Apollo Robbins (born May 23, 1974) is an American sleight-of-hand artist, security consultant, self-described gentleman thief and deception specialist.[2][3] Forbes has called him "an artful manipulator of awareness".[4]
Apollo Robbins | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 23, 1974[1] Plainview, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Security consultant, magician |
Early life
editRobbins was born in Plainview, Texas. A soft-spoken man, Robbins has said, in various interviews, that he learned his skills from two brothers, that his father was blind, and that, as a child, he had braces on his legs.[5][6]
Career
editRobbins gained notoriety after pickpocketing Secret Service agents accompanying former President Jimmy Carter.[7] He successfully stole, among other items, former President Carter's itinerary and the keys to his motorcade. The publicity led several law-enforcement groups to contact him about his techniques. Robbins explained to an interviewer, "I pick-pocketed one of Jimmy Carter's secret service agents. After that, I got approached [to consult] police departments and security individuals. I got to visit prisons and I started learning the thinking and skill set of real thieves."[5]
In a 2013 profile in The New Yorker, writer Adam Green said, "Robbins, who lives in Las Vegas, is a peculiar variety-arts hybrid, known in the trade as a theatrical pickpocket. Among his peers, he is widely considered the best in the world at what he does, which is taking things from people's jackets, pants, purses, wrists, fingers, and necks, then returning them in amusing and mind-boggling ways."[8]
Whizmob Inc.
editIn 2006, Robbins founded Whizmob Inc., a brain trust that offers law enforcement officials and ex-cons as subject matter experts on current fraud, theft, and scam trends.[6]
Personal life
editRobbins is married to Vietnamese-American magician and mentalist Ava Do. They have one child. In 2012 they founded Ludus Development, a training and consulting collective that creates immersive training methodologies with a focus on experiential learning.[9]
In popular culture
editRobbins has appeared several times on television. He was a guest on The View on January 22, 2008.[citation needed] He hosted TruTV's reality show, Real Hustle (Season 1, Episode 1, "The Distract and Conquer Con").[citation needed]
Robbins served as technical advisor on TNT's series Leverage, a heist film TV show starring Timothy Hutton and Christian Kane, also appearing in the 2nd Season's seventh episode, "The Two Live Crew Job" (2009).[citation needed]
Robbins appeared on Nova ScienceNow to illustrate some features of "how the brain works" on a 2011 episode, alongside fellow magician Penn Jillette, roboticist Rodney Brooks, neuroscientist David Eagleman, and others.[citation needed]
Also in 2011, Robbins appeared on the Australian television comedy series Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable, on an episode entitled "Magic," in which he was joined by stage magicians Lance Burton and Tim Ellis.[citation needed] In December 2011, he was one of many featured speakers in a documentary (a European co-production) about the brain entitled Das automatische Gehirn (The Automatic Brain).[citation needed]
National Geographic Channel's documentary show Brain Games kept Apollo fairly busy in 2013, inviting him to appear on several episodes which had such titles as "Illusion Confusion," "Power of Persuasion," and "Focus Pocus." He was given the title of consulting producer for two of these episodes.[citation needed]
Robbins was featured at TEDGlobal 2013 in June that year,[10] and its YouTube video (posted in September 2013) went viral, with over 20 million views.[11]
He guest starred in the episode "Halloween II" on the FOX show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.[citation needed]
He served as technical advisor on Warner Bros's 2015 movie Focus which stars Will Smith and Margot Robbie, he was also extensively featured in Blu-ray and DVD bonus features, and appears as man wearing a blue jacket in the scene where Margot Robbie's character does pickpocket from people in the street.[12][better source needed][13]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Green, Adam (January 7, 2013). "A Pickpocket's Tale". The New Yorker.
- ^ Bio Archived February 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Robbins, Apollo. "Brain Games: Use It or Lose It". YouTube. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ "Apollo Robbins". www.istealstuff.com. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ a b Robbins, Apollo (2009). "Apollo Robbins". www.istealstuff.com / Mental Floss. Archived from the original on July 13, 2013. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ a b Robbins, Apollo (c. 2010). "Apollo Robbins, The Gentleman Thief". www.theory11.com/. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ Hoffman, Jascha (October 31, 2008). "Art Teams With Science to Explain It All to You". New York Times.
- ^ Kane, Myles (January 5, 2013). "Video: The Art of Pickpocketing". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 6, 2013.
- ^ "Bio-Ava Do". Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ^ "Apollo Robbins: The art of misdirection". TED. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
- ^ "The art of misdirection | Apollo Robbins". YouTube. September 13, 2013. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
- ^ Focus 2015 Blu-ray Extras.
- ^ "Apollo Robbins Teaches Will Smith & Margot Robbie Art of Grifting in Focus". February 24, 2015.
Sources
edit- "Magic for neuroscientists". Science News. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
- "Autism Diagnoses and Treatments Could Be Found in Study of Magic - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. November 10, 2009. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
- "To Catch a Thief". Portfolio.com. June 9, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
- "Apollo Robbins". Essential Magic Conference. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
- Brian Lowry (January 21, 2008). "The Real Hustle". Variety. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
External links
edit- Official website
- Apollo Robbins at IMDb
- Apollo Robbins at TED
- Green, Adam (January 7, 2013). "A Pickpocket's Tale: The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins". The New Yorker. Profiles.
- Kane, Miles (January 5, 2013). "Video: The Art of Pickpocketing] Apollo Robbins demonstrates techniques on Adam Green". The New Yorker. Culture Desk Review.
