Carnival Games - Beat The Bottle! (Page 3 of 3)

The entire lifting motion should be done in a smooth manner. If you do it too quickly, the bottle will just flop forward, too slowly and the bottle will start rolling around. What I like to do is to keep my arm pretty stiff, I don't start the lifting motion from my wrist. I lift my whole arm ever so slightly. Once I've got the bottle starting to come up, I don't just push it forward, I lift my back heel up so my whole body slowly rocks forward. From there I keep going forward with my body and adding a little lift with my arm until my waist reaches the rail. Once you can't go any farther, then start to extend your arm forward to get the bottle all the way up. This whole movement has a feeling of an arc, you don't just shoot the dowel straight out from you like a sword thrust, the bottle will swing left or right on you. If you try to lift straight up, the ring will slip off. About 3/4 of the way up, you should have a feeling that the ring is just about to let go on you. This will keep the bottle from wanting to sway left or right as your lifting it.

Next is probably the hardest part of the maneuver to time. As the bottle starts to come to an upright position and it's about to rock flat on it's base, you've got to let the ring slide down the neck to the base of the neck. This should happen pretty much at the same time. The bottle has now "landed" upright, but because it's on a slightly tilted surface and it still has some kinetic energy from the lift, it still wants to go someplace, like back over on it's side. This is where you keep the bottle upright and in place with the ring at that instant. Once the bottle stops it's slight wobbling, it will remain in it's upright position. It's important that you don't pull too much on the ring just as you've stood the bottle up, or else you'll pull the bottle over.

If you find this whole procedure difficult at first, well, it should be. The first night I started practicing, I probably got the bottle to remain standing about a total of three times. It takes a while, but you'll get it. If I can do it, so can you. I'm certainly no circus acrobat.

Something I've recently figured out is to put two large books on either side of the bottle on the platform. This is like putting training wheels on to help you learn how to do it. They keep the bottle from swaying as your standing it up. I would use these to help you first get the timing right, then as you get better, use thinner books until you can do it without them.

You've now gone to your first real carnival game and have won. You could start jumping around and making a big scene and attracting attention to yourself, but don't forget, not too many people win at this carnival game so you don't want to be remembered as the person who easily "took" one of their prizes that they paid for. Even though there is a limit of only one prize per carnival that they impose on everyone, the same carnival might be back in your area later that year. You don't want them to refuse to let you play again some time in the future. I've been asked many times if I've ever worked at another carnival and if I'm just taking advantage of them. They just don't like to be outsmarted.

The hard part now is once you've won about a dozen of these prizes, it's hard to put on an act that you're really surprised and excited that you actually did it. I usually let my girlfriend pick out the prize and then I hide behind her. I'm stressing the part about being humble and going unnoticed, because at some point you may get greedy and want to come back for more. If you win the first time, they have to give you your prize. Since I usually win within three dollars (a lot of times I can do it on the first try) they always make sure to tell me to beat it and don't come back. You may notice sometime there are different people working the afternoon shift and evening shifts. At this one state fair, I had come earlier in the week and won a large prize at their bottle carnival game. Later that week I came back and played at the same carnival game in a crowd of people. I won and everybody was watching. They might've noticed who I was but it would have looked bad for their business if they refused to give me a prize. Everybody would have wondered what had happened. How come that guy didn't get his prize? I'm sure everyone would not have played too long after that.
I usually don't do that too often. I've basically run out of space to put any more animals in my house. But I've noticed that a few people do. I once showed up at a state fair ten minutes after it opened. Hardly anyone was there so I shot right up to one of their bottle carnival games. I won on the first try and took their biggest prize. I must say the looks on their faces was not pleasant. I took one of their best animals for a buck. Nobody had even had a chance to see it! The guy who worked the booth was pissed. He started accusing me of being the guy who came back twice in one day at their last set up. This wasn't true, I had never even seen him before. If I was running one of these carnival games, I would be miffed too. Since nobody else was around, he practically threw the prize at me and told me to beat it. This was a good lesson, don't make the people who work these carnival games feel like they were robbed. If you win when a lot of other people are around, they get to make a big production out of you being a winner. The bells go off and they announce that you've won to everyone within megaphone range. It's sometimes fun to wave your arms and yell along with them. This attracts more business for them and you feel pretty good. Of course afterwards they'll tell you very quietly to never come back.

