Kansas City Shuffle
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"Kansas City Shuffle" is a 1926 song by jazz pianist Bennie Moten. It was recorded in Chicago, Illinois and released on the Victor record label.
The Kansas City shuffle is an excellent "con man's" game. It uses the ability to make one significant person look one way whilst you return in blinding the other. For example, when you point your finger at a persons' chest and flick up as they look down you cause pain and the realisation that they were fooled. This is one of the simplest forms of a Kansas City shuffle. The relevance to a direction stated at the beginning has no bearing on the shuffle; it may be up, down, left or right -- it is a figure of speech. The brilliance of this form of "con" is its ability to use the marks' ignorance and self loathing against them. Commonly in the shuffle you leave hints and clues directly to the face of the mark. A Kansas City shuffle is never seen, heard or spoke of; it is like amnesia. To perform a shuffle requires skill, precision and lust. As in the film Lucky Number Slevin, the two cons leave very obvious clues as to their intentions; however because of the marks' (the Boss and the Rabbi) arrogance they fail to see through their own naivety, thus allowing the clues to breeze over them like a warm summers day deep in the knowledge that they are safe. When the Kansas City shuffle is finally revealed to the unsuspecting marks, their reactions are multiplied on by their inability to see the clues. They realize their mistakes and their wrongs and so they have to live or die in the knowledge that they are inferior and foolish.
Thus the Kansas City Shuffle
In the 2006 film Lucky Number Slevin, the title is a reference to a con game, where by the substitution of one thing for another, someone is able to trick someone else. This neologism is used as a plot motif.
The 2006 version of "Kansas City Shuffle" was written by J. Ralph when he was in Montreal in 2005 for the filming of the movie. His friend, Jason Smilovic (the writer of Lucky Number Slevin) had an idea to have a song playing in the car at the end of the movie. The name of the song would be where Goodkat got the phrase "Kansas City Shuffle" that he uses through out the movie.
The song's lyrics are as follows:
It's a blindfold kick back type of a game
called the Kansas City Shuffle
Whereas you look left, they fall right
into the Kansas City Shuffle
It's a "they think-you think you don't know"
type of Kansas City Hustle
Where you take your time
Wait your turn and hang them up and
out to dry
Chorus And if that don't play
It's a shake down, switch, arrive in town
type of Kansas City Shuffle
gotta play both sides and let it ride
on the Kansas City Shuffle
Now the tables turned, the lesson's learned
you gotta earn yourself some trouble
revenge like this, never sweet
you got yourself a long ride home
Chorus And if that don't play
The term was also used in reference to a defensive move used by the Kansas City Chiefs when they played in the American Football League prior to the formation of the National Football League.[citation needed] Its use fell out of favor when the offensive strategy of all the teams in the AFL adapted to overcome a reverse shuffle by the defense, and therefore the motion was no longer a potent defensive method.
