*Including, fingers crossed, an AMAZING PosCast. Details to come.
Thought this would be a good time to open up a thread and answer any and all questions you might have about Houdini, baseball, Houdini, the Browns, Houdini, the playoffs, whatever you like. Houdini.
I put up a comment and it posted twice, so I tried to delete one and it deleted both. Anyway college student employed part time and I can't order until next Friday. Can I still order from Rainy day books then with an inscription?
Ok, so this might be a weird one, but as a fellow writer: has there ever been a story you've wanted to tell in a different medium than what you're comfortable with? Short fiction? Stage play? How tempted are you to branch into different writing disciplines? I'm a playwright myself and there are some ideas that I'd love to explore but they simply don't work in that format so I abandon them.
Joe, I realize it is probably not financially feasible to add Tokyo to your book tour. That said, if you come for the Olympics next summer, is there a possibility you will include a book signing in your itinerary? And more importantly, would you entertain the possibility of playing tennis at a beautiful, historic club with a (not so) Brilliant Reader?
Alas, I am not coming to the Olympics -- my first Summer Olympics missed since 1992. I'd love to come to Japan and would love to play some tennis ... let's hope the book sells well.
I am most excited to meet you this week! I'm the one who did the Houdini-themed promotional materials for Booklovers Bash, and am also a sad lifetime Browns fan from a line of sad lifetime Browns fans. I converted my husband to Browns fandom some 30 years ago when we were first dating (he was a Cincinnati fan only because he dad was from southern Ohio) and now he is a sad lifetime Browns fan, too. Safe travels to Cheyenne!
Hey Joe, I was wondering what happened to the Passions in America podcast? It was by far my second favorite podcast you did, but still I really enjoyed it. What is up with the project in general?
Hi Johnny. Thank you for this. I know it doesn't look like it, but we've actually done a lot of work on Passions in America over the last year. More excited about it than ever, and once things clear up a bit on Houdini, we have every intention of bringing back the PosCast along with numerous other announcements. Thanks for your patience and stay tuned!
As a Chiefs fan, you know that "panic" is pretty much a natural state of being. I think the Chiefs are too good to miss out on the playoffs, and they're good enough to beat anybody in the playoffs. But I can lie to you: These last couple of weeks have been worrisome.
Getting San Francisco on the tour list is one of my top priorities -- would love to make it happen. I'll let you know when I hear mroe.
Joe have you ever seen the book: “learned pigs and fireproof women “ fascinating account of the acts that shocked and amazed the end of the 1800s early 1900s. Counting horses, memorists, magicians etc. strange strange stuff
Hey Joe! I live in Jacksonville, Florida. Is there any chance you'll be coming down to Florida at all, or is Atlanta the closest place you'll end up for the book tour?
I am coming to Florida in March for a couple of events, but I think they're not close to Jacksonville -- Fort Myers, I think, and we're working on another. As of right now, Atlanta is the closest event for us to get together to talk about Blake Bortles but I'll let you know if anything changes.
Although it looks like their run is coming to an end, how in the heck did the St. Louis Cardinals make it to the playoffs and even advance? Just looking at the team's Baseball-Reference page, it seemed it did a Houdini-like escape from mediocrity.
Well, there are some good players there -- Flaherty really became a star. But let's be honest, that division was mediocre and the Cards, Brewers and Cubs were all flawed.
Also are you still booking stops on your tour? If I went to go ask the nice folks at Left Bank books in St. Louis to host you would that be a possibility?
I LOVE Left Bank Books. Some of my favorite book events have been in St. Louis (with Left Bank), so I would definitely love to make a stop there. We just have to see if we can all make it work.
Did I screw up by pre-ordering the book on Amazon? I feel like I should have taken advantage of the rainy day books deal. I don't want to cancel my pre-order at this point, but I feel like there are better options out there. A lot has changed since (checking my receipt) July 2nd.
July 2! You're awesome. The Rainy Day Books deal IS super fun; I don't know how Amazon works with cancelations but if you preorder at Rainy Day, I'll be sure to inscribe a thank you for preordering way back in July!
Joe, a fellow Mets fan (and also fellow Jets fan; pain apparently goes in pairs) told me he's somehow been pulling for the Yanks against the 'Stros. Please help me to help him. We must show him the error of his ways. I made the same mistake in '96 and look what happened!
It is entirely unacceptable for a Mets fan to root for the Yankees. I believe this is explicitly written in Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution and your friend must be stopped for his own sake.
