Con Crew

Sometimes, The Con can be carried out by a single person - the Con Man - especially if it's a simple confidence scheme. Other times, there's just too much work for one person to do, or the particulars of the con are such that a group of people are needed to have any chance to pull it off.

Enter the Con Crew. Possibly in a Slow-Motion Pass-By when walking past The Mark; in this type of story, they know who he is, but he doesn't know who they are.

In the Hollywood version of the Con Crew, each member has a well-defined role. In Real Life, members of a con crew still have specialties, but aren't necessarily confined to them.

The Fixer

Nowadays, the fixer is the stage manager for the crew. Maybe "properties (props) director" or "set designer" would be better analogies. This is the person the Con Man goes to if he needs a thing to do his thing. Call up your Fixer if you need a Big Store, for example, or a convincing counterfeit, or squibs for the blow-off, or ... well, anything. The weirder, the better. Live jackalopes a specialty.

Other uses of the term Fixer include:

Gangster films from the forties called lawyers "fixers" - see Amoral Attorney or The Consigliere.
A gangland type (sometimes called a Bag Man) who specializes in resolving conflicts between gangs may also be called a fixer, as are people who interface with law-enforcement to put the "fix in."

Note that in all cases, the Fixer makes the Con Man's life easier.

The Roper

The roper moves The Mark into The Tale, frequently by simply being an attractive woman. Much like a cowboy ropes in a cow that's straying from the herd so that she doesn't get away, the Roper "ropes in" the mark that's straying from the con so that he doesn't get away. The roper can have a mark lined up, but not have The Tale to tell, so is in need of a Con Man, or can be dispatched by the Con Man to bring in a specific target.

The Shill

In this context, this is an accomplice who falsely "approves" the proposition in such a way that his "support" encourages The Mark to go for the deal. A good shill gives the impression that they are going to grab all the goodies, so the The Mark had better move fast, with an increased bid.

Other uses of the term Shill are listed at The Shill.

The Napier

A Napier is a specific kind of shill who plays a wealthy, gullible fool. The Con Man finds someone avaricious (the mark) to "help him take down" the Napier. The mark sees the big, juicy target, and bankrolls the play. Conman and Napier fade away with the bankroll.

The word 'napier' may have something to do with Lord Napier. In any case, it means "fool".

Other Specialists

Some roles can be filled by people with special skills - The Driver can get the Con Crew to and from the site of the con, The Cracker or the Playful Hacker can get background on the mark, and so on - but these people rarely if ever actually take a direct role in the con.

Not to be confused with people who run Fan Conventions.

Examples of Con Crews include:

Film

The Sting:
- Paul Newman's character Gondorff plays a Napier, when he is working as the obnoxious Bookie "Shaw".
Inception:
- Either the architect (who creates the mental landscapes they go into) or the chemist (who makes the drugs they use for an inception or extraction) is the Fixer.

Live-Action TV

Hustle:
- Ash is the Fixer.
- Either Danny or Albert is usually the Napier.

No Reservations: Anthony Bourdain has written of the need for a débrouillard, an unofficial function within some commercial kitchens whose job it is to get the crew out of the weeds by any means necessary. Questionably sourced ingredients and oddball cooking techniques (deep-fried steaks among them) figure large in the role, which makes it The Fixer.
Burn Notice:
- Sam is the Fixer; he provides Michael with the tools he needs to do his work, as well as using his many "buddies" to get info from legal channels. Unlike most fixers, Sam actually does do fieldwork too.
The A-Team:
- Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck is the Fixer, but he also gets his hands dirty.
Leverage:
- None of the characters are exclusively the Fixer, although all have done elements of this as a part of the various cons that they have been involved in. The most frequent individual for this role is generally Eliot, in contrast to his other major function.
- Nate's father, Jimmy Ford, was the best fixer in South Boston back in the day.

Tabletop Games

In Shadowrun, the fixer is a non-player character, providing shadowrunners with work by connecting them with contacts from Mega Corps / the underground / whoever wants dirty work done. Fixers can also help you track down people who can give you the gear you need.

Video Games

In the online detective game Sleuth, your character's license as a Private Detective will be revoked if you make three wrongful accusations. However, you can go to a Fixer - the shady character who hangs out in the back of the downtown bar - and pay them to clear your record to avoid this. The more often this happens though, the more expensive it gets. The flash version of the game even specifically calls this character The Fixer.

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