I've spent a good bit of time learning the Three Shell Game as a magic routine, having found and studied just about everybody/thing I can on the subject. I think it's a great combination of sleights and psychology which is both truly interactive with spectators and entertaining with the correct presentation.
One of the things NO one says, though, is where you go to actually perform the Shell Game for an audience. If you get hired as a magician somewhere, and you have the goal of wanting to do your shell game, you could work your way to it through cups and balls, etc., or another gambling-magic motif. That way you've started out as a magician and not a street hustler.
This distinction seems to be a serious one, as I've heard of magicians advertising themselves AS magicians, and still coming under scrutiny of police/security/management when the shells appeared. Videos of Pop Haydn, Chef Anton and Jack Diamond don't tell you HOW they got a safe venue to do their routines. There are places in the world where even pretending to do Three-Card Monte or the Shell Game can get you in trouble.
Darwin Ortiz, in Strong Magic, says he thinks the gambling motif offers a great deal of possibility. And certainly a magical approach offers the safety--and fun-- to spectators of being able to participate in a kind of game where they can "go along" without worrying about losing their bank accounts (or being arrested), or being insulted/feeling like losers.
So the questions remains: How DO you safely get to do your Three Shell Game? I ask because I would like to do it outside of my house or with other magicians as the only audience.
One of the things NO one says, though, is where you go to actually perform the Shell Game for an audience. If you get hired as a magician somewhere, and you have the goal of wanting to do your shell game, you could work your way to it through cups and balls, etc., or another gambling-magic motif. That way you've started out as a magician and not a street hustler.
This distinction seems to be a serious one, as I've heard of magicians advertising themselves AS magicians, and still coming under scrutiny of police/security/management when the shells appeared. Videos of Pop Haydn, Chef Anton and Jack Diamond don't tell you HOW they got a safe venue to do their routines. There are places in the world where even pretending to do Three-Card Monte or the Shell Game can get you in trouble.
Darwin Ortiz, in Strong Magic, says he thinks the gambling motif offers a great deal of possibility. And certainly a magical approach offers the safety--and fun-- to spectators of being able to participate in a kind of game where they can "go along" without worrying about losing their bank accounts (or being arrested), or being insulted/feeling like losers.
So the questions remains: How DO you safely get to do your Three Shell Game? I ask because I would like to do it outside of my house or with other magicians as the only audience.