The World’s Most Famous Pickpocket — Apollo Robbins | The Tim Ferriss Show

Magic by Misdirection

Dariel Fitzkee

“I picked up one of the books, and it's called Magic by Misdirection on the psychology of magic. I read it, and it was a hard read.”— Apollo Robbins

The Trick Brain

Dariel Fitzkee

“Well, he wrote two other books, The Trick Brain and Showmanship for Magicians. So I read all those.”— Apollo Robbins

Showmanship for Magicians

Dariel Fitzkee

“Well, he wrote two other books, The Trick Brain and Showmanship for Magicians. So I read all those.”— Apollo Robbins

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

“Animation, there was a great book called The Illusion of Life by Disney's — what do you call them? His nine men.”— Apollo Robbins

A Pickpocket's Tale: The Spectacular Thefts of Apollo Robbins

Adam Green (inferred)

“this is actually the perfect place for me to just read an excerpt profile of you, which was by Adam Green in The New Yorker.”— Tim Ferriss

How Minds Are Changed

David McRaney (inferred)

“I'm going to be soft on the title, I think it's called How Minds Are Changed. It's an important book that goes into the impact of deep canvassing”— Apollo Robbins

Deception in the Digital Age

Cameron Malin

“A friend of mine wrote a book called Deception in the Digital Age, and he was with the FBI. His name is Cameron Malin. It's a fascinating book”— Apollo Robbins

Whiz Mob

David W. Maurer

“Then Whiz Mob. Whiz Mob was that it was this juxtaposition that there was a professor, David Maurer, who was studying the language of thieves.”— Apollo Robbins

Propaganda

Edward Bernays

“there's a great book on propaganda by Eddie Bernays, where he explored it with doing a study on the most important meal of the day.”— Apollo Robbins

The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson

Carlton Stowers (inferred)

“So he seemed like some kind of Robin Hood/superhero. But there's great books on him, the Unsinkable Titanic Thompson.”— Apollo Robbins

The Invisible Gorilla

Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

“Dan Simons and Chris Chabris was his partner. They did a book called Invisible Gorilla where you watch a basketball being passed”— Apollo Robbins

Nobody's Fool

Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris (inferred)

“Dan Simons just wrote a book called Nobody's Fool, that is going specifically after a problem that I'm very interested in”— Apollo Robbins

The Person and the Situation

Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett (inferred)

“There's a book called The Person and This Situation. I think it's Nisbett.”— Apollo Robbins

The Big Con

David W. Maurer

“He wrote The American Confidence Man, which later became Big Con. It was one chapter of that was turned into the book, or into the movie The Sting.”— Apollo Robbins

Coin Magic

J.B. Bobo

“One of them was J.B. Bobo's Coin Magic. Apollo Robbins: Yeah, that was the book that Ben Stone gave me. Yes.”— Tim Ferriss

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert Cialdini

“So I found out about Robert Cialdini and his book on influence and different studies on the history of persuasion.”— Apollo Robbins

The Art of Deception

Kevin Mitnick

“Kevin Mitnick, a famous hacker was one of those guys. Tim Ferriss: The Art of Deception.”— Tim Ferriss

The Republic

Plato

“you need to go back, read Plato's Republic. You need to study about Socrates.”— Apollo Robbins

Svengali Deck

“And then, he pulled out a deck of cards called the Svengali deck, and he did a bunch of tricks with that.”— Apollo Robbins

Montblanc pen

Montblanc

“And he had a Montblanc pen that was clipped inside of his shirt pocket. And he said, Steal something from me now.”— Apollo Robbins

Tommy Bahama shirt

Tommy Bahama

“And I remember him wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt and some shorts.”— Apollo Robbins

The Sting

“It was one chapter of that was turned into the book, or into the movie The Sting.”— Apollo Robbins

Ocean's Eleven

“If people have ever watched Ocean's Eleven and they wondered, I wonder if there's a real Ocean.”— Apollo Robbins

Ozark

“again like the series, Ozark, I feel like that route that was in Ozark is probably what my brothers are associated with”— Apollo Robbins