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Ricky Jay, venerable magician who has shed light on centuries of illusionists and consulted Hollywood to make believe the impossible, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 72 years old.
Its longtime director, Winston Simone, has confirmed his death.
Mr. Jay was known for his mastery of maps, that he conjures them with precision or that he throws them into the skin of a watermelon. He has been on talk shows and has participated in several one-man shows directed by playwright David Mamet, including "Ricky Jay and his 52 assistants".
The consulting firm that Jay founded with Michael Weber in the 1990s, Deceptive Practices, worked with filmmakers in Hollywood and Broadway to create illusions. He has also appeared in films such as "Boogie Nights", "Magnolia", "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "The Prestige", as well as in the TV series "Deadwood".
As an art student, Mr. Jay collected artifacts from the history of magic and often wrote about magicians who might otherwise have been forgotten. There was however a limit to what he would share. Mr. Jay was adamant about preserving the mystery behind his tricks.
"Most people realize that magical powers are not invoked and that it is someone who has created a way to mystify you and entertain you," said Jay. told the New York Times in 2002. "The key is the surprise. If you give the method, you refuse the surprise to someone.
Richard Jay Potash was born in Brooklyn before his family moved to suburban New Jersey, following a 1993 profile in the New Yorker. But Mr. Jay did not like revealing his age or talking about his childhood, telling the magazine: "I grew up as Athena – covered with playing cards instead of armor – and, at Age 7, she has materialized in a TV show. Magic."
And Mr. Jay went on doing it, becoming a magician considered by many to be the greatest artist in the world. He has "defined the terms of his art" for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, according to a biography on his website.
The audience was often taken aback by Mr. Jay's card tricks. When he was forced to impress at a dinner, he asked a guest to pick a card. After the guest named the three hearts, Mr. Jay mixed, grabbed the deck and threw it on the table, making sure the cards made an open bottle of wine, according to The New Yorker . To the guest's dismay, the three hearts appeared in the neck of the bottle.
Mr. Jay has also written and spoken frequently on strange and varied topics adjacent to magic, such as cone games and perception of the senses. He was formerly the curator of the Conjuring and Allied Arts Library of Mulholland and was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society, according to his online biography.
Among the unknown entertainers he brought back to life with his research and writings: Matthias Buchinger, an 18th century German without hands and feet, and Max Malini, who turned pieces into ice at the beginning of the 20th century.
"I kind of think of Ricky as the intellectual elite of the wizards," said actor Steve Martin at the New Yorker. "Ricky is a master of his art."
Asked by the Times about the duplicity of a 2013 article, Mr. Jay, to whom his wife Chrisann Verges is survived, said, "You would not want to live in a world where you could not be cheated . Because it would mean that you live in a world where you have never trusted anyone. "
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