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'Hoover's strengths lay not in any great instinct for media manipulation or press management, but in the areas that had always served him well: the ability to learn quickly, to [...]

A review of A First Look at Second Sight by Bob Loomis (2022) and Cues: Variations on the Second Sight Act by Leo Behnke (2005) How can people appear telepathic, [...]

'A broadcasting station can't... [explain] that the mystics are only entertainers... so long as the listener sends in money and problems in good faith.' (1) How successful were psychics on [...]

Review of David Copperfield's History of Magic by David Copperfield, Richard Wiseman, and David Britland David Copperfield's History of Magic is a concise and lavishly illustrated history of stage magic [...]

'[Seventeenth century botanical taxonomist Frederico] Cesi learned from Galileo that he must draw nature as it was, not as it was presumed to be.' (p. 103) --Loren Pankratz, PhD '[Skeptic [...]

What do a haunted house, a woman who gave birth to rabbits, and a man climbing into a regularly sized wine bottle have in common? All are hoaxes birthed in [...]

ALMOST A CENTURY AFTER THE LAST OF his headlining vaudeville shows and traffic-stopping daredevil escapes, the name 'Houdini' (1874-1926) remains synonymous with magic and escape. Early in the curious new [...]

'We have done what historians do: we have told a particular story, not the whole story..' (ix) WERE MAGICAL ENTERTAINERS persecuted as having real magic powers? How does theatrical magic [...]

Magic and Real Magic: Reviews of Spectacle of Illusion: Deception Magic and the Paranormal by Matthew Tompkins; The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography and the Man Who Captured [...]

Reviews of: Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History by Nate Hendley Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff by Edward J. Balliesen Houdini's 'Girl [...]

A review of three books about the Salem Witch Trials and their legacy: The Witches: Salem, 1692. By Stacy Schiff Little, Brown and Company 2015. 512 pp. $32.00 ISBN-13: 978-0316200608 [...]

Review of The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World by David Jaher Crown, New York 2015 448 pp. $28.00 ISBN 13-978-0307451064 According to the [...]