Great profile of magician Ricky Jay in New Yorker
Benjamin Schoenberg
this is a little off track, but there is a fascinating article on master
closeup magician Ricky Jay in the latest (April 5th) issue of the New Yorker.
The only direct mention of juggling is in the description of his collection
of memorabilia, which includes old posters of Rastelli and Cinquevalli.
However, it is a valuable look at an accomplished variety entertainer (with
a very enigmatic personal side), as well as a glimpse into the social side
and philosophy of magic and magicians. There are also neat parallels to be
drawn between Jay and Michael Moschen! From the article (by Mark Singer):
"Just as resolutely as he avoids children, Jay declines opportunities to
perform for other magicians. This habit has earned him a reputation for
aloofness, to which he pleads guilty-with-an-explanation. According to
Michael Weber, he has a particular aversion to the 'magic lumpen' -- hoi
polloi who congregate in magic clubs and at conventions, where they unabashedly
seek to expropriate each other's secrets, meanwhile failing to grasp the
critical distinction between doing tricks and creating a sense of wonder.
One guy in a tuxedo producing doves can be magic, ten guys producing doves
is a travesty."
Weber, a magician friend of Jay's goes on to say, "They don't get it. They
won't watch him and be inspired to make magic of their own. They'll be
inspired to do that trick that belongs to Ricky. Magic is not about someone
else sharing the newest secret. Magic is about working hard to discover a
secret and making something out of it. You start with some small principle
and you build a theatrical presentation out of it. You do something that's
technically artistic that creates a small drama."
Another quote from the article: "T.A. Waters, a mentalist and writer, who
is the librarian at the Magic Castle, told me, 'Some magicians, once they
learn how to do a trick without dropping the prop on their foot, go ahead
and perform it in public. Ricky will work on a routine a couple of years
before even showing anyone.'"
Anyway, it's strongly recommended!
-Ben
(movie list still on the way...)
(thomasl)
>Hi all,
>this is a little off track, but there is a fascinating article on master
>closeup magician Ricky Jay in the latest (April 5th) issue of the New Yorker.
seems like the magicians are creeping onto the list...
soon we will be making cryptical references to tricks, without
telling anyone how to do them.
okokok, nope i agree, all object manipulation is welcome
makes for a nice change.
let's talk about magicians, baton twirlers, rope tricks, balloon
twisting, unicycling, pipe fitting, auto-body finishing and c++ programming.
i'm actually pleased to see mention of ricky jay, because i like him,
and i agree that many readers of this group will find him interesting.
i've a book of his, called cards as weapons, which SAN-D gave me.
it's great, all about card throwing with deadly accuracy, if not
killer force. throwing boomerang cards, distance throwing, two at
once, that kind of thing.
note that card throwing CAN be dangerous --
cards were being thrown a couple of years back. we were at the public show,
sitting in the good seats at the st. louis ija convention, which is to
say, in the balcony. we were waving and thumbing our noses at life-
member fritz, who was stuck in a "privilaged seat", which was a
folding chair set up on the floor. while relishing our unimpeded
view of the stage, and of the props floating above the backdrop,
thrown by the jugglers warming up backstage, one of our party got
hit in the eye by a card thrown from down on the floor. revenge of
the life members? naw, they are too distinguished. i think it was a junior.
sorry. i digress. back to the card-throwing book:
there's a lot of humor, illustrations, and some facts about
famous performance feats of old vaudevillians. funny book -- oddly
enough, there are pictures of semi-nude women throughout it. one is
wearing nothing but a basset-hound.
anyway, ricky jay is interested in all manner of things. a previous book
of his is about famous hoaxes. there's an article by him in the
most recent issue of games magazine, which, if you like ricky
jay, you might want to check out. it's about idiot savants, and
strangly skilled people: a woman who can write different languages
with each foot and hand, human calculators, site-swap gurus, that kind
of thing. i heard he had a paragraph on boppo and ed carstens, but
that it was cut because of space limitations (weird fact: did you
know that boppo cannot watch someone juggling without counting their
throws? it's true!)
this issue of games also has a really good 3d stare-o-gram by the
n.e.thing company. they have been putting their ads in all kinds of magazines
lately, including omni, and the american airlines inflight mag.
i have two of their posters, which are beautiful, and the 1993
calender, which also has some good 3d images. the worlds hardest maze
is pretty cool. i've got it hanging over the table, and it took me a
couple of english muffin pizzas to solve it.
Edward Carstens
> seems like the magicians are creeping onto the list...
> soon we will be making cryptical references to tricks, without
> telling anyone how to do them.
how about the disappearing ball trick --a favorite trick of the late great
Markus Marconi (sp?) --after reading about it in 'beyond the cascade' i think
i'm starting to get it.
> of thing. i heard he had a paragraph on boppo and ed carstens, but
> that it was cut because of space limitations (weird fact: did you
> know that boppo cannot watch someone juggling without counting their
> throws? it's true!)
yeah, if you ever pass with boppo you can really irritate him by throwing him a
high quad and speeding up your pattern so he loses count. ;-)
> this issue of games also has a really good 3d stare-o-gram by the
> n.e.thing company. they have been putting their ads in all kinds of
magazines
> lately, including omni, and the american airlines inflight mag.
> i have two of their posters, which are beautiful, and the 1993
> calender, which also has some good 3d images. the worlds hardest maze
> is pretty cool. i've got it hanging over the table, and it took me a
> couple of english muffin pizzas to solve it.
i may have seen two of these at art lum's house yesterday.. they look like a
bunch of colored dots until you defocus your eyes and look thru to see the 3-d
images. way cool!
-Ed Carstens
Creator of JugglePro