Master Of Deception J. Ivan Palmer

The Master of Deception is a compelling memoir of a magician, told through the eyes of his son, John-Ivan Palmer. Set against the vanishing world of 1950s stage shows and trailer park life, it is a deeply atmospheric tale of family, guilt, secrecy, and discovery.

In the tradition of Geoffrey Wolf’s The Duke of Deception and Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, Palmer takes readers on the road with his magician father and glamorous assistant mother. Together, they traverse a fading America, performing at Elks Lodges, county fairs, and smoky lounges, sharing the stage with contortionists, ventriloquists, and eccentric variety acts from a time before television changed everything.

From the shadows of dressing rooms across the country, young Palmer learned to be invisible—befriending janitors and night watchmen, absorbing the world behind the curtain while his parents took the stage. But even at “home” in their trailer, his father remained distant and unknowable.

"Growing up confined to the back seat had allowed me to study every wave of my father's hair, the arch of his ears, the stubble on his jaw, but nothing of what was beneath..." Palmer writes, revealing how his father's silence shaped his own—and how that silence held a deeper truth.

The Master of Deception is more than a memoir of a magician—it’s a powerful meditation on identity, memory, and the elusive search for meaning within the performance of life itself. As Palmer traces his father's legacy through decades of mystery and misdirection, he finds answers he never expected—and a story readers will never forget.