My Soft Spot for Magic

I'm a big Ricky Jay fan. If you don't know him, I won't hate you for it, but you're shamed because by now you should. He's been in a slew of good movies playing minor roles but always delivering the goods. Things is, he's actually an amazingly accomplished card magician and raconteur. Yeah, I just used another word that will make Kelly rolls his eyes and call me a loser.

Jay is just a cool cat. A guy who has a great delivery style and never does overly complex tricks. He just does them with a sense of style and wit that makes everyone look like hacks. This is the kind of magic I love, not that Copperfield bullshit or that Blaine moron starving himself in a glass box for 90 days or whatever other ignorant crap he thinks up.

Here is a smattering of Jay's fine work. Many of these are from his "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants" performance and if you can find the full show I highly recommend it.

Again, it's a simple trick that hundreds of other magicians have done, but it's his storytelling that makes it enjoyable.



This is a simple 4 Queens, 3 Ways trick, but it's well-delivered and even after watching it about 60 times I still can't figure it out.



And last but not least, the damn coolest thing. It's probably really easy to do, but damn if it doesn't impress me. And he never says a word.