What is your favorite bar challenge? Ever do the levitation olive?

koan

Best I know is a two-parter head-to-head challenge. You bet the shot itself.

1. Put a shot under a hat. Challenge is to drink the shot without touching the hat either directly or with a tool. Have challenger sitting across from you.
   
   Duck under the table and make drinking noises. Come back up and say you drank the shot. When challenger lifts hat to confirm your statement, grab shot and drink it.
   
   
2. Give challenger a chance to try it themselves, stating that it's a good thing to learn. Same setup with the shot under the hat. This time CHALLENGER has to drink the shot without touching the hat.
   
   When challenger ducks under the table to make drinking noises, quickly remove the hat, drink the shot, and replace the glass under the hat as it was before. When challenger comes back up claiming to have drunk the shot, lift the hat, feign amazement at the empty glass, and say, "I'll be darned! You did it!"

Continuing from JJDrew's post:

3. Make sure the other guy is paying for the drinks in the first place.

I highly recommend Harry Anderson's book "Games You Can't Lose and Games You Can't Win" - it is tremendous. Harry starts with a very nicely detailed discussion of the drink under the hat trick mentioned above, and from there he takes off into the wild blue yonder. If you are ever in New Orleans, visit his store in the French Quarter - it's really great.
kerpa
a/k/a Mike Miller
Chicago area

I understand that "100 Ways to Win a Tenner" by Paul Zenon is another good collection of bar bets.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN......-4939831

Does anyone know of a source in the USA for this book?

Thanks,
DaveS

Watch for someone to receive a freshly made drink or a freshly opened beer at the bar, and make sure it is one you like. Before they have a chance to take a drink, bet them a dollar you can drink it in under three seconds (people won't take you up on this if it is a shot, pick something bigger). When they agree, pick up the drink and enjoy it at a leisurely speed. Five or ten seconds in when they demand the dollar, pass it over and say "Here you go! Thanks for the great deal on the drink!" Then walk away before you get decked.

-Reg {*}

Bet somebody you can drink 4 pints before they can drink 4 shots, the only conditions are that they can't start their first shot until you've finished your first pint, and nobody else can touch any glasses (and you can't touch each other's glasses). drink your first pint quickly as if warming up, then invert this empty glass and place over one of their shot glasses. Finish your three pints leisurely as they can't drink they're shot!

You should get the book, Bet you can and bet you can't. Out of print now but you can get them CHEAP CHEAP on amazon.com

Very cool things you can do - or not do

Lift the bar glass from the bar with just the straw. Not the bottle...that's already been done...the glass...like a greyhound glass...

Any takers?

Mentalism's not my thing, but I found this in my bar-bet research...

"Give your "victim" a penny and a nickel, and ask them to put one in each hand without letting you see which coin is where. You'll be able to tell which coin is in each hand by using the power of your mind.

Explain that they need to think about each coin so that you can read their mind. Ask your helper to multiply the value of the coin in their left hand by two without telling you the answer.

After a second's pause, ask them if they have the answer.

Then ask them to multiply the value of the coin in their right hand by 13, wait one second and ask if they have the answer.

The length of time it took them to come up with the answers to your questions will tell you which coin is in which hand. If your helper came up with both answers pretty quickly, the penny is in the left hand, (because 5 x 2 and 1 x 13 are easy to calculate). If it took a little longer to multiply by 13, then the nickel is in their right hand."

I like the "Balance Bet" where you put a beer glass on the thumbs of the sucker... I mean person you're doing the gag for. This is great for women who you're talking to. See if they can balance the glass of beer, rest it on their thumbs and go to the bathroom, come back and they'll still be there!

-Joel

Best one is to melt two small drink straws together in a v-shape, balance them (on a napkin) against a third straw to make a teepee shape and bet someone they can't pick them up using only a fourth straw. Knock the third straw from underneath, it falls between the 2-straw "V" and the fourth straw lifts the 3 together straight up.

Harry Anderson did many of these during his guest shots on Cheers.

What is all this about 'shots'! surely they mean shorts!
David

One of my favorites...

You explain to your victim the simple rule: You're going to ask him a question. If he answers 'yes' to the question you will buy him a drink. If he answers 'no' to the question he has to buy you a drink. It's that simple. No tricks. No play on semantics.

Once he's agreed, you explain to him you're going to tell him a story.

"There was once, a long time ago a poor man and his family. All he had was potatos. So he decided to load his potatos up in his cart.."

At this point mime throwing potatos into a cart.. and get your victim to imitate you.

"Once all the potatos were in the cart, he road into town."

Mime riding a horse, and again get your victim to imitate you.

"Once he got to town, he found a man who was willing to buy his potatos so he unloaded them"

Mime unloading potatoes. Victim imitates.. He should be getting used to this by now...

"And he got his money. He then happily got back on his horse, and rode back home"

Now, put your arms up like your about to mime riding the horse again and the victim should start miming horse riding before you do. Look at him and say, "Wait. Have you heard this before?"

He'll almost always answer "No!".

Get your free drink.

My favourite.
Make a bet for a drink, Tell your victim he must copy your movements exactly to win. Set your glass or bottle directly in front of you.(he copies) Move your glass to the left a few inches (he copies) Take a drink and place your glass to the right a few inches (he copies) move your glass back to the centre take a drink and place it to the left again (he copies) Wait a few seconds then spit your beer back into your glass. Then duck!!!

I do a trick similar to Westo but mine involves that you and your competitor have two spoons, two coins and a shot of tequillia in front of you. Bet him that he can't copy your moves 20 times in a row. The rule is that neither of you can talk, so you'll need someone to count the moves for you. Move the coins and spoons in random ways. On about move 5 or 6, take the shot and pretend to swollow it. Key is that neither of you can talk, so it won't be too suspicious that you still have the shot in your mouth. I usually wait until move 20 (if I can bear it that long) to spit the tequillia back into the shot glass. This usually gets a good laugh.

I saw this done up in a hospitality room during a magic convention. I can't remember who exact "got" who, but I think Gazzo and Bob Fitch were involved.

It went pretty much as you described, except the other guy knew the gag and also spit his drink back into the glass. The crowd started laughing, until the first guy (with the appropriate comedic timing) got the other one back by spitting out the second half of his mouthful!

My cousin brings a fly back to life( Not the David Blaine method)after he drowns it. Has made up to $100.00 per resurection..... Bar Fly Trick...LOL

I belive I know the method, and I must say, I perfer this one as it is impromtu, if you are in a place that has food.