The Art of the Con

[Zenn_Darkfire]

So I've decided to put together a little notebook filled with information that a con artist would need; short cons, the monte, lock picking, Erdnase moves, etc. I intend to make this be from the perspective of a fictional con artist. I think that this will be a fun little art project and I'm just curious if you guys would be interested in hearing about it?

 

[William Draven]

already been done. How to cheat at everything by simon lovel

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

already been done. How to cheat at everything by simon lovel

Let me rephrase this. I do not wish to publish it, this is just a fun little art project. I own Simon's book (Absolutely LOVE the thing) I just thought it might be fun to do it from a fictional con mans POV. As if this was his journal/diary

Again this isn't something I want to publish, just something fun to have lying around

 

[Magic Newswire]

Maybe do it in a form similar to this from Outlaw-Effects.com : http://www.outlaw-effects.com/store/backroom.html

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

Maybe do it in a form similar to this from Outlaw-Effects.com : http://www.outlaw-effects.com/store/backroom.html

Great idea! I like it a lot =]

 

[Magic Newswire]

I love their stuff. Expensive but interesting and inspiring for someone with a creative mind.

I can totally see an old battered cigar box or something, filled with hand written notebooks, gimmicked cards, dice and more!

 

[William Draven]

I could spend a mint on their products! Amazing website, and good character rich props & effects they produce. love it!

 

[Magic Newswire]

Next.. I hope that we'll see the end result and an interesting act that involves these items as props for Zenn to use to entertain and tell a story! Think Book Test and a gambling demo and a Del Ray Dice routine. That would be fantastic! Maybe it's your con-man Grandfather's box .. etc. I think that there'd even be room in that for a flourish or two! ;-)

 

[William Draven]

You know... What if the book Zen was writing about a gamblers exposure of the gritty underground was somehow gaffed into itself to be a book test... Sort of an act all in one prop.

You come out talking about gambling's gritty underground back in the turn of the century. Talk about nafarious gamblers like Soapy Smith, and others. Perform some gambling demonstrations with a deck of cards, perform a few flourishes to establish the gamblers absolute authority with the deadly weapons of deceit, and then introduce the book as a genuine artifact written by a real con using a pseudonymous name. Perform a book test, and then sell a non gaft version of the deck after the show as a souvenir!

This has potential!

 

[JDENredden]

Id be interested.

J.

 

[D ICE R]

If you were going to produce it yourself you would not need to make two copies.

You could easily Gaff the book and sell the gaft book to everyone.

 

[eostresh]

You know....these are some really great ideas. And it does something else. It gives you the latitude to explore a story and demonstrate sleight of hand as well. If done well you could use the basic format of a bizarrest/ mentalist presentation while at the same time covering some of the primary sleight of hand specialties. Open with some coin and money stuff, short cons on the street Move up in the criminal underworld to card cheating-show a powerful but relatively short gambling demo. Something that can show of cold decks, shuffle stacking and some bottom or center deals, all in under 10 minutes. At some point you can do a short pick pocketing act. Sooner or later your character will get "pinched" which can lead to some handcuff and or straight jacket escapes. At some point the life of a con artist might lead to a murder and there are a bunch of interesting mentalism and bizarrest effects that have a murder plot line. The whole show could be leading the audience along and the climax, as it would be with the career of a con artist, would be some sort of long con. In this case the audience gets "Conned." I think it has a ton of potential! It won't be easy but a show like that could be a real piece of art and more importantly an excellent plot line to combine "Mentalism" and traditional conjuring skills.

 

[saborfang17]

You know....these are some really great ideas. And it does something else. It gives you the latitude to explore a story and demonstrate sleight of hand as well. If done well you could use the basic format of a bizarrest/ mentalist presentation while at the same time covering some of the primary sleight of hand specialties. Open with some coin and money stuff, short cons on the street Move up in the criminal underworld to card cheating-show a powerful but relatively short gambling demo. Something that can show of cold decks, shuffle stacking and some bottom or center deals, all in under 10 minutes. At some point you can do a short pick pocketing act. Sooner or later your character will get "pinched" which can lead to some handcuff and or straight jacket escapes. At some point the life of a con artist might lead to a murder and there are a bunch of interesting mentalism and bizarrest effects that have a murder plot line. The whole show could be leading the audience along and the climax, as it would be with the career of a con artist, would be some sort of long con. In this case the audience gets "Conned." I think it has a ton of potential! It won't be easy but a show like that could be a real piece of art and more importantly an excellent plot line to combine "Mentalism" and traditional conjuring skills.

