Monday, February 11, 2013

The Art of Pickpocketing by The New Yorker

     A Pickpocket’s Tale: The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins

In the January 7th issue of The New Yorker,  A Pickpocket's Tale: The Spectacular Thefts of Apollo Robbins by Adam Green, Green writes: “Robbins, who is thirty-eight and lives in Las Vegas, is a peculiar variety-arts hybrid, known in the trade as a theatrical pickpocket. Among his peers, he is widely considered the best in the world at what he does, which is taking things from people’s jackets, pants, purses, wrists, fingers, and necks, then returning them in amusing and mind-boggling ways.”
Unlike magicians, Robbins will reveal his methods. “Learning how magic tricks are done is often disappointing, because it’s not really magic,” Green says. “With Robbins, though, effect and method are one and the same, and seeing how he accomplishes his thefts is just as impressive as witnessing, or failing to witness, the acts themselves.”
In this video, Apollo demonstrates some of his tricks and techniques, using Green as his victim.



In the field of magic, Robbins is widely-regarded as a kind of legend. Even psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and the military study his methods for what they reveal about the nature of human attention. Apollo Robbins is a Modern Day Magician for the Ages.
 

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