Lincoln confides in Booth, saying he’s worried he’s going to get fired from the arcade because rumors are circulating about cutbacks. When Lincoln comes home with a paycheck, the two brothers rejoice over their new suits and the money, divvying up the earnings and calculating how much they have left over after paying rent and utilities and buying alcohol. The second scene takes place the following evening, when Booth enters the apartment wearing multiple suits, which he has stolen. As Lincoln takes off his costume, Booth announces he has decided to change his name to 3-Card because he’s going to be a prolific Three-Card Monte dealer.

“Shes in love with me again but she dont know it yet,” he says, showing Lincoln a ring he stole for the purpose of proposing to Grace, calling it “diamond-esque” and claiming that as long as it looks authentic, it’s “just as good as the real thing.” Lincoln admits he thought the ring was authentic at first glance-he even thought Booth bought it with his “inheritance,” the $500 their mother left him before leaving when they were still children (Lincoln also received an inheritance of the same amount, but has already spent it). Lincoln explains that he didn’t have time to take his costume off at work because had to catch the bus, but this does nothing to calm down Booth, who announces that Lincoln can’t dress like that in this apartment because, he claims, it will scare away women.īooth explains that he has a date with his girlfriend Grace. Startled by his brother’s costume, Booth whirls around and points a pistol at Lincoln, threatening to shoot him next time he scares him like that. He has just come from his new job at the arcade, where he sits dressed up as Abraham Lincoln while customers shoot him with cap guns, a job he recently took so that he could leave behind his dangerous life as a Three-Card Monte conman. He’s wearing a long coat, a fake beard, and a top hat. Lincoln is a former hustler and Three-Card Monte dealer who’s staying with Booth because his wife, Cookie, has left him.

Interrupting him, his brother Lincoln enters.

He rehearses his banter, imitating phrases he’s heard hustlers use on the street. In the opening scene of Topdog/Underdog, Booth sits in a squalid apartment and practices playing Three-Card Monte atop a cardboard box propped up by milk crates.

Topdog underdog yahya