Word: truzzi
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...MARCELLO TRUZZI...
There are many such barriers be tween the 85 million Americans who visit carnivals every year and the thousands of men and women who work in them. One is the carnie's feeling that society looks down upon him; even circus workers feel superior, Truzzi says, because the circus is really an extension of the theater, while carnivals spring from street fairs and gambling...
...carnival caste system are the owner and such administrators as the lot man (who arrives first in each town to lay out the midway); the patch, who handles complaints from outsiders; and the ride superintendent, whom Truzzi and Easto describe as "a kind of grand mechanic." All of these aristocrats outrank the owners of rides, shows and concessions-second-string entrepreneurs who either sign up with the carnival owner for a season or "hopscotch" from one carnival to another...
Whatever their rank, all carnies stick to certain norms of behavior. The prime rule, Truzzi says, is that "you don't talk to the marks." Townspeople are chased away if they try to penetrate the off-midway areas where the carnies live in trailers and socialize in a tent usually called the G-top (because it is often used for gambling). Carnie youngsters are told to play with each other rather than with outsiders, and while unmarried carnie women are no longer forbidden to go into town without a male carnie escort, they are discouraged from getting to know...
...Stick. Truzzi and his colleagues have also studied the relationship between customers and concessionaires, including dishonest ones. With the public's growing sophistication, carnivals have had to cut down on cheating. But Truzzi identifies two shady specialists who still inhabit the carnival world. One is the carnie who "works the gaff," a hidden device to keep customers from winning games touted as tests of skill. The other is the "stick," a carnie who passes himself off as a customer to lure marks into playing gaffed games...