Quotes by Ricky Jay

About Ricky Jay:

Richard Jay Potash is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. In a profile for the New Yorker, Mark Singer called Jay "perhaps the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive". Jay is best known for performing sleight of hand, card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. He has also written extensively on magic and its history. He has acted in the films The Spanish Prisoner, Heist, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia and in the HBO series Deadwood.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I grew up like Athena - covered with playing cards instead of armor - and, at the age of seven, materialized on a TV show, doing magic.

Ricky Jay

I love amazing people. I love dazzling them. That's why I think performing magic is one of the greatest things a person can do.

Ricky Jay

Like every art form, there are jealousies and angers and competitiveness in magic. But there's camaraderie among magicians, whether you perform it for a living or you're an enthusiast.

Ricky Jay

The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.

Ricky Jay

Dai Vernon, the greatest sleight of hand figure in the history of the art, rarely performed. But he invented magic and had an enormous influence on the whole range of sleight of hand. And so often, the magic he was doing was to fool other magicians.

Ricky Jay

One of the best sleight-of-hand guys I know is a plumber.

Ricky Jay

Unlike other Jewish families, we didn't go out for Chinese food on Sundays, but we spent our time in a world of baking powder biscuits and the best shrimp cocktails that ever were.

Ricky Jay

I always read what I write out loud, and I did that long before any radio thing. My editor finds that unusual.

Ricky Jay

Magicians from the nineteenth century threw cards distances, but I think I'm the first one who made a thing about using them as weapons.

Ricky Jay

My father was the Formica King of Long Island, and my mother was the daughter of a Bengal Lancer in India.

Ricky Jay

I wasn't obsessed by magic. People say, 'How you can you claim you practiced eight hours a day and weren't obsessed?' Well, people go to a job they don't even like for eight hours a day; it's not obsessive if it's something you like.

Ricky Jay

I was considered a comedy magician. And - how do I put this without sounding egotistical? - it didn't take me long to realize that comedy magicians usually couldn't do comedy or magic.

Ricky Jay

I do think deception... There's something kind of odd about tricking people for a living, but ultimately, it's a remarkably honest profession, when you think about it. If you violate that code, and you say you're not using camera tricks, and then you...

Ricky Jay

For the most part, magic secrets are available on a level that's overwhelming and frightening, and they are very accessible if you do the tiniest bit of digging. But, that said, there's a certain group of individuals, in which I am included, who are ...

Ricky Jay

I started doing radio pieces with no clear, preconceived idea, except that I have a tendency to be theatrical.

Ricky Jay

Every acting gig isn't the same, every writing job isn't the same, every live performance isn't the same - the challenge is the level of difficulty or ease, and that may vary.

Ricky Jay

Not only do I lie, I take real pleasure in lying, in the transmission of magic effects.

Ricky Jay

I certainly was performing before my writing was published, because I was performing when I was very young. And the thing is I'm very comfortable on stage, so a large portion of my act did come from ad-libs.

Ricky Jay

I suppose that if I could only do one thing, a solid card effect would be pretty high on the list. That's the root of it all, sleight-of-hand. It's certainly the thing I feel most comfortable with.

Ricky Jay

I don't know what first got me to attack melons. It's not like I ate a bad one and got an upset stomach. It just eventually seemed like the appropriate fruit.

Ricky Jay

Author Bio

  • NameRicky Jay
  • DescriptionAmerican magician
  • Born1948
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionActor; Magician; Author