The Enlarging Sponge
Ball
THE ENLARGING SPONGE
BALL
At the
finish of a sponge ball routine, one of the one-inch
in diameter sponge balls is placed into the center
of an eighteen inch silk handkerchief. The four
corners of the silk are twisted and a spectator
is allowed to squeeze the ball thru the silk.
Magi removes some invisible vitamin B-1 from his
pocket and sprinkles it on the silk covered ball.
With all eyes on the ball, a very beautiful effect
happens. The ball is seen to visibly get larger
and larger, and start filling out the silk. It
looks almost as though a balloon were being inflated
slowly under the silk as the ball grows larger.
It finally stops growing. The silk is held by
the four corners with the right hand and rested
on the left palm. The right hand releases its
four corners which allows the silk to drop down
over the left palm disclosing a large sponge ball
- the SIZE OF A GRAPEFRUIT!
TO PREPARE:
Take
a large "grapefruit" size sponge ball, at one
time I used a hollow one, but in recent years
have discovered that a solid one works just
as well. In fact even better, as the spectators
can handle the big ball at the finish and see
that it is solid. Drape the eighteen inch silk
over the palm of your left hand. Place the big
ball in the center of the silk and with the
right hand, compress the ball as small as possible.
The left hand (through the silk) holds the ball
in its compressed state. When you've compressed
the ball as much as you can, the left hand twists
the silk. This will keep the big ball from expanding.
This bundle can be slipped into your hip pocket
or under your belt just over your hip pocket,
until it is needed.
At the
finish of your regular sponge ball routine, let's
say, three one-inch sponge balls are displayed
on the table. One of these balls is picked up
with the right hand, as this is happening, the
left hand goes to the left hip pocket and removes
the silk covered large ball. The silk is held
as in fig. 1. The four fingers cover the compressed
ball and the thumb is at the front. The left hand
shakes the silk as though it were empty. At the
same time, the right hand apparently places the
small ball it holds, under the silk. What really
happens is that once the right hand is under the
silk, it conceals the small ball and removes it
hidden in the palm. The right hand goes right
to the table, picks up the remaining small balls
on the table, and places them (along with the
palmed ball) back in the close-up case, or right
coat pocket. You're now "home free", everything
is clean, and you can devote your entire attention
to presentation and selling.
Your
left hand now takes the compressed ball through
the silk and squeezes it even tighter together.
The right hand retwists the four corners of
the silk, then place it into the left fist with
the covered ball resting on top of the left
fist, and the twisted part of the silk inside
the fist with the four corners of the silk sticking
out the bottom of the fist (see illus.). Let
them squeeze the ball at this point. Shake your
left fist slightly, and as you do, very slowly
release the tension on the twisted silk with
your left hand. As the tension is released,
the large ball will slowlv take shape.
This is
really a beautiful effect to see, and it never
fails to get audible gasps of amazement from the
onlookers. I close my close-up routine with this
effect, and in the entire realm of close-up magic,
I've never found a stronger effect that could
follow it.
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