Comments on: The coolest man alive.

The coolest man alive.

Bookhouse — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:52:36 -0800

Ricky Jay wants to play cards. Place your bets.

He can do all sorts of crazy shit with cards. To learn more about this magician, historian of the con, member of David Mamet's troupe, author and dice collector, be sure to read this wonderful New Yorker article. (previously)

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:53:46 -0800

I have never broken out in applause over a YouTube clip until tonight.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:16:29 -0800

You know who else did all sorts of crazy shit with cards?

By: ikareru

ikareru — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:18:30 -0800

The man is a master of his art. Inspiring.

By: Poolio

Poolio — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:20:32 -0800

Excellent post, Bookhouse.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:35:12 -0800

One more: the Charlie Rose interview (starts twenty-five minutes in). Jay also recently recorded a commentary track with David Mamet for the Criterion Collection edition of House of Games which I recommend.

By: Clave

Clave — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:37:46 -0800

Jay's been the shit for 20 years.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:41:25 -0800

Surprising how little we see of the "mountebank" tag given the state of contemporary politics. Great stuff, Bookhouse.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:20:53 -0800

That was actually pretty awesome. I watched every one. Thanks, Bookhouse. The guy's a master showman.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:37:43 -0800

And, I just learned the word "orotund" from that article.

By: splice

splice — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:46:43 -0800

Ricky Jay is good indeed, but I'll lay my bet on Steve Forte at the card table.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:15:07 -0800

splice - I would take that bet. You wouldn't see it, but I would take it.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:30:20 -0800

I'm gonna savour these. I just love a great card magician. He was great in Deadwood and IMDB tells me he was the narrator in Magnolia, which I didn't know.

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:39:56 -0800

He also did a great episode of "X-Files" (and I'm not particularly a fan of the show). It's very difficult to do a "mystery" involving stage magic -- but they really pulled it off quite well.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 05:35:09 -0800

Watch him sling cards (at an amazing speed) on Mythbusters!

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:10:09 -0800

"I'll give you advice. Fuck as many different women as you can. Not the same one. Not the same one. Fuck many different women. Many different women." Required reading.

By: foobario

foobario — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:10:45 -0800

The sad thing is that Ricky Jay is the last of a breed... who will replace his encyclopedic knowledge and skill-base when he is gone? The guy is a friggin genius, and a perplexing joy to watch.

By: SPUTNIK

SPUTNIK — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:16:32 -0800

Plus he was the best thing in Mystery Men. (ok, ONE of the best things)

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:25:02 -0800

Goddammit, I just realized you linked that in the post. Apologies.

By: Benny Andajetz

Benny Andajetz — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:33:13 -0800

Steve Forte is a great card mechanic (one of the best), but Ricky Jay is a master showman. I have been an amateur magician for over thirty years, and Ricky Jay has always been one of my favorites. Besides being very capable technically, his presentation is second to none. What I really enjoy about Ricky Jay, though, is that he is a serious student of his craft. His knowledge of, and love for, the histories and stories of magicians and con men and freaks makes him much more compelling than most magicians.

By: dmd

dmd — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:47:32 -0800

My dad has an autographed copy of Cards as Weapons. Great book. Anyone who wants the PDF version, feel free to contact me.

By: YoungAmerican

YoungAmerican — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:58:44 -0800

I got to interview him once, and it was the greatest thing EVER. [url=http://media.libsyn.com/media/tsoya/tsoya082005.mp3]This is a direct link to the MP3 of the show.[/url] If you haven't read his books, get on it.

By: YoungAmerican

YoungAmerican — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:11:24 -0800

Oops, I meant this is a direct link to the mp3.

By: blueshammer

blueshammer — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:00:34 -0800

So if I'm willing to accept that Ricky Jay has a phenomenal memory, and can memorize a whole deck of cards with little difficulty (he mentions in one of the videos that they had played rummy with the same deck previously, and used that as this opportunity -- discards and whatnot -- to learn the deck's configuration), and that likewise he is able to do such mechanic stuff as being able to cut an exact number of cards and to shuffle precisely -- left deck, right deck, left, right, left, right -- such that he can, with his nimble mind, keep track of the new configuration ... if I can accept that he has those skills of memory and dexterity, does that basically explain all of these tricks? Or is presuming that the ultimate triumph of his sleight of hand?

By: jonson

jonson — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:05:37 -0800

Any Los Angeles Mefites reading this thread are required to go to this exhibit, which I saw last week in Westwood. Fucking incredible. Jay is quite possibly the world's most interesting person.

By: gargoyle93

gargoyle93 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:27:46 -0800

When it came time for Encyclopedia Britannica to update its online entry for conjuring, guess who the editors asked to write it?