Another point that you should know about how to win is that a lot of carnivals, especially the larger state fairs, have more than one bottle carnival game! With the state fairs, they usually get a couple of different carnivals to join together for the event. The most bottle carnival games I saw at one state fair was FIVE! Usually you find two or three.

Now what you must realize, is that everyone who works the midway knows about each other. They'll always separate the carnival games so one doesn't receive more business. They also know what prizes are given out at each carnival game. One bottle carnival game might give out large white panda bears, while the other might have those stupid cheap horses. If you win the white panda bear first, and then go strolling up to the second carnival game with it under your arm, THEY WILL NOT LET YOU PLAY! They will know that you got the panda bear at the other bottle carnival game because that's the prize they give out. Don't bother trying to tell them that you won it at the ring toss carnival game, they're up on these things. They'll tell you that you can only win one prize per fair, their animals or the other carnival games.

How do you get around this? Simple, make a plan of attack. Find out where all the bottle carnival games are located. Next, find a way of going around one carnival game without being seen. If you've watched Monty Python, you should know the importance of "not being seen". (It's my book, I can make any dumb jokes I want!) I like to stake out the fair first. I'll have a good time, stuff my face, and then go on the rides. (Sometimes it's a better idea to go on the rides first, then stuff your face. Another thing, don't you hate it when you're on the Ferris wheel and some little punk starts to spit out of his car when he's above you? It makes me want to put him on the "zipper" ride and leave the door open.) It's a pain to have to lug those stuffed creatures around all night. Once I know I'm about ready to leave, I win a prize at the booth that's closest to the exit. I take that prize and bring it back to my car, making sure that I'm not seen carrying the prize by the other booth. That's number one. Next, I go back in and win the second one. Now I'm safe, I can stay a while little longer, show off, or I can take it back to my car and leave.

You can see that when I found the state fair with five bottle carnival games, I had to take long hikes to be able to win at all five carnival games. I did it and my car was stuffed. I had to keep walking past the person who worked the gate five times with a different animal each time. You should have seen the look on that persons face! I won all the stuffed animals in a span of thirty minutes. He must have thought they were giving the damn things out!

I've encountered a bunch of slight variations of the carnival game that you should be aware of. These shouldn't be that difficult to master once you've got the hang of it. You should practice these just to make sure you feel confident and possibly to save you a few dollars on you attempts.

There are some distractions that you'll find when you are actually at a carnival that you can't get used to at home. These include wind, noise, and other people that might get in your way. Wind is something that can't be helped. If it's very windy, you should try to come back on another day when it's calmer. I've seen gusts of wind come by and blow half the bottles off their platforms. If that's the only time you can play, you're going to have to wait for a calm spot and go for it. I've noticed it's generally calmer at night.

Many state fairs and carnivals are set up on large parking lots. Not too many of these are perfectly level. I've seen some bottle carnival games that have a definite slant to them. One side is facing uphill, the other down. When you're playing on a tilted surface, the bottle tends to roll or fall downhill. This makes your life that much harder, so it's a good idea to play either facing up or down hill.

The people who work the carnival game are sometimes a distraction too. They're not trying to be, but they have to keep walking in front of you to take the money of other players. You don't want to poke anyone with your cowl just at the critical moment when you've got your arm extended all the way. This is just a nuisance that screws you up physiologically.

An important variation that you should practice is how far the bottle neck is from the railing. I've seen some carnival games where the tip of the neck is almost directly below the railing. This makes it very hard to look over the railing and lift the bottle while holding the cowl steady. You have to start your lift while looking under the railing. This causes you to lose sight of the bottle behind the railing for a moment when you lean forward and extend your arm. As long as you started the lift on center, this is not too much of a problem but it takes some time getting used to.

Practice with as many different distances from the bottle to the railing as possible. You should learn how to be able to do it when the tip of bottle is just below the railing to about fifteen inches out. When the whole platform is out farther, you have to hold the cowl closer to the end. This makes it a little trickier to keep the bottle steady but you shouldn't run into this type of set up too often.

You also might want to try different railing heights and string lengths. Put books under the legs of your fake railing to give yourself more height. The higher you go, the more likely you'll hit the railing with the end of the cowl. Some carnival games have longer strings on the end of their cowls than others. I've given you my estimated average length that I've always practiced with.

