Author of Bringing Down the House Offers Tips
 | | Author Ben Mezrich at a recent book signing |
Ben Mezrich, who tracked a group of MIT math whizzes around the blackjack tables of Las Vegas and turned his observations into a best-selling book, gave Nobles students a look into two worlds not always open to them, at least not at the same time: the craft of professional writing and high-stakes gambling.
The book, Bringing Down the House, offers an insider's view into the successes of six MIT math geniuses who take the nation's most sophisticated gambling casinos for $3 million. Ultimately, the Vegas houses were so frustrated that they scanned a succession of MIT yearbooks so that, when any potential MIT hotshots arrived on the premises, they could be escorted away.
"There's nothing immoral about using your brain to beat the casino," Mezrich said, presenting vivid detail as to how the operation worked. A group of average-looking MIT students would be designated the spotters, who would play very low-stakes games and look as non-descript as possible, using math and acting skills simultaneously. Their task would be to signal the high-rollers--by wiping their heads or crossing their arms and the like-- when the deck (usually three decks) of cards was ripe for the picking. This meant that a sufficient number of high cards had been depleted. For their efforts, these MIT students earned $15 thousand to $20 thousand per weekend.
Then the real player would enter. This was a wealthy-looking young man or woman, usually Asian or L.A.-Caucasian-looking, who seemed to have more money than he knew how to use and, oftentimes, more liquor than he could properly consume. Sometimes his or her looks would be enhanced by makeup artists. "The main thing was to look confident, as though you just flew in from L.A. with lots of money," Mezrich noted.
As fascinating as Mezrich's Vegas experiences were, his thoughts on writing were even more engaging. He actually finished his first book at the age of 12. When he graduated from Harvard (magna cum laude), Mezrich wanted to become a full-time writer but his dad insisted he apply to law school. "I kept deferring and fortunately I sold my first book just in time" to give up the law school idea, he said. "Writing is what I do; it's all I do; it's what I have to do [to be happy]," he noted.
After he'd tried a few non-fiction works, an editor at Random House suggested he write some thrillers and read Michael Chrichton for background. Mezrich's next six books were all fiction...until Bringing Down the House. His next book, Ugly Americans, also continued the trend of taking a true life subject and writing his life large. "I keep my eye open for the good story. I like stories on the edge," he said, adding that since he sits in his study a lot writing chapters for his books, "I like something interesting when I leave the room."
"Writing is painful," he continued. "It's like a stomach virus, painful to get out but you feel much better after." He once wrote for 40 hours straight. His bottom line is 10 pages a day, whether this takes him five hours or 20.
Asked his favorite writers, he advanced James Elroy, author of L.A. Confidential "who is able to keep 20 characters going at the same time," Hunter S. Thompson, the creator of "gonzo journalism," and Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code.
Date: 10/6/2004
By: Joyce Leffler Eldridge
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