Ricky Jay’s Magical Secrets (1993) | Hacker News Reader

Ricky Jay’s Magical Secrets (1993)

newyorker.com

135 pointsfmihaila20 comments

This beautifully written New Yorker profile is what first got me hooked on Ricky Jay. It was clipped for me by a kind coworker at Harvard’s Cabot Science Library, who thought I’d like it. She was right. I bought and devoured Ricky’s book Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, and later delighted in his brilliant show (recorded as an HBO special) Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants.

A few years after the profile was published, I got curious about Ricky’s website, rickyjay.com. I discovered that not only was there nothing on the site, but the domain itself was unregistered. Concerned that some squatter might snap it up, I registered it myself.

Over the next few years, I made several attempts to track down Ricky so that I could give him the domain, to no avail. Then I had a stroke of luck: while attending a performance of Michael Moschen (whose remarkable “juggling” skills were featured in the movie Labyrinth) at UC Irvine, I happened to recognize Ricky standing in the lobby during intermission. I introduced myself and got the ball rolling on the domain transfer, which later resulted in the site you can still see today.

A few years later, Ricky himself was performing at UCI, and my father and I had the good fortune of joining him onstage for a demonstration of card control and three-card Monte. After the show, Ricky was kind enough to sign my copy of Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, as well as give me the card he’d cut neatly in half with a pair of giant scissors.

A few years after that, I learned that a young woman I was acquainted with knew Ricky well. When I told her the story of rickyjay.com, she insisted on setting up a dinner with Ricky and his wife Chrisann. Ricky recognized me from the Michael Moschen performance, and we ended up having a lovely time talking about magic, history, and various other subjects.

The last time I saw Ricky, I distinctly recall thinking that he didn’t look particularly healthy, so when I saw his name trending on Twitter I feared the worst. Alas, it was the worst. And yet, what a joy Ricky Jay was to all who knew him and his work. RIP to one of the all-time greats.

Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants is truly amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtgUSUHnzLI

Thanks for sharing this story. And for your rails tutorial book. Thats awesome that you gave him the domain name.

What a great story - probably the only time I've heard of domain "squatting" (I hesitate to use that word since it has a negative connotation, but) used for good!

nyt.com counts, in my opinion. Here's an entertaining history: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/insider/putting-the-times...

Dang, I didn't know he passed. I've long been enthralled by him. I loved that New Yorker article. There are very few unique human beings, but I feel he was definitely one of the most unique. You shall be missed, Mr Jay.

If you haven't seen it, the Ricky Jay documentary [1] is very interesting. Much of what he did was simply pure hard work. Being able to feel an exact count of cards as he split a deck at any point and the ability to count in his head, while simultaneously speaking makes much of what he does seem like magic, but is simply him knowing where all the cards are at all times. Which seems impossible (i.e. magic), but is simply very, very, very hard.

1. http://www.rickyjaymovie.com/

What he did was very, very hard. And he did it very, very well. However, just because a magician says he's dealing from the middle of the deck, or that he knows how many cards he's picked up by feel alone doesn't necessarily mean he's telling the truth. Nevertheless, he was one of the best card handlers around at the time of his death, second only perhaps to Richard Turner

Interesting side note: his friend Persi Diaconis (mentioned in the article) is the author of many interesting probability papers, including the proof that "7 riffle shuffles is enough" (https://statweb.stanford.edu/~cgates/PERSI/papers/aldous86.p...)

His death is a true loss to Magic. He was nothing short of an artist in every sense of the word.

His live show was among the best things I've seen.

oh that news didn't hit my radar.. a great person indeed.

Some previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8568467

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5568374

Here's someone who knew him very well's personal tribute:

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-loving-tribute-to-ri...

I didn't know who Ricky Jay was but ages ago i ran across this youtube video and was just floored, the whole thing just builds and builds and builds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWvRorX0KhQ&t=

Yeah, the audio on this one is mesmerizing.

Ricky was in HBO's Deadwood and was fantastic. This guy was just such a good actor in each of the movies he was in. Then I found out a while back that he was actually an incredible magician also. He's so much fun to watch... definitely a big loss for humanity.

A massively inspirational talent. Makes me want to be the best in the world at something.

There have been a lot of great Ricky Jay videos being shared around after his death but I feel like this is the one where you really get to see him start to explain a tiny bit of what he can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTgwAqcKm_s

It's a very modern format where he's demonstrating to professional poker players how easily they're going to get hustled. It's my favorite video of his.

His books are a hoot too, definitely check them out if you like weird culture.

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