Book Review: Fooling Houdini

Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind by Alex Stone (New York: Harper Collins, 2012. 291 pp)

Alex Stone has written for Harper’s, Discover, Science, and the Wall Street Journal. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in English and has a master’s degree in physics from Columbia University. He grew up in Wisconsin, Texas, and Spain. He currently lives in New York City.

Magic and Me

I’ve always loved the art of deception. I had a small magic kit as a child, complete with a card deck and plastic magic wand. I, however, lacked the patience to learn the dexterity of sleight of hand or even a decent shuffle. To this day, I still have trouble shuffling cards for a poker game. But, I still value the medium, and enjoy watching stars like Blaine, Copperfield, or even Penn and Teller. My love story, however, pales in comparison to Alex Stone’s, a tale he recounts in Fooling Houdini.

The Magic Olympics

Photo by Steven Depolo

Fooling Houdini begins with Alex Stone competing in the Magic Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Yes, the Magic Olympics. Already a member of the oldest magical fraternity, The Society of American Magicians (once headed by Houdini himself), Stone simply wishes to showcase his skills in competition. He, however, is humiliated, getting “red-lighted” during his act, disqualified for dropping a deck of cards, and putting his hands beneath the table. 

In a quest to redeem his failure at the conjurer’s art, and even fool the masters, he studies with anyone and everyone he can. The first person he meets is Jeff McBride, leader of the Mystery School. McBride holds three Guinness World Records for his card handling abilities, and was crowned magician of the year by the Academy of Magical Arts. He’s a big deal. So, Stone goes to school.

“McBride likes to call his school ‘Hogwarts for grownups,’ and what happened on the first day was straight out of Harry Potter. To begin with, we were asked to congregate around a flame burning at the center of the room atop an iron pedestal. The shutters had been drawn against the January light, and it was murky inside. As we rose to our feet the flame trembled, casting a ripple of shadows on the walls. Contorted by the shifting play of light, the masks seemed to flicker awake in a momentary flash of borrowed life” (35).

Magical Archetypes

Here, Stone learns of four archetypes of the magician: Trickster, Sorcerer, Oracle, and Sage. Stone sadly realizes that he has remained in the cycle of Trickster for quite some time, but that only renews his fervor to continue his journey as a magician. Stone, then, decides to find someone under which to apprentice, discovering master illusionist Wesley James, now retired. Wesley basically lives at a pizzeria.

“One weekend turned into many. Saturdays at the pizzeria became my newest ritual—harking back to the one that began in my early childhood, when my father would take me to the magic store on the weekends. My friends and family soon learned not to call me on Saturdays; I observed the magic Sabbath more faithfully than the Hebrew one. (I may be half Jewish, but I’m all magician)” (52).

Breaking the Code

Photo by Steven Depolo

On his journey of magical education, Stone learns to read minds (or fake it), to count cards, and then, he does the unthinkable. He breaks the magician’s code: the promise by working magicians not to reveal the basis of their tricks, or else risk getting blackballed by fellow magicians.

“Keeping a magic trick secret clearly isn’t the same thing as hiding a childhood trauma or an extramarital affair. Nonetheless, the double-edged nature of secrecy goes a long way toward explaining what makes magic, and the people who practice it, so unusual” (135).

Stone describes the mechanics of wristwatch stealing, cardsharping, and finger calisthenics within the book. But, what’s worse is his first attempt at exposing trade secrets occurred in a Harper’s magazine article, a mainstream magazine for the laypeople. 

Stone was shunned from the magical community altogether, had he written for a magical magazine, the punishment wouldn’t be harsh, but alas he plays his cards (pun intended) foolishly. Few have forgiven him, and even his mentor Wes found it hard to do so. But, the truth is this kind of thing happens all the time. Stone cites magician Val Valentino, known for his television special Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed. So, the magical community has moved on, somewhat. If they can forgive Val Valentino, why not Stone?

Fooling is Bliss

Nonetheless, Stone continues on the journey to become a master, and finds a way to fool his mentors (I won’t tell you how). After all, 

“[T]he biggest draw is that it’s just plain fun to fool people. Anyone who claims otherwise—that fooling people isn’t one of magic’s central joys, one of its primary pleasures—is being dishonest. To truly astonish someone, to freak them out so badly they can’t sleep at night, to blow their mind and make them question their sanity—that, to me, as to all magicians, is heaven. It’s one of the chief upsides to becoming a magician, aside from the fact that black is very slimming” (172).

