Yann Frisch's "Baltass"

Yann Frisch in Baltass

[post 313]

If you're in the world of magic, you're no doubt already familiar with Yann Frisch, whose videos are going viral and whose many honors include winning French, European and World magic championships in the past few years. I, on the other hand, had never heard of him, but was schooled once again by Tanya Solomon, author of an earlier and very popular guest post for this blog on comedy magic.

Yann's signature piece is this modern version of the traditional cup and balls routine, Baltass. (bal = ball; tasse = cup) As with the best comedy magic, the tricks happen to the performer, and the tricks are indeed amazing, blending rapid-fire sleight of hand with flashes of some very nifty juggling — not surprising since he's a product of French circus schools:

After starting juggling and magic at the age of ten, I entered in a district circus school, and began to build regular numbers combining these two disciplines. At 17, I joined the circus school in Lyon, and after that the circus school in Toulouse. I will stay two years and I will create another number in addition to "Baltass," my cup and balls routine, before I leave school. I am currently working on two long forms of entertainment: a solo, and a trio with two friends from Toulouse.

Here's the act.

And here's what looks to be an earlier variation on it:



 Click here for Yann's web site (not much info, though).