Back in 1989, The Magic Circle in the UK, refused to let women join the society.
This annoyed female magicians such as Jenny Winstanley no end. But Winstanley had a plan.
She teamed up with Sophie Lloyd, a 28 year old actress, and taught her how to perform magic to a standard high enough to join the society (this was back in the day when clubs actually had standards rather then just letting every nerd with a deck of cards and a youtube account)
Sophie then created the character of Raymond, a young, socially awkard magician. Sophie spent a year performing in clubs around London until she was good enough and professional enough to join the club.
She auditioned in front of a panel of judges and an audience of 200 people and was accepted into the exclusive club.
A few months later when Lloyd and Winstanley revealed to the club they had been hoaxed, the circle didn’t see the humour and, rather ironically, kicked ‘Raymond’ out on the grounds of deception.
The pair even received the cliched late night “you’ll never work in this town again” phone call.
This week on statewide drive with Kathy Bedford we discussed:
Casino Conjuring: The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation spent $25,000 being Las Vegas magician Barron Stringfellow (best. name. ever.) to Australia to teach investigators how to spot a cheat.
A good investment of taxpayer money?
UPS Scam: A caller asked whether an email from UPS was really a scam (it was) and another called wondering why we get more scam emails this time of year. (the answer: we all need to cash after Christmas)
Twitter: We discussed the various frauds associated the social networking site and how to avoid getting swindled while tweeting.
Is the openness and anonymity of tweeter a breeding ground for swindlers?
Climate Change Government: Scamwatch warns us to be on the look out for fake offers of grants to fix climate change.
A few years back, magician Dan Harlen and skeptic Micheal Shermer went undercover on the street to try and swindle people with The Pigeon Drop, a classic scam. They do an amazing job, capturing the spirit of the scam and all the little details.
It’s a pity that, a little after this was shot, Dan Harlan got a silly and tried to pinch a bar’s cash register. On the way out of the door his pants fell down, he trip over and knocked out his teeth!
Happy to say that my lecture at Taylor’s Magic Shop on Monday night went down a treat.
Sean is a wonderful host and made sure I had everything I needed while supplying the audience with drinks and biscuits during interval.
We had a full house made up of magicians, members of the general public and a few cops.
We looked at a bunch of classic bar bets and other ways to win money in bars. These included a way to make money from the game Nim, which I called The Smack.
I also taught a version of poker that uses any ten cards in the deck. Even when your opponent gets six cards you still win every time.
I was really surprised how much the audience appreciated all of the little subtle details that I have long since taken for granted.
In the second half, I explained how the shell game, three card Monte and Hungarian Monte are played around the world and showed some of the photos and videos I got while in Europe.
I made up some sets of Hungarian Monte disks that sold out before the lecture was even finished. I had to take orders for some extra sets.
I’ve had a offer to record the lecture as a DVD to sell to magicians (and con artists) which I may well take up.
What do you think? Would you be interested in a con artist instructional DVD?
Dennis Walters was away and, sitting in his place, was none other than Mark Holden, formally of Australia Idol.
Holden seemed really comfortable behind the mike. I think radio is his natural home.
Aside from talking about the latest scams, Mark also asked me about an experience he had a few days.
While waiting at The Regent theatre stage door he was approached by a woman asking for money for petrol. The Petrol Lady strikes again!
The Petrol Lady is an inner city con woman who spends her days asking for money for petrol. I’ve met her three times myself and each time she’s had an elaborate story for why she needs money.
1) She’s got a job interview and she’s run out of petrol and if she can’t get the petrol money she won’t get the job
2) She’s just had a blood test at St Vincents and her boyfriend didn’t pick her up so she needs cash for a taxi.
3) Her car was stolen and she needs taxi money to get home. She said “I only have $3 and I’ve been looking for taxi money for three hours and now all the trams have stopped and I need to get a taxi.” Why didn’t she just get a tram three hours ago?
Her stories are detailed and her pitch is convincing. So much so that she swindled Holden out of $17.
He didn’t mind when I told him he’d been ’scammed by the best.’
