What The Audience Sees:
'Today Jamie brought out a squeaky golf ball that wouldn't squeak when we tried it. He gave us a squeaky little red ball instead, but that wouldn't squeak for us either, so he said we'd better try something else. He then turned the red ball into 2 of them and made 1 of them vanish and appear in my hand. He then took those 2 and put them into someone else's hand and they turned into 8. Hilarious! How did he do that?'
How It Went:
Who knew? Everyone else, apparently. For the last half decade, I have refused to learn the sponge balls- they just didn't sit well with me and I honestly didn't think they'd play well in today's world. Oooohhh Boy, was I wrong. I have to give myself some credit, though. I worked harder on this Magic Friday than on any other one, I think. I've bought sponges, DVD's, books, anything I could get my hands on so that I could finally develop a routine I was happy with.
And it still didn't work. I performed my routine on Thursday for Angry Bob and it obviously still needed tweaking, "Dude! There's not $%@%$! 2 balls in my hand!", so I went back to the drawing board and managed to fix some finer points for Friday. I wish I could credit everyone that helped me with thoughts and ideas but there's simply too many to list. I think I should mention Bill Abbott because he got me started and I began with his routine. I should also mention Eugene Burger because that's where I got the squeaker idea. Perhaps I'll sell my routine one day and then I'll have a better opportunity to credit everyone properly.
Anyway, I couldn't believe the squeals of delight that came from the Magic Friday crowd. I mean I truly couldn't believe it. People were actually screaming with laughter when they saw the final load. I still can't get my head around it. Screaming at sponges- sometimes our art is a strange one. Those little red sponges walked into around 25 offices yesterday and blew them apart like a #$!#$@ (pardon my French) bomb. Maybe that's what I'll call my routine, "Sponge Bomb", hey, I like that.
Best Lines:
'AAHAAHHAHHAHAHHHAHAHHHAHAHH WWHHOOOOOOOO!! AHHAHHHHAHAHHHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' 'OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD! WHHEAYHAHYEHAYHA!' 'YOU ARE SO GOOD!!!!!!! THAT WAS THE BEST ONE EVER!!!!!'
Angry Bob Rating:
I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday's because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done... A high rating means he'll never figure it out.
0/5. I think even Angry Bob knows a sponge ball routine. 'I've $@#%!%$$@ seen these before...'
My Rating:
Well, despite the absolute mayhem they caused, I'm still only going to give them a 8.5, and I'll tell you why. I personally, and this is just me, think that the sponge balls should only be performed for a group of 3 or more. I did it a few times for a group of 2 people and, even though it played well, it didn't go over nearly as well as when there were more people. I think this is one of those effects where you want a crowd and sometimes that's not always easy to do. I also think this is an effect that needs women spectators. It was just more natural, and again, this is just me, to be placing red sponge balls in a women's hand as opposed to a gentlemen's. That said, I'll be performing this routine when I'm working and I predict a 10/10 in that working walk around environment.
The JDG Tip:
I'm really proud and happy with my routining for this effect. I would like to mention that sometimes, I feel, we get too lost in learning 'moves' as opposed to 'presentation' and I think that's where I hit the nail on the head. I was totally stressed about which Transfer to use and the like, but in the end it seriously didn't matter. Personality, Presentation, and Patter. That's what's needed for sponge balls. Now, of course, I might change my outlook for a gambling demo but you know what I mean. I'll tell you how I started the routine:
"Do any of you play golf?... I love it, and the person who invented it was an absolute genius! I mean, to make the golf balls squeak was a masterstroke of marketing..."
when they tried to squeak it and it wouldn't, I would say, "Did it break? Darnit, we need a squeaky ball for this trick. Here, let's use this one..."
and so on. But there's interaction in those moments. I don't ask, "Does anyone play golf?" and reply, "Great. Look at this ball." I talk about golf for a minute. Lot's of people had a funny golf story they wanted to talk about before I even squeeked the ball. Something to think about.
Closing Thoughts:
To be honest, I'm still in shock from how well it all went down yesterday. Who knew? Life's full of surprises.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!
Jamie D. Grant
www.whatizit.net
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