We’ve all used the old “behind you!” trick to get someone to turn around. Was a time, that was a real effective hustle. The mark turns, you pocket his change. Done and done. But word spreads. Stuff gets incorporated into TV movies. And then one day you notice nobody’s buying it any more.
Tonight my six-year-old son executed an exciting new take on this old chestnut that I thought was worth sharing with the rest of the grifting community.
So, he’s trying to tickle me but, frankly, he can’t, because I’m just too fast and canny. Then he says: “Look, behind you. Momma’s trying to give you a potato.” I turned to look. No potato.
Later, after he’d gone to bed and I could find some time to think — to think! — I sat down and puzzled through why this had been such an effective swindle. It came down to two key elements: (1) who runs a grift with potatoes nowadays? Just about nobody. And (2) why “trying”? What was that about? He’d hit on just the sort of extra detail that fogs a mark’s mind.
Anyways, all you grifters out there, enjoy. And to the rest of you, please don’t spread the word by incorporating this technique into a TV movie.
Loved this, man. I always had that kid figured for a potato grifter. It’s a dying breed.