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Ricky Jay
Jay at the premiere of Redbelt, April 2008
Born	1948 (1948) Brooklyn, NY
Other names	Richard Jay Potash
Occupation	Magician, actor, author
Known for	Sleight of Hand, Card Tricks, History of Magic

Richard Jay Potash (born 1948), better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.^[1]

Life and career

Jay was born in Brooklyn, New York to a middle class Jewish family.^[2] His grandfather, Max Katz, was a well-to-do certified public accountant and amateur magician who introduced Jay to the profession.^[3][4][5]

At least three of his one man shows, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, On the Stem, and A Rogue's Gallery were directed by David Mamet, who has also cast Jay in a number of his films. Jay has appeared in productions by other directors, notably Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and Magnolia, as well as The Prestige and season one of HBO's Deadwood as card sharp Eddie Sawyer. He also wrote the season 1 episode, "Jewel's Boot Is Made for Walking." He also played a henchman to villain Elliot Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.

Until recently, Jay was listed in the Guinness Book of Records for throwing a playing card 190 ft at 90 miles per hour (the current record is 216 ft, by Rick Smith, Jr.). Ricky Jay can throw a playing card into a watermelon rind (which he refers to as the "thick, pachydermatous outer melon layer" of "the most prodigious of household fruits") from ten paces.

Consultant

Jay created a consulting firm, Deceptive Practices, which provides "arcane knowledge on a need-to-know basis." His firm's clients are often within the stage, television, and film industries. He has worked with libraries and museums on their collections, including the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts and the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA.

Filmography

Televised performances

• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (October 26, 1970)
• Saturday Night Live (1977)
• Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women - 1 hour special for American TV (1989)
• Simon Drake's Secret Cabaret (UK)
• Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants - 1 hour version of his Off-Broadway show, taped for HBO (1996)
• X Files - "The Amazing Maleeni" (2000)
• Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters and Ricky Jay (1996)
• MythBusters - Episode 20, "Exploding Jawbreaker, Static Cannon, Deadly Playing Cards." Ricky demonstrated card throwing, and the speed of his throws was clocked. (2003)
• Deadwood - Eddie Sawyer (2004), Season 1
• Tales From The Crypt (Unknown)
• The Unit (2007)
• Kidnapped (2007)
• Lie to Me (2009)
• FlashForward - Flosso (2009)

Feature films

• House of Games (1987)
• Things Change (1988)
• Homicide (1991)
• The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky (1995) (TV)
• The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
• Boogie Nights (1997)
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Mystery Men (1999)
• State and Main (2000)
• Heist (2001)
• Heartbreakers (2001)
• Incident at Loch Ness (2004)
• Last Days (2005)
• The Prestige (2006)
• Redbelt (2008)
• The Great Buck Howard (2008)
• The Brothers Bloom (2009)

Books

When not performing, Ricky Jay collects rare books and artifacts. He is the author of several books:

• Extraordinary Exhibitions: The Wonderful Remains of an Enormous Head, The Whimsiphusicon & Death to the Savage Unitarians - a collection of 17th, 18th, and 19th-century broadsides^[6]
• Jay's Journal of Anomalies
• Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck
• Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women
• Cards As Weapons
• Ricky Jay Plays Poker

References

External links

• Official website
• Ricky Jay Archive at the Magic Newswire website
• Ricky Jay at the Internet Movie Database
• San Francisco Chronicle review of "Extraordinary Exhibitions: Broadsides From the Collection of Ricky Jay" during 2005 exhibition
• "Secrets of Magus" 1993 New Yorker profile