Ricky Jay on American Masters

[P.T.Widdle]

This is the first time a magician has been featured on this PBS series.

http://www.thirteen.org/13pressroom/pre ... -practice/

And lucky me, I will be attending the conversation and Q&A for the premiere in NYC

[Richard Kaufman]

We've been selling the documentary for half price for quite a while now.

[Ted M]

Is PBS airing the existing 1 hour 28 min Deceptive Practice documentary from 2012, or are they producing their own program with the same title?

The show's format is 90 minutes, so the existing documentary would fit snugly.

Confused...

[Richard Kaufman]

I'm sure it's the exact same doc.

[P.T.Widdle]

Last night I attended a reception and Q&A with Ricky Jay about the upcoming premiere of his film on American Masters. It was at the Paley Center for Media in NYC.

After a showing of a snippet of the film, Ricky came out and performed some Cardini-ilke card manipulations. I have to say that while the audience seemed to enjoy watching the film, there was a palpable uptick in energy when Ricky came out and began performing. It underscored for me (as has been pointed out here in the forum before), magic is best seen live.

Ricky then sat and took questions. I will offer some highlights as best as I can remember them (there was wine at the event):

In response to a question about keeping his hands limber beyond direct practicing, he informed us that recently (last week?) he injured his hand pretty seriously in a kitchen accident involving a knife. He said he just took off a "band" from his hand that evening. The kitchen accident sent him to the hospital, there was plenty of blood. While there he and his wife told the doctor to please be careful because they said Ricky was a slight-of-hand artist. The doctor didn't know what that meant. Later on another 3rd year resident was preparing for stitches and they told her the same thing. Again, the doctor didn't know what a a slight-of-hand artist was. Frustrated, Ricky's wife said, "He's like a surgeon!" I did notice a little stiffness in his hand, and Ricky apologized for not being able to shake hands that evening.

Somehow from that question Ricky also told a great story about an aptitude test he took when he was thirteen years old. One of the tasks involved placing blunt needles into small holes. Apparently , Ricky was the only one who could do it correctly. The overall results suggested he should become a surgeon.

I was lucky to be able to ask Ricky to give some thoughts about Doug Henning. He explained that Doug was not the only long-haired magician at that time, that his hair was even longer! Ricky expressed respect for him and sadness concerning his untimely death. He also talked about the last time he saw Doug.

A question was asked about women in magic, and Ricky bluntly stated that there were very few and he didn't really know why. He offered that it was perhaps a cultural thing with boys getting magic sets and girls getting other things...
Ricky did say that his talented wife (she wrote the Ellen "coming out" episode) was an excellent card manipulator but that she eventually decided she didn't want to perform magic (even just for fun) because she didn't enjoy the feeling of fooling people.

There were other questions about what he thought of current magicians ("I hate them all", then mentioning Tamirez and Levand among many others he said he respected, what he thought of exposure (it's been going on since the beginning of magic), and the internet. On that subject, he admitted that there was more magic learning material available than ever before, and that he knew excellent young magicians who learned from YouTube videos, but he thought there were no more better young magicians today than any other time.

It was nice to hear Ricky say that he loved the questions and that it restored his faith in these Q&A sessions, which he was just about to stop doing because all the questions were "sad."

He finished up with card throwing into a watermelon and left to thunderous applause.

Fun evening, all around.

PS - I managed to finally snag a card he threw (after seeing him perform five times).
PPS - Brad Henderson, sorry I didn't get to ask him what he thought about James Randi and his debunking efforts.
PPPS - David Roth and Bill kalush were also there.

[Jim Martin]

Thanks for posting the summation of the evening - it sounds like a fantastic event.
Bravo!

[Bill Mullins]

It would appear that Ricky will be on HuffPost Live later today:

link

Did anyone see him in New Haven last Tuesday?

[Brad Henderson]

I wouldn't expect ricky to care particularly one way or the other re Randi. that's the banner you have picked up - not the rest of us.

But thanks for the report.

He did a similar q and A in Austin last year. No performances. Just questions, most of which were about his film career. The event was held at an Alamo Drafthouse and Austin is a movie savy crowd. Sold out. A few local magi, mostly movie folk.

[P.T.Widdle]

Ricky was asked about movie roles that he turned down. He didn't give specifics but said 90% were for him to play a magician.

[P.T.Widdle]

As part of the publicity surrounding the American Masters premiere, the NY Post features:

Ricky Jay's magical New York

http://nypost.com/2015/01/17/ricky-jays ... -new-york/

[Richard Kaufman]

Most actors are reluctant to discuss the roles they've turned down.

[MagicManCT]

Yes Bill, I saw Ricky at Yale last week. He lectured on a favorite subject of his, the magician/artist Matthew Buchinger. Good lecture with slides and a short Q & A after.

Unfortunately no magic was discussed or performed by Ricky.

He also attended the grand opening of the Yale art departments exhibit on the sideshow.

Performing at the opening were Johnny Fox, The Great Fredini and Julie Atlas Muz with her husband Mat Fraser from the current season of American Horror Story.

[Dustin Stinett]

He's been busy, and will be busier leading up to the release of the new book on Buchinger in September (which you can pre-order):

http://www.amazon.com/The-Greatest-Germ ... 1593720599

[erdnasephile]

Thanks for the report, PT--enjoyed it!

...The kitchen accident sent him to the hospital, there was plenty of blood. While there he and his wife told the doctor to please be careful because they said Ricky was a slight-of-hand artist. The doctor didn't know what that meant. Later on another 3rd year resident was preparing for stitches and they told her the same thing....

I wish Mr. Jay had come to my hospital. Once he had told me he was a sleight of hand artist I would have said: "Really? Me too!"

Then I would have started dealing out 3 rows of cards...

[Brad Henderson]

so much for 'do no harm'.

[Leonard Hevia]

I wish Mr. Jay had come to my hospital. Once he had told me he was a sleight of hand artist I would have said: "Really? Me too!"

Then I would have started dealing out 3 rows of cards...

Or you could have performed Meir Yedid'd "Finger Fantasies."

http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/20

[Brad Jeffers]

Is PBS airing the existing 1 hour 28 min Deceptive Practice documentary from 2012, or are they producing their own program with the same title?
The show's format is 90 minutes, so the existing documentary would fit snugly.
Confused...

I set my dvr to record this. It looks like the PBS program is going to be 57 minutes, so they will be deleting 30% of the original documentary

It will be interesting to see what they choose to leave out.

[Bill Mullins]

Ricky Jay did a short promotional interview in Vanity Fair.

PBS has posted the as-broadcast version online.

And a web extra is here: a conversation between Jay and cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

[Bill Mullins]

A cartoon about RJ.

Backstory.