From the back rooms of New York City’s age-old magic societies to cutting-edge psychology labs, three-card monte games on Canal Street to glossy Las Vegas casinos, Fooling Houdini recounts Alex Stone’s quest to join the ranks of master magicians.As he navigates this quirky and occasionally hilarious subculture populated by brilliant eccentrics, Stone pulls back the curtain on a community shrouded … community shrouded in secrecy, fueled by obsession and brilliance, and organized around one overriding need: to prove one’s worth by deceiving others.
But his journey is more than a tale of tricks, gigs, and geeks. By investing some of the lesser-known corners of psychology, neuroscience, physics, history, and even crime, all through the lens of trickery and illusion, Fooling Houdini arrives at a host of startling revelations about how the mind works–and why, sometimes, it doesn’t.
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There’s nothing up my sleeve but a recommendation for a spellbinding book.
It all starts at the exciting Stockholm 2006 World Championships of Magic, also known as the Magic Olympics. Alex Stone is competing for the gold, and is crushed to be disqualified in the very first round.
When Alex Stone was 5 years old, his father bought him his first …