Magic is Human
Interviewing Ricky Jay
I’m thinking about the late actor and magician Ricky Jay. There’s a documentary about him One of the talking heads was a British journalist telling the story of how she had once been assigned to interview Ricky. She described their initial phonecall, his prickly demands and generally unpleasant demeanor—meet at this diner, don’t' be late, etc. etc. He was gruff and short in his language and I myself was feeling gruff and short at the slow, measured sentences this woman spoke in. It was a terribly hot day, she said, terribly hot, in the little strip mall diner with floor to ceiling windows radiating heat the AC could not beat back. She took great care in describing the LA landscape that lay beyond the windows. “Blinding sun,” she emphasized, “so much heat. Nothing around but asphalt.” They spent over an hour in traffic together, arriving at the hot little café and sitting down at table specified by Ricky himself. The journalist was adamant to note that it was not near any exit or door to any other part of the restaurant. He sat down and continued to act a brusque and unhelpful interview subject, grunting one word replies to her questions as they scanned their large laminated menus. The journalist was thrown off by his energy, made small. I wanted to hid behind my menu, she said, to disappear. At some point she got herself together and decided to be more direct. She put her menu down and cleared her throat. Ricky met her gaze and put his menu down, revealing a large block of ice on the table in front of him, in the hot diner with the floor-to-ceiling windows and nowhere near a door or exit. The block immediately began to melt, but the table was not wet, she noted. The floor was not wet. Ricky’s pants were not wet, nor his hands. The ice was not there a minutes earlier when the server handed them the giant menus, barely large enough to conceal what was now between them. Ricky had not left her sight since the minute they got in the car. The journalist caught her breath, and then burst into tears. Even years later, recalling the incident, she is visibly moved, “because,” she said to the interviewer, “because it was… this supreme act of artistry. And it was just for me.” She doesn’t recount whatever happened after that.
Dossier of Doings
Aesthetical Relations Revised & Expanded is out now from Asterism books. Limited signed copies are on my website
Ariana Reines did a mondo generous interview with me for the latest issue of The Whitney Review
I have a big essay in the Clowns anthology from Dopamine Books, out now from MIT Press
I have limited offerings for comedy and editorial coaching over the next couple of weeks; after that I am closing up shop to focus on rehearsing a play this summer
I love you