When he was five years old, Alex Stone’s father bought him a magic kit—a gift that would spark a lifelong love. As an adult in New York City, he discovered a vibrant underground world of magic sparkling with creativity and fueled by innovation and breathtaking technique. Enchanted, he lost himself in this mysterious new world, eventually competing at the Magic Olympics and training with the great masters to perfect his craft.  From the back rooms of New York City magic shops to psychology laboratories, three-card Monte games on Canal Street to glossy Las Vegas casinos, Fooling Houdini recounts Stone’s madcap quest to join the pantheon of international magical masters. Taking us into this mysterious world as never before, he reveals an exclusive community shrouded in secrecy, fueled by obsession and brilliance, ingenuity and ambition, and organized around one overriding need: to prove one’s worth by deceiving others.  In trying to understand magic, Stone reflects on the shifting lines between magic and psychology, physics, cognition, and even crime. As he unveils a wealth of insights into human nature, and the nature of perception, Stone teaches us that magic is, at its roots, about how the mind works, and why, sometimes, it doesn’t.