Jay Sankey - Ear Plugs
Transcript
00:00 [music]
00:23 You realize, of course, that the sponge balls might quite possibly be the most popular trick
00:31 in close-up or ledger-to-man or sleight-of-hand magic in the world today.
00:37 There's a very good reason for that.
00:39 They've been popular for decades or decaide, if you want to use the Greek, Latin plural,
00:45 which Lord knows, I love using the Greek, Latin plural of things.
00:49 Very popular for, I think, a lot of good reasons.
00:51 Number one, visual.
00:53 Actually, in order of priority, I think the reason why sponge balls are so popular is,
00:58 number one, the magic happens in the spectator's hand.
01:00 There's always that moment, or at least often, in a professional routine where the magic
01:04 occurs in the spectator's hand.
01:07 The two balls or three balls or seven balls, whatever, they appear in the person's hand.
01:11 That's number one.
01:12 Number two, they're very visual.
01:13 Number two, sponges are very visual, which is great.
01:16 Number three, they are not a card trick or a coin trick.
01:19 Let me repeat that.
01:20 They aren't a card trick.
01:21 They aren't a coin trick, which makes them wonderful and much loved around the planet.
01:26 Number four, is they're as good for adults as they are for kids.
01:30 That's the other great thing about sponges, unlike card tricks and even coin tricks.
01:33 When you take out the sponges and start doing stuff, there's something so inherently dramatic
01:38 and wonderful about them.
01:39 These are all the pluses of the sponge balls.
01:42 However, as strong as they are, I personally have spent years quietly in the back of my
01:48 head while working on a thousand other things, looking for a substitute.
01:52 Yes, heretic that I am, a substitute to the sponge balls.
01:57 But why?
01:58 If they're so good, why?
01:59 If it ain't broke, why try to fix it?
02:00 I'll tell you why, very simply.
02:04 There's a couple of problems with our old friend, the sponge ball, at least for me as
02:07 a working professional.
02:08 Problem number one, most importantly, is context.
02:11 What do they mean?
02:13 When I take a sponge ball, and I used to do it for years, when I take a red sponge ball
02:16 out, whether the spectators actually say it or whether they just think it, and you can
02:22 see it in their eyes when they're thinking it, whether they say it or they're just thinking
02:25 it, they're wondering, "What the hell is that?"
02:27 "What is that?
02:28 What is that?
02:29 What is that?"
02:30 "What is that?"
02:31 Now, you can certainly say, "Oh, it's a clown nose.
02:34 This is a clown nose."
02:35 Or you can say, "Hey, it's a ball."
02:36 Or you can do this or you can do that.
02:37 You can even hand it out.
02:38 In fact, whatever version you do, I always think it's important to have people examine
02:42 these objects at the beginning.
02:44 But the question still sort of lingers.
02:46 What is this?
02:48 So that's one thing I haven't liked about the sponge balls is what are they?
02:51 Number two is as bright as they are, if you do, if you've done it in a dimly lit bar,
02:56 a kind of a less than well-lit space, when you do sponges, I find the traditional red
03:00 color isn't that visible.
03:02 Ultimately, people still end up having to get out of their chairs and come over and
03:05 look and there's that kind of thing, particularly in a bar situation.
03:08 Number three, and this is practically speaking very frustrating for me, they're round balls,
03:12 so they roll around.
03:14 You put them on a table.
03:15 You put them on someone's hand.
03:16 They have a habit of rolling and we all know reaching under the table, grubbing around
03:21 is always a pain, looking for the sponges.
03:24 So their color, their meaning, their shape, these are all things that frustrate me, which
03:30 is why I remember still the flight I was flying over, I think from England.
03:34 I was on some sort of intercontinental flight and I had just woken up from a nap, always
03:38 a good time to be thinking stuff, and I reached into my ear and I took out an ear plug.
03:45 And I thought to myself, I thought to myself, "Wow, it's spongy."
03:50 So we can still do the in the hand stuff.
03:53 It still starts flat and pops up big.
03:56 I thought, unlike the red, this is a bright yellow.
03:59 In fact, a lot of people aren't aware of this, but they've done research and the number,
04:03 when they want to put an ad in the paper or something, the most powerful color to contrast
04:08 like black print against is yellow.
04:11 That's why raincoats, safety gear, it's all yellow.
04:14 This is the brightest color.
04:16 So it's yellow.
04:18 It's something people can relate to.
04:19 Granted, this is an oversized ear plug, but that actually adds comedy and inherent humorous
04:24 element to using ear plugs.
04:27 They're flat.
04:28 They're flat on two ends.
04:29 So when I put it on my hand, it stays on my hand.
04:33 If I put it on the table, it sits flat on the table.
04:38 It's not apt to roll away.
04:40 It just stays there.
04:41 Unlike the red sponge balls that we typically, when you take a red sponge ball and say you're
04:46 working at a garden party, because we all work a lot of garden parties, and you put
04:50 the ball on someone's hand, it blows across or there's like a typhoon.
04:55 You're trying to get a little work in in the spring and the storm and the guys, they're
04:59 waving the flashlight and there's a plane coming and your balls are all over the garden
05:03 party.
05:04 That's a problem.
05:05 So these are flat.
05:06 They squash.
05:07 People can relate to them.
05:09 They're funny.
05:10 So I think, oh and also what I really like about these is they rest in your pocket.
05:14 In your pocket.
05:15 They'll sit a little smaller than the big red sponge balls.
05:18 And again, I think that's a real virtue too.
05:20 So hands for hands, as much as I think the classic sponge balls are great and I think
05:24 they're amazing and I wouldn't ever go anywhere without them.
05:28 Once I came up with this idea, I got to say ear plugs is the way I always go.
05:39 We're now going to look at a series of moves that many of which you can do with an ordinary
05:44 rounded sponge ball, but in fact a lot of them, it turns out, work even better with
05:49 an ear plug this shape than with a usual sponge ball, which I was really excited to find out.
05:54 Probably the granddaddy of all the moves, probably the most important move for you to
05:59 learn is a version of a vanish or a false transfer from one hand to the other.
06:04 This then is really one that has a definite retention quality.
06:07 Hence the title, retention vanish.
06:09 I'll do it for you a few times and I'm going to turn a little bit to give you the angles
06:12 on it because there's some better angles and not so great angles and then we'll break it
06:16 down.