Should I pre-order the Audio version of Houdini or the print version? Audio is generally easier for me right now since I have a 2 year old and a baby ;-), but I can make print work too. What do you recommend? Any differences between the versions?
No difference -- if you prefer Audio Books, you should absolutely go with the Audio. We went with this very cool narrator, I think he's terrific.
Oh, and here's a little bit of news -- it looks like my first book "The Soul of Baseball," will be made into an audio book in the next few months! I couldn't be more excited.
I have been trying to think of other modern people - last couple hundred years - who entered the vocabulary as the exemplar of a particular skill or quality. (Such that, for example, the Obama campaign called their voter tracking system “Houdini” because after a person voted they would magically disappear from the list. Did you know about that?)
Albert Einstein is almost the only other example I can think of who comes close. What’s your list?
Also, if you haven’t encountered her, when you are in New York you might enjoy meeting the choreographer Elizabeth Streb. Houdini is one of her inspirations.
Others I can think of: Rockefeller & Quisling definitely, maybe Gandhi (a very reductionist, cartoon version of Gandhi), Elvis, PT Barnum, or Mother Teresa. If we're praising our neighbors' kid's art, we'll probably call him a "little Picasso" instead of Leonardo, Van Gogh, or Monet.
I think Caruso had that status and lost it when people stopped caring about classical music & opera; maybe Ruth as well when baseball was no longer a lingua franca. Napoleon used to be on the list as a person who let power get to his head; now, if at all, it's as a short guy. Mozart's just a little too old.
Rockefeller and Quisling are good ones. The others seem to be slightly redefining the parameters that Chris H and Joe initially laid out. I think the distinction is basically whether the person's name is used as a metaphor or a simile. No one says, of a guy who's a known lady's man, "he's like Casanova." Instead we say, "he's a Casanova." I think Elvis, Babe Ruth, Barnum are all more in the simile category. "So-and-so is a such a rock star, he's like a modern day Elvis." Or something like that.
This is a fantastic thought experiment that I have tried to play around with. When I was a kid, I played baseball in the Tris Speaker Little League. I had no idea that Tris Speaker was an actual player; I just thought of it as a name of a baseball league. I think it's like that with Houdini and very few others. Mike brings up Casanova, which is a great one. There are some like Kafka who have had "esque" added to their names. More on this later!
My question exactly Chris - what other person essentially had their name become a verb? The two that come to mind are Svengali and Rasputin. And of course Thomas Crapper...
That doesn't seem like a particularly fun choice. I know Mike quite well and like him a lot, though I don't think he's the owner I'd want if, you know, winning a Super Bowl is the goal. I know Jimmy Haslem only a little bit and his history as a sports owner is not great but it's not as complete as Mike's.
Let's see -- he's 31, he's 131 victories away. Let's say he averages 15 victories per year, which is a lot to ask, but let's just say he does. At that pace he'd need almost nine full seasons. Do I think Clayton Kershaw can average 15 victories a year over the next nine? No. Is it possible? Sure. I'll say 5%.
Here's my pitch - Sepinwall co-writes the 8 part Netfix series (based on the book) with you. Ken Tremendous as showrunner. Nick Offerman stars. (All I'm asking for is an associate producer credit).
IT IS SO SO COOL BUT ON PAGE 284 (and others). There really are some fun and strange Houdini stories in the book. The time he sued the German police. The time he escapers from a Russian prison car. The time a body-builder locked him in six handcuffs. I think you'll love it!
My understanding is that the Connecticut stop fell through because of some date conflict. But definitely hoping to get back there when I return to New York, perhaps sometime in late November.
When writing the book, what detail about Houdini’s life surprised you most? Or was it less a detail and more of an overarching theme that emerged that you weren’t expecting?
There were a lot of surprises in this for me -- how close he came to giving up magic, how much he struggled, how vindictive he could be, how generous he coudl be, etc. But one that sticks with me is just how hard he worked to build his own legend. This was a man intent on being remembered forever. Pretty much everything he did in his life was geared toward that one goal, to become immortal. And, somehow, he pulled it off.
I have been there and it's very cool. I will be there in late October, in fact. It's not super big so don't go in with over-the-top expectations, but it's got some fun stuff and there's plenty of magic to buy.
I see the Astros winning it because the Yankees winning is a dystopian future that I would prefer not to imagine. But I don't have any faith in my fortune telling.
Given your lack of sleep, do you find it a challenge to keep the plates (baseball, Houdini, the never-ending news cycle, Poscasts) spinning? You seem like you constantly have a lot going on.
