Three-Bill Monte
by Kenton Knepper
Many, many years ago I was working at a magic bar called "James Place". I used
to do an effect behind the bar that was an item out of some of my private notes.
Think of it as three card monte, but using a bar towel, three glasses and a
borrowed bill.
The spectator signs a bill which you crumple into a ball and set in the center
glass of three shot or bar glasses. In front of the three glasses is a bar towel or
hanky. The performer raises the towel and asks an onlooker in which glass does
the bill lay. Regardless of the answer, this spectator is always wrong. The
spectator who gave loan of the bill however is always correct.
The bill seems to jump around at the command of the owner. Everyone else finds
it impossible to guess where the bill is resting. In the end, everyone is correct, as
each glass is filled with a bill!
The method is simple - invisible thread. The thread runs from the mouth to a
small piece of wax or even bit of paper or tape. The free end secretly dangling
from the mouth is the end sneaked into the borrowed bill as it is crumpled. Most
of the routine should now be clear.
When your head is down looking at the glasses, the bill rests in the shot glass
where it is placed. Once the towel is brought up to hide the glasses, casually
raise your head and question an onlooker. This seemingly natural action lifts the
bill out of the glass. The bill now hangs freely behind the towel. No matter where
the onlooker says he thinks the bill is, you ask the owner of the bill "Yes, BUT
where do YOU think the bill REALLY is ?" which secretly tells the owner that his
bill should be elsewhere.
When the owner indicates which glass behind the towel where he feels the bill
may be, turn your head to as you say "The one over here"? Once again in this
natural action, the turning of the head secretly swings the bill around, and the
bills lowered into this glass quietly as your head looks in this direction.
Try this with shot glasses, bill, thread and so forth and you will better understand
the idea than words or pictures can communicate. It is very easy and natural.
You will need to play with what sort of thread lengths work best for you of course.
If both the onlooker and the owner guess the same place (eventually the
onlooker changes his mind to what the owner says) the bill can be lowered
secretly behind the bar or table top. Now when the towel is lowered, the bill has
apparently vanished!
You might actually use this clever "ditch" of the bill to pick up and load in a wallet,
box or production item. Or you may do as I have described earlier for a finale.
Have two more bills secretly attached with invisible thread to each end of the
towel. These bills are not seen, as they hang behind the tabletop or bar until the
towel is lifted especially high. Use a little longer thread on these two end bills. To
do the finale, secretly swing the mouth (borrowed) bill into the center glass as the
towel is lifted up to reveal even the bottom of the shot glasses. This actions
seems to show the glasses still empty. In truth, this allows the other two bills to
fall into their respective end glasses.
Once the bills are in the glasses, lower the towel for the surprise finish. This
really shocks 'em.
Try not make the bill "float" after this - and blow the monte and floating bit both.