Hoodwinked!

We went to our favorite, Tarrytown Music Hall last night, to see the show “Hoodwinked”, and it was tremendous.  Having 2nd row center, means that when they want a pretty assistant, they pull your pregnant wife up onstage, which Banachek did.  Mrs. Pinetar was great.  She told me before the show that she would NEVER go up on stage and yet as soon as Banachek pointed to her, boom, she was up there and did quite well.

The show featured 4 men: A pickpocket, a card mechanic, a mentalist and a scam artist.  They were top, top guys and the show was outrageous.  There is also nothing like being there live, rather than on TV.

The Con-Man was more of an MC, and didn’t do much more than light stuff.  The card mechanic, Richard Turner, was so good he was ridiculous.  He is blind and a super-blackbelt.  He has spent his life working the deck of cards and he could deal bottoms, seconds, thirds and many other things and you just had no idea.  He did 3-card monte that was tantalizing. If he let you follow the card, it was wrong.  If you were sure where it was, you were wrong.   At one point, he had people shout out numbers, ie 34.  Then he would cut exactly 34 cards off the deck!  Since I had read Ken Uston’s blackjack book on card counting, I knew of these “mechanics” as they are known.  And I also knew that Uston had paid one to come to his hotel in Las Vegas and demonstrate dealing seconds while Uston watched.  Uston couldn’t see anything.  It’s that fast.  And this guy, is faster.

The mentalist, was Banachek.  He is very good and did the mind-reading and answer-manipulation as well as the metal bending.  He let you in on some of the ideas behind the forced answers that lie behind most of his tricks.  My wife was up on stage to riffle through a phone book and tell the audience that it was on the square and that it was a real book with unique numbers and no glue or cheesy guides that can’t be seen from the seats.  Mostly, she just stood there.  She read the numbers and pointed to audience members who then gave numbers for column and number down the column, and, at the end, they reveal that the “randomly” chosen number out of a big, fat phonebook, was written on a board BEFORE the trick was done.  Sounds old-timey, but very effective.

Bob Arno was the pickpocket.  A Swedish guy in a suit; very likeable chap, goes around and takes watches, wallets, cell phones, PDA’s and even belts and suspenders and ties, from audience members.  He does it with humor and is very smooth.  He also shows a video of real pickpockets in action and he shows the team and how the mark is set up and how the pick is blocked (usually by hefty members of the team) and then how they blend back into normal life.

He goes to known pickpocket havens and decoys the pros and then picks THEIR pockets or asks them for the stuff they just picked off of him, back!  The video was fun.

Arno was a photographer in the 60’s in the VietNam war (this was not mentioned in the show–found on the website) and he was one of only 5 photographers present for the famous self-immolation of the Buddist monk.  That photo made him a lot of money.  Interesting guy.  He’d take photos and put on pickpocket shows for the troops.  A real original.

His website mentions that he has been in great demand from police departments and even the FBI and that he makes most of his money at private, corporate events or giving lectures on how not to get caught.

They claim everyone thinks that pickpocketing can’t happen to them and that they are arrogant mostly.  Baloney!  Not us.  When we went to Europe on our babymoon in 2005, we bought a money belt that tied around the waist and was under pants and underpants, right up against the skin.  In that, went the passports and all the monopoly money.  We called it “the football”, as they do with the US Pres and the nuclear codes.  All vacation long, you heard, “where is the football?”.  “Do you have the football?”  And, of course, we stayed away from Italy, where most the bad stuff seems to happen.  Still, there were a few moments in Brussels and Paris where I thought, “…this is where it could happen”.  We’re talking shady.  But we were allright.

They claim that the Superbowl is a haven and that the cleanup crew routinely sweeps up dozens of discarded wallets.  It was intersting stuff, for sure.

The show, Hoodwinked, was a limited run of only 5 shows and it ends tonight up in Mass.  I would recommend seeing any of the big three: Arno, Turner and Banachek, just about any time you get a chance.  Also, the Tarrytown Music Hall has a lot of character right there with The Setback Inn and it is a good place to go.

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Liverpool drew just now but so did Chelsea.  And I see that Dean Windass is on the sheet.