Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners, and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas

308 Pages·2011·8.451 MB·English

by  Rick Lax

SAN FRANCISCO LIBRARY
HUSTLERS, HOOKERS,
HEADLINERS, AND
HOW TO GET
SCREWED IN VEGAS

Advance Praise for Fool Me Once
“Rick Lax embedded himself with Vegas’s most noto¬
rious magicians, call girls, and wheeler-dealers and
emerged with a funny and fascinating cautionary tale
for the rest of us. Anyone who’s ever been scammed,
bluffed, or lied to should read Fool Me Once.”
—Kevin Roose, author of The Unlikely Disciple:
A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University
“In a city where nothing is quite what it seems, Rick Lax
introduces us to the showgirls, prostitutes, casino card
counters, magicians, pickup artists, and street hustlers
who work their short cons under the bright lights of
the Las Vegas Strip. Fool Me Once is an illuminating read
and terrific fun.” —David Grazian, author of
On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife
“Plenty of cons and cheap hustles in this lively memoir
of time spent on the seamier edge of Casinoland . . .
An entertaining field guide to vice, but also one with
a point—if you’re headed anywhere near the Strip,
watch your wallet.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Rick Lax has written a wry, laugh-out-loud love letter
to the world of deception.”
—-Jim Steinmeyer, author of Art & Artifice:
And Other Essays on Illusion
Praise for Lawyer Boy
“A hilarious memoir.” —Las Vegas Review-Journal
“First-time author Lax delivers an entertaining and
sometimes zany look at the first year of law school. . . .
Lax’s discoveries of what he didn’t expect offer fasci¬
nating up-to-date insights.” —Publishers Weekly
“I’ll be buying his books for a long time to come.”
-—-A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All and
The Year of Living Biblically
“A very entertaining work by a clever, hopeful, and
unavoidably unscrupulous guy. My kinda book.”
—Harry Anderson, star of
Night Court and Dave’s World
“Rick Lax writes with a sharp wit and a fine sense of
the absurd. Lawyer Boy might not help anyone succeed
in law school, but it will certainly make the experi¬
ence more enjoyable.”
—Steven Lubet, author of Lawyers’ Poker
FOOL
ME
ONCE
ALSO BY RICK LAX
Lawyer Boy
FOOL
ME
ONCE HUSTLERS,
HOOKERS,
HEADLINERS,
AND HOW
NOT TO GET
SCREWED
Rick Lax
IN VEGAS
&
ST. martin's griffin
NEW YORK
While the events described in this book are essentially true, I changed the
names and identifying characteristics of certain individuals. In other cases, I
used character composites. I also reconstructed dialogue and altered details of
certain events, including their timing and location.
fool me once. Copyright © 2010 by Rick Lax. All rights reserved. Printed
in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Book design by Jonathan Bennett
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lax, Rick.
Fool me once : hustlers, hookers, headliners, and how not to get screwed
in Vegas / Rick Lax.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-54570-3
1. Lax, Rick.—Anecdotes. 2. Las Vegas (Nev.)—Biography. 3. Las
Vegas (Nev.)—Anecdotes. 4. Gambling—Nevada—Las Vegas—Anecdotes.
5. Casinos—Nevada—Las Vegas—Anecdotes. 6. Deception—Nevada—
Las Vegas—Anecdotes. 7. Hoaxes—Nevada—Las Vegas—Anecdotes.
8. Swindlers and swindling—Nevada—Las Vegas—Anecdotes. I. Title.
F849.L35L395 2011
979-3'I35—dc22
2010037869
First Edition: January 2011
10987654321
3 1223 09435 5790
r
Contents
1. An Earful of Cider.1
2. How I'd Gone from Studying for the Illinois Bar
Exam to Cavorting with Las Vegas Prostitutes
and Con Men in Such a Short Period of Time.15
3. Ridiculousness Is in the Eye of the Beholder.49
4. Rick Lax's 100 Percent Foolproof System for
Sneaking into Nightclubs Without Paying
Cover, Picking Up Beautiful Women in Under
Forty-five Minutes, and Writing Overblown
Chapter Titles.67
5. You Gotta Be Honestly Sincere.105
6. Control and the Illusion of It.131
7. The Hard Way to Make an Easy Twenty-three
Hundred Dollars.149
8. Something You Can Do with a Hundred Dollars . . .171
9. Heroic Police Officer Prevents Disguised Idiot
from Carrying Out Massive Terrorist Attack .... 1 97
vii
10. Something George Clooney
Might Do in a Clark Gable Biopic.231
1 1. The Rest of the Truth.259
Epilogue: One Last Mindfreak.279
CONTACTING THE AUTHOR.285
AUTHOR'S NOTE.287
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PLUGS.291
*.
viii
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