06:17 Okay.
06:18 Here is the retention vanish I use, particularly with the ear plugs.
06:24 I'll do it several times for you.
06:33 Turn a little here.
06:36 Now note, a couple of pointers as I'm doing this.
06:45 The key to a really strong retention, I think, with the ear plug, or as I just call them
06:53 sometimes the plug, is to get a real lilt going.
06:58 You want to notice I don't go from here and go down.
07:01 I actually tilt back slightly.
07:03 I do that for a few reasons.
07:05 I tilt back slightly first to give you a really good look at the sponge.
07:10 Boom.
07:11 Also, it establishes sort of a position to then move forward from.
07:14 It gives it a forward-back motion, forward-back.
07:17 Now the actual technique, before we look at the rhythm in more detail, the actual technique
07:22 is here, then I move down and as soon as I get to that point, as soon as the edge of
07:29 the sponge is touching the fingers, I pull it into the hand, which frees up thumb and
07:35 finger and I come away.
07:39 Here there.
07:41 Now notice, it doesn't start perfectly between thumb and finger and then goes like that.
07:46 Because I find the motion, the moment from here to those fingers coming out, pulling
07:52 it in, going back out, I find that too pronounced.
07:55 It actually starts with all four fingers here.
07:58 So some would argue that if all four fingers are here, I should just pretend to put it
08:02 in and then come away with all four fingers still here like that.
08:06 I think that's a mistake.
08:08 I want to emphasize that it is now in the hand.
08:12 I find the best way to do that is to really suggest that it's there by just leaving with
08:17 these two fingers at the end.
08:19 So again, the technique is I'm here, I put it in the hand, I pull it back into the hand.
08:26 Now it may look deceptive because you do it and you might try it at home and go, "Well,
08:30 how come when I do it and I do the exact same technique, it doesn't have quite the same
08:34 quality?"
08:35 The key to that is lilt and experience.
08:40 It's about believing.
08:41 And notice the way I close my fist.
08:43 I do not do that where the fingers are digging in.
08:46 I don't do that.
08:47 I put it right up to the top and puff the fingers as if it really is holding the sponge
08:52 and not even a compressed sponge but pretty much as if it's still only partially compressed.
08:58 That's what really sells it.
09:01 [music]
09:03 Hey!
09:05 Pretty good song, huh?
09:10 This is the upside down retention vanish.
09:13 That's right.
09:14 It's a little kookier.
09:15 It's a little up on the edge.
09:16 Enjoy it, won't you?
09:17 The upside down retention vanish.
09:19 A little differently.
09:21 You rather than using the technique of going into the hand, what you do is you put your
09:26 hand down and you apparently take the sponge and put it up into the hand.
09:31 Now what I like about this is typically when you're doing a vanish, a retention vanish
09:35 or a false transfer, you only have one beat to sell it.
09:39 There's the beat.
09:40 Now you have...
09:41 That's it.
09:42 Okay?
09:43 With an upside down retention vanish, you go up into the hand, you have two beats.
09:45 You have one beat, two beats.
09:48 It's as the hand turns over that you get this second beat.
09:52 Now there's no question this is a harder move.
09:54 The timing's trickier.
09:55 The finger works a little more awkward.
09:58 But it does have a nice lilt and in the right time and right place.
10:01 It's really a very strong move.
10:03 Now the technique I'm using here, I'll turn around this way.
10:06 It might be the easiest way to show you.
10:09 Here's the technique.
10:11 The finger and thumb, the hand's here.
10:12 The finger and thumb come up.
10:14 The fingers immediately pull it into the hand.
10:17 I put my fist around the closed finger and thumb and come away.
10:21 Again, here, there, there.
10:26 It's not completely different than the retention.
10:28 Quite similar in some regards.
10:30 But the left hand's involvement is definitely more active.
10:34 That then is the upside down retention vanish.
10:43 This transfer, very simple.
10:48 It should look ideally like you're taking the sponge and putting it from one hand to
10:53 the other.
10:54 Boom.
10:55 There goes the plug.
10:56 Now if you happen to have one already finger palmed and if you simply duplicate the action,
11:04 it'll look to all the world like you take the sponge and put it in the other hand.
11:12 Now the technique on it is this.
11:15 The left hand starts palm down.
11:17 The right hand is palm up, displaying the sponge.
11:23 You slowly reverse the positions.
11:27 This is in slow motion, I should say.
11:28 You smoothly reverse the positions.
11:31 This one is tucked into finger palm and the fingers just touch there.
11:35 They just come down and touch.
11:36 But the flow from one to the other, the nice thing about using the yellow is it holds the
11:45 eye so powerfully that it looks to all the world like you're taking the sponge and putting
11:50 it in the other hand.
11:58 This move in particular is about relaxing.
12:00 You gotta do it really loose.
12:03 There's it here.
12:04 Boom.
12:05 There it is there.
12:06 And the nice thing is once you get your false put and your take down, they can really flow
12:14 together and look like you're just holding the one ear plug in your hand when in fact
12:18 you have two.
12:19 Okay, now let's look at the technique on the false take.
12:23 The false take is not quite the reverse of the put.
12:26 The take is in finger palm.
12:28 The second one's here in finger palm.
12:31 You come over and you roll it out.
12:35 You roll it out a little and the bottom of the thumb actually taps that one.
12:40 Like that.
12:43 All you do is come away and turn and roll it up forward even more.
12:48 So it's there, there.
12:54 The key to this stuff, and this is something Albert Gaussman knew very well, is if you're
13:00 going to do a false transfer, the thing that sells it is an unbroken line of action.
13:07 Unbroken line.
13:08 That's what makes the take so strong, is the hands actually contact.
13:12 I've seen a lot of people work on David Roth's transfer stuff and his shuttle pass.
13:17 The shuttle pass sometimes lacks something and what it lacks is an actual moment of contact
13:23 between the hands.
13:25 But here, there's moments of contact and it's those moments that really sell.
13:32 There's the false put.
13:33 Take the false put, you put them together and you have an equipment, a lovely way of
13:36 showing only the one object in your hand.
13:44 Let's pretend you have an object in your hand.
13:46 Now again, this is really important, notice how my hand is closed and I make it as puffy
13:51 as possible.
13:53 The fingers are up high, I'm bowing these fingers a little bit.