David beat me to it. Josh's book "Magic: The Complete Course," is amazing, and he also has a book called "Big Magic for Little Hands," which is wonderful for little, little ones like your 4-year old.
Joe's friend Joshua Jay has a great book called "Magic: The Complete Course." You can find it on Amazon and it's a great introduction. I teach magic classes in the Bay Area and I use that book.
Depends on if you are a Packers fan or not. Assuming you are then the answer is yes, he was directly involved, and all Packers fan should buy a book in celebration.
Any chance for a stop in Philadelphia?
I put up a comment and it posted twice, so I tried to delete one and it deleted both. Anyway college student employed part time and I can't order until next Friday. Can I still order from Rainy day books then with an inscription?
Ok, so this might be a weird one, but as a fellow writer: has there ever been a story you've wanted to tell in a different medium than what you're comfortable with? Short fiction? Stage play? How tempted are you to branch into different writing disciplines? I'm a playwright myself and there are some ideas that I'd love to explore but they simply don't work in that format so I abandon them.
Joe, I realize it is probably not financially feasible to add Tokyo to your book tour. That said, if you come for the Olympics next summer, is there a possibility you will include a book signing in your itinerary? And more importantly, would you entertain the possibility of playing tennis at a beautiful, historic club with a (not so) Brilliant Reader?
Alas, I am not coming to the Olympics -- my first Summer Olympics missed since 1992. I'd love to come to Japan and would love to play some tennis ... let's hope the book sells well.
I am most excited to meet you this week! I'm the one who did the Houdini-themed promotional materials for Booklovers Bash, and am also a sad lifetime Browns fan from a line of sad lifetime Browns fans. I converted my husband to Browns fandom some 30 years ago when we were first dating (he was a Cincinnati fan only because he dad was from southern Ohio) and now he is a sad lifetime Browns fan, too. Safe travels to Cheyenne!
Thank you! Very excited to see you in Cheyenne ... and always wonderful to hang out with a lifelong Browns fan!
Hey Joe, I was wondering what happened to the Passions in America podcast? It was by far my second favorite podcast you did, but still I really enjoyed it. What is up with the project in general?
Also, who do the Phillies hire to manage?
Hi Johnny. Thank you for this. I know it doesn't look like it, but we've actually done a lot of work on Passions in America over the last year. More excited about it than ever, and once things clear up a bit on Houdini, we have every intention of bringing back the PosCast along with numerous other announcements. Thanks for your patience and stay tuned!
Nice job *finally* publicizing this book you've written. For a long time, I've thought it was just our secret.
As a Chiefs fan, should I be panicking? Is there any hope that the defense will tackle a running back this season?
Any chance the book tour is going to make it to the San Francisco area?
As a Chiefs fan, you know that "panic" is pretty much a natural state of being. I think the Chiefs are too good to miss out on the playoffs, and they're good enough to beat anybody in the playoffs. But I can lie to you: These last couple of weeks have been worrisome.
Getting San Francisco on the tour list is one of my top priorities -- would love to make it happen. I'll let you know when I hear mroe.
The East Bay would be even better...
Joe have you ever seen the book: “learned pigs and fireproof women “ fascinating account of the acts that shocked and amazed the end of the 1800s early 1900s. Counting horses, memorists, magicians etc. strange strange stuff
Yes, that's Ricky Jay's book -- have all the Ricky Jay books in my library. Some wonderful stuff in there. Magic history is so much fun.
Darn was going to bring you a copy when you were in New York.
Hey Joe! I live in Jacksonville, Florida. Is there any chance you'll be coming down to Florida at all, or is Atlanta the closest place you'll end up for the book tour?
I am coming to Florida in March for a couple of events, but I think they're not close to Jacksonville -- Fort Myers, I think, and we're working on another. As of right now, Atlanta is the closest event for us to get together to talk about Blake Bortles but I'll let you know if anything changes.
Although it looks like their run is coming to an end, how in the heck did the St. Louis Cardinals make it to the playoffs and even advance? Just looking at the team's Baseball-Reference page, it seemed it did a Houdini-like escape from mediocrity.
Well, there are some good players there -- Flaherty really became a star. But let's be honest, that division was mediocre and the Cards, Brewers and Cubs were all flawed.
Also are you still booking stops on your tour? If I went to go ask the nice folks at Left Bank books in St. Louis to host you would that be a possibility?
I LOVE Left Bank Books. Some of my favorite book events have been in St. Louis (with Left Bank), so I would definitely love to make a stop there. We just have to see if we can all make it work.
