Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay
Richard Jay Potash, known professionally as Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. In a profile for the New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive". In addition to sleight of hand, Jay is known for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He has also written extensively on magic and its history. He has acted in the films The Prestige, The Spanish Prisoner, Heist, Boogie Nights,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth1 January 1948
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
Ricky Jay quotes about
I was considered a comedy magician. And - how do I put this without sounding egotistical? - it didn't take me long to realize that comedy magicians usually couldn't do comedy or magic.
Magicians from the nineteenth century threw cards distances, but I think I'm the first one who made a thing about using them as weapons.
To obfuscate the reconstruction of the effect - when a magician is fooled by another magician doing magic. In my career that's not been the major passion, but it's been the passion of a number of my mentors. The crowning achievement for them would be to create magic good enough to fool other magicians.
Dai Vernon, the greatest sleight of hand figure in the history of the art, rarely performed. But he invented magic and had an enormous influence on the whole range of sleight of hand. And so often, the magic he was doing was to fool other magicians.
I love amazing people. I love dazzling them. That's why I think performing magic is one of the greatest things a person can do.
I grew up like Athena—covered with playing cards instead of armor—and, at the age of seven, materialized on a TV show, doing magic.
Not only do I lie, I take real pleasure in lying, in the transmission of magic effects.
For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.
The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.
I've been really lucky in terms of film projects with people, terrific actors and also writers and directors that I really respect.
I wasn't obsessed by magic. People say, 'How you can you claim you practiced eight hours a day and weren't obsessed?' Well, people go to a job they don't even like for eight hours a day; it's not obsessive if it's something you like.
I don't know what first got me to attack melons. It's not like I ate a bad one and got an upset stomach. It just eventually seemed like the appropriate fruit.
I do think deception... There's something kind of odd about tricking people for a living, but ultimately, it's a remarkably honest profession, when you think about it. If you violate that code, and you say you're not using camera tricks, and then you do, I actually think that's a kind of serious moral issue.
I'm much more interested in lesser-known eccentrics and characters and performers. Like Matthew Buchinger, who was born in Germany in 1674, had no arms or legs and yet did magic, and had 14 kids, and made the most extraordinary calligraphy.