Every street is awash in restaurants, pubs, clubs, coffee houses and striptease joints; on top of upturned orange crates undesirable looking characters ‘tossed the lady’. Tossing the lady is one of the many names for, the looser can’t win, street gamble officially known as the three-card trick. Whatever the name the game is the same and the result is the same, using just three cards a fool and his money are parted when the gambler realizes he is not quite as smart as he thinks! This particular street hustle was probably first played about a day after the first cards were invented. Another variation of this con is played with three walnut shells and a small pea. Last year on the streets of Stockholm I watched the exact same scenario played out with three matchboxes and the results were the same no money passed into the hands of the passer bye, and stayed there. It always plays out the same way the sucker, punter, mark ormug watches as fellow spectators win handfuls of cash from the beady-eyed philanthropist tossing the three cards. Usually the card you have to keep track of is a queen and the two decoys are spot cards, this is why the game is often known as tossing the lady. Everyone seems to be winning so the mug
gives it a try, usually after noticing that the ‘lucky lady’ has got a giveaway distinguishing ‘crimp’ or mark to turn the gamble into an easy win.
Yeh, right! The entire process is fast and furious and ends either when the police arrive on the scene or when the ‘grifter’ decides to pretend they are. It looks casual, fair, fun and easy while managing to be none of these things. It also looks as though you are gambling one on one with the card tosser, which is usually eight to ten people short of the truth. There is a fluid group of people all working together to help separate you from your cash.When I used to take the fifteen-minute walk from Piccadilly Circus to ‘Ken Brooke’s Magic Place’ at 145, Wardour for my next magic lesson I enjoyed all the intoxicating sights, smells and sounds of the street. As I cut through the Berwick Street market, I would often stop to buy a soda and watch the three card tricksters ply their trade, I was never tempted to gamble because any money I did have was very definitely earmarked for some magic prop that would throw my act into overdrive. Fourty years later I am still looking for that prop! One day Ken had to go to the market to buy three lemons and three lemons to find their way under the cups in the ‘cups and balls’ routine he was teaching me. Seeing my fascination with the three card outfit, Ken took the time to really teach me the 'in’s and out’s' of the hustle. He bought us two cardboard cups of tea and said; “The first way to know what’s going on is not to be so close to it you can’t see anything.”
We walked to the back of the crowd and he pointed out the four men who were acting as lookouts for unwelcome additions to the scene. Then he introduced me to the rest of the ‘crew’, the phony punters who were winning at the game, the friendly passer bye who was ‘kind’ enough to point out the way to win,
the blockers and the rest of the team each awaiting their moment. I was shocked when I realized that all these people were setting their sights on one ‘gambler’ at a time. We stayed there quite a while and watched the Swiss watch precision of the set-up, you wouldn’t think it would work but it did, time after time. Ah, never underestimate greed and peoples high opinion of their abilities to beat the odds. As we walked back to Ken’s magic studio I asked him what magic I was going to learn that day. “I think you already learned it.” Said Ken. “The reason those chaps make money and most magicians don’t is because unlike most magicians those blokes are rehearsed, dedicated and no exactly what they need to do and say to get the job done.” I pretended to understand but didn’t until a little while later. Just before I started to; “Make a little brass” as Ken would have said.
