This one proved to be a real killer amongst the kids, so you can imagine my disappointment when I saw that Eugene Burger had taken pretty much the exact same approach to his own tossed Three Card Monte on a video that had been released probably a decade or so before I’d even thought of it.

Anwyays, for this you’ll want your set of Monte cards along with a bunch of paper money, be it real or recognizable facsimile. I’m going to assume you know the moves and what to do where. If you don’t, pick up any basic reference on the trick and you’ll get the work you need.

Incidentally, I haven’t typed this up yet, but I’m already anticipating that it’ll read pretty flat. Obviously it’ll be difficult to account for tone, especially since voice in written essay-form is so much different than voice in script form. If you ever want an eye-opening experience, hunt down online the screenplay for a favourite movie of yours, and notice how flat and stark all those words seem in their Courier font glory.

Finally, before continuing, one thing to keep in mind is that the kids weren’t allowed to speak Korean at the village, which explains an aspect of the script coming up.

“This time I’m not going to show you a magic trick, but rather I’m going to tell you a story about gambling. Do you guys know what ‘gambling’ is? Ok, remember, no speaking Korean! (Dobak!) No speaking Korean! (Dobak!) Do you understand? Yeah, it’s when you play cards for money. Now, is gambling good or bad?” (insert requisite back-and-forth on the topic before heading into the story) “Right. Anyways, this is a story about a time I did some gambling.”

“A long time ago I had all this money because I needed to buy myself a car. I was walking through the park when I saw this old man, and he was playing a game with three cards. He asked if I wanted to play, and I said ‘I don’t know.’ He said, ‘It’s easy! This card here is the winning card. This card wins! These two cards are loser cards. They don’t win. You want to find this card. The first time is just practice, you just have to follow the card. So…’” (toss the cards down, this is a fair mix) “‘…if I go like this and this and that, where’s the winning card?’ I thought to myself for a second… that’s easy, the card’s right there, right?” (point to the winning card, make sure the kids are on the same page as you) “The old man showed the card, and said, ‘Hey! That’s right! Good job!’ I was really happy! And then he said, ‘One more time?’ I said ‘Yeah!’ The old man said ‘For money?’ And I thought for a bit and then said ‘Ok.’ And then he picked up the cards and said ‘Ok, you just have to follow the cars again, one more time… and go!’ And he threw the cards around, and it wasn’t too fast, and I thought at the end that the winning card was here, and so I put some money right on that card.” Suit actions to words, place one of your bills in front of the card. “And the old man said, ‘Here?’ I said ‘Yeah.’ And he said ‘Eeesh’…” (make a wincing face) “‘…I’m sorry, but you lose.’” (turn that card face up at the moment you say ‘lose’, and then gather the money, gather up the cards without showing where the winning card ended up.)

“He gathered up my cards, and took my money. I was shocked and said ‘What did you do?’ The old man shrugged and said ‘I don’t know.’” (tone of voice, hamming it up a bit) “Then he said, ‘One more time?’ and I thought about it for a sec, and said, ‘Yes! One more time.’ And then he picked up the cards and showed the winning card, and then tossed it around a bit and said, ‘Where is it?’” (toss the cards around, again, another fair mix) “I thought about it, and said ‘I think it’s over there.’ ‘Right here?’ said the old man. ‘Yeah, I said,’ and the old man turned it over, and there was the winning card.” (notes on this later) “‘One more time?’ he asked. ‘Ok,’ I said.” (apprehensive tone of voice) “‘For money?’ he asked. ‘Ok…’ I said. And he picked up the cards and showed me the winner, and then he mixed them around like this. Now, I thought the card was here, so I took my money and said ‘I think it’s there, but… nah, I’m not sure. I mean, I think it’s there, but… nah, I don’t know.’” With a bill in hand, mock the actions to show uncertainty about whether you want to bet where the card should be. “The old man said, ‘Well, let’s see.’ and he picked up the other two cards, and said, ‘Well, that’s a loser and that’s a loser. How about now?’ I paused and said, ‘Ok…’ and then I put my money on the other card, at which point he winced and said ‘Eeesh, I’m sorry, but you lose again.’” Pick up that card, and then show it’s a loser as well, punctuated by ‘again’.

“He gathered up the cards, and took my money.” Gather up the cards again and set them aside, again not showing them the winner. “At this point I was really angry. ‘What did you do?’ I said. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘You tricked me!’ I said. He smiled and said, ‘One more time?’ and I said ‘Yes!!!’ and he said, ‘Ok, one minute, I have to go to the bathroom.’ and he went away. Now, I was thinking, ‘That was a loser, and that was a loser, and then that was a loser, and so I thought ‘He has three losing cards.’” (look out into the audience and try to see if any of the kids are nodding their head — if so, focus on them, and if not, pretend one of them was) “Right? You agree? So I picked up the cards and checked them out…” (pick up the packet of cards and then throw them down one-at-a-time, face-up, ideally not having the winning card in the center) “…but there it was, the winning card.”