13:57 It's not flat, it's not short, it's a nice puffy object.
14:03 If you were to really take the object out, it might look like that.
14:06 If you were to really take a sponge out, it might look like that, maybe it would look
14:10 like that.
14:11 Those might be natural, but they don't necessarily sell the idea as much as this.
14:18 This is the way when I am doing the routine and I'll show it to you later on in this tape.
14:25 I think there's a lot to be said for working on transferring nothing.
14:30 Let's break it down.
14:31 It goes from here, the hand comes in a little large, a little unnaturally.
14:34 I grant you that, it's unnatural.
14:36 I think in theatre, people often do something that's unnatural ultimately.
14:47 We do it large on the stage so that by the time it gets down to the 50th person sitting
14:51 in the 50th row, it actually, by almost the translation of the distance, it now looks
14:55 natural.
14:57 In the same way, I'll sometimes do something deliberately a little large to really sell
15:01 a thing.
15:02 So the right hand comes over, the left hand opens right into it and the right hand exchanges.
15:08 The other virtue of this, which is important for sponges, is because the yellow sponges
15:12 are so visual, the angles are such that I really want to make sure I've got...
15:18 Doing this may not necessarily fool anybody.
15:21 Someone on the far left could maybe see the sponge wasn't there.
15:23 But if I do this, no one knows for sure that the sponge is gone at that point.
15:31 So really work on transferring nothing.
15:33 A) as a student of sleight of hand magic and B) as an offshoot.
15:38 There's a nice moment in the routine I'm going to show you in a bit that uses this transference
15:43 of nothing.
15:54 Here's the pop-up move done with three objects.
15:56 Number one, number two and number three.
16:00 All three apparently going into the hand, but in fact there are only two because one
16:03 ended up back in the right hand.
16:05 Let me do it for you a few times so you can get a sense of how it looks from the front.
16:10 One, two, three.
16:14 Now it's one of these moves that when you're looking for it, it's one of these strange,
16:17 almost like the illogical double lift, that when you're looking for it, you can actually
16:20 see it better than when you're not looking for it, A. And B, it's definitely a rhythm
16:24 thing because what I'm doing is I'm actually putting the first one in, but when I put it
16:28 in, I'm only tucking it down.
16:31 The key to all the pop-up moves is these three fingers are closed and this is actually only
16:37 being pushed against the middle finger.
16:42 It's getting pushed and the index finger is closing around it.
16:46 So it's not in here at all, it's all in this part of the hand.
16:50 What that means is that when I grab the second one in the same position and I start to move
16:56 down and in fact just pull it into the hand and essentially do a retention vanish action
17:00 with it.
17:01 When I go down and I open the hand, the other one is there for me immediately.
17:06 Flow is key for this.
17:08 One, two, three.
17:12 What you're trying to get, what you want to go for eventually is a retention of vision,
17:16 unbroken.
17:17 They see number one go in, they see number two go in, and then number three goes in.
17:24 One more time, performance speed, the pop-up move.
17:28 Number one, number two, number three.
17:31 A perfect move to use for the two in the hand, one in the pocket scenario.
17:42 The double steal.
17:44 The double steal is one of those really fun moves.
17:48 You're really getting a chance to get way, way ahead of them which is great.
17:52 It's not that hard a move.
17:54 It does require a little, you got to be a little ballsy with it for sure.
17:58 Excuse the pseudo pun here.
18:01 What you're doing is you're taking the first one and you're laying it down.
18:04 The second one, you're essentially going to do a retention vanish.
18:08 You're going to do your retention vanish.
18:11 Because you're going to have one in the hand already, and this is the nice thing about
18:13 the shape of the ear plug again, is you're really going to put it in front of, or it
18:19 depends on your perspective, but you're going to put it really towards the palm of the hand.
18:24 At the same time, close these.
18:25 You want it to look like you put that one in and you close.
18:28 But what in fact you do is you do that and as you close, you're going to scoop both those
18:35 into the hand and come away.
18:38 So here's the exposed view from the side.
18:40 Boom, boom.
18:42 You're really grabbing them both.
18:44 One, two.
18:45 The fingers curl and instead of just curling to grab one out of the hand, you curl, there's
18:51 the first one and we'll do it really slowly, here, there, and there.
18:58 Now there's no question, as I said, this is a move that requires a certain amount of boldness.
19:02 If you try to do it and you really try to focus attention saying, "I will put two in
19:06 the hand," it can get kind of suspicious.
19:09 Better to do it in a casual way, saying this in performance speed.
19:13 So this time what I'll do is I'll hold on to both sponges.
19:18 So it's one, two, boom.
19:27 Actually maybe you can help me, sir.
19:29 I'm going to hold up my left hand.
19:30 Maybe you'd reach over and hold on to my wrist for me if you'd be so kind.
19:33 They of course reach over to reach for the wrist and you've already stolen it out.
19:37 Let me show you that one more time.
19:40 There.
19:41 Close.
19:42 You reach over and hold your hand for me.
19:43 Hold on to my wrist.
19:44 They do that.
19:45 You've stolen it out.
19:46 Now this of course is an application of a very old coin move.
19:50 And the nice thing about this is it's two ways.
19:53 To actually be grabbing a wrist requires, you can't just do it, it requires, it's one
19:58 of these moments where your presentation must support the action explicitly or overtly.
20:04 So often we can use presentations in a way that only casually support a movement or sequence
20:09 in a trick.
20:10 This is one of these actions that's so, it's not that common to be holding your own wrist.
20:15 It's not just a casual gesture while you're thinking about things.
20:17 Oh, you know, I wonder, I wonder if cows, how smart are cows?
20:21 Are cows very smart?
20:22 I don't know.
20:23 It's not a natural gesture really in that sense.
20:27 So you have to give it a context.
20:28 That's where the presentation comes in.
20:29 So the technique on it is I put it in my hand, make a fist, and it's nice to be able to sell
20:34 it.
20:35 You don't want to do this.
20:36 The problem with taking too much focus on it is if you do this and say, watch, now there's
20:41 so much heat on it that it's going to be hard to get what you want is some focus but not
20:46 too much.
20:47 On the other hand, why put it, if you're only, if you're going to do it like this, why not
20:53 do a false transfer?
20:54 I mean, at that point, if that's all you're going to show, why not do a false transfer?
