Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants

Ricky Jay: "Booze and the Blowens cop the lot."

[the audience doesn't react]

Ricky Jay: Anybody have any idea what I'm talking about?

[the audience laughs]

Ricky Jay: This is the refrain from a fifteenth century poem. A poem by François Villon. It says no matter how you earn your money, you're unlikely to keep it whether you hustle or swindle or, con or cheat, because in the end "Booze and the Blowens" - wine and women - take it all. "Suppose you screeve or go cheap-jack or fake the broads or fig a nag or thimble-rig or knap a yack or pitch a snide or smash a rag? Suppose you duff or nose and lag or get your straight, and land the pot? How do you melt the multy swag? Booze and the Blowens cop the lot. Suppose you try a different tack, and on the square you flash your flag? At penny-a-lining make your whack, or with the mummers mump and gag? For nix, for nix the dibs you grab, at any graft, no matter what, your merry goblins soon stravag: Booze and the Blowens cop the lot. It's up the spout and Charley Wag with the wipes and tickers and what not, until the squeezer grabs your scrag, Booze and the Blowens cop the lot."