To Pierre Ginet, this fall day in Times Square must look like an ATM machine — lots of clueless tourists wandering around, their wallets stuffed with money, their bags loaded with valuables, their attention focused elsewhere.
Could the master pickpocket rob them? "Yes."
Would the master pickpocket rob them? "No."
These days, the Frenchman plies his trade in the Big Apple Circus, which opens its 36th season Friday at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park. The show is called "Luminocity," and it's set at the (well-illuminated) Crossroads of the World, Times Square.
Ginet, 43, will be entertaining with his sleight-of-hand act, pulling circusgoers onto the stage and basically robbing them while the crowd looks on.
"It's like a high-wire act," he says. "There's lots of tension."
Who makes a good mark? Ginet can never be 100 percent certain what someone will or won't have in their pockets to steal, but a few factors come into play.
First, his mark is always a man. There's too much patting down, reaching into pockets and touching to perform on a woman. Second, Ginet looks for someone wearing a jacket, which increases the chances there will be something in the pockets. Glasses or a tie are also a plus. He can steal those as well.
He also wants someone with a friendly demeanor, because his act is comedic.
"People with facial hair are very good," he says. "They take care of themselves, they're more fragile somehow."
Ginet is from Paris and was originally studying at the Sorbonne to become a lawyer when he discovered magic. He began performing while in college.
"One day I stole a watch [in my act] and thought that was the coolest thing ever," he says. "I decided to push it further."
He worked on his thievery skills, eventually landing in shows around the world, including Cirque du Soleil.
Working on stage is actually more difficult than working on the streets.
"Once I take someone on stage, I have to deal with them," Ginet says in accented English. "In the streets, you can choose not to do it. You make an approach, you see it's not possible, so you give up and go to someone else."
A French jewelry store once hired him to lecture on ways to decrease shoplifting. His simple tip to avoid having your wallet or merchandise stolen: "Be careful."
He says New York's subways are a pickpocket's dream: When straphangers hold onto the high bars, they leave their jackets hanging open and their bags exposed.
The less scrupulous might distract you with a question or ask for directions on a map. And then your phone or money would be gone.
And so it's a bit unnerving when, after a demonstration, Ginet asks with a sly smile, "Do you have everything?"
I have to check twice.
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