20:59 That's even better.
21:00 So this is a move that's really when you want to sell typically the last sponge traveling
21:05 across.
21:06 In this sense, it's a challenge move where you put it in the hand, close the fist, and
21:12 rather than going right for the fist, right for the wrist, okay, and that's the wrong
21:15 way to do it.
21:16 Don't go right for the wrist.
21:17 Instead, in much the same way as I create a peak, a peak, and then a valley, I sort
21:24 of go forward and down in the same way I'm going to ask someone to hold up their hand.
21:30 So I do this, that, and as I say, hold out your hand, the moment I put it and turn the
21:35 hand over, as I gesture forward, here's what I'm doing.
21:38 In the hand, this is the exposed view, the fingertips actually pull forward and then
21:45 roll the object back.
21:47 So it's in basically, it's beneath the hand now.
21:50 It's out of the hand, at least partially, and beneath the hand.
21:55 As I say, would you hold out your hand?
21:57 The very moment, here's the exposed view again, the very moment my hand gestures forward,
22:04 I'm kicking the sponge back, all right?
22:07 I'm here.
22:08 Having established a forward action, a forward action, now I come back beneath the hand and
22:15 at the same time turn the wrist and I steal the sponge, essentially into finger palm.
22:20 It rolls.
22:21 Now you can either steal it, literally drag it along, or you can roll it.
22:26 You can roll it along the underside of the hand, okay?
22:29 Whatever works best for you.
22:30 I'm here, I'm there.
22:32 I say, would you hold my wrist?
22:33 And this, it's nice because if you just do it, hold my wrist this way, I think it has
22:37 nowhere near the built-in misdirection, body language misdirection, as saying, would you
22:42 do me a favor and hold on to my wrist and turning the hand over.
22:45 Also bringing this hand up into view, I think really emphasizes the fairness of what you're
22:50 doing.
23:01 The banana split.
23:03 I call it the banana split because frankly it's identical to, I know on the market now,
23:09 or I don't know if it's still on the market, but it was for years, two little sponge bananas.
23:13 You could do that, and it would split.
23:17 When I started playing with the earplugs, I realized this is a perfect technique to
23:20 use with earplugs because they are a little taller than they are wide.
23:25 I love the visuals on it.
23:26 And again, you don't have to use an equipment like this to first show the hands empty, except
23:30 for the one.
23:31 You could have just taken it out of your pocket, had someone examine it, and then split it
23:35 into two.
23:36 Now note the slight different angle.
23:37 You can do it straight on, and it has a nice visual quality, just up like that.
23:42 Or you can face it a little bit towards them, and it's got a slightly more, okay, I'm trying
23:48 to get it right towards the camera so you can see it's a little bit more of a retention
23:53 quality where they see it split right in two.
23:57 The technique on it is not very hard.
23:59 I'm just doing an equipment, keeping it in finger palm.
24:05 And then when I come over, I put my thumb at the back of that one, my finger at the
24:08 front, and I just pretend to pull up.
24:11 And as I pretend to pull up, at the same time, I pop that one into view.
24:15 So it's just boom, up, like that.
24:18 You just start here and move it up out of finger palm.
24:24 Pull up, there, there.
24:30 Another one of these moves that the key is your motion from here to there, or from the
24:35 slight more visual view, where you apparently have a sponge, or I should say an earplug.
24:39 You pull forward, and now you have two.
24:47 As simple as it is, this is still my favorite splitting of the sponges.
24:54 Again, I'm pretty sure I learned it first from the Frank Garcia, the little booklet.
25:00 Boy, it's beautiful.
25:03 And I like the fact that it frees me up to just work on the acting part of it, because
25:06 it's self-working.
25:07 You've got one in finger palm.
25:09 And this can be done either on your hand, or let's go down to the table.
25:13 It can be done down the table as well, where you can have someone examine it, put it right
25:16 down the table.
25:18 This hand immediately goes down on the hand.
25:20 It goes from finger palm, you press straight down flat, and then you rub in a slightly
25:26 circular action.
25:27 And as you rub, you let the hand rise up, and they see what seems to go from one to
25:34 a perfect two split.
25:35 Now, let me give you some pointers on this, because like anything, it can be done decently,
25:40 poorly, or really, really well.
25:42 Even the simplest of magic moves are like that.
25:45 I have found that, first off, I tend to do it with my hand rather than on the table,
25:49 because I do it early in my routine, and they're still looking at me and my hands.
25:53 And I don't want to blow.
25:55 See, doing magic in your hands, that's one kind of magic.
25:58 Doing magic on the table is one step removed from you, and I think in a sense has a certain
26:02 strength to it.
26:03 And then finally, to end up doing magic in their hands is a nice rule of three progression.
26:09 So I don't want to rush to the table just yet.
26:11 I want to take the sponge out, or as I typically actually, I produce it out of my ear.
26:14 We'll get to that in a moment.
26:16 And then take it and rub it.
26:19 And the thing about the rubbing is you want to make sure you start flat, and then don't
26:23 just rub and then open up the hand.
26:25 First off, one will jump off sometimes.
26:27 Second problem with that is it makes the production look a little lackluster.
26:31 I prefer to roll and slowly bring the hand up, and I cup the knuckles at the same time
26:36 as if, to me that really emphasizes the slow appearance of a thing.
26:41 So we're there, there, I pause, slowly come away as if I've just done something very magical,
26:52 and then show now I have to.
26:55 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
27:15 This is known as the ten count.
27:17 The ten count.
27:19 And I know for a fact that this is a lot older than the Frank Garcia booklets, but I know
27:24 it's mentioned in there.
27:27 It's again, it's one of these wonderful little principles inside a principle.
27:31 The principle being that when the left hand closes into a fist from this position, even
27:38 though you clearly, you're not trying to make a surprise, there's nothing secret about the
27:42 fact that you're covering that with the back of your hand.
27:44 It's not literally a magical appearance.
27:47 But the fact that your hand covers it and it's out of view, and then when the hand closes
27:51 into a fist, it pops into view, that's perfectly natural, organic moment of getting people's
27:58 attention or focus pulled.
28:00 Pulled to one side, okay?
28:02 From here to there.
28:03 And it's under that moment that presents the perfect misdirection.
28:08 It really adds a lot to your false transfer.
28:10 If your retention vanished, boom.