While cold decking and stacking are strong moves to use in a game, laymen are generally more impressed with things like being able to control the entire deck with false shuffles and false deals.

Here's a video of Mike Joseph from the '70s that was meant to be educational:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg5MvjDyCFA

(Unfortunately, it really only made him look like an ass who can do a table faro, but if you stack the deck in the same manner he did, with table faros, that is an easy to execute short demo.)

Some cons you might be interested in showcasing would include the Three Card Monte, Three Shell Game, and Fast and Loose. I like to do a fast-and-loose type demo with a rubberband (it's taught on Joe Rindfleisch's Extreme Rubber Band Magic DVD), mainly because I find them all the time in school.

Good luck!

 

[Magic Newswire]

Here's the old three shell game from Harry Anderon's television special in the late 80's. Still one of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCTIt1TnOzc

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

I love their stuff. Expensive but interesting and inspiring for someone with a creative mind.

I can totally see an old battered cigar box or something, filled with hand written notebooks, gimmicked cards, dice and more!

Thats exactly what I have in mind! I actually have an old Cigar Box from my grandfather that would be PERFECT! I just need to find some Steamboats and some gaff dice

I didn't even think of using it as part of my act until now. I just thought it would be a fun prop to own. I am working on a con man like show, so I may have to rethink this! I only planned on making one. Making some to sell after the show would be great but I have two problems. The first is actually making the book, since I plan on adding a lot of hand written things along with drawings, it would take a while to make enough to sell. The other things is I plan on inserting exerts from other books (such as Erdnase and Simon Lovell's book) so that wouldn't really fly. After I make one, I may attempt a second one in the future to see if I could make it again.

I've been working on my character a lot lately, and I want to go for something along the lines of an honest yet funny con man (think Jason England's skills mixed with Apollo's, throw in some James Galea and Justin Kredible)

I will deff keep everyone updated! Right now I'm working on a name for the con man. I'm not sure what though. The only thing I know for certain is that his name is Nick (this is more of a joke for me as in "I nicked this from him) Any ideas?

 

[eostresh]

Nick the pick

As in picking the pocket,
picking locks,
stabbing someone with an ice pick.

 

[Magic Newswire]

Instead of selling the exact notebook that you use in the show.. why not work on a souvenir piece just talking about the con and a few simple principles related to it. I immediately think of my friend Brian Brushwood and the book that you can buy at any of his performances "Cheats, Cons, Swindles & Tricks: 57 Ways to Scam a Free Drink" Something simply like that would be very appealing to the audience.

 

[saborfang17]

Nick the pick

As in picking the pocket,
picking locks,
stabbing someone with an ice pick.

Your name is Nick?!

Nick the Greek.

^Fo sho.

He never was a cheat (as far as I know), but he was a professional gambler who went rags-to-riches many times over the course of his life. Perhaps portraying a younger Nicholas would be a fun idea.

EDIT: Steamboats would be fun for a riverboat gambling theme. Regarding gaffed dice: They're expensiiiiiiive. Just have like, two pairs of cancelled casino dice. No need to get fancy with gaffed dice if you won't even be using them. If you will, have fun shelling out for them - they aren't for the average hobbyist.

 

[Magic Newswire]

I'm not sure that you really need actually "gaffed" dice. There are many ways to do dice effects with real casino dice that can looked gaffed.

If you want to see some real magic, watch this routine by the amazing Del Ray: http://bit.ly/9PCC0s

 

[eostresh]

While cold decking and stacking are strong moves to use in a game, laymen are generally more impressed with things like being able to control the entire deck with false shuffles and false deals.

I am not even suggestion doing an actual cold deck. But for demonstration purposes doing any color changing deck and calling it a cold deck will work. Follow it up with and obviously stacked hand and I think it will play great. I definitely think some sort of shell game or three card monte would be great....I just wouldn't do both.