Title On Deception

Author Harry Houdini

Year Published 2009

Kind of Book Magic

How strongly I recommend it 5/10 

My Impressions I was expecting this book to contain more insights into the psychological aspects of deception, but instead it mostly talked about the mechanics of how certain magic tricks are performed such as escaping from a straight jacket and swallowing a sword. Still pretty interesting, just not what I was hoping for.

Date Read April 2022

Big Ideas

  • Young men become magicians to compensate for lack of social confidence -Daren Brown

  • There is an unspoken agreement between the magician and audience that deception is being done- Daren Brown

  • Wonder is caused by the novelty of learning something we were ignorant of Samuel Johnson

  • Life would not be worth living if there were nothing to produce the feeling of wonder in us

  • Wise men never lose the novelty/thrill of living and learning

  • The wise man sees that the more he learns the more he becomes aware of how much he is ignorant of

  • SP: for unwise people it is not true that the more they learn the more they become aware of how much they are ignorant of

  • The more a wise person knows the more things he will find to wonder at (not the less he will find to wonder at)

 

Surprising Facts

  • Harry Houdini is a stage name influenced by Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin the magician

  • Houdini means of Houdin

  • Houdini was turned off of people who claimed to have supernatural power after a charlatan told him that he could speak to his mother after she passed away and the experience was horrible.

  • Formula to make your skin unburnable: "The juice of marshmellow, and white of egg, flea-bane seeds, and lime; powder them and mix juice of radish with the white of egg; mix all thoroughly and with this composition anoint your body or hand and allow it to dry and afterwards anoint it again…" pg.47

  • Magicians who swallow red-hot coals sometimes drink warm water and oil so they can throw up the coals

  • Harry Houdini pledged his assistants to secrecy

  • Liquid storax is used to anoint the tongue when red-hot irons are placed in a magicians mouth. (made of one bar of ivory soap, one pound of brown sugar, two ounces of liquid storax, dissolved in hot water and add a wineglass full of carbolic acid.

  • All fire-eaters get burned at one time or another. From carelessness or accidents

  • "To accomplish the sword-swallowing feat, it is only necessary to overcome the nausea that results from the metal's touching the mucous membrane of the pharynx

  • Sword swallowers typically secretly slip a rubber cap over the tip of a sharp sword so it does not cut them

  • The sword swallower Cliquot once had a skeptical audience member rush the stage and pull out the sword while it was in her throat and injured her very badly

  • "Eaters of glass, tacks, pebbles, and like objects, actually swallow these seemingly impossible things, and disgorge them after the performance is over. That the disgorging is not always successful is evidenced by the hospital records of many surgical operations on performers of this class, when quantities of solid matter are found lodged in the stomach." pg.62

  • One sailor died from swallowing a knife. When they opened up his stomach they found 14 other knifes

  • It is very dangerous for a sword swallower to bend their body when the sword is down their throat. It could severe some of the ligaments of the throat or large arteries or veins.

  • There are trick swords that collapse into the handle, but professional sword swallowers rarely (if ever) use these

  • Poisons from animals are only harmful if they enter a human's bloodstream. Therefore, snake poison that is swallowed is not dangerous (as long as it doesn't touch a spot where the skin is broken)