In the Art of Magic, variations of cups and balls magic tricks are one of the oldest tricks, and dates back to ancient times. Jugglers, who used sleight of hand in their routines, originally performed it. Then jesters and minstrels used the cups and balls trick to entertain and amaze. That the trick remained popular, and virtually unchanged for the next 400 years is a mark of its success.

To suit modern times, and the magician's close-up routines, the cups and balls trick has now been modernised and simplified.

Performing the Magic Cups Trick

This is an easy and well-known magic trick, that anyone from a small child to a stage magician can convincingly perform using props which can be found from around the house. It takes a bit of practice and very little skill to amaze people with this simple illusion, where a small object seems to penetrate a solid drinking cup. It will probably be easier to understand this trick if you try it out first.

What You'll Need

• Four identical small objects that weigh very little and are all the same colour. Small pompoms are ideal and this entry will use them as an example.

• Three non-see-through and identical plastic drinking cups which can stack inside each other. The cups must stack without crushing the pompoms, or creating a difference in the exposed areas of the cups beneath, as this is likely to give the trick away. ***They should also not be the type to stick firmly together with nested and tapped. Having to pull forcibly to get them apart could be both embarrassing and give away the existence of the fourth pompom.

Preparation

To prepare for the trick before performing it stack the three cups inside each other right way up, with a pompom inside the middle cup. It is essential that your audience do not know about this hidden pompom.

Performing the Trick

1. In front of your audience, place the other three pompoms in a horizontal row onto a table, about seven or eight centimetres away from each other.

2. Place a plastic cup upside down on each of the pompoms, ensuring that the cup with the hidden pompom is in the middle. Put the cups down quickly so that the hidden pompom does not fall out, but don't make this too obvious. If you do one quick and the others slowly it could look suspicious, so its best to do it all at the same speed.

3. Pick up the cup from the left hand side, place the pompom from underneath this cup on top of the middle cup with the hidden pompom inside, and then stack the cup on top of the middle cup.

4. Wave you magic wand, or just wave your hands in a suitable magical way, and say the magic word 'abracadabra'.

5. Pick up both cups together. Underneath the cups there should be two pompoms. Your audience will believe you have just made the pompom between the two cups penetrate through the first cup and onto the table. In reality, this pompom is hidden between the cups.

6. Put the empty cup back where you took it from, and place the cup that contains the hidden pompom on top of the other two pompoms.

7. Repeat steps three to five, this time placing the right hand cup on top of the middle cup. When the two cups are removed together, there will be three pompoms, and it will look like another pompom has gone through the cup.

The secret to this trick is to not let your audience know that there are four, not three, pompoms. It is vital that the audience cannot see into the cups. As with any magic trick, how well the magician creates an atmosphere of suspense and communicates with their audience through what is supposedly happening will determine how successful this trick is.