Tag: balls in net

Simple Step To Creativity

One of the easiest ways to create things is to put conditions onto what you want to do. For example, I’ve always loved the Three Ball Routine or Balls in Net. What I didn’t like is having to bring two people onto the stage to hold the net. I felt it added blocking issues and … Continue reading “Simple Step To Creativity”

One of the easiest ways to create things is to put conditions onto what you want to do. For example, I’ve always loved the Three Ball Routine or Balls in Net. What I didn’t like is having to bring two people onto the stage to hold the net. I felt it added blocking issues and a lot of wasted time bringing the people onto the stage.


The condition I added to the Three Ball Routine was that it needed to be done with just me onstage. With that condition in place, it created a lot of challenges, like where to put the balls. John Rogers has an interesting solution to this in his The Walrus Three Ball Routine, however that wasn’t what I was going for. Some options were having the net hung between two mic stands like a hammock or simply setting them halfway into your top jacket pocket.


I wanted the whole routine being done in the hand as the cleanest way to do it. It got me thinking of Coins Across routines that are done entirely in the hands, specifically Jay Sankey’s Mexican Jumping Coins. With Jay’s routine in mind, I got to work on putting together my routine with balls.


Here’s what I came up with:

By putting in the condition of having no one from the audience onstage, it made the routine much easier to build. I think if I had initially added a “no net” condition I may have gotten to the solution much faster. Honestly I want the net from the beginning, but figured I may need it to hold the balls.


Look at the tricks that you do, and figure out what you don’t like about them. Add removing that as a condition and you’ll be on your way to creating something new!

Ball Trick…

One trick that I keep going back to over the years is the Three Ball Trick. It’s a great trick, and personally I really like the idea of these older tricks that are known, but not used as much as something like coins across, or linking rings. The slightly less common ground is good for … Continue reading “Ball Trick…”

One trick that I keep going back to over the years is the Three Ball Trick. It’s a great trick, and personally I really like the idea of these older tricks that are known, but not used as much as something like coins across, or linking rings. The slightly less common ground is good for me, as it allows me to find my version much more easily.


If you don’t know the Three Ball Trick, here’s a version of it:

There are a lot of variations of this, so it could be a “balls across” or “two in the hand, one in the pocket” type routine. Most routines end with everything vanishing. This for roving magic is good, it signals the end of the routine and doesn’t take up much pocket space. Some routines end with a production of a large item.


The version of this trick I’ve been playing with this week isn’t a close up trick, but for cabaret sized audiences. Unlike most versions of the trick that use a net held by two spectators to catch the balls, my version is just me onstage and no table.


Here’s the routine. Three balls go into the left fist, and one at a time they invisibly travel to the right hand. One is put into my pocket, then it travells back to my hand. All three are put into my pocket and three balls reappear in my hand, but these are large balls!


There’s not much to the routine, aside from the production of three large balls, where most routines only have a single production. I think Fernando Koeps has a routine with multiple large balls appearing. For me the fun of putting together a routine is having something unique, whether in method, or sequence. While I hate to call myself an artist, but that’s the artist in my that doesn’t really want to do someone else’s version of a trick.