Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks,
and the Hidden Powers of the Mind, by
Alex Stone
Why would a physics PhD student leave Columbia University
to study magic? Why do we enjoy being fooled? What does math have to do with it?
Answers to these questions and more can be found in Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden
Powers of the Mind, by Alex Stone.
Stone was enchanted at age six when he received a magic kit.
Enthralled, he immediately began showing off his magic “skills” to everyone he
could wheedle into watching. It wasn’t until after he was hauled off the stage
in disgrace at the World Championships of Magic in 2008 that he became serious about
studying and practicing the magic arts.
Stone’s book is part memoir, part investigation into the
hidden subculture of magicians (and street-side con men), and part a look into how
and why magicians can fools us—a personal journey rather than a textbook. Obfuscation,
distraction, and endless hours of practice all have their part in the success
of an illusion. Stone explains how inattentional or perceptual blindness, the
“failure to notice an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight” (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness),
is used by magicians to bamboozle their audiences. He describes how the classic
short cons (three card Monte and the shell game), well orchestrated ,multi-casted
street theater acts, work to fleece carefully selected suckers; how he can
distract a patsy while snatching his watch; and how psychics are able (well,
actually not) to read minds.
In addition, Stone reveals some of the math and science
behind conjuror’s tricks. For example, shuffling, on the average, must be done
seven times to mix the deck--a hypothesis tested out by Perci Diaconis, a Harvard
mathematician and magician. Shuffling only one or two times still allows the
card magician to see out-of-order cards. This mathematical discovery not only
tightened up casino security, it strangely enough also had significant impact
on the medicine mixing strategies of pharmaceutical companies.
Being a muggle, I didn’t know that there is a world class
magic library, The Conjuring Arts Research Center, in New York City. Like Hermione, serious
magicians search here for ancient magical secrets. “‘If you want to fool
magicians…you’re not going to fool them with a new move. You’re going to fool
them with some hundred-year-old mathematical principle…Go dig up some ancient book.
Go to the library’” (emphasis
gleefully added).
If you’re a budding magician or a mathematician, request
Perci Diaconis’ book, Magical
Mathematics, the Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks (793.85
Diaconis) from our catalog. Stone refers to Diaconis as a “naturally gifted
magician [and] an underground legend.” Why not learn from the best?
UPDATE. We’re
happy to announce, especially for our magic enthusiasts, that we now have the
documentary Make Believe, the Battle to Become the
World’s Best Teen Magician, in our library. Make Believe follows the journeys of six young magicians from
around the planet as they vie for the title of Teen World Champion of Magic. What's more, the magicians share card trick tutorials in the Bonus Materials.
Reviewed by Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Branch,
Mendocino County Library, 3/2013
Labels: book reviews
