Sharpo's 3 Card Monte - full deck monte
In 1995 I was barely a magician. I knew 3 tricks and milked them for 30 minutes. One day I was called in to audition for the NBC sitcom “Wings”. The episode was “Escape from New York”. Crystal Bernard and Steve Webber were tourists in New York City and of course they happened upon a street game. The old “Three Card Monte” or “Chase The Ace” I didn’t know the moves but I got a queen and a couple of indifferent cards and went in and auditioned anyway. The line was “Keep your eye on the red lady. Follow the honey and double your money”. If you see the re-run of the episode you’ll see I hustled Crystal Bernard out of hundred bucks. Anyway, after the show aired I was asked quite often to perform the routine so I learned many variations. The idea of course is to put the queen in the middle and move her around just a little and see if you can solve the riddle. Through various maneuver’s and sucker bets the spectator gets cleaned out. Of Course I never do this as a street con but only as a fun card routine.
A few years ago - maybe 2013 or so, I stumbled upon a move with ordinary cards that afforded me the opportunity to create a fun twist on the classic routine. I called it the Laughing Queen. 3 cards. It is a great little number that makes the cards appear to turn over by themselves one by one with a fun surprise kicker ending. I did that for several years and then in 2020 I came across a channel on youtube by a great magician named “Spidey” who did a routine that blew me away. I reverse engineered the effect and adapted it into what I call the Full Deck Monte. From my full deck monte routine I go into what’s now called the “Drama Queen” (evolved from my earlier “Laughing Queen”. It was super duper to my spectators but I still wasn’t satisfied. I happened to catch a video on facebook by acclaimed magician Joe Monti (Who incidentally auditioned for the Wings role with me back in 1995) - He did a routine called “All Backs” so I again reverse engineered the effect and incorporated it into my routine.
So this is a several phase piece of magic and I think it is quite good now. Here is the video so you can follow the red lady along with me.
A few years ago - maybe 2013 or so, I stumbled upon a move with ordinary cards that afforded me the opportunity to create a fun twist on the classic routine. I called it the Laughing Queen. 3 cards. It is a great little number that makes the cards appear to turn over by themselves one by one with a fun surprise kicker ending. I did that for several years and then in 2020 I came across a channel on youtube by a great magician named “Spidey” who did a routine that blew me away. I reverse engineered the effect and adapted it into what I call the Full Deck Monte. From my full deck monte routine I go into what’s now called the “Drama Queen” (evolved from my earlier “Laughing Queen”. It was super duper to my spectators but I still wasn’t satisfied. I happened to catch a video on facebook by acclaimed magician Joe Monti (Who incidentally auditioned for the Wings role with me back in 1995) - He did a routine called “All Backs” so I again reverse engineered the effect and incorporated it into my routine.
So this is a several phase piece of magic and I think it is quite good now. Here is the video so you can follow the red lady along with me.
