top of page
Teacher's Resources
Search
The shared secret of magic and car crashes
I got rear-ended last week. I stopped suddenly in slow moving traffic and a black BMW slammed into the back of me, destroying the back...
The second Sleight Night proves the magic show wasn’t a fluke
Fool you once, shame on me. Fool you twice and it might just be the second ever Sleight Night. I’m absolutely loving producing and...
Become a professional con artist at Melbourne Magic Festival
In case you haven’t figured out yet, I love the world of the professional con artist. After close to three decades learning the tricks...
A Gripe About Gripe Water
I have a new baby which is great for me because I happen to love babies. Particularly babies that I made myself. Unfortunately, this baby...
A Scam From The White Man’s Money House
Redditor Sal_Mugga (whose username is slang for money shared an extraordinary story of being scammed on the website this week. He fell...
How to at cheat cards with salt, a green marker and a poison ring
My favourite card cheat of all time isn’t the riverboat swindling George Devol or the modern criminal mastermind Phuong Quoc Truong but...
Scam revealed after con artists infect network with their own malware
You’ve probably heard about fake invoice scams where con artist sends out millions of phishing emails to businesses. The emails have...
“Booze and the blowens cop the lot.”
Back in 1997, magician Ricky Jay filmed a HBO special based on his one man show ‘Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants.’ About twenty minutes...
Deceptology at Melbourne Magic Festival
It has been a while since my last update. I have not, as some sources suggest, been ‘disappeared’ by con artists I’ve upset. Instead I’ve...
What the hell is an “honest con man?”
When I’m performing I always insist on being introduced as an honest con man. (It’s in my rider along with a bathtub full of mountain dew...
5 Most Popular Scamapaloozas of 2015
After years of procrastinating, Paul Culliver from Mammoth Audio and I finally launched the podcast Scamapalooza in July. Since then,...
Comedy Magicians and Comical Con Artists
Every year, my home town of Melbourne is descended upon by an army of comedians in town for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival....
Episode 18 – Keeping The Bastards Dishonest with Dee Madigan
Dee Madigan is an advertising creative and political campaigner who spends her days selling politicians to the public and her nights...
How To Learn A Working Magician’s Real Secrets
I’m a working stiff. Really I am. I make a big part of my living as what we magicians call ‘a worker.’ Every weekend I’m invited to be a...
7 Con Artist Movies You’ve Never Seen
For every Focus or Matchstick Men there is a smaller, subtler con artist flick that never found it’s audience. These small scale pics...
Where To Learn The Three Disk Monte
Three Disk Monte is one of the most popular street scams and confidence games in the world. And yet, little had been written about this...
Episode 12 – The Magic Castle with Magician Rob Zabrecky
Rob Zabrecky was once the leader singer of indie rock band Possum Dixon. Now he’s a magician on the board of trustees of The Magic Castle...
“£5 to get in, £500 to get out.” Clip Joints and hate mail
I got some hate mail today. It happens sometimes. Over the years I’ve raised the heckles of carnies, card cheats, Nigerian 419 swindlers...
Swindling Yourself on to a Melbourne Map
I know a man named Steve (not his real name) who works as a documentary filmmaker (not his real job) in the Melbourne suburb of...
A Call From A Tele-scammer
“Hello, this is Brian from FedEx Australia. Is this Nicholas?” Nice try, mate, I think. If you’re really from a local courier company,...
Here you'll find resources for teaching and promoting critical thinking, scam protection, and deception education. Many are linked to his school incursions while others are just for fun.
Make sure you subscribe to Nicholas's podcast. Scamapalooza. He interviews psychologists, authors, and researchers about why people are so easy to fool.
bottom of page