{"id":2304,"date":"2013-01-21T12:23:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/?p=2304"},"modified":"2013-01-21T12:32:16","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:32:16","slug":"apollo-robbins-picks-all-of-the-pockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/screencuisine\/internet\/apollo-robbins-picks-all-of-the-pockets\/","title":{"rendered":"Apollo Robbins Picks All Of The Pockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"apollo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Something I’ve always been a bit dubious of in the movies is pickpocketing. We’ve all seen it: a scene where a guy bumps into someone and steals their wallet or keys while the person is distracted by being bumped. It’s just a little hard to accept that a simple jostle would be enough of a distraction to not notice someone reaching into your pocket and removing something.<\/p>\n

After reading this fascinating profile of Apollo Robbins in the New Yorker<\/a>, and watching videos of his work on YouTube, it’s a lot easier to accept. Granted, Robbins is a performer and magician, allowing him to engage in far more complicated distractions than simply bumping into someone on the street, but it’s still pretty jaw-dropping to see him work. Or to try<\/em> to see him work. He removes people’s watches and puts them on his own wrist without them noticing. He lifts wallets and removes or adds things to them. In just a few seconds of work he can pilfer phones, keys, scarves, even, in one case, taking one woman’s eyeglasses off her face without her noticing.<\/p>\n

Here’s some videos. It’s neat that even once he’s explained some of his tricks, and you can see them happening, it’s still extremely hard to see everything<\/em> that’s happening.<\/p>\n

On the Today Show, he gives items to Matt Lauer, Ryan Seacrest, and whoever the third guy is, then steals them back, while performing a magic trick with a $100 bill.<\/p>\n