Kurt Andersen and sleight-of-hand artist Ricky Jay talk about the magic and artistry of games.
Jay has been performing sleight-of-hand wonders since he was a child. His most recent stage show — Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, directed by David Mamet — featured just Mr. Jay and his deck of cards. A scholar of the swindlers and showmen of the past, he gathers his most entertaining research in a newsletter: Jay’s Journal of Anomalies. The journal has just been collected in a book of the same name, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He also advises moviemakers on con-artistry through his Hollywood consulting firm, Deceptive Practices.