Amoralman: A True Story and Other Lies

"I tend to appreciate magic shows more than I enjoy them. So I was surprised to find myself slack-jawed and dizzy at the end of Derek DelGaudio’s astounding performance In and Of Itself, which, happily, was filmed and can be seen on Hulu. His book Amoralman, although it stands on its own, can be read as a kind of program note for that show. Primarily a memoir of his growing up, learning card magic and then working as a dealer at a rigged high-stakes poker game, it centers on his obsessions: identity, belief and the ways in which we both define and fool ourselves. DelGaudio’s life story is fascinating, especially in the array of substitute father figures who inspired him and taught him the literal tricks of his trade. But his tales of fleecing the unsuspecting will leave you wondering, as I did at the end of his performance: “How in the world did that happen?”"