28:13 I mean you can do it without it, and you should have a strong retention vanish.
28:17 But if you add this into it, boom.
28:21 It really makes it even more deceptive, okay?
28:24 So this is a really cute idea of being able to just count to ten and doing a piece of
28:28 magic.
28:29 When I do this for people, I don't actually count to ten.
28:32 In fact, I don't even do all ten stages.
28:33 I do about six of them.
28:35 But I have incorporated this for sure into my own routine.
28:39 And again, this is the ten count.
28:40 So you go one, two, three, four, five.
28:45 Here comes the transfer on six.
28:47 Six.
28:48 Seven.
28:49 Eight.
28:50 Into the hand.
28:51 Eight.
28:52 Nine.
28:53 Ten.
28:54 Okay, now you know my name.
29:01 What's your name, sir?
29:02 Fred.
29:03 What was that?
29:04 Fred.
29:05 Oh, I'm sorry.
29:06 I apologize.
29:07 I've got an ear plug in my ear.
29:09 That's why I couldn't quite hear you.
29:11 Now that's typically how I always start the ear plug routine.
29:15 Very simply, just have it in finger palm, okay?
29:19 And I do this gesture for a reason, okay?
29:21 This might strike again.
29:23 Any amateur magician, we always learn to put the coin in the hand and point with the finger.
29:27 And as you get more experienced as a magician, you lose this whole pointing thing.
29:32 But I want them to get a sense, rather than just bringing the hand up from my side and
29:37 then bringing it up to my ear, I want them to get a sense that the hand is already up
29:42 in the same sphere of focus.
29:44 So that's why I have it in finger palm and I point.
29:46 I say, "Well, you know my name.
29:49 You know my name.
29:50 What's yours?"
29:51 And whatever they say, Fred, Frank, Barbara, whatever.
29:55 Sometimes they say, "I used to be Frank.
29:56 Now I'm Barbara."
29:57 Different audience.
29:58 Sometimes when I do that, I go, "Oh, I'm sorry."
30:02 Here's another key.
30:03 You don't want to just go, "Ear plug."
30:05 What you want to do is say, "Oh, I'm sorry.
30:07 I've got..." and you want to get a little attention up here first.
30:10 Just a little attention up there.
30:12 And then as the hand comes up.
30:13 Now, the work on this, just pretend to pull it out of your ear.
30:16 It's not a big deal, okay?
30:18 Let me break it down for you, though, because I don't want anybody buying this or watching
30:22 this at a friend's place and saying, "Jay didn't tip the real work on the object from
30:25 ear stuff."
30:27 I'm coming up.
30:29 I'm just pressing it.
30:30 My thumb is actually going...
30:32 My thumb goes beneath it.
30:34 Or I should say behind it, really.
30:36 Behind it.
30:37 I come up.
30:38 I push it against the ear.
30:39 And then I pull it away vertically.
30:41 I do think the vertical is important.
30:43 I know that sounds like a small detail.
30:45 But because I want them to think of the canal going vertical rather than producing it horizontally,
30:50 I really do like the idea.
30:51 Now, in fact, I did originally play with palming it, or finger palming it, not horizontally,
30:56 but vertically.
30:58 Because that way, when you come up to the ear, you're right there.
31:03 But what you can't do, and this is a small little detail, what that doesn't allow you
31:07 to do, if you do it horizontally, you can roll it to the fingertips easier, okay?
31:13 Whereas if it's in vertical, you can't roll it to the fingertips as easily.
31:18 So I actually prefer to put it in horizontally, across the finger palm, okay?
31:23 And then I come up.
31:24 I go, "You know my name.
31:25 What's yours?"
31:26 And they go, "Oh, I'm sorry.
31:27 Actually, I've got an ear plug."
31:28 Okay?
31:29 So I go up, I press it right in, and then pull it away.
31:33 Now, these are the particulars.
31:34 In actual performance, again, it's here.
31:36 It's like boom, boom, boom.
31:38 Oh, boom like that.
31:42 Boom.
31:45 When I'm performing for people, I use the final jumbo load probably about one in eight
31:52 or ten times.
31:53 I mean, if I'm working for people, I'm walking around in a situation, I'm going boom, boom,
31:56 boom, boom, and I'm working, I just use the two, which we'll get to in a moment as I keep
31:59 talking about it.
32:00 I just use the two routine.
32:02 But if it's a situation where I really want to, you know, maybe it's a set show and I'm
32:05 working for 30 people or something, and it's that kind of thing, the nice thing about the
32:08 bright yellow is first, they can see it for 30 people.
32:12 Second thing is maybe I will use the load.
32:14 So the question is, how do you get into the jumbo final position?
32:18 I mean, that's always the big question, especially since I don't like to wear a lot of jackets.
32:22 So how do you do it?
32:23 Let me show you a few different options.
32:25 Option one is where it appears in a performer's hand.
32:29 That has certain practical virtues, certain practical things, but of course it undercuts.
32:33 So let's say I've done a routine with two, and I've made them jump around.
32:37 I've made them jump into their hands once, always important part, at least once.
32:41 How do you get this out of your pocket and those gone?
32:44 Well, I find the easiest way is to do the old one in the hand, one in the pocket scenario,
32:48 where you say, well, as a last phase, you say, well, look, we'll try it one last time.
32:51 If I put one in the hand and one in the pocket, any idea how many does that leave in the hand?
32:56 You might think one, but actually if I give it a rub, you'll see it gets pretty big.
33:04 Okay, so that's a way to get into it and end clean.
33:08 You don't end up holding out anything.
33:10 The big one's in the pocket.
33:12 You do a false transfer, or I should say retention.
33:15 You do a retention, pick up this one, put it in your pocket.
33:18 As it goes into your pocket, you leave both in the pocket, grab the jumble one, and rather
33:23 than trying to have them hold onto it, you come out, put your hand immediately flat down
33:28 on it and rub.
33:31 And it's a beautiful, they assumed there was one in there, or of course in their mind,
33:35 I mean, let's face it, if you've had the two jump into your hand, if you've done this
33:39 a couple of times, where you've got the two on the table, say, and if you put one in one
33:43 hand and one in the other and it vanishes and jumps across, if you've done that a few
33:46 times, by now they're assuming the two are going to come together in your hand.