Did I screw up by pre-ordering the book on Amazon? I feel like I should have taken advantage of the rainy day books deal. I don't want to cancel my pre-order at this point, but I feel like there are better options out there. A lot has changed since (checking my receipt) July 2nd.
July 2! You're awesome. The Rainy Day Books deal IS super fun; I don't know how Amazon works with cancelations but if you preorder at Rainy Day, I'll be sure to inscribe a thank you for preordering way back in July!
Joe, a fellow Mets fan (and also fellow Jets fan; pain apparently goes in pairs) told me he's somehow been pulling for the Yanks against the 'Stros. Please help me to help him. We must show him the error of his ways. I made the same mistake in '96 and look what happened!
It is entirely unacceptable for a Mets fan to root for the Yankees. I believe this is explicitly written in Article 4 of the U.S. Constitution and your friend must be stopped for his own sake.
Damn straight.
Did Houdini make my comment from 17 minutes ago magically move to an hour ago in the thread?
It would not surprise me. He loves messing with the comments.
Joe, any chance that you are coming through the Boston area on the big tour? Good luck to you out on the road.
Hoping to work out a Boston stop. Will keep you updated. Book tours are hard to organize!
Should I pre-order the Audio version of Houdini or the print version? Audio is generally easier for me right now since I have a 2 year old and a baby ;-), but I can make print work too. What do you recommend? Any differences between the versions?
No difference -- if you prefer Audio Books, you should absolutely go with the Audio. We went with this very cool narrator, I think he's terrific.
Oh, and here's a little bit of news -- it looks like my first book "The Soul of Baseball," will be made into an audio book in the next few months! I couldn't be more excited.
Did you make it to Houdini's grave in Queens? If so, what did you think of it?
I did make it several times. There's a great story in the book (if I do say so myself) about that gravesite.
How about a book signing in your home town of Cleveland? Looks like the closest date on the schedule is Columbus.
I want very badly to come to do a whole Ohio tour -- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo. Trying to make the details come together.
I have been trying to think of other modern people - last couple hundred years - who entered the vocabulary as the exemplar of a particular skill or quality. (Such that, for example, the Obama campaign called their voter tracking system “Houdini” because after a person voted they would magically disappear from the list. Did you know about that?)
Albert Einstein is almost the only other example I can think of who comes close. What’s your list?
Also, if you haven’t encountered her, when you are in New York you might enjoy meeting the choreographer Elizabeth Streb. Houdini is one of her inspirations.
Others I can think of: Rockefeller & Quisling definitely, maybe Gandhi (a very reductionist, cartoon version of Gandhi), Elvis, PT Barnum, or Mother Teresa. If we're praising our neighbors' kid's art, we'll probably call him a "little Picasso" instead of Leonardo, Van Gogh, or Monet.
I think Caruso had that status and lost it when people stopped caring about classical music & opera; maybe Ruth as well when baseball was no longer a lingua franca. Napoleon used to be on the list as a person who let power get to his head; now, if at all, it's as a short guy. Mozart's just a little too old.
Rockefeller and Quisling are good ones. The others seem to be slightly redefining the parameters that Chris H and Joe initially laid out. I think the distinction is basically whether the person's name is used as a metaphor or a simile. No one says, of a guy who's a known lady's man, "he's like Casanova." Instead we say, "he's a Casanova." I think Elvis, Babe Ruth, Barnum are all more in the simile category. "So-and-so is a such a rock star, he's like a modern day Elvis." Or something like that.
This is a fantastic thought experiment that I have tried to play around with. When I was a kid, I played baseball in the Tris Speaker Little League. I had no idea that Tris Speaker was an actual player; I just thought of it as a name of a baseball league. I think it's like that with Houdini and very few others. Mike brings up Casanova, which is a great one. There are some like Kafka who have had "esque" added to their names. More on this later!
Casanova. He was ~225-250 years ago.
A more modern (well, 100 years ago) example on the same topic would be Valentino.
My question exactly Chris - what other person essentially had their name become a verb? The two that come to mind are Svengali and Rasputin. And of course Thomas Crapper...
Who'd you rather have own your favorite team - Mike Brown or Jimmy Haslem?
That doesn't seem like a particularly fun choice. I know Mike quite well and like him a lot, though I don't think he's the owner I'd want if, you know, winning a Super Bowl is the goal. I know Jimmy Haslem only a little bit and his history as a sports owner is not great but it's not as complete as Mike's.
Is there an audible version of the book in the works?
