Konik, Michael 1965-

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Konik, Michael 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born 1965, in Fox Point, WI; son of Eugene and Renice (a teacher) Konik. Education: New York University, B.F.A. Hobbies and other interests: Auto racing, poker, travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Agent—Jennifer Joel, ICM, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, singer, comedian, and painter. Performed with punk rock band the Clitboys, as front man for Michael Konik and His Tasty Band, and with vocal jazz quintet Crescendo. Performed with Los Angeles-based improvisational comedy troupe Los Hombres. Los Angeles Public Library, volunteer literacy tutor; animal therapist, with Ella the dog, at hospitals and nursing homes. Appears on television programs.

WRITINGS:

The Man with the $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories, Huntington Press (Las Vegas, NV), 1999.

Nice Shot, Mr. Nicklaus: Stories about the Game of Golf, Huntington Press (Las Vegas, NV), 2000.

Telling Lies and Getting Paid: More Gambling Stories, Huntington Press (Las Vegas, NV), 2001.

In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship, and the Meaning of Irons, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 2004.

Ella in Europe: An American Dog's International Adventures, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2005.

The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies out of Millions; A Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of gambling column for Cigar Aficionado magazine and golf column for Sky magazine. Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Travel & Leisure, Sports Illustrated, Men's Fitness, and the New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael Konik has said that his parents—a schoolteacher mother and an autodidact father—encouraged him to become a Renaissance man. Toward that end, Konik has developed a wide range of interests, such as music, gambling, golf, and travel, and he has written about many of them, in addition to performing in a rock band as a teenager and with jazz groups and a comedy troupe as an adult. After writing extensively for periodicals, he began to publish books on golf and gambling. In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship, and the Meaning of Irons focuses on the former interest but reflects the latter as well, as it tells of Konik's real-life golfing trip to Scotland, where the sport originated, with a casino poker dealer whom he met while participating in the World Series of Poker.

Dealer Don Naifeh is a devotee of the mystical novel Golf in the Kingdom by Michael Murphy, which describes a man's life-changing encounter with a golf teacher named Shivas Irons on a haunted course known as Burningbush. Naifeh is determined to find the real-life counterpart of Burningbush, although it turns out few Scots have heard of Murphy's novel; Konik accompanies Naifeh simply out of love for the game. The two play on courses all over Scotland, with Naifeh carrying on despite severe health problems. Their strong friendship is apparent throughout the book, leading USA Today reviewer Carol Herwig to comment: "Think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with golf carts." Although Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor felt that Konik and Naifeh's story is "embellished," he did not consider that a flaw, saying: "the border between fact and fiction is amusingly vague here." He predicted that In Search of Burningbush would please many fans of Golf in the Kingdom.

Konik's next book is Ella in Europe: An American Dog's International Adventures. Konik and his Labrador-greyhound mix Ella toured Europe for six weeks, covering Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Ella was welcomed almost everywhere, including pubs, Venetian gondolas, and even upscale restaurants—a marked difference from the situation in the United States, where most places of business do not admit canines. "Ella tends to bring out the best in people," noted a Kirkus Reviews critic, who added of author Konik: "Whenever he finds himself drifting into the mawkish, the author takes a look at his dog and starts behaving himself." Library Journal reviewer Sheila Kasperek called Ella in Europe "a heartwarming story that will appeal to animal lovers and armchair travelers alike," while Booklist contributor George Cohen remarked that "for readers who aren't already dog lovers, this delightful book will make them so."

In 1997 Konik added another entry to his resume, that of front man for a group that he calls Brain Trust in his book The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies out of Millions; A Memoir. Konik uses fictional names for his real-life players, who include Big Daddy, owner of restaurants, golf hustler, and a gambler feared by the Las Vegas casinos and the bookies who take bets on sports events. Konik writes that he delivered and collected cash, and went from being a novice to a high roller for the gamblers who use computers, and experts who can predict game results based on player injuries and weather forecasts. He tells how the bookmakers are affected by the cabal and how the big bettors force them to change their point spreads in order to attract other bettors to balance the action. Konik seems to know a great deal about Big Daddy's operation, but, in fact, this memoir only scratches the surface, as Konik was never allowed access to the inner workings of the group.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Konik, Michael, Ella in Europe: An American Dog's International Adventures, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Konik, Michael, In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship, and the Meaning of Irons, McGraw Hill (New York, NY), 2004.

Konik, Michael, The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies out of Millions; A Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Biography, spring, 2007, Scott Veale, review of The Smart Money.

Booklist, April 1, 2004, Gilbert Taylor, review of In Search of Burningbush: A Story of Golf, Friendship, and the Meaning of Irons, p. 1348; December 15, 2004, George Cohen, review of Ella in Europe: An American Dog's International Adventures, p. 697; November 1, 2006, David Pitt, review of The Smart Money, p. 16.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2004, review of Ella in Europe, p. 1134.

Library Journal, December 1, 2004, Sheila Kasperek, review of Ella in Europe, p. 146.

New York Times Book Review, December 10, 2006, Scott Veale, review of The Smart Money.

USA Today, June 23, 2004, Carol Herwig, review of In Search of Burningbush, p. C8.