33:50 So here you are, in this case, going one in the hand, one in the pocket, and they're naturally
33:55 assuming, oh, there'll probably be two in there, and you say, actually there's only
33:57 one, but it's a big one.
34:00 One last point on this one.
34:01 If you're going to do it on your own hand, I've seen some performers come over, rub,
34:05 and then do this.
34:06 I think that's a big mistake, because this was the hand that was just in the pocket.
34:11 I think you've got enough pocket management issues going on, and psychological cues, without
34:16 turning the hands over and have it appear on the one that was just in the pocket, I
34:19 think it's a lot stronger to come over, rub, and leave it on the hand that was in full
34:26 view at all times.
34:28 Okay?
34:29 So that's one way to do it.
34:30 Here's another way.
34:31 Let's say you don't want to end it in your hands, you really want it in the layperson's
34:34 hands.
34:35 In this case, I think typically the way I would do it, and have done it before if I'm
34:39 going to have it in theirs, is with three.
34:41 Three gives you a whole different reason to go with a pocket, because let's face it, at
34:45 this point in any sponge earplug or sponge routine, it's about pocket management.
34:50 Once you've got your five or six key moves down, it really comes down to pocket management
34:55 and what routines work best for you personally and your presentation.
34:59 In this case, this is in the right-hand pocket.
35:03 If you've done two in the hand, one in the pocket a couple of times, you'd put one, two
35:06 in the hand.
35:08 But in this case, you do the double steal.
35:10 There's one, there's two.
35:12 Do the double steal and say, "And one in the pocket."
35:14 Now you jam all three down to the pocket, grab the big one and say, "Actually, I want
35:19 you to hold them in your hand between your two cupped hands."
35:22 And that's the way you get in.
35:23 All right?
35:24 It's got a lot of natural qualities.
35:27 This is a very classical way to go with it, and it's got a lot of good strong things about
35:30 it.
35:31 Let's walk through it again.
35:32 So, in the pocket, I put one double steal and one in the pocket.
35:38 And as I ask them, I jam it down in the pocket, I say, "If I put one in the pocket, two in
35:41 the hand, how many was that leave in the hand?"
35:43 Whatever they say at this point, as the right hand comes out, I've got this and this is
35:46 the one place where you may even want to go, "How many does that leave in the pocket?"
35:50 Because to go from your pocket to your hand is certainly suspect.
35:54 So you may want to plant a beat there by pointing with your first finger.
35:59 Now again, as I mentioned earlier, the first finger point does have an amateur quality,
36:04 but going one, two in the hand, one in the pocket, how many do you think does that leave
36:08 in the hand?
36:09 Adds a nice pause there before they say whatever they're going to say, and then you say, "Actually,
36:15 I want you to hold on to them, but use both hands."
36:18 This comes in, loads the big one, "Use both hands."
36:20 Now they extend their hand, and of course you push the big one in their hand, say, "How
36:25 many do you think they're there?"
36:26 They invariably say three, because it feels like a lot more than one.
36:28 You say, "Actually, it's not three, it's one," but they open their hand, it's a big one.
36:39 Now that we've covered the rudiments, the fundamentals, the bricks, we can now start
36:43 making some walls.
36:45 In this case, if you grab a couple of sponges, since we've learned how to, the key on this
36:51 is the rhythm, since we've learned the rhythm about how to pull a sponge out of the ear,
36:54 and we know how to do a false transfer and a false take, we're in a perfect position
36:59 to do a variation of the old egg for mouth.
37:02 I think probably the first person I ever saw do with sponges was Vito Lupo years ago, from
37:07 his mouth and from all over the place, really almost like David Roth's one-coin routine,
37:12 that kind of stuff.
37:14 So in this case, you can begin by pulling one out of your ear, false transfer, apparently
37:19 put it in the pocket but keep it in finger palm, and as this hand comes out at the same
37:22 time, produce another one, apparently put it in your pocket, and produce another one.
37:28 The key when working on this kind of trick is to make sure if only for a moment your
37:33 focus is always, you don't ever want a divided focus.
37:38 Problem with divided focus, as soon as you get a sense, first you're nowhere, as soon
37:41 as you divide your focus, it's not like you're at two places, you're nowhere, and therefore
37:44 the audience is nowhere.
37:46 And A, it's unengaging, and B, they start to pick up on the technique.
37:51 So you want to get it so there's this sense that wherever you are in a moment is where
38:04 the audience is too.
38:05 And of course, you can do with your false takes, you can start producing from the other
38:11 ear.
38:12 Now, it's up to you to decide how many you'd want to do in a row.
38:15 I would only do a couple from one ear, a couple from the other, and then of course typically
38:18 end with a jumbo.
38:19 So in this case, if the jumbo is in the left pocket, and you've got your two here, you
38:24 can produce one from the right ear, transfer, put it in the pocket.
38:28 Then another one comes, transfer, pretend to take it, put it in this pocket, and produce
38:35 one from here.
38:36 Repeat that one, produce it from here.
38:38 You can leave that one legitimate in the pocket, take this, put it in the pocket, actually
38:43 you just do a false transfer, grab the jumbo, go back up, take that one.
38:48 Now that you've got the jumbo, you just do a false transfer, snap your fingers, and you
38:51 have an enlarge.
38:53 Sort of all together, it looks like this.
38:56 Walk up, produce that one, put it in the pocket, sort of an apologet.
39:03 There's another one.
39:04 That's weird, okay.
39:07 That's weird.
39:08 You don't know where these things are.
39:11 They keep coming from places.
39:14 Oh.
39:18 Hi, my name's Jay.
39:23 What's yours?
39:24 Angus.
39:25 Excuse me?
39:26 Angus.
39:27 Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't quite, I forgot to take out the earplug.
39:30 Sorry about that.
39:31 Yeah, I was having a hard time sleeping earlier.
39:33 Actually, I didn't use just one earplug, of course that doesn't make much sense.
39:36 I was using two, two earplugs.
39:40 Angus, I'm sure you've heard the expression opposites attract, but did you know that it's
39:45 actually likes that attract, similar things, they also attract.
39:48 Watch, watch carefully.
39:49 Watch these two.
39:50 Do me a favor, Angus, poke on that one, just poke it, just like that.
39:52 Give it a good poke, okay, go ahead.
39:55 And would you poke that one too, give it a good poke, like that, great, okay.
