Beautiful. To slightly paraphrase Allen Kennedy to Vernon:

"Whit, I want to congratulate you. You're really bringing that girl up right!"

Whit, I was pitching the three shells in 1971 at an outdoor flea market in Ky. This old con-man walked up, knew what was going on and taught me this patter. Could've even been for three card monte, can't remember. " He said" It's as easy as fat meat's greasy, It's as fair as a bird in the air, Watch me now as I cross my hands, cause, I'll fool a man..... and sometimes I won't. Have you heard anything similar to that?

Are you referring to the Karl Norman brass shells?

I just got through watching the S4S Three Shell Game video Volume 1. IMNSHO, it is a must for anyone wanting to learn the "Old Army Game."

Could have been Karl Norman...it's been a while.

It had a vinyl covered piece of foam for a pea. The shells were heavy brass shaped like upside down bowls. They made quite a noise when pea exiting, heavy brass can be loud.

You wanna start the three shell game? I HIGHLY recommend that you pick up either Sal Piacente's Three shell Game DVD, or Whit Haydn's DVD on the three shell game. They're BOTH very highly recommended.

Michael

To piggyback on Magicmavens post here a little... I have been practicing the 3 shell game since getting a set of the La Maggiore shells late last year (these seem to work great for me and I like them just fine).
I have a basic routine down fairly well but I still want to research other routines and info before I perform with them.
I also want to order more soft peas and one or two of the hard peas from "S4S", if possible.

So far my routine ends with the shot glass and finally with a pearl instead of the pea under one of the other shells.
I got this idea from Patrick Paiges video.

But what I thought I could follow this up with is the making of a pearl poodle for the person closest (probably a spectator who helped during the routine).
I produce the little string of pearls from a seashell that has one pearl in it, then out comes a little string of them.

What do you guys think ?
And as Glen mentioned earlier, you can use various items for the shells and I have thought about maybe using seashells and pearls when doing it but I would need soft pearls right ?

Any thoughts or comments would be welcomed.

By the way... FUNNY story, John, thanks for sharing!

GlenD

The 3 shell game, when well presented, is an outstanding piece of close-up magic!

I just attended at convention where there where competitions in table-hopping too.

One of the guys, IMHO, the very best of them all, did a beautifull version of the 3 shell game, with all the bits of bizz, spec involvement, it was just perfect.

He neither failed to give the credit to diff. specs at diff. stages of the game:
*I don't know how YOU did it, but you did it well..give her a big round of applause*.aso. aso.

He didn't forget to touch them gently on their shoulder, during his patter and routine, simply all the important bits of bizz and his patter, movements and last not least his routine was flawless!

He's from Finland and his name is *Christian*..

And guess what?
He didn't get a prize at all, I think he got disqualified because he only did one single *trick*!

Don't know if it clearly was stated beforehand to all performers that the rule was to do 2 or 3 diff. routines (read 'tricks') at least, it couldn't have been stated, otherwise they couldn't disqualify him, in that case I suppose he would have thrown in some more trickery..

To me -and I know a little about how magic should look and should be done- he was the very best of them all and I'm sure the judges (judges where solely the ppl sitting at the tables that where worked) no doubt did rate him very high..

What a shame...his little act was one of the highlights of the convention..
I've seen quite a few 3 shell game operators, some very, very good ones, but this guy could easily be in their companie, he did his stuff sooo entertaining..what a shame his ability didn't get recognized..

That happens frequently. I remember Rudy Coby coming out with his "four legged man" act and not qualifying because it didn't meet the minimum time requirements.

There seems to be "entertaining" and then there is "competitive" and you can have one without the other. That works both ways too. I've seen some good competition winners who weren't that entertaining... except to other magicians.

Hello Café members.

As an update regarding the Chanin book. Trickshop has published it now and there is a release price of $3.00 (half price for a limited time).

Get it here:
https://trickshop.com/chanin-three-shell-game.html

Regards,
Phil

YouTube brick Tilley three shell game to see it done with clear shells...

The right kind of Pea is hard to get, or at least used to be. I knew Chanin well. Wasn't his book called Hello Sucker ? The shells he sold were huge. He had large hands. What I want to bring up is, didn't Frank Garcia have work out on the 3 Shells? I seem to recall that. You also need the right surface - mat. One bit I remember is putting a glass over the shell that "has" the pea and then go somewhere from there.
The reason I stopped the shell game is that more magic is possible with the cups, and the premise or plot is too similar to do both.

Frank had his shell game on one of his Stars of Magic sets and it was written up in "All in a Nutshell." That book is pretty hard to find.

For me, the best book out there for The Three Shell Game is the book by Tom Osborne, edited by Ralph W. Read, and illustrated by Billy Hanna.

I have a few spare copies of it so, if anyone wants a copy cheap, take a look in the appropriate place here on the Café in a moment.

I seem to remember Frank (Garcia) having something out on the Army Game. Man With the Million Dollar Hands ? I forget. Plus, anyone remember Thimble Rigging? I used it as a bit of patter about origins when doing the shells, but didn't really know anything about it (the thimbles version).

Doing the 3 shell game for MONEY, for Betting, isn't that awfully dangerous ?
(i.e getting knifed in the parking lot . . . )

Not if you have enough muscle hanging out amongst the crowd ready to rock and roll if $(-)!t hits the fan....