By Wendy Kendall

“Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks and the Hidden Powers of the Mind” by Alex Stone

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 magic kit and his passion was ignited. In this book you join the author as he humorously describes his obsessive journey to master magic and compete again. Along the way, the author reveals the elegance, and science, and psychology of magic. You’ll discover that several elements work together to successfully fool people.

First you’ll meet a creative and colorful cast of characters practicing magic in the vibrant, underground magic scene in New York City.  They congregate in rundown pizza shops, and on street corners.  Here you learn the technical proficiencies needed to execute tricks.

Practice!  Practice!  Practice!  Technical abilities do not come naturally. The author humorously describes his Navy SEAL style training regimen that included daily practice sessions and a steady diet of magic literature. He was so committed to mastery that he put his graduate studies officially on hold and took a leave of absence from one of the top physics programs in the world, at Columbia University. He began studying and writing about magic full time. He traveled to other magical venues including Las Vegas and Los Angeles. At this point, his father freaked out a little by what he’d created with a magic kit and some quality time with his growing son.

But magic is more than technical pursuit. Next we discover the importance of the psychology behind the magic. Magic happens not in the hands of the magician but in the mind of the spectator. The reader is treated to insights into human nature, and the nature of how the mind perceives the world and then processes experiences. Broader implications are revealed including how well, or how faulty the mind functions when multi-tasking. The author teams up with a psychology lab and reveals surprising results of the studies with volunteers participating in his tricks, as well as historical illusions. With his background and the psychologists he teams with, you see how magic links to psychology and neuroscience.

The author’s physics background also comes into play concerning the placement and movement of cards in decks, as well as how other objects are palmed and used. For example, why does it take seven shuffles to get a random mix of cards, and how does this knowledge apply to the physics of other aspects of everyday life? Surprisingly, a certain measure of sloppiness is the essence of a good shuffle. It is only through imprecision that randomness can occur and eventually drown out the order completely.

Yes, Alex does give away magic secrets in the book. And he has given away secrets in magazine articles in the past. You’ll learn about the reactions of The Society of American Magicians and other groups when Alex began telling secrets. Many professions have trade secrets, but in most secrecy is not the defining characteristic of that profession. Musicians don’t worry about people learning their songs, or their techniques. The film industry doesn’t worry that behind-the-scenes footage will ruin films. Alex maintains that magic stands alone in demanding blanket ignorance from its audience. Magic is inseparable from deception. You have to deceive the very people from whom you seek approval. Magicians court the spotlight while living in constant fear of exposure. The innovative duo Penn and Teller often tease their audience by revealing the secret to a trick, and then taunt them with the same effect done a different way.

Being fooled is fun! It’s a controlled way of experiencing a loss of control, like a roller coaster or a scary movie it lets you loosen your grip on reality without actually losing your mind. Magicians love to be fooled. Performers can tell the lay people from the magicians in the audience. Laypeople applaud the effects, while magicians clap during the seemingly uneventful moments when the secret moves occur.

The author tells the story of Dai Vernon who was considered one of the most influential magicians in the 20th century, and infamous for fooling Houdini with the Ambitious Card Trick. This trick is a card effect where a selected card continually rises to the top of the deck after being placed into the middle of the deck.

What happens at the end of the book, when Alex Stone enters the prestigious Gold Cups competition in San Diego with his edgy, new repertoire of tricks he created and mastered during the course of this journey?

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

Wendy Kendall is a writer, project manager, wedding officiant and volunteer at the Edmonds Library. She’s enjoyed living in Edmonds for over 20 years.