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Eyeing the Flash: The Education of a Carnival Con Artist
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About Eyeing The Flash: The Education Of A Carnival Con
Product Description An exposé of the carnival underworld as told from the perspective of a shy teen-turned-professional grifter discusses how the author was personally educated by con man Jackie Barron in the ways of double dealing, sleight-of-hand, and carnival ethics. 30,000 first printing. From Publishers Weekly This instantly engrossing coming-of-age memoir/cautionary tale from humor writer Fenton ( Truth or Tabloid?) details the author's teenage years in 1960s Detroit among the swindling, money-hungry environs of the carnival midway. The largely ignored son of an alcoholic WWII veteran, Fenton blows off an opportunity to become his high school's football quarterback, preferring to hang out with his classmate Jackie Barron and Jackie's shifty family's traveling carnival operation. Fenton is impressed with Jackie's exceptional manipulation skills, and once Fenton demonstrates an uncanny knack for numbers and memorization at Jackie's illegal basement casino, the two become inseparable. The well-paced story heats up as Fenton flees his rocky home life to work for Jackie and gets an education in the intricate chicanery of carnival work, shoplifting and wooing women. After months on the lower rung of carnival duty in Cleveland, Fenton discovers Jackie's been cheating him out of his fair share, so Fenton begins skimming cash from the games he operates. And when a new manager promotes Fenton to the higher stakes scams, Fenton and Jackie's friendship turns intensely competitive. This spirited story of obsession with the carnival's "alternating current of greed-fed euphoria and paranoia" is at once entertaining and informative. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library Journal Adult/High School–Good student, quarterback, and all-around good guy in his early high school days, Fenton was easily pictured moving on to college and a nice middle-class job and family. But in his junior year, a fellow student barreled into his life and changed its course. Jackie Barron came from a family of carnival owners and con artists, and recognizing Fenton's skill with numbers, he enlisted his aid in setting up a casino for high school kids in his basement. Fenton learned the basics: counting cards, bribing cops to look the other way, letting someone win from time to time, and the most important rule of any gambling system–stack the odds so that the house always wins. Using the seed money from the basement endeavor, Barron took over a carnival midway. Fenton followed, seduced by promises of wealth, women, and fun. After slugging away at the low-end games, he worked his way up. His internship of sorts placed him under the tutelage of men named the Ghost and Horserace Harry. From them he learned the art of the con: how to reel the people in, how not to scare them off, and, most importantly, how to get as much money from them as possible. In a scene worthy of a movie, Fenton battles Barron in a one-day, winner-take-all contest on the midway to prove who is the better con man. Witty and irreverent, this memoir is filled with enough quips, tricks, and scams to satisfy even the shortest attention spans. –Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale From Bookmarks Magazine Fenton ( Truth or Tabloid?) came of age at the carnival. When he left his small-town, middle-class Michigan home for life on the road when he was 17, he began his transformation from math geek to con artist (and eventual reporter for The National Enquirer). Critics agree that Fenton tells his tale of carnival life (or, as The Oregonian notes, "a sort of evil Horatio Alger story") with humor and insight. Who else would admit to cheating small children out of their last nickels? They also praise Fentons polished writing and fast-paced, twisted dialogue and scenes. A few question the full veracity of the story, but never mind. Fenton never fails to entertainand teach us a thing or two
