Apollo Robbins

Robbins 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.istealstuff.com/more-details.html |author=Robbins, Apollo |year=2009 |title=Apollo Robbins |publisher=www.istealstuff.com / Mental Floss |accessdate=July 6, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713143956/http://www.istealstuff.com/more-details.html |archivedate=July 13, 2013 }}

Robbins gained notoriety after pickpocketing Secret Service agents accompanying former President Jimmy Carter.{{cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Jascha |title=Art Teams With Science to Explain It All to You |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/arts/design/01acad.html?pagewanted=all |newspaper=New York Times |date=October 31, 2008}} 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."

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."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/video-the-art-of-pickpocketing.html |author=Kane, Myles |date=January 5, 2013 |title=Video: The Art of Pickpocketing |magazine=The New Yorker |accessdate=July 6, 2013}}

In 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.theory11.com/artists/apollo-robbins.php |author=Robbins, Apollo |date=c. 2010 |title=Apollo Robbins, The Gentleman Thief |publisher=www.theory11.com/ |accessdate=July 6, 2013}}

Robbins 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.ava-do.com/media |title=Bio-Ava Do | accessdate=June 7, 2020}}

Robbins has appeared several times on television. He was a guest on The View on January 22, 2008.{{cn|date=June 2021}} He hosted TruTV's reality show, Real Hustle (Season 1, Episode 1, "The Distract and Conquer Con").{{cn|date=June 2021}}

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).{{cn|date=June 2021}}

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.{{cn|date=June 2021}}

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.{{cn|date=June 2021}} 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).{{cn|date=June 2021}}

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.{{cn|date=June 2021}}

Robbins was featured at TEDGlobal 2013 in June that year,{{cite web |url=http://www.ted.com/talks/apollo_robbins_the_art_of_misdirection.html |title=Apollo Robbins: The art of misdirection |publisher=TED | accessdate=December 22, 2013}} and its YouTube video (posted in September 2013) went viral, with over 20 million views.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZGY0wPAnus |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/GZGY0wPAnus |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|title=The art of misdirection | Apollo Robbins |publisher=YouTube |date=2013-09-13 |accessdate=September 13, 2020}}{{cbignore}}

He guest starred in the episode "Halloween II" on the FOX show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.{{cn|date=June 2021}}

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.Focus 2015 Blu-ray Extras.{{better|date=June 2021}}{{cite web | url=https://www.motionpictures.org/2015/02/apollo-robbins-teaches-will-smith-margot-robbie-art-of-grifting-in-focus/ | title=Apollo Robbins Teaches Will Smith & Margot Robbie Art of Grifting in Focus | date=February 24, 2015 }}

• Micromagic

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite magazine|url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48544/title/On_the_Scene__Magic_for_neuroscientists |title=Magic for neuroscientists |magazine=Science News |accessdate=October 31, 2016}}
• {{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Autism/autism-diagnoses-treatments-found-study-magic/story?id=8988702&page=3 |title=Autism Diagnoses and Treatments Could Be Found in Study of Magic - ABC News |website=Abcnews.go.com |date=November 10, 2009 |accessdate=October 31, 2016}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.portfolio.com/careers/job-of-the-week/2008/06/09/Security-Expert-Apollo-Robbins/ |title=To Catch a Thief |website=Portfolio.com |date=June 9, 2008 |accessdate=October 31, 2016}}
• {{cite web|url=http://essentialmagicconference.com/users/apollo-robbins |title=Apollo Robbins |publisher=Essential Magic Conference |date= |accessdate=October 31, 2016}}
• {{cite web|author=Brian Lowry |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935854.html |title=The Real Hustle |work=Variety |date=January 21, 2008|accessdate=October 31, 2016}}

• {{Official website|http://www.apollorobbins.com/}}
• {{IMDb name|2909425}}
• {{TED speaker}}
• {{cite magazine |url= https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/07/130107fa_fact_green?currentPage=all |title= A Pickpocket's Tale: The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins |author-link= Adam Green (journalist) |first= Adam |last= Green |magazine= The New Yorker |series= Profiles |date= January 7, 2013 }}
• {{cite magazine |url= https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/video-the-art-of-pickpocketing.html |title= Video: The Art of Pickpocketing] Apollo Robbins demonstrates techniques on Adam Green |magazine= The New Yorker |series= Culture Desk Review |date= January 5, 2013 |first= Miles |last= Kane }}

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Category:American magicians

Category:Pickpocket entertainers

Category:1974 births

Category:Living people