese organized a John Mendoza lecture, which was taped for later release as a video. But Martin being the busy publisher he was had so many other projects to work on that he never got around releasing this recording. We rescued the recording from two old Umatic tapes Martin gave to me. Since this was recorded in the early 80s do not expect a high definition video. But it is nevertheless a good recording of Mendoza's lecture. The video has some flaws here and there with stripes, ghost images, and an occasional blackout. The audio track has no noticeable blackouts or problems....

D. Terelmes is a performer who admits he tends to overthink things. He's been performing the chop cup for close to 40 years. Contained are his pet peeves on what he believes other performers (even top pros) are doing wrong when presenting the chop cup. You won't find any new sleights or new moves. Instead you might find a nugget or few that will change your approach as to how YOU perform and routine the chop cup.

He hopes to take the chop cup from the "obvious" trick that some consider it to be, to the miracle it can be; one that withstands repeat performances at street festivals and haunted...

Working Progress is a short ebook of six tricks that I use when working for real, live human beings. They're all practical tricks that work in pretty much any performing environment you could possibly find yourself.

Inside you'll find a cool transposition that you'll love to perform, a chop cup routine which includes TWO fabulous endings that get round the awkward "putting the lemons back into your pocket" reset moment, a great use for the Phil deck that you can use for parlour performances or to open a set at a house party, plus there's a routine for the card to wallet that doesn't foreshadow...

From the introduction:

This routine was honed through many years of adding segments and cutting others. I approached the idea of developing a Chop Cup routine with two priorities: first, I had no interest in doing a Chop Cup routine that made the spectator the foil, i.e.: they always guess incorrectly where the ball is. Thus, I've included much of my patter so that you can see how I've taken the "sting" out of the routine. Secondly, I refused to underestimate the intelligence of my audience and directly address their suspicions that there is more than one ball in play. In fact, in the spirit...

The Chop Cup turns a sleight-of-hand classic - the cups and balls - almost into a self working miracle. Of course, to perform a strong Chop Cup routine you will still need a good amount of sleight of hand and misdirection, but a lot of the 'work' is done by the cup itself.

Al Wheatley is credited with the invention of the Chop Cup. Will Ayling collects in this ebook a series of strong Chop Cup routines including Ken Brooke's routine.

This was part of the Supreme Know-How Series.

1st edition 1989; original 40 pages; PDF 56 pages.

5. Another One Cup And Ball Routine
13. Paper Cover Cup And...