39:59 Angus, you seem kind of scared of these, but that's okay.
40:02 Watch carefully, I just give him a little tap like this, nothing much, you know what
40:05 that does?
40:06 It actually does nothing, but I love it.
40:07 If I give him a little squeeze, they'll still jump across.
40:10 Now I know you're thinking it's fast hands or something, so I'm going to test your hands
40:12 for me.
40:14 Do me a favor, a point to one, which one, doesn't really matter.
40:16 That one there, hold your hand out, flat out, right there like that for me.
40:20 That's the one you want.
40:21 I'm going to hold on to mine, hold on to yours really tightly, tight, I'm going to try to
40:23 steal it, I'm going to try to steal it.
40:25 Here we go, one, two, and with any luck, actually, I'm going to take mine, make it vanish.
40:30 And if you open up your hand, Angus, you should find now you have both of them.
40:35 Now let's look at this for a second, you can take your hand off the table there for a second.
40:38 Let's look at this, what I've done is I've combined a few things together.
40:42 For starters, I do the take out of the ear.
40:45 I do a false transfer, like that, it's the false put.
40:50 And then I do the roll, the roll around, sort of split, slowly splitting, both, okay.
40:58 They appear on the hand, I separate them both, put them down, and this is key, make sure
41:04 you always let people examine the objects beforehand.
41:07 They should handle them, they should poke, they should get a good look at them, this
41:10 is really key, okay.
41:12 Once they've examined them, I take them back and I hit them like this.
41:15 Now this is important because this gets them set up for the ten count, but of course I
41:18 don't go one, two, three, four, I don't actually count it out, I just go, you know when I do
41:22 that, you know what it does, it does nothing but I get a big kick out of it.
41:24 While they're laughing, I do it again and I do the ten count.
41:28 Tap, show them transfer across.
41:31 Sometimes I'll do it twice, I'll say, "Oh, I know what you're thinking, it's fast hand,
41:34 you're thinking, well, I'll give you a choice, go ahead, point to one."
41:36 I like using the equivocate here, I say, "Point to one."
41:38 If they point to this one, I say, "Fine, that's the one we'll use," and I make it vanish.
41:43 If they point over here, I'll say, "Okay," and I'll look at this one and go, "He doesn't
41:47 like you very much."
41:48 And that little subtlety of opening the hand and looking into the hand, saying, "I guess
41:52 he doesn't like you," really sells the idea that it's still in the hand.
41:56 Then I do this, boom, it's gone, now it's in my hand.
41:59 Rule of three is coming into play here because I've had them jump from my hand, one hand,
42:02 to the other twice.
42:04 The third time's going to happen in their hand, and I only do it once.
42:08 I think it's such a great trick, more and more magic I'm learning or believing at least,
42:13 that if you're going to do, if it's that good a trick, if it's a good enough trick to do,
42:18 hopefully you only want to do it once to really emphasize the drama of it.
42:22 Some things do get better as a challenge trick, but I really like the way this particular
42:26 structure works.
42:27 The third one I say, "Hold out your hand for me, would you hold out your hand for me?"
42:31 He holds out his hand, I say, "Point to one."
42:33 Whichever one he points to, I say, "Fine, that's the one we'll use."
42:35 I say, "Hold out your hand."
42:36 I do the retention vanish, retention transfer there, keep it in the right hand, grab this
42:41 one, say, "Hold on tightly, I'm going to see how strong you are."
42:44 Note that's a key line, going to see how strong you are.
42:47 They eventually, they really clench tight.
42:49 I say, "I'm going to try to take it."
42:50 Now, I don't always do this action.
42:52 Sometimes I'll turn over the hand to make sure they don't open it, but this action of
42:55 apparently going for it is a great way, if you're dealing with a spectator, if you're
42:59 not sure which way they're going to go, this action is a great way of making sure.
43:02 "I'm going to take it, I'm going to take it."
43:04 They always hold tightly.
43:05 Now I do the nothing transfer.
43:07 I transfer nothing from the left hand to the right hand, say, "Actually, rather than me
43:10 taking yours, this time I'm going to make mine disappear."
43:15 And note this, if you do want to steal the jumble one, this is a great opportunity to
43:18 bring your hands back, bring your hands back like this, and kind of, you dramatically back
43:23 up and you focus all attention there.
43:25 And I often use this gesture.
43:26 From this forward gesture to the hands come down, I say, "Go ahead, take a look."
43:31 See where my hands are?
43:32 They're in my pockets.
43:33 I literally go, "Go ahead, take a look."
43:35 When they open their hand up, "Go ahead, take a look."
43:37 They open up.
43:38 There's such a screech that it's easy for me to steal the jumble if I want from that
43:40 point.
43:41 And of course, in a moment, pretend to do a false transfer, put it in their hands, they
43:44 close on tight, boom, like that.
43:46 So you open up your hand, and under that, they get the big one, and it's easy for me
43:49 to go south with these as well.
43:56 Have two of the earplugs in the right pocket.
44:00 And let's assume that you already have two in play, whether you've pulled them out of
44:04 your ear, you've split them, whatever.
44:06 You've done a few transfers.
44:07 Maybe they've jumped across from one hand to another a couple of times, maybe used the
44:10 ten count, whatever's going on here.
44:12 Say, "Well, let's try something.
44:14 Would you hold out your hand?"
44:15 They hold out their hand.
44:16 You do a retention pass.
44:18 Apparently hand them one to hold onto, but actually give them two.
44:22 So they've got two, you have none.
44:24 You say, "Look, I actually have a third one here."
44:27 So what I've done is when I reach into the pocket, I immediately put one of them in the
44:32 finger palm, came out with a fourth one.
44:34 I've got this, I'm going to use it like a wand.
44:37 Tap the hand, tap their hand, say, "Look, boom, mine's gone, open up your hand."
44:42 They have two.
44:43 They of course freak out.
44:45 Transfer this to this hand, pick up the two, and say, "Actually, hold on.
44:49 Why don't you try, sir?"
44:50 And I go to somebody else.
44:51 Now, this isn't absolutely required, but I feel more comfortable since they just held
44:55 two.
44:56 I don't want them getting ahead of me.
44:57 If a person, I want to go to someone who hasn't discovered yet or doesn't know what it feels
45:02 like to hold two, and I hand them all three.
45:05 Say hold onto those.
