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Ricky Jay

Richard Jay Potash (June 26, 1946 – November 24, 2018)[1] was an American stage magician, actor and writer. In a 1993 profile for The New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight of hand artist alive".[2] In addition to sleight of hand, he was known for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He also wrote extensively on magic and its history. His acting credits included the films The Prestige, The Spanish Prisoner, Mystery Men, Heist, Boogie Nights, Tomorrow Never Dies, Heartbreakers, State and Main, House of Games and Magnolia, and the HBO series Deadwood. In 2015 he was the subject of an episode of PBS's American Masters, the only magician ever profiled in the series.[3]

Ricky Jay

Richard Jay Potash

(1946-06-26)June 26, 1946

November 24, 2018(2018-11-24) (aged 72)

  • Magician
  • actor
  • writer

Sleight of hand, card tricks, history of magic

Chrisann Verges
(m. 2002)

Early life[edit]

Jay was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn to Shirley (Katz) and Samuel Potash.[1] A member of a middle-class Jewish family, he grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey.[4][5] He rarely spoke publicly about his parents, but did share an anecdote: "My father oiled his hair with Brylcreem and brushed his teeth with Colgate," Jay recalled. "He kept his toothpaste in the medicine cabinet and the Brylcreem in a closet about a foot away. Once, when I was ten, I switched the tubes. All you need to know about my father is that after he brushed his teeth with Brylcreem he put the toothpaste in his hair."[2]


During an interview on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Jay said that possibly "the only kind memory I ever had of my parents" was when they secretly hired one of his idols, magician Al Flosso, to perform at his bar mitzvah.[6] Jay's grandfather, Max Katz, was a certified public accountant and amateur magician who introduced Jay to magic.[7][8][9]

"Sleight and Shadow", at the New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Belknap Visitor in the Humanities" lecture on the relationship between magicians and mediums, at

Princeton University

"Doing Likewise: Imitation, Emulation, and Mimesis", at the New York Institute of Humanities, hosted by .

Jonathan Miller

"Hocus Pocus in Perfection: Four Hundred Years of Conjuring and Conjuring Literature," the Harold Smith Memorial Lecture at .

Brown University

"Splendors of Decaying Celluloid", with , Rosamond Purcell and Bill Morrison at the New York Institute for the Humanities.

Errol Morris

"The Origins of the Confidence Game", at the conference of Police Against Confidence Crime.

"Chirosophi: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Conjuring Literature," at the in San Marino, California.

Henry E. Huntington Library

"Fast and Loose: The Techniques and Literature of Cheating", at the William Andrew Clark Memorial Library, .

UCLA

"The Mystery of Fasting Impostors," and "The Avant Garde Art of Armless Calligraphers", at .

Amherst College

"Sense, Perception, & Nonsense" at the Festival of the Arts.

University of Rhode Island

"Illusion as Truth", at the International Design Conference in Aspen (keynote address).

"Prose & Cons: The Early Literature of Cheating", at the (Pforzheimer Lecture Series) and the Chicago Humanities Festival.

New York Public Library

"Magic & Science", at the in Monterey, California.

TED Conference

Documentary film[edit]

Jay is the subject of the feature documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay.

Death[edit]

Jay died on November 24, 2018, at age 72. His attorney Stan Coleman confirmed his death but further details were not immediately released.[28] Later press coverage reported that Jay died of natural causes.[29]

(1987) – George / Vegas Man

House of Games

(1988) – Mr. Silver

Things Change

(1991) – Aaron

Homicide

(1992) – Cons and Frauds Consultant

Leap of Faith

(1997) – George Lang

The Spanish Prisoner

(1997) – Kurt Longjohn

Boogie Nights

(1997) – The Hat

Hacks

(1997) – Henry Gupta

Tomorrow Never Dies

(1999) – Vic Weems

Mystery Men

(1999) – Burt Ramsey / Narrator

Magnolia

(2000) – Jack

State and Main

(2001) – Dawson's Auctioneer

Heartbreakers

(2001) – Don "Pinky" Pincus

Heist

(2004) – Party Guest #5

Incident at Loch Ness

(2005) – Detective

Last Days

(2006) – Milton

The Prestige

(2008) – Gil Bellamy

The Great Buck Howard

(2008) – Marty Brown

Redbelt

(2008) – Narrator (voice)

The Brothers Bloom

Intense (2009) – John

(2015) – Uncle Josh (final film role)

The Automatic Hate

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Official website

Ricky Jay Archive at the Magic Newswire website

at IMDb

Ricky Jay

San Francisco Chronicle review of "Extraordinary Exhibitions: Broadsides From the Collection of Ricky Jay" during 2005 exhibition

"Secrets of the Magus" 1993 New Yorker profile