You may call me the Hooded Magician, and yes, I know it’s more of a Florida Marlins hat than a hood, but you get the idea. And see? I’m tilting my head down so the brim covers my face, for effect. A magical, hooded effect.

If I wasn’t wearing this hood—hat, whatever—you might recognize me from the community of magic. Not theactualCommunity of Magic, which has to approve you, and it’s all politics—it’s like, you’re friends with AbracaDebra or you’re not—but the more general community of magic (i.e., normal, cool people who live in a community and do magic, even if they’re not officially “licensed” by Her Royal Highness and her court of ass-kissers).

Shunned (and, I think, feared) by the magic establishment, the Hooded Magician has worked in the shadows…

while working in those aforementioned shadows, I have been a cypher, a mystery, and also a freelance Web designer. But now, tired of being held back by the Community of Magic (the official one), I am coming into the light to destroy them by breaking the Magician’s Code and revealing the secrets of magic’s greatest illusions, which I’m pretty sure I figured out…

(Source: newyorker.com)

In the January 7th issue of the magazine, Adam Green profiles the pickpocket Apollo Robbins. 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.  Watch the video, and click-through for more: http://nyr.kr/Vr86xC

In this week’s issue, Adam Green profiles theatrical pickpocket Apollo Robbins. Robbins tells Green: “A lot of magic is designed to appeal to people visually, but what I’m trying to affect is their minds, their moods, their perceptions. My goal isn’t to hurt them or to bewilder them with a puzzle but to challenge their maps of reality.” http://nyr.kr/UKfy6A

Photograph by Martin Schoeller.

Cartoon by Zachary Kanin. For more: http://nyr.kr/UbQLpP