New Book Alert: Hustlers, Hookers, and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas

Oxana

Since moving to Vegas, Rick Lax?has stolen a urine mat from the Wynn hotel, reuniting feuding prop comics Carrot Top and Gallagher, given the halftime pep talk in the Washington Generals locker room, and successfully passed himself off as an 80-year-old. Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners, and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas is his second book. His first is Lawyer Boy: A Case Study on Growing Up. Both kick ass.

Today we had a chance to ask Rick a few questions.

What made you decide to write a book on Las Vegas?s hustlers and tricksters?

I?ve been performing magic my whole life, so I?ve always been interested in tricks. But when my ex-girlfriend got conned by a violent drug dealer, it took my interest in deception and lies to a whole new level. I moved to Vegas to learn more about deception, so I could make sure that nothing like that ever happened to anybody I care about again.

Once you got to Vegas, what kind of deceivers did you meet?

I hung out with magicians, a hypnomagician, a pickup artist, a morbidly obese male Cher impersonator, a professional poker player, a nightclub bartender, a call girl, a showgirl, and a stripper.

Rick in an old man costume

Tell us more about the stripper …

She makes a ton of money by NOT taking her clothes off. The way she sees it, men give her money to see her naked. And as soon as she gets fully naked, they?ve gotten what they way, so they stop giving her money. So she rarely gets fully naked, and usually walks away with a
lot more cash than the girls who do.

Did you get in on the deception yourself?

I did. The craziest thing I did was probably dressing up, in an extremely realistic SPFX silicone disguise, as an 80-year-old. I fooled my neighbors. I fooled my magician friends. And I gotta tell you, it felt good. Tricking someone like that is a real rush.

What can a reader expect in the book?

Reading this book won?t turn you into a human lie detector, but I?ll point you in the right direction. You?ll walk away from the book with a healthy dose of skepticism about Las Vegas, and maybe even your own life.

Check out?http://ricklax.com/