One of the first Penguin DVDs I ever bought, Sponge with Jay Noblezada, has been in my everyday carry for over 15 years. If sponge balls are part of your work, Davide Fragione’s lecture is a must-watch.

His thinking is clever, modern, and full of practical touches. On top of the four fully fleshed-out routines he teaches, I came away with three or four new ideas of my own, plus multiple upgrades to effects I already perform.

He shares some really clever and practical ways to carry sponge balls discreetly, so you’re always ready to perform without bulky pockets or obvious setups. These tips are simple but smart, and they make a big difference when performing in real-world conditions.

His work on retention vanishes alone is worth the price of the lecture. He teaches four different versions, along with several false transfers that look absolutely convincing. His “pop” production is a highlight: quick, surprising, and perfect for producing a ball onto a spectator’s hand or from your sleeve.

And The Upside Down Catapult is brilliant. It’s nearly invisible on camera, which means in person it’s going to fry people. It takes some practice, but the payoff is huge. This one move opens the door to real miracles.

I’ve used five black sponge balls for the last 10 years, but this lecture got me rethinking that and actually adding a contrasting color. Davide’s use of color isn’t just visual, it’s strategic. That shows how deeply he’s thought through every aspect of this material.

The only minor downside is that he performs a beautiful color change that isn’t explained, and there’s a trick shown in the trailer that doesn’t get a full breakdown. He covers the core technique behind it, but I would’ve loved to see the whole routine. Still, these are small things in an otherwise incredible lecture.

This is one of the best sponge ball resources I’ve seen in years. Everything is smart, visual, and practical. If you use sponge balls at all, this will inspire you, challenge you, and absolutely improve your work.

Let me first say the stuff in here is incredible! I do not regret this purchase one bit and I think the retention vanishes alone are worth the price hands down!
My issue is the OVER EXPLANATION… I completely understand the language barrier and I had zero trouble understanding him and following along so that wasn’t the problem. I found myself getting antsy just waiting for him to final “get there!” Everything was wayyyy over explained more than it needed to be and a lot of it boiled down to explaining every lil detail over and over and over when the video is incredible quality enough. You can see exactly what he is doing…. Some normal paced run thrus of all the handling and a few different angles of his hands in slow motion could have chopped an hour off of this.

I’m still happy, I’m gonna use most of this, but boy am I drained from processing that video. Hope you have patience

I‘m already doing spongeball magic for a while and was really fascinated about the trailer as I got the e-mail from Penguin Magic. I decided to buy / download the tutorial. First the fascination - by watching the download I became moe and more disappointed… the way how he explains the technique is that boring that I fell asleep two times - no choke!!! My English is not too bad, and usually I never ever had problems to understand tutorials - but it’s not my mothertounge - and if somebody permanently struggles for words it becomes not harder to understand but much more boring and when he is telling that often about things which have nothing to do with the trick or the technique itself then my interest gets completely lost. For me it was wasted money… maybe it‘s more interesting for native speaker…

this is really cool as sponge balls are kinda under appreciated. its not easy to do and i think you have to really practice but other than that all good

Like this one. Davide's Fragione accent is okay, I live in the UK. I really like magic tricks I have been into magic for 30 years and I never get bored with the good stuff. ( No disrespect ) you will always get people that like this type of magic and you will always get some people that doesn't. I have worked at corporate events / wedding's / and many many more. I really like Short eye-popping magic. I know I will like this all need to do is put the practice, practice, practice, get it perfect and practice some more. i don't think you will regret it.

Well worth it.

4 routines and a handful of novel, magical looking sleights. Some are definite additions for my routines. Should take them to another level.

Would have liked more of the rapid fire (brainstorming) of those and the other moves shown.

(as a native English speaker, I found it easy to understand the lecture sped up, and then the explanations stayed interesting the whole time, like any other lectures)

This guy is going places, this download is awesome, now it is slightly long, but that’s because English is not his first language, and he gets to be a little talkative and rattles on about things, but Eric Tate is at tableside to keep things moving along pretty smoothly. But with that said, this kid has put a lot of thought into how to use SpongeBob‘s in very unique ways, he’s created some slides that will take a little practice, but once you learn them, it’s gonna elevate your Sponge ball game to the next level, (I know that’s overuse cliché, but I really mean it.) but get ready to put a little practice in because there’s some great moves and some great tricks that can be done and like he says, he gives these to us to make it our own. If you like performing Sponge ball magic this is highly recommended.

I am a great fan of sponge ball magic so was excited to watch Davide Fragione’s lecture.
I absolutely loved his retention vanishes as the retention vanish is the back bone of any sponge ball routine. Davide does the retention vanish very well and very convincingly. You will have to undo your old retention vanish and retrain with this one - but it’s well worth the practice. Video yourself doing it and you will surprise yourself.
The whole download is great, but slow at the beginning with a long explanation of a sponge ball routine. I feel this routine could have been explained in half the time. Just my opinion.
The nuts and bolts of the retention vanish are at the middle of the lecture.
I give it 10/10 purely for the retention vanishes.

If you work with sponge on any level, you need to sit down and study... I SAID STUDY! This video. The most excellent, well-thought-out treatise on the subject

I'm not saying this will take up the bulk of your act, but used correctly it can can still get people's attention. More importantly his magic theory is on point and can be used in every type of magic.