45:06 This time you try, you hold onto those two.
45:09 They hold onto those two, actually the three.
45:11 I say, "Watch."
45:12 Snap my fingers, say, "Open your hand."
45:14 It's key because now I've got a little heat going on because I've got one.
45:17 I go like this, I go, "Boom, open your hand," immediately.
45:20 They open their hand, they have three.
45:22 I take the three off from their hand and say, "Why don't you try it?"
45:26 And another person, all four.
45:28 The other person has all four.
45:30 And this is, at this point I say, "Look, we'll try it one last time.
45:33 I'll get one last one."
45:34 I reach into my pocket and I bring out nothing.
45:36 Okay?
45:37 You reach in your pocket, you bring out nothing.
45:39 Say, "I'll try with one more."
45:41 Just like that, boom.
45:42 And the time lapse between when I open my hand and when they open theirs is getting
45:47 shorter and shorter.
45:49 Good theater and it also supports the techniques I'm using because I was dirty on this last
45:53 one and I don't want to wait too much time and here I didn't even have one.
45:57 So I want to go, "Boom, we'll try it one last time."
45:59 Boom, open up your hand.
46:00 So it's just boom at almost the exact same time.
46:03 So the flow of the whole routine works like this.
46:06 I've produced these, I've done a couple of things with these.
46:08 I say, "Look, we'll try it one last time.
46:10 Let's try this.
46:11 I'll hold one and you hold on to one tightly."
46:13 I give them two.
46:14 I say, "I have a third one here."
46:16 And actually with this third one, if I just tap like this, mine vanishes and open your
46:21 hand.
46:22 They open, they find two.
46:23 I say, "Actually, why don't you try?
46:24 You hold on to these two."
46:25 I give them three.
46:26 I say, "Watch, just like that, go ahead, open your hand."
46:29 He opens his hand, he's got all three.
46:31 They're freaked out.
46:32 I say, "Why don't you try?"
46:33 I add the fourth one to it, give it to the other guy.
46:35 I say, "Luckily for you, I've got a fourth one.
46:37 Watch, just like this, it vanishes.
46:39 No, no, it's really gone."
46:41 Sometimes I'll use a spider, a spider vanish psychology there like that.
46:44 I say, "Boom, like that, it's gone.
46:46 No, no, it's really gone.
46:47 Go ahead, take a look."
46:48 And they open and they find all four.
46:50 So it's a really elegant pocket management way to go from two to three to four.
47:01 This routine probably has more magic in it than any of the routines on this tape.
47:05 It uses all the bells and whistles, but it's also a fair bit of work.
47:09 You need to start with two, two of them in the right hand finger palm, one in the left
47:13 hand finger palm, one in the left hand pocket, and the jumbo in the right hand.
47:19 So you've got one here, two there, one in that pocket, little one, and the jumbo there.
47:24 That's your start.
47:25 You begin by doing the "my name, what's your name", the false take out, and a false transfer.
47:32 Pulling it back into the hand.
47:33 So you're here, false transfer, put it on the table.
47:36 Do another one, second one from the ear, really clean.
47:40 Do a false take and a false put.
47:44 So what you can do in that case is you start it off by producing one from the ear, false
47:49 transfer down.
47:50 Second one from the ear, put it down, false take.
47:54 Two from the ear, reach up, produce a third one from the left ear.
47:59 So in performance speed, that first sequence is just here, there, and there.
48:10 Three produced.
48:12 Now you can do the ten count with these two on the left if you want, making one jump across,
48:16 say we'll take it a step further.
48:18 I'll put one in the pocket, doing a false transfer, or a retention.
48:21 One in the pocket, two in the hand.
48:23 How many does that leave?
48:24 Actually it's three in the hand.
48:25 Now I've been able to get my fourth one into play in a really elegant and simple way.
48:29 Because even though I did a retention, as soon as I go to the pocket, I finger palm
48:33 the one in there.
48:34 All ready, boom, boom, boom.
48:37 So I've got the fourth one in play.
48:38 Now I can go into two in the hand and one in the pocket again, putting one, two in the
48:43 hand, one in the pocket.
48:44 What does that leave?
48:45 I can do that a few times, keep getting three.
48:47 And finally when I want to get way ahead, when I leave the last one, I put two in the
48:52 hand, one in the pocket, and I'm back where we talked about before, where I leave the
48:55 last one there, grab the jumbo and say, "How many does that leave?
48:59 Actually I want you to hold on to all three, or all two, whatever."
49:02 Boom, pass that over.
49:03 They open their hand, they find the jumbo.
49:05 So you've been able to produce three from your ears, make them jump around, do two in
49:09 the hand, one in the pocket, and end, boom, and end clean, which is a nice way to go.
49:13 Well that's it.
49:20 Between all the moves you've learned on this video and all the routines, I'm sure you've
49:25 got lots to practice and you're all set to go out and just fry people left, right, and
49:29 center with earplugs that are both funny and magical and practical and visual.
49:35 And again, I really do think it's sort of the next notch up for the whole Spongeball
49:40 magic arena.
49:41 A couple last points though about taking care of your sponge, or I should say taking care
49:45 of your little earplugs, is like with ordinary sponges, you should wash them in warm water
49:50 with just dish soap, something really simple, nothing too high in acid content.
49:55 Wash them.
49:57 And I always dry mine in a towel rather than just let them room dry.
50:00 I dry them and rub them.
50:01 I find that makes them pop up more.
50:02 And it's really important to take good care of them because the better care you take of
50:06 them, the key to this trick of course is you don't want to open your hand and they're like
50:09 "ugh" like this and start to look like real earplugs where they're all jammed up.
50:15 You want to make sure that when you open your hand, they really pop open.
50:18 That's really key.
50:19 So take good care of them.
50:20 Oh, and one last thing is don't leave them in your pants pockets or something between
50:24 shows.
50:25 I know some guys who leave sponges in their pockets for like a week and take them out
50:29 and people aren't sure if they're handing.
50:31 Maybe grandpa's spit them.
50:33 They just don't know.
50:34 So I always take mine out immediately after a show and let them breathe and take good
50:39 care of them.
50:40 If you take care of them, these little fellows will garner you lots of oohs and ahs for years
50:45 to come.
50:46 Thanks again.
50:47 Have a lot of fun with them.
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51:53 Thank you.
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