Cups and balls

[1] Basic skills, such as misdirection, manual dexterity, sleight of hand, and audience management are also essential to most cups and balls routines.

As a result, mastery of the cups and balls is considered by many as the litmus test of a magician's skill with gimmick style tricks.

The shell game con is a rogue variant of the cups and balls used as a confidence trick.

[4] The effect, also known as acetabula et calculi, was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago, as referred to in Seneca's 45th Epistle to Lucilius:[5]

Sic ista sine noxa decipiunt quomodo praestigiatorum acetabula et calculi, in quibus me fallacia ipsa delectat.

from the walls of a burial chamber in Beni Hasan, Egypt,[6] shows two men kneeling over four inverted bowls.

It was taken by early Egyptologists Wilkinson[7] and Newberry[8] as evidence that the cups and balls effect, or its related deceptive gambling game, thimblerig, possibly dates back to Ancient Egypt.

The illustration is unique in ancient Egyptian art, so whether or not the game utilizes sleight of hand trickery may never be known unless a future discovery produces a similar image in a more explanatory context.

The magician uses three bowls, and traditionally four soft silk covered balls, a fan and three final productions, either oranges or boxes, sometimes of cigarettes.

[15] The Chinese routine of the cups and balls is often called "The Immortal Sowing Beans" and originated in ancient agricultural society prior to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600‍– 1046 BCE), likely as early as the Longshan culture period.

In ancient Greece and Rome magicians would perform standing behind a table, as opposed to on the ground as seen in Egypt, India and Turkey, to allow a larger audience to see the show,[6] and this tradition has continued today.

Similar squat cups were popularised by the likes of Paul Fox, Charlie Miller and Ross Bertram.

Jim Cellini, a student of Tony Slydini and teacher of many street performers, credits his routine to Vernon, Miller, and Johnny Fox.

[17] Dai Vernon's student, Michael Ammar, of whom Louis Falanga, President of L&L Publishing, said: "Ammar has literally led the industry in shaping the thinking and performing of this generation of magicians", created his own routine based upon what his teacher had taught him.

The Chicago close-up magician Don Alan performed his streamlined chop cup routine on television.

The magic duo Penn & Teller performs a version of the cups and balls trick in their act.

[20] Initially, they perform the trick with small aluminum foil balls and plastic cups.