Many call this the best sleight-of-hand magic show of all time.
I’ll add this to “The Best Documentaries About Magic” (I”m up to 16 right now)
Thanks to Jason Kottke for first pointing this video out to me here: https://kottke.org/24/12/ricky-jay-and-his-52-assistants
Watch “Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants” for free on YouTube
Or watch it for free on the Internet Archive:
Ratings:
- My Rating: 91/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 92/100 (Users); na/100 (Critics)
Release Date: 1996
Highlights of “Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants” – Magic show”
Think Penn & Teller are smart with their magic?
Wait until you see Ricky Jay turn a deck of cards into pure poetry.
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- While doing mind-blowing card tricks, Ricky Jay recites 500-year-old French poems like it’s no big deal.
This doc brings Jay’s hit New York stage show right into your living room through HBO.
David Mamet, who helped Jay make movies like “House of Games” and “The Spanish Prisoner,” turned this 58-minute magic show into TV gold back in 1996.
Watch Jay show you how card cheats fool people at poker.
He does moves like the false deal and center deal so smoothly, you’d think cards just float in his hands.
The best part? He walks right up to people in the crowd and does tricks so close you can touch him.
Everyone’s eyes get big when they realize what they’re seeing.
Between tricks, Jay tells great stories about old-time magicians like Max Malini. These tales make the magic feel even more special.
The show was such a hit, it won two big awards – the Lucille Lortel and Obie.
After that, Jay took it on the road to famous theaters in Chicago and London.
Behind the Magic
Jay tells jokes in such a dry way, and he makes impossible tricks look as easy as tying his shoes.
For years, hardly anyone could find this show to watch. But in December 2024, it finally showed up online for magic fans to enjoy.
In 2023, a big library at Indiana University got all of Jay’s stuff, including pictures from this show. Now students can study his magic forever.
Not in the Video but Cool! (slicing a watermelon with a card!)
Jay wasn’t just a magician – he was in some famous movies too. You can spot him in “Boogie Nights,” “The Prestige,” and he even played a bad guy in a James Bond movie.
Here’s the crazy part – Jay once held a world record for throwing cards. He could throw one 190 feet at 90 miles per hour!
He’d throw cards at watermelons from 30 feet away and slice right through them (he called watermelons “the most prodigious of household fruits” because that’s how Ricky Jay talked).
In his shows, he’d throw cards at plastic animals and pretend they were attacking him. He could even throw a card like a boomerang and cut it in half with big scissors when it came back.
Wrap Up
I believe “Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants” is the best slight-of-hand magic I’ve seen.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc