Back in Medieval times a performer, if they were not in the livery of some household that would support and protect them; was ikely to be employed by what could be called a medicine show. The performer, Juggler, dancer acrobat, did thier routine to draw a crowd and then the crowd was pitched on the amazing properties of snake-oil or some tonic (most likely something like a tea made from oak leafs and mold) The stuff was most likely harmless if not effective and at times may have done some good. (more than the official church and crown sanctioned medicine could sometimes claim) but then as now the authorities tended to feel they needed to control such unlicensed rogues. As time went on the populations of poor became more urban, the medicine show was more a tactic of the countryside were crowds and authorities were both scarcer. On a crowded city street the hawker was better off making the pitch the show and sell what he could before the police arrived and this meant the performer had to make the show pay it's own way. Now nobles and such wealthy travelers would reward a song or such without such prompting as passing a hat, but lesser folk might not even take that hint and so from the majic of the cubs and balls and the dexteriety of the jugglers art grew that majic/juggling hibred called the shell and pea game. Now I have heard the shell and pea game described as juggling to deceive rather than entertain, but this prejudice grows out of the slanders of an antagonism established between the "masterless man" Vagabond and the authorities since the earlier medieval medicine shows. We might think they as well were meant to deceive and write them off but I would argue that both the medicine show and the shell and pea game were not meant to deceive but to entertain, and in either case were far more harmless than thier legitamate or licensed counterparts. When the old shell and pea man set up his table he provided distraction for not just his cony ( the gambler ) but perhaps a dozen or two kibitzers, and although he was likely to let one or two occassionally win to show the game was honest, thier was little doubt that thier was some kind of majic or trick to it and half the fun was the challenge of being the one to outwit the trickster (even if to do so was just an illussion) or to be made a fool before the crowd as entertainment to your friends and fellows (pretty much the traditional jester role.) When compared to the row of slot machines in todays casinos (which also claim to be for entertainment) the shell and pea game stacks up pretty well, as does it's descendant monty. Certainly the societal nature and the kibitzing that goes on guarantees more entertainment per dollar lost, and I'm not all to sure that the pay-offs freely given by most S&P/monty men aren't a little more frequent than those required by law for the slots. I don't think anyone ever thought they'd walk off rich from a shell game or having doubled a paycheck from monty. Certainly no one ever lost thier homes or fortunes as is the case of legal legitament sport. Sometimes we are all called on to play the fool and it might be better if, more often we just let ourselves have a little fun with it.
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