Turns out, Ricky Jay is one of those guys who has to sit in the restaurant with his back to the wall. That’s not just because the sleight-of-hand master and historian of magic is — as interviewees in ...

Ricky Jay died on Saturday in his home in LA. New Yorker writer Mark Singer once called him “the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive.” In addition to being a magician, Jay acted in David Mamet’s ...

1. The magician Ricky Jay’s compendium of actual “unique, eccentric and amazing entertainers” offers a parade of con artists, charlatans, escapologists, daredevils, mesmerists, contortionists and ...