cup, show it, take the dollar and then begin the switcheroo. Starting slow and his speed would build up. His arms flailing left and right sometimes not touching the cups other times grabbing two cups or one at a time and switching them left, right or circular in what seemed like directions that didn’t exist. Sometimes he’d even come to an abrupt stop, smile and lift a cup to show the ball still there. Then the dance would begin all over. Always accompanied with the patter “find the ball find the ball that is all that is all”

It looked so easy but in the five minutes we watched, laughing at other people’s misfortune, he pocketed fifteen to twenty ones and didn’t pay out once.

Then it happened.