By: gwint

gwint — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:48:19 -0800

blueshammer: It explains part of it I imagine, but several of videos involve turning cards into other cards (Three Card Monte, Four Queens, etc.) which is a whole other bag of tricks.

By: Skot

Skot — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:10:36 -0800

A couple years ago, I was in NYC, and my wife and I got tickets to "On the Stem." About 20 minutes in, Ricky asked for a volunteer from the audience, and I practically rocketed out of my seat. I was the only person who raised his hand. I don't understand people. He called me onstage. I got to do card tricks with Ricky Jay!--or, rather, I stood there while Ricky Jay made fun of me and did card tricks. He's fucking incredible. I also participated in one non-card trick; one of those things where he figures out what items you've put in your pockets and in what order. I don't know whether he was having an off night or was relying on my tacit collaboration, but it was obvious that the whole trick relied on a thread tied to one particular item; I felt it when the thread snapped. I of course did not give him away. He could have thrown a playing card into my skull, after all.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:50:04 -0800

"Cards as Weapons" is like $300 now. Good luck finding it. I also saw "On the Stem" and to me the most impressive feat was The Knight's Tour, where he moves a knight around a chessboard, touching every square only once (by calling out the moves) while simultaneously calculating the cube root of any integer (drawn from a stack of flash cards by a volunteer) and while reciting from memory all the soliloquies from any Shakespeare play chosen by the audience and while singing a "field holler" style song. Worth the price of admission right there. The "How to Cheat an Honest Man" link is from the great box set "Ricky Jay Plays Poker."

By: Relay

Relay — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:30:31 -0800

Ah, Ricky Jay. When it comes to that close up, table magic kind of stuff, he is most impressive.

By: Relay

Relay — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:32:39 -0800

Oh, and speaking of Jay's books, you should check out Jay's Journal of Anomalies. Hilarious.

By: billysumday

billysumday — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:08:21 -0800

I can't get the radio archives to play (from Ricky Jay's website). Anybody else having any luck?

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:17:44 -0800

These links were great. It was strange seeing the guy smile, though...I was only familiar with his film work, where he almost always plays long-faced sad sacks (excellently, I might add).

By: sappidus

sappidus — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:09:04 -0800

blueshammer: I'm going to call that the ultimate triumph of sleight of hand. :-) While Ricky Jay is undoubtedly a master manipulator of cards, it is also true that, in the general sense, "explaining" his tricks doesn't require resorting to super-human memory, perfect shuffling, etc. The real mechanics behind the effects involve concepts that I daresay most people wouldn't believe possible if you told them outright (i.e., to laymen, it would seem easier to believe someone could interlace the cards perfectly in a riffle shuffle rather than do what Ricky Jay *actually* does, which sounds much harder but isn't). Of course, Ricky Jay's greatest asset as a performer is not how he manipulates the cards but how he manipulates the audience. He is one of my favorite magicians for this reason.

By: blueshammer

blueshammer — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:25:53 -0800

sappidus: I'm familiar with the phenomenon you're talking about -- I had a card trick that I was great at because I sold it on the strength of psychological mumbo-jumbo like tells and involuntary responses. And so you sell sleight of hand by making it look like you're doing something else entirely ... I get that. So is that the story of the video "Ricky Jay finds a card," linked above as "cards?" Would you suspect that he is employing something other than card counting to arrive at his solution? Also, when you say that what performers like Jay do sounds harder than supermemory, etc., but really isn't, what are you referring to? Stuff like forcing cards, or devising trick decks, etc.? Or something else entirely?

By: sappidus

sappidus — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:20:16 -0800

blueshammer: I am but an amateur magician, and there are some effects for which I can guess at the method better than others. Also, Ricky Jay is not the sort of artist who's gone around and told everyone in the magic world how he performs his effects, so I really am guessing. Nevertheless, as far as "Ricky Jay finds a card" is concerned, I will say this... He is not "perfectly controlling" the order of the deck through the multiple cuts and shuffles; instead, by his own tacit admission, he is finding a particular card. As to how he gets a handle on it, well, perhaps I should shut up now lest the magicians' fraternity shut me up instead.

By: ODiV

ODiV — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:55:57 -0800

I'm off to watch the Mamet films I have access to and lament about those that I do not yet have. This thread needs amazon links. This is definitely a situation in which I would appreciate text ads for relevant products.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:30:03 -0800

I was told that I just missed seeing him at the Magic Castle once. I was bummed. Here's his website if you're interested, someone I know designed it & it's pretty cool. And if you've never been to the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, you definitely should check that place out. It rocks.

By: _aa_

_aa_ — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:01:16 -0800

Dr. Steve Brule says, "I love cool cards! For your health?!"