Try putting more of a slant to the platform by using something a little thicker than a cassette case. You shouldn't try to add too much or else it becomes nearly impossible to do. I won one of my biggest prizes at a state fair that had a bottle carnival game with no tilt what so ever to the platform, it was completely horizontal to the ground. Then how did they stand the bottle up themselves, you may ask. They had the hugest prizes I've ever seen, and they knew they weren't going to be giving too many away. Because the platform was level, if you did get the bottle upright, it would just keep going forward and fall over. How they managed to do it was the guy would start to stand the bottle up as usual, but just as he got the bottle upright, in one motion he would let the ring drop down to the base of the neck, twirl the string and ring in a circular motion so it faced him and gave the bottle a slight pull towards him so it would not fall forward. He was the only guy who could do it at this carnival game. I got lucky and managed to pull it off by lifting the bottle up VERY slowly and keeping the string taunt to steady it when the bottle settled upright.

I have only seen this type of set up once, so I'm not sure how important it would be for you to put in too much practice for this very tricky maneuver. I remember that they were charging two dollars a try for the bigger prizes so you better feel pretty confident if you find one and should give it a shot.

The other major variation to the carnival game is that sometimes they set it up backwards! The photo on page one was taken next to one of these "backwards" carnival game! The bottle is set up facing away from you so you have to lift it towards you. I guess they figure that if too many people start to get good at doing it one way, they just set it up the other way and try to trip up everyone. This is not too common because they also have to learn how to do it themselves if they want to keep attracting people by showing you how the carnival game is done.

What you want to do is first place the platform and bottle about 27 inches from the bottom of the railing. Put the cassette case under the side of the frame that's facing you, so the platform tilts away. Place the bottle on the platform with the neck pointing away from you. The string length that you will be using should be about 48 inches in length when tied to the dowel and ring.

With one foot slightly forward, stand with your waist up against the railing and your back straight. Choke up just enough on the cowl so when you extend your arm, the ring will hang in front of the opening of the bottle. Basically the movements are the same as you have practiced in the other method, just reversed. If you need a little more reach you should try lifting your back heel slightly, this will push your body forward a little more. First you lift the bottle up slightly and get it to stabilize. You will be making the same arcing motion when you lift the bottle, but you'll be pulling the cowl to you this time. Don't just yank the string towards you, lift the whole cowl and bottle up from your shoulder. Start by lowering your back heel and slightly rock your body away from the railing. You should have the same feeling that the lip of the bottle is about to let go of the ring when the bottle is half way up. Once the bottle is about to tip upright, you should be lowering the dowel to complete the motion. As the bottle comes upright, you should now drop your arm, let the ring slide down the neck and keep the string slightly taunt. In this position you should be holding the cowl down by your waist with the string near or slightly touching the railing in front of you. Keep the string slightly taunt until the bottle comes to a complete rest.

There, it's up. This variation of the carnival game takes a broader motion to complete. I don't think one way is any harder than the other to do. I originally learned this way first because of this one certain carnival that always came to my area. Once you've learned how to do it this "backwards" way, you should then give yourself some variations to try. The same variations that you practiced with the first method apply to this set up. Try moving the whole platform closer and away from you. Change the length of the string, etc. You should master both ways of standing the bottle up so you will never be in for a surprise.

Guess what? I think I'm done. I can't think of anything else that I can tell you on what I've learned. A couple of last thoughts. When you do finally learn how to win at this carnival game and you think your going to get greedy and will want to go back and win a second prize, you might want to try wearing a disguise. I once tried wearing glasses and talked in an English accent. The guy knew who I was immediately. It was pretty embarrassing. He wanted to know why I was talking in this funny accent. Like I said, not too many people win at this carnival game so they tend to remember who has won. If you are wacky enough to try this approach, make sure you come up with something better than I did.

Here's another late breaking story. I just recently talked with a friend of mine who is an excellent dart thrower. His life is basically spent in a pub. He told me that he was able to win pretty consistently at the dart carnival games. Once he does manage to win a pile of those cheap, painted mirrors they give out, they shut him down! Boy, what a lucky guy. I don't know what I would do with all those mirrors.

Well, that's it, I would say "good luck", but now you don't need it.

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