Ricky Jay,, Master Magician Dies at 72

Ricky Jay, the great master magician whose sleight of hand defied logic or physics, died at 72. Excerpts of a Washington Post article HERE :  While other magicians breathed fire, sawed women in half or made entire buildings disappear, Ricky Jay performed remarkable feats using little more than the pads of his fingers. These were, strictly speaking, nothing more than tricks or illusions, sleights of hand performed by a master magician.

But to those who witnessed Mr. Jay up close, turning over a row of red Bee playing cards to reveal an unexpected hand, or flinging them across the room like wild projectiles, his magic tricks were nothing less than works of art, head-scratching, wonder-inducing achievements that made him “perhaps the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive” as journalist Mark Singer wrote in a 1993 article for the New Yorker.

A heavyset figure who sported dark suits and a short gray beard, Mr. Jay followed his mentor Dai Vernon, a Canadian magician known as the Professor, in treating a deck of cards as a living being, to be carried with seriousness and handled with sensitivity.

He seemed most at home performing live, in front of small, rapturous audiences in theaters or at private parties. Once, while performing at a New Year’s Eve event in Los Angeles, Mr. Jay was asked by a guest named Mort to “do something truly amazing,” according to Singer’s profile in the New Yorker. Mr. Jay asked him to name a card, and Mort settled on the three of hearts. “After shuffling,” Singer wrote, “Jay gripped the deck in the palm of his right hand and sprung it, cascading all 52 cards so that they traveled the length of the table and pelted an open wine bottle.” After asking Mort to name his card once again, Mr. Jay instructed the guest to “look inside the bottle.” “Mort discovered, curled inside the neck, the three of hearts,” Singer continued. “The party broke up immediately.”

He also performed as an actor, appearing as a cardsharp in the first season of the HBO Western “Deadwood,” as a villain in the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” and as a cameraman in “Boogie Nights,” director Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 epic about the California porn industry. And he was featured in “Heist” (2001) and other films directed by David Mamet."

Those of you who want to see with their own eyes why Ricky Jay was such a master magician should look the video below, it's beyond amazing.




"Deceptive Practice : The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay" is an excellent documentary about Ricky Jay and i just found it on Youtube, so here it is!




Watch also this Collection of Ricky Jay on Late Night, Late Show with David Letterman 1990-2013:




Who would dare to play Poker with the best cards magician in the world? For sure not a wise decision, except if you're wishing to learn some tricks...