I have been doing my own routine finishing in 4 tennis balls for some time.

Recently I saw a performer (I didn't get his name) in a restaurant who finished his chop cup routine with 3 final loads.

I got to thinking that 1 cup and 3 loads was a little overkill.

I am now weighing up if i should use 3 final loads and not 4.  I am torn.

I would be interested in your thoughts fellow "cuppers!"

Thanks,
Bri

Three is overkill for a chop cup routine, but for a cup routine, I think that it's best to go with four because it is surprising. It takes away any doubt that you might just jam the load into the cup or something. Do you get what I mean? Gazzo uses six oranges for final loads, and his routine is GREAT!!! Four is a perfect number in my opinion. Good question.



                        Mike

You could get caught loading your cups. Someone might see how you're doing it, since you're giving them a couple extra chances to catch you.

I like the four final loads, but I find myself always wanting to load more.  It's true Gazzo loads a lot of produce, so I guess it depends on who's performing, and what the circumstances are. 

When I first tried C&B, I was amazed at ONE final load showing up!  Then you think, if one is good, then three or four is better. Where do you stop?

Tom

Mike, Tom...

Some good points, well made!  I thought about Gazzo while writing the original post.  I have to say that while I don't disagree with anything that has been said I am still undecided.

I have been trying to think of WHY I feel that way and all I can come up with is that with 3 it may seem like a perfect cadence and so they stop thinking.  Using the power of 3 it is complete as all the cups have a final load.

With 4 they know that 2 tennis balls wont fit in a single cup so they continue thinking as it is an inperfect cadence and they simple think "Okay, I just didn't see WHEN he did it." So they have started to tryr to figure it out instead of simply enjoying it.

Of course, I could be thinking too deepy about this!

I always think too deeply about it!

Good point about the cadence. I don't know what a spectator thinks. My concern is about getting caught. 

However, it seems like it's similar to loading the biggest possible ball you can find. Wouldn't a smaller, easier to load ball be just as good? We always think bigger is better.

Now my head is spinning. I'll have to leave work early and go home and and play with my C&B!

Tom

For a cups and balls routine I have alway done 3 and only 3.

I never want to make the spectator contemplate four small balls. I think Four Big Loads leads them directly to that idea, if they didn't already have it.

When street performers do six or thirty-three pieces of fruit I think it's a beautiful thing. There is an implicit challenge air about EVERY SINGLE street performance of the cups I've seen. Pulling half a dozen kumquats out of your pouch obviously works well in that situation. The drive there is to fill the hat. More is always better there.

If you want to leave your audience the fewest possible clues to backtrack the effect. If your main drive, after (hopefully) entertaining your audience, is to leave them no flippin' clue as to how it was all done:

Any concentration of loading actions will lead to suspicious moments. The more loads, the more you open yourself to being figured out.

But, what the hell do I know?

Thanks Kent, I think you are on the button with the way I was thinking.  Like allowing them to stop thinking instead of back tracking.

 Ithink my opinion changes slightly when I am not doing my own routine, for instance when i use smaller cups and smaller loads, such as JES Squatties and Ammars Fab Fruit.  The Fab Fruit doesn't completlely fill the cups.

I guess I have just been "thinking out loud" with all of this but I enjoy other people's thoughts and opinions on stuff like this, and there's no place better than here!

Bri

That is a very valid point Kent, about street performers going for the money with the loads. I really think that it boils down to the routine. If you say something about the balls growing in your routine, then it wouldn't make sense to have four loads. I do think that four loads can appear more magical though, depending on the situation and the routine. I think that it is magical producing the loads from under the cups, but as the loads are being produced for a three-load routine, there is nothing growing during the climax. It is the climax of a big ball, and then two more balls. I think that the fourth ball really throws another punch out there. In Gazzo's routine, he can get by by doing two different sets of three ball loads because his punch after the cups is the melon. I don't think that three is as powerful for a standard routine, and if you're equipped with enough misdirection (which you should be to do the cups and balls) then there really isn't a problem of people catching you. Just my two cents.
  
 
                  Mike

I would suggest doing as much you can get away with. 
If you think 3 is Feng Shui and 4 messes the cadence, then try shooting for 6! But, it's your cadence, you're establishing the rhythm - if it feels out of synch to you then it is.
Maybe the problem is you are loading 4 of the same objects. Try 3 the same and a 4th load of something completely different.

For chop cup, I've seen my friends doin 3 loads while sometimes mine and most common routines using 2 loads

For cups and balls I myself use 4 different loads.
I think it's all about the presentation. If you "tell the right story" then the impact would be different.

although in my mind I always think about the final load concept. What this final loads are all about ?

Love to hear other opinions

Cheers
Andre

Good point, that's probably why I'm okay loading 4 fab fruit   I think I am going to play with my scripting a little as it's a bit of an off the wall presentation based on chinese philosophy rather that "I put that ball there, this on here.."

Everybody, thank you so much for your input here

Bri