Blog Archives
S4S Three Card Monte video available as Download!
Whit “Pop” Haydn and Chef Anton Riniti have taught a course at the Magic Castle every year since 1996 as part of the Magic University. 2015 will be our 20th year of School for Scoundrels at the Magic Castle. This eight hour course covers the history, moves, ruses, psychology and application to magic of the three classic street swindles: Three-Card Monte, Fast and Loose, and the Shell Game.
This is the complete School for Scoundrels DVD on Three-Card Monte in downloadable mp4 format.
This download contains close to three hours of video in mp4 format, including fine-point instruction in all the major moves, psychology, and misdirection used in the monte, plus a three-camera shoot on the street of a reenactment of Cracker Parker’s London mob scam, an interview with Gazzo discussing the methods of the London Mob, and actual footage of three-card monte being played on the streets in Khiva, Uzbekistan.
Includes Chef Anton’s complete presentation and explanation of Three-Card Gold, an excellent, unique exhibition routine created by Chef and Whit Haydn.
BUT THERE’S MORE!
This download also includes the 160 page book School for Scoundrels Notes on Three-Card Monte in pdf form.
Over 160 pages with authentic photographs and illustrations! This is by far the most comprehensive book ever written on the history, psychology, and moves of this classic swindle.
We explore its application to magic and include the School for Scoundrels complete three-card monte routine called Three-Card Gold. We also feature some of the most clever endings ever devised and are proud to introduce Bob Kohler’s Knifed and Gazzo’s Creased Lightning, and many other ruses which have never previously appeared in print.
Get it NOW!
ONLY $20!
To purchase, or for more information, click HERE
Shell Game in the W C Fields Bar
Pop Haydn performs the Shell Game in the W. C. Fields Bar at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. Pop is one of only two performers to have ever been named “Magician of the Year” in the WC Fields Bar by the members of the Magic Castle.
This performance was recorded by photographer Billy Baque on Dec 1, 2013.
Three-Card Monte in Spanish
The School for Scoundrels has just made a deal with Dani DaOrtiz to have my book on Three Card Monte published in Spanish. “The School for Scoundrels Notes on Three-Card Monte” is the most thorough book on this scam, including its history, psychology, moves and ruses and application to magic.
I am very excited!
Reviews of the book here:
Pop Haydn — The Shell Game
Pop Haydn performs the shell game in the W. C. Fields Bar at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. September 8, 2013. Pop Haydn was named “Magician of the Year” in the W. C. Fields Bar by the members of the Magic Castle in 2005.
School for Scoundrels at Magic Castle Sunday!
Bob Sheets at School for Scoundrels
Despite the recent Halloween fire, the Magic Castle is planning to be open by this weekend, and our School for Scoundrels class will begin on Sunday night, November 6th, as planned.
There is still room for you to join this exciting class, but you must register by Friday.
It is open to both members and non-members of the Magic Castle, and no prior experience, skills or knowledge is required.
This course teaches the basic sleight of hand, psychology, history and importance to magic of the three basic street swindles: Three-Card Monte, the Shell Game, and the various games of Fast and Loose.
We believe that the street hustler makes a better role-model for the modern close-up magician than the card cheat which has been the model since the turn of the century.
We believe that street hustlers have much to teach that is of huge benefit to magicians, especially those who work corporate walk around, trade-shows, or private parties where they need to gather a crowd, hold their attention, control their thinking, and get them to do what they want them to do.
School for Scoundrels at the Magic Castle in Hollywood will begin on Sunday, November 6, and continue on Nov 13, 20, 27, and also on Mondays, November 7, 14, 21, 28. School for Scoundrels is a course taught at the Magic Castle every November since 1996.
Pop Haydn and Chef Anton (two-time national trick-shot champion at pool), teach the class together, with guests such as Bob Sheets and Doc Eason.
The course attracts lawyers and law-enforcement personnel, as well as magicians, students of gambling and history, and many who just find the subject fascinating–you don’t need to be a member of the Magic Castle to sign up for this course, and no previous knowledge or skills are required.
The course is $160 for the eight hours–two hours a night, once a week, for four weeks.
You can switch nights from Monday to Sunday or vice-versa–each week the same lesson is taught on both Sun and Mon at 7:00 pm.
Contact Magic University, and talk to Mark or Nani Wilson at (800) 367-8749 to sign up for the course.
$160 for all four nights.
A warning from Berlin Police:
Shell Game with Matchboxes. Barcelona
This is an interesting warning for tourists in several languages and cartoons about the dangers of playing the shell game:
Waiting for photos from our members:
Anyone else receive their campaign kits?
We are about to ship out another hundred, and still only a handful have posted photos with their buttons. If you haven’t signed up to get your free campaign kit (with big Pop Haydn button, campaign poster postcard, and American Confidence Party membership card), then go to Campaign Headquarters and you will find out more about the Greater American Confidence Party and Pop Haydn’s campaign for President of the United States in 2012.
The Horn Nut Scam
In the course of a tour de force round of stories and virtuoso performances of a number of entertaining pitches and ballys, Bobby Reynolds explains the Horn Nut Scam, a ruse he used as a child to sell worthless Chinese horn nuts as Chinese Water Lily bulbs.
The scam is evidently very old and has some interesting associated stories.
The nut looks like a water buffalo head, and the horns will float upwards when the nut is placed in water. A hole is drilled between the horns, and a gladiola flower is glued in place. Three or four of these are floated in a bowl of water.
Horn Nut
Nancy Magill and I were delighted to participate in both of the Senior Pitchmen Reunions in Las Vegas. This is a gathering of pitchmen over sixty years old, people who sold medicine in the medicine shows, svengali decks in the carnival, puppets on the street corner, and kitchen gadgets, miracle cleaners, dusters and a million other items on television and now on the internet.
We videod four hours of interviews at the convention in 2009, and that became our DVD, “The Senior Pitchman’s Reunion, 2009” from School for Scoundrels (available at www.scoundrelsstore.com)
This video is from volume II, “The Senior Pitchman’s Reunion, 2010.” We should be releasing this volume in the next month or so.
— Pop Haydn
New Senior Pitchmen DVD
Here are Bobby Reynolds, S. David Walker and Wally Nash talking about the Medicine Show pitch at the 2nd annual Senior Pitchmen Reunion in Las Vegas in 2010.
Nancy Magill and I video-taped four hours of interviews at the first convention in 2009, and that became the Senior Pitchmen Reunion DVD available from www.scoundrelsstore.com
This clip is from the second annual convention DVD, the Senior Pitchmen Reunion 2010. We will be releasing this DVD in the next month or two.
Magill did all the camera work, and I did the editing and titles.
We want to thank Gene Haaheim for letting us be a part of both of these wonderful get-togethers and record them for posterity.
This is a convention of pitchmen–the guys who sell watches, puppets, svengali decks, flower bulbs, kitchen gadgets, miracle cleaners, knives and dusters on the street, in carnivals, in stores, on television and on the internet–all of them over 60 years old.
These are guys who spent a lifetime hustling, drawing a crowd, and pitching the product.
Pitchmen are not only a fascinating, unique and attractive life-style and sub-culture, they are a fountain of information on how to survive and prosper in this most basic of entreprenurial fields. But their knowledge is also helpful to magicians, salesmen, emcees and others who need to know how to draw and hold a crowd, how to control their thinking, and how to sell them a product.
Nancy Magill
Pop Haydn
Pop's Soapbox 