chop cup – MagicShow.Tips

The Stand Up Chop Cup

In the October issue of Vanish Magazine I’m teaching the Stand Up Chop Cup routine that I’ve been doing this summer. I wrote about this routine a little bit ago, it was created with rules.

Those rules were pretty simple:

1: No table: I don’t work behind a table, and didn’t want to add one just for a chop cup. Also, when on a raised stage, it can created a visibility issue for people seated on the floor below you.

2: No openly going to the pockets (or case): I think that if you constantly go to your pockets or prop case, it’s not hard for the audience to backtrack where the large production item came from. Sure they may not know how you got it there, but they know where it came from.

3: No one from the audience onstage: The chop cup really doesn’t need a spectator onstage…especially if their only job is to let you use their hands as a table. It’s a lot of dead time to bring someone on and off stage, and most chop cup routines don’t justify that.

Oh, I guess I should mention that this is a platform/stage routine and not a close up routine. I wanted to be able to do this as a solo piece onstage and the reason that I created it was there wasn’t anything that fit all three of those rules.

If this is something that appeals to you, check out the October 2025 issue of Vanish Magazine!

-Louie

Stand Up Chop Cup

I like the idea of doing a chop cup on stage, but it presents some challenges. The main one is on a raised stage, if you work on a table, and the audience is seated below you it can make it hard for them to see things on the table. My first rule of the routine was that there had to be no table. The next rule was that I wanted this to be a solo trick, so no one from the audience onstage. The final rule was that I didn’t want to (openly) to go my pockets or case during the routine.

The first thing I did was go see what was already out there, however most of the existing routines at some point use a table or pockets. When I mention this to other magicians they always mention Axel Hecklau’s routine, but that uses a table, pockets and a spectator onstage. In the past I had one a Ball and Cone routine for a show, so a phase of the trick was definitely inspired by that.

The routine that I’m currently doing now is my second version of the chop cup that follows the three rules above.

I’ve been doing this a bunch this summer and it’s going well!

-Louie

Chop Cup Routine

One magic trick that I’m fascinated by is the Cup and Ball trick. Most of these are “Chop Cup” routines as that reduces a lot of sleight of hand. Unfortunately many of these routines are very similar and use the gimmick in the exact same way. My Cee Lo routine uses the gimmick as a holdout, and not to replace sleight of hand and it’s a great, working cup and ball(s)/chop cup routine.

I’ve had an idea in a notebook for while and finally got around to figuring it out and posted it on Tik Tok. Also if you’re on Tik Tok, give me a follow @LouieFoxx

Here’s the routine:

@louiefoxx Magic trick from my hotel room! #magic #dollarbill #twentydollars #magictrick #dollarbillchallenge #closeupmagic #surpriseending #chopcup #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What’s interesting about it is that it doesn’t have the traditional chop cup move where you shake the ball in the cup. It also has a final load not being a physically larger version of the ball, but the bill changing to a larger denomination bill. I don’t know if that ending is better than producing a bigger item…

It was fun to get another idea out of a notebook!

-Louie

Keep It Up (higher)

Over the summer I worked with a balloon show, and his show is a great illustration of why it’s important to use the stage. If you are standing in front of the stage, it does help you mentally with the energy exchange with you and the audience, however you sacrifice visibility.

Here’s how the show looked from the 4th row at the audience’s eye level:

You can’t see much, and the way the audience in the back filtered out, that confirmed that they couldn’t see. Here’s what the show looked like from the extreme side:

There’s a lot more going on in the show that the audience a couple rows back can’t see. If you are on the same level as your audience and they aren’t sitting directly on the floor, everything needs to be at your armpits or higher. Any lower and it just disappears when you’re in the 3rd row or further back.

This post should be a reminder to audit your show and look for places where things aren’t visible to the audience when you’re performing on the floor. Visibility is why Axel Hecklau’s Just a Cup is superior to most chop cup routines, the action isn’t stuck on the table…and you aren’t stuck behind a table!!

-Louie

More Work on the Cup and Ball

Sometimes I have ideas and they are works in progress that make slow steps. The Stand Up Cup and Ball routine that I’m working on is still making baby steps towards what will hopefully be a cool routine.

Here’s an early version of the Stand Up Cup and Ball Routine:

What I don’t like about is that I go to the pocket, so that needed to be eliminated. There are also some rules for this routine. It needs to be done solo onstage, done without a table, and my hands don’t openly go into my pockets. I can do steals, use sleeving or things like a topit or holdout.

