THREE CARD MONTE.

THREE CARD MONTE. Houdini’s use of a confederate to ring the Kremlin bells, but, as the televised Masked Magician demonstrated, trained assistants are part of the explanation for a lot of magic tricks. The classic three card monte, found on street corners all over the country, often uses a team of 8 or more players. My source for this is a very good book I have been reading about the magic world: FOOLING HOUDINI by Alex Stone. The 8 include a couple of muscle guys who look out for cops, 4 or 5 shills, the operator (who does the slight of hand) and sometimes a “smoother” to calm down the victim after the sting. The operator is usually badly dressed and appears to be awkward and incompetent.