Houdini and Me

Houdini and Me — page 7 — I’m sleeping in a room where Harry Houdini might have slept When I get up in the morning morning I step on a floorboard next to my bed that makes a loud creaking sound that Houdini might have heard when he lived in the house a hundred years ago Living in the house once owned by this famous guy I naturally became curious about him I’ve read a bunch of biographies and learned a lot To be completely honest I’m sort of obsessed with Houdini and with magic People walking past my house are always stopping to take pictures of the plaque on the wall and asking me questions about Houdini It makes me feel like I’m a little famous too I like that Oh I forgot to tell you The funny thing is my name is Harry too My parents didn’t name me after Houdini They just liked the name And my last name is Mancini which sounds a lot like Houdini Mancini is an Italian name Houdini wasn’t Italian In fact he wasn’t even born with the name Houdini Harry Houdini’s real name was Erik Weisz 5

Houdini and Me — page 8 — He was a Jewish kid who was born in Budapest Budapest Hungary His family came to America and lived in Wisconsin before they moved to New York City when Erik was a teenager Growing up Erik’s idol was a French magician magician named Robert Houdin Harry just added an i to the end of Houdin and called himself Houdini for the rest of his life I don’t know why he changed his name from Erik to Harry I guess he thought Harry Houdini sounded better than Erik Houdini Lots of kids from school have seen the plaque on the wall of course so everybody knows I live in Houdini’s house Sometimes they ask me to do magic tricks so I learned a few You know how grown ups always say Don’t try this at home kids Well here’s a really simple magic trick you can try at home to impress your friends All you need is a raw egg a little salt and a smooth level table First challenge your friends to try to balance balance the egg on its end so it stands up all by itself It’s really hard to do and they probably won’t be able to do it 6

Houdini and Me — page 9 — Now here’s the trick while your friends are trying to balance the egg and not looking at you take a little pinch of salt in one hand Wave your other hand above the table and say some magic mumbo jumbo like abracadabra or hocus pocus While they’re watching that hand use your other to put the pinch of salt on the table This is called misdirection and it’s the key to many magic tricks Magicians get you to watch one thing so you don’t notice some thing else they’re doing at the same time Anyway build a tiny mound of salt on the table with your fingers Just a few grains will be enough to form a little base that will hold up the egg the same way a tee holds up a football football for a kickoff Position the egg on top of the salt until the egg stands up Then quietly blow away any extra grains of salt Presto You’ve done it as if by magic For the fun of it tell your friends some more mumbo jumbo about how the position of the sun and the moon on that particular date make it possible possible to make an egg stand up on one end That’s 7

Houdini and Me — page 10 — garbage of course but it sounds like it makes sense It’s pretty cool to see the look on your friends faces when the egg stands up by itself Maybe I’ll be a magician when I grow up My best friend Zeke Austin already calls me The Great Mancini Houdini was a really mysterious guy so naturally there are rumors that my house is haunted In fact the lady who owned the house after Houdini died was convinced there was buried treasure in the basement She 8

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