Here’s the current routine idea I’m playing with:

I’ve eliminated the ball going to the pocket, but I also had to eliminate a phase that I really liked. Where I toss the ball out of the cup, the ball is put in the pocket and it’s immediately reproduced by tossing it out of the cup. If I could come up with a way to vanish the ball without going to the pocket, I could add that phase back in. I haven’t given up on that phase, but it’s not looking good to keep it in.

This trick is a good example of a trick that will probably never be finished. The first version was alright and passible, but not what my vision for the trick is. There’s always things to discover and improve.

-Louie

Stand Up Ball Thru Cup

In playing with the stand up, cup and ball routine, I came up with this move:

I like it, but it’s a little be angle sensitive. I like the ball going up into the mouth up cup more than I when the ball drops into a mouth up cup and comes out the bottom.

I don’t know if it’ll make it into the final routine, but it’s adding to my move vocabulary for this routine!

-Louie

Stand Up Cup and Ball Routine

For years I’ve had an idea of doing a chop cup style routine that doesn’t use a table. The big drawback of a chop cup onstage is the table, it cuts blocks the view of anyone who is sitting below the table top.

Probably 20 years ago I saw Charlie Chaplin’s daughter’s husband do the chop cup in their theater show. I saw it twice, once from the balcony and it was great, and the second time from the floor and couldn’t see much.

Seeing that show really changed how I perform, I don’t have any action that happens on the table top in my parlor or stage shows. If they can’t see it, they can’t enjoy it.

Now, back to the chop cup, I’ve always said creating with rule makes creating much easier. Here are the main conditions:

1: Plays big enough for parlor/stage no table

2: No one from the audience onstage IF their only purpose is to use their hands as a table/surface

3: Quick set up, ideally just grab the cup and go
–I think this is the condition I may have to bend on as when there’s a final load, it’s usually not self contained.

The idea is that this will be something that could be used as an MC spot or a solo piece in a bigger show to break up things where you use people from the audience.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Here’s what I don’t like about what I have:

1: The steal of the second ball from the sleeve.
-I need to make a ball dropper/hold and steal it from the edge of my coat

2: Don’t like that my hand goes to the pocket.
-It makes the final load production more impossible if you never put your hand in your pocket.

3: It really needs a second kicker after the pool ball appears.
-Not sure how to make this happen…if you have any ideas let me know!

This is definitely something that I’m going to keep working on, I really like the idea. I don’t know if it’ll ever meet all of my conditions and desires for it, but you never know until you try!

-Louie

Presti Cup

A couple of weeks ago I picked up Presti Cup by Edouard Boulanger. Here’s the trailer for it:

What I like about it is a lot of the action happens off the table. He method is interesting and the wand could be replaced by something like an Enigma Gimmick. I do think that the wand makes the moves more deceptive, however I don’t use a want in any show other than my children’s show. So if this is something I end up doing, I’ll need to figure out how to justify the wand, or how to eliminate it.

I think with an Enigma Gimmick this routine would end up similar to Axel Hecklau’s Just a Cup, which is a great routine. I do like that the ball is physically larger than a die.

We’ll see what I can come up with…

-Louie

Some Close Up Magic…

The fair I’m performing at this week has me doing street shows. On the mornings of the slower days I’m doing some more close up style magic for people. Here’s a sample of what I’m doing:

You can see part of the Horizontal Ambitious Card that I recently started doing. It currently has three phases, ending with the card inside the card box. I’m really having a lot of fun with the routine, as it gives me a lot more room to play with the audience within the trick.

This is why it’s important to keep playing with a trick, even when you it’s a solid trick and your “A” material. If you keep playing you can find new bits or ways to do it. I’m of the mindset that a trick is never finished!

-Louie

Upgrading My Virtual Dice…

One of the things I’m always doing it trying to improve what I currently do. Right now in my virtual show I do a modified version of my Cee-Lo trick, which is a cup and dice routine. This ends with the production of two large dice. The large dice are 1 1/4 inches on each side. To give you some perspective, the picture below is one of the jumbo dice next to a regular die.

The reason that the trick uses 1 1/4 inch dice is that for a live, in person show, it makes the loading procedure work. The cup will hold two 1 1/2 inch dice, but the method where the spectator loads the cup for you doesn’t work well with a larger die.

I was cleaning up and found the old set of 1 1/2 inch dice I tried using for Cee-Lo. It hit me, since I’ve changed my loading procedure for virtual shows, and there are no spectators to handle the props, why not move to the larger size dice. To give you an idea of visually how much bigger they are, the pictures below are a 1 1/2 inch die next to a regular die and a 1 1/4 inch die.

That extra quarter inch makes it look massive! The nice thing about how I load the cups for live virtual shows is that the size of the die doesn’t really matter. I’m getting a little more visual impact for no extra work! I’m a fan of that.