Smile. “But then I got an idea. I picked up the winning card, and I did this.” (put a bend in the corner) “Now, look at this. If I go like this…” (throw the cards around) “…where’s the winning card? Over there? Right! How about now?” (throw the cards around again) “There? Right! One more time…” (throw the cards around) “And now? Right again! See? It’s easy. Then I saw the old man coming back, and so I put the cards together like this…” (lay the winner card in the center, and then place one of the loser cards on top of it, diagonally overlapping the front edge, concealing the bend in the corner) “And he came back and asked ‘Are you sure you still want to play?’ and I said ‘Yes!’ and grabbed all my money. He said, ‘Ok, one more time, you want to bet on the winning card. Is this a winning card?’” (show the right loser card to the group, try to elicit a response if you like) “‘No,’ I said, and he said ‘Right. So don’t bet on this card, ok? Now, is this a winning card?’” (show the left loser card to the group, again trying to elicit the response, but also doing the dirty business you need to do) “‘No,’ I said, and he said ‘Right, so don’t bet on this card either. You want to bet on the winning card which is right here.’” (pick up the card with the bent corner, and show that it’s the winner (see notes later) before then tossing the cards down and mixing them up.) “And then he mixed the cards up a whole bunch, like this and this and that and this…” (Have the action be a really crazy mix, matching your words to the various switches) “…one of these, one of those, and then… one of these.” (take the two unbent cards off the table and switch them furtively (again, see notes later)) “…And then he said, ‘Ok, go ahead.’ At this point, I grabbed all my money and yelled ‘Here!’” (falsetto is a bit funny here, and slam the money down in front of the bent card) “And then the old man looked at the card and said, ‘Hey! Wait a second, what’s this?’ and he pointed to the bent corner. ‘Oh, I don’t know…’ I said.” (mimic the tone of voice from earlier, as if the roles are reversed) “He said ‘You put that bend in there! You tricked me!’ and I said ‘Oh I don’t know, but I’m putting my money there. That’s my card. I’m betting on that card right there.’” (pause for a bit) “The old man looked at it for a bit, and then winced and said ‘Eeesh. I’m sorry, but you lose again.’” (turn over the card with the bent corner, showing it’s a loser, right on the word ‘again’) “And then he gathered up the cards, and took all my money… and that is why gambling is bad.”

A few things that are worth considering here. First, the mixes were not very thorough. Honestly, I’d have one loser in my left hand, double-up in my right, toss ‘em down, and then switch the outside cards. In real life, when you’re trying to fool somebody into thinking that they lost the cards in the mix, you want to give them a real mix, and this is because they’re going to play the game honestly. In a magic show, though, the situation is different. First, clarity is important, and what you’re losing in terms of jeopardy, you’re gaining in terms of shock at the result. Second, though, because they’re expecting the unexpected, that’s why I’ve got the many phases in there that essentially serve to reinforce that the game is fair.

Handling-wise, for the first two phases, it’s this… The first one is important so that they understand how things look when the game is fair, and the laydown is essentially to toss it to WinnerLoserLoser, and then switch the outside cards (now LLW), before showing that the card is where it’s supposed to be. Do it again, only this time LWL, and then switch the outside cards three times, so that it should be identical to the first one (in their mind, LLW), and hopefully the unexpected result is attributed to those two extra switches.

The second one is also important, where you essentially toss it to WLL, and then switch the outside ones twice, so that it should still be WLL at the end of it. Trust me, do this enough times and the audience will want to get ahead of you, which is why it’s vital to have that fair phase in there again to recondition them to the fairness of the game. You will have kids trying to guess at where the card is (some of whom will be correct, either because they’ve guessed the method or because they’re just guessing randomly), and so it’s important for them to actually be wrong. The story conceit of the trick means that they don’t need to look foolish for being wrong (the only ostensible loser here is you, the main character in the story you’re telling) but the kids still do need to be wrong, in order to set up the surprise later on, and also to establish a sort of empathic link between them and the character of you in the story. Monte, despite any attempts to play it differently, still has the challenge element, and people will want to say where they think the card is no matter what presentation you throw at it. As such, doing it fairly again ensures that any contrarian guessers out there will be incorrect, and it’s great when you see the bewildered look on their faces at that point. Anyways, so you toss it fairly, get to the money phase, and at this point I’d toss it to LWL, switch the outside ones twice again (do it four times, if you like), pick up the center and right cards, show LL, and then have the character move the money to the left card, only to show it L as well.

Another note on the second phase, at the point of betting. It would be totally and hilariously unrealistic for the operator to display the two cards like that in real life, so if you’re going to play it straight up with people, keep that in mind. In the story, though, the aim is to provide escalation, and that display of a loser followed by another loser, followed by the pause, followed by the bet, followed by showing the third card is a loser as well, that slays.

The third phase is fairly straightforward in terms of how it plays out. You’ll notice that I’m essentially breaking the narrative flow in order to do the mixes with the corner-bent cards. It’s not too much of a diversion, and again, it serves the important point of making sure that they’re back on board with the fairness of the game. In a story trick like this, you’re going to be able to get away with basically taking control of the narrative and going through it without pausing, but to really maximize the impact of the reveal you’ll want to make sure everybody is on the same page about the way things ought to be, and the best way to do that is to make sure that things actually are the way they ought to be.