If you want a journey from failure to discovery to magic tricks and mentalism, Fooling Houdini is a fantastic memoir. Alex Stone proves himself to be a great story teller of magical proportion.

Verdict: 4 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: Manhood for Amateurs

Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon (New York: Harper Collins, 2009. 306 pp)

One of the most celebrated writers of his generation according to The Virginia Quarterly Review, Michael Chabon was born in Washington D.C. He earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and his M.F.A from the University of California, Irvine. Chabon published his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, from his master’s thesis at the age of 25. His third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won Chabon the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. He is married to poet Lollie Groth.

Humble Memoir

I’ve never been a fan of memoirs. It may sound somewhat conceited or judgmental, but my perception of memoirs tends to see the genre as a bit narcissistic. Memoirs typically promote the individual and great accolades throughout the journey of life; they are about “me”. That being said, if I ever wrote a memoir, it would be one in the vein of Michael Chabon’s Manhood for Amateurs. Chabon’s memoir is completely different. It’s humble, and only functions to serve others.  

In his humility, he chronicles his extended adolescence, his mistakes as a father, his foibles as a son, and his pitfalls as a husband. By making himself look incredibly flawed, Chabon illustrates a caring husband, father, and son—a good, well-intentioned man despite his imperfections—who doesn’t always get it right. In the opening pages of the book, Chabon admits to being part of what he calls “the loser’s club”.

“Though I derive a sense of strength and confidence from writing and from my life as a husband and father, those pursuits are notoriously subject to endless setbacks and the steady exposure of shortcoming, weakness and insufficiency—in particular in the raising of children. A father is a man who fails every day. Sometimes things work out: Your flashed message is received and read, your song is recorded by another band and goes straight to No. 1, your son blesses the memory of the day you helped him arrange the empty chairs of his foredoomed dream, your act of last-ditch desperation sends your comic-book company to the top of the industry. Success, however, does nothing to diminish the knowledge that failure talks everything you do. But you always knew that. Nobody gets past the age of ten without that knowledge. Welcome to the club” (7).

Lucky Him

Chabon also admits raising children is a rather arduous task. Through introspection about his son, William, Chabon recognizes fatherhood, though hard, is worth it. Chabon finds himself a failure, but the successes along the way are worth the shortcomings.

“The daily work you put into rearing your children is a kind of intimacy, tedious and invisible as mothering itself. There is another kind of intimacy in the conversations you may have with your children as they grow older, in which you confess to failings, reveal anxieties, share your bouts of creative struggle, regret, frustration. There is intimacy in your quarrels, your negotiations and running jokes. But above all, there is intimacy in your contact with their bodies, with their shit and piss, sweat and vomit, with their stubbled kneecaps and dimpled knuckles, with the rips in their underpants as you fold them, with their hair against your lips as you kiss the tops of their heads, with the bones of their shoulders and with the horror of their breath in the morning as they pursue the ancient art of forgetting to brush. Lucky me that I should be permitted the luxury of choosing to find the intimacy inherent in this work that is thrust upon so many women. Lucky me” (19).

Grumpy, Simple Stories

I enjoy how Chabon uses deceptively simple essays to share treatises about life, fathering, and being fathered. The edge to his writing suggests he has been around the block, yet his pseudo-surliness leads to wonderfully poignant truths. Chabon gripes about the complicatedness of Legos, but the essay evolves into an exploration on the importance of imagination. He also humorously explains why his man purse (murse) is not feminine. And, in one of my favorites, a story of Chabon briefly meeting literary giant David Foster Wallace transforms into a story of his wife’s struggles with depression and anxiety.

Overall, Manhood for Amateurs is somewhat morose, which didn’t deter me from absolutely loving it. While the book isn’t something to which I would naturally have gravitated (the bargain rack made me pick it up), I’ve found Manhood for Amateurs to be one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read. Even women, who undoubtedly have a better reason for passing up the book due to its title, should read this book. Manhood for Amateurs is humbling, thought provoking, and thoroughly witty simultaneously. I think any man who is a father, or aspiring to eventually become one needs to read this book. Even more, any man who wants to be a good man needs to read Manhood for Amateurs, it will make you sincerely ponder who you are, and thank Chabon for making you do so.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson


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