There is an audible book ... and it's already available for presale! https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Life-and-Afterlife-of-Harry-Houdini-Audiobook/1508297681?qid=1571159131&sr=1-1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=334KREPXVKMKTJDZ35K2&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1
Do you give any percentage chance to Clayton Kershaw winning 300 games in his career?
Let's see -- he's 31, he's 131 victories away. Let's say he averages 15 victories per year, which is a lot to ask, but let's just say he does. At that pace he'd need almost nine full seasons. Do I think Clayton Kershaw can average 15 victories a year over the next nine? No. Is it possible? Sure. I'll say 5%.
Here's my pitch - Sepinwall co-writes the 8 part Netfix series (based on the book) with you. Ken Tremendous as showrunner. Nick Offerman stars. (All I'm asking for is an associate producer credit).
I'm all for it, except for that Sepinwall part. If the Yankees win this year, there will be no stopping him.
This is negotiable. Let's see how the playoffs play out.
If Sepinwall is involved, he'll insist on a Groundhog Day release date, even though that makes no sense whatsoever.
What is the strangest Houdini story ever? If it is in the book, you can say IT IS SO COOL BUT ON PAGE 284 or something like that.
IT IS SO SO COOL BUT ON PAGE 284 (and others). There really are some fun and strange Houdini stories in the book. The time he sued the German police. The time he escapers from a Russian prison car. The time a body-builder locked him in six handcuffs. I think you'll love it!
Very much looking forward to it. When will you be in the DC area? Will Juan Soto come?
Will be in DC Nov. 5 -- event with Linda Holmes at East City Bookshop!
If you put all the main subjects of the books you've written in a steel cage match, who emerges victorious?
Not sure, but I know who escapes.
You mentioned a possible Connecticut book tour stop...still any chance of that?
My understanding is that the Connecticut stop fell through because of some date conflict. But definitely hoping to get back there when I return to New York, perhaps sometime in late November.
Joe, would you say that Houdini was the New York Yankees of escape artists? And/or that the Yankees are the Houdini of baseball teams?
Who are you and why are you here and how did security not stop you at the door and did I mention that I wrote a book?
I feel like if you had written a book, Joe, you'd have mentioned it before now.
He’s right. I hope the print in your book is bigger than in his book about the Sopranos.
When writing the book, what detail about Houdini’s life surprised you most? Or was it less a detail and more of an overarching theme that emerged that you weren’t expecting?
There were a lot of surprises in this for me -- how close he came to giving up magic, how much he struggled, how vindictive he could be, how generous he coudl be, etc. But one that sticks with me is just how hard he worked to build his own legend. This was a man intent on being remembered forever. Pretty much everything he did in his life was geared toward that one goal, to become immortal. And, somehow, he pulled it off.
If Houdini escaped an NFL pocket, would he drift to the right and throw an interception off of Dontrell Hilliard's hands?
Only if he was handcuffed by Freddie Kitchens' playcalling.
What do you think of the Houdini Museum in NYC (I am assuming you've been there)? Planning on going this weekend and needed reassurance.
I have been there and it's very cool. I will be there in late October, in fact. It's not super big so don't go in with over-the-top expectations, but it's got some fun stuff and there's plenty of magic to buy.
Well, have the Washington Nationals done well enough already in your eyes to break the cycle of post-season failure?
Yes! I think this team is so much fun.
Which team do you see winning the ALCS and why?
I see the Astros winning it because the Yankees winning is a dystopian future that I would prefer not to imagine. But I don't have any faith in my fortune telling.
Given your lack of sleep, do you find it a challenge to keep the plates (baseball, Houdini, the never-ending news cycle, Poscasts) spinning? You seem like you constantly have a lot going on.
At the moment, yeah, it does feel like there are too many plates spinning. But I so prefer this to those quiet times when not a lot is going on.
If I want to start learning and performing magic tricks for my children (7 and 4), where should I start looking for instruction?
David beat me to it. Josh's book "Magic: The Complete Course," is amazing, and he also has a book called "Big Magic for Little Hands," which is wonderful for little, little ones like your 4-year old.
Joe's friend Joshua Jay has a great book called "Magic: The Complete Course." You can find it on Amazon and it's a great introduction. I teach magic classes in the Bay Area and I use that book.
Was Houdini in any way involved in the Packers win last night?
Depends on if you are a Packers fan or not. Assuming you are then the answer is yes, he was directly involved, and all Packers fan should buy a book in celebration.
Well he first lived in the US in Appleton, WI, so I’m gonna say yes he was involved.