One thing about the revelations of the losing card when the money is down. Every now and then you’ll hear kids saying “No! It’s not there!” when you push the money in front of where the card ought to be. It’s very difficult to keep them from getting ahead of you at that point, and if you’re even the least bit paranoid that maybe you might have flashed the technique on that one, having kids yell out “No!” at that point can throw you a bit. Two things. First, make sure your technique is perfect. Second, for the sake of your own sanity, and to keep narrative momentum going, assume that the “No!” isn’t saying “No, I saw what you did and it’s on the other side!” and is instead saying “No! You’re going to lose. It won’t be there! Don’t do it!” The former will throw you off, but the latter is theatrically strong, so play it off like that’s what’s going on. If you watch Tommy Wonder do “Socked Coins” (video is here), look at his demeanour right at the point prior to the reveal of the climax, with people calling out “No way! You did something!”, and how he confidently disregards all that and calmly focuses in on Janel. That’s the sort of thing you’re going for there. For what it’s worth, in a story context it’s a bit easier, since having the narration essentially brings people back into line and reminds them that they’re listening to a story, and this helps make them passive again.

Frequently, I followed this whole thing up by actually playing a mock round with the kids, doing a fair laydown, and then asking them where it was, having them guess correctly, before then saying “One more time?” When they’d say “Yes!” I’d respond: “For money…?”

You’ll notice that, after the betting rounds, I never showed them where the winning card was. If I had to choose between showing them the winning card, or else having them examine the packet afterwards looking for trick cards or an extra loser, I’d do the latter in a heartbeat. If this trick had a variety of methods open to me, I might think differently about that point, but the lack of cancelling methods, combined with the fact that disappointment is ultimately the prevailing emotion here, means that not showing them where the winner is is the way to go. One note, sometimes, depending upon my read of the spectators, after the first phase where the card is shown to be a loser, I’ll pick up the cards, and then discrepantly lay down the cards again, displacing the winning card to the left-hand-side, essentially offering them an image of WLL in contrast to the expected LLW, and when the actual laydown was LWL — it’s got little power as an overt convincer, but it’s one extra thing to help try to put them off the scent, and help make it seem as though it was the switching of the outside cards that was responsible for the whole thing, rather than the throw-down.

Also, one thing I’d do is during the conditioning round prior to the bent corner reveal, I’d actually throw the cards around fairly three or four times, but not always show them that the winner was, instead only congratulating them on choosing the winner if they point to where the bent card was. This was deliberate — I wanted to get them to focus on that bent corner. Note that if there’s any suspicion about the corner-bent card’s identity, it’s dealt with in the display just prior to the final mix, where the card with the bent corner is lifted to show it’s still the winner. But, I’m happy to let that suspicion fester a wee bit — if they’re asking themselves “Is that card with the bent corner still the winner?”, I think that by delaying satisfaction for a second, and then showing them that it is, the satisfaction that they feel will be just a tad more potent. That’s theoretical, of course.

One last point about the final mix, with the bent card in play. Notice that right before the reveal, the two unbent cards are lifted from the table and apparently furtively switched. There’s three reasons for this. First of all, theatrically, it’s funny, because it’s a sneaky action carried out by the old guy, but it’s also apparently meaningless. Second, if there’s even a remote possibility that somebody has seen through the method or else knows it from elsewhere, then this final switch means that they can no longer follow the winning card (assuming they were able to) and at this point it means that they’re reduced to guessing. Third, if you follow the choreography outlined above, it’s pretty easy to put in massive work on the loser card, but sometimes the winner card will still have a wee bit of a bend in it, since the work is taken out in the action of the initial laydown of the card. With the cards in motion, the card with the bend will stick out easily, but if the cards come to a rest long enough, it may register that there’s a second card there that has a bit of a bend in it, so to get rid of the possibility of it being there at the end and creating suspicion, that off-the-table switch gives you a chance to even out the cards properly. And again, remember, do everything else properly and people are going to think it’s funny and irrelevant anyway.

It’s generally ok to ham up the dialogue within the narrative, so that the audience has a clear distinction between what word are spoken narrative, and which ones are dialogue. Also, the hamming up of the old man’s “I don’t know!” when the main character is accused him of trickery, means that when the tables are turned later on and the main character is saying it back at the old man, similarly hamming it up drives the irony home. I should point out that “I don’t know!” is dumbed-down dialogue for an ESL audience, and for an English audience it’d be better to say “I don’t know anything about that!” or similar. Finally, try, if you can, to make the old man’s wincing ‘Eeesh!’ have a presence (look slightly pained) because it helps to foster a real sense of dread that things aren’t what they should be, exactly at the right moment prior to the reveal.

Anyways, this killed with the kids, which is funny given that it’s a disappointing surprise three times in a row. Crediting-wise, this is really my version of something that Eugene Burger was already doing, but the inspiration for it came watching Daryl do the traditional story-presenting for three card monkey business.

Honest, I swear! I wouldn’t cheat you, now, would I?

Last up, “The Magic Hat”.