AMORALMAN

by Derek Delgaudio

“It takes a long time to sound like yourself.” –Miles Davis

This memoir of his time learning to be a magician and card cheat is full of contradictions. The book opens with Plato’s allegory of the cave, and that seems to tie things together. For example:

At one point, he’s developed his skill with cards, but he still gets very nervous performing. He spends a year getting performing gigs, trying to overcome stage fright, but he doesn’t get anywhere. A friend suggests he try an acting class, and he finds that he has no issues performing as an actor.

One day, he goes with his magic-shop-owning mentor, Walt, to see an expert magician named Grayson. He does a trick that Derek has seen before in a video, and the patter is different, and all Derek can think is, “That’s not true.” He ends up having what feels like a real revelation: He doesn’t want to deceive people.

“What kind of magician do you want to be?” he asks himself in a journal. “I want to be the prisoner that returns to the cave.” So, the one who experiences truth and then enlightens others. When the others won’t be enlightened, he will begin intentionally casting shadows for them (which they may accept) and try using those to set them free… (138)

So he sells his collection of magic books and moves to LA.

Although this seems deep when you read it, he never really returns to the theme. The cave comes up again, but not seeing himself as an illuminator… To share truth with others, you have to know it yourself.

The book really picks up after that part, though. He ends up helping some guys (Leo and his son Max) cheat in a large underground poken game. If Leo always won, that would be too suspicious, so Leo also hires former World Series of Poker players to come play in his game. He stakes them, and if they lose, he will eat the loss. But in reality, they can’t lose, because the dealer is cheating FOR THEM, and they don’t even know it. These players are called “Honest Johns.” It’s a pretty clever scheme. The Honest Johns don’t know they’re cheating, and they are really good at poker, so it’s never surprising when they win. And other players don’t even mind losing to them, because at least they got to go head-to-head with a pro.

The “fantasy set in the real world” (222) section near the end is good. He discovers that Leo and Max were even cheating him, and it’s a kind of “deception inception” (which I think is reflected in the cover of the book).