Chop Cup

A gaffed cup with a built-in magnet in the base (or bottom), allowing the retention of magnetic balls or other loads. Used alone or as part of a cups and balls set.

Devised by Al Wheatley, a professional magician who performed under the name Chop Chop. His original Chop Cup was made out of a section of hollow bamboo.

The Chop Cup became a popular magician's tool in part due to the celebrity of Don Alan, who made it a staple of his act.

A fine introduction to the Chop Cup is available at Doug Atkinson's Magic Reference Pages

Here are a number of fine routines with such a cup from David Regal, Larry Jennings, Gary Ouellet, Dan Tong, James Swain, Steve Dacri and John Mendoza.