Quotes by Ricky Jay - Page 1

If it sounds too good to be true, it always is.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Truth
Reality
Sound
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I know absolutely nothing about the 20th Century.
Ricky Jay / Magician
20th Century
Absolutely Nothing
Century
Absolutely
Nothing Know About
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One of the best sleight-of-hand guys I know is a plumber.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Plumber
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Magic is a powerful art that can support a weak performer.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Art
Powerful
Support
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Writing is the only thing in my life that doesn't get easier. It just doesn't.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Easier
Writing
Life My Life Writing
The Only Thing
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It probably is harder to fool people when they know they're going to be fooled.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Fool
Fooled
People
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The book says we may be through with the past but the past ain't through with us.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Book
May
Past
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Not only do I lie, I take real pleasure in lying, in the transmission of magic effects.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Effects
Lying
Magic
Pleasure
Real
Transmission
Lie
Real Pleasure
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The pain is bad magicians ripping off good ones, doing magic badly, and making a mockery of the art.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Art
Magic
Mockery
Pain
Badly
Good Ones
Magicians
Ripping
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I think a lot of people just assumed I came to L.A. to do more television and get into show business.
Ricky Jay / Magician
People
Show Business
Television
Thinking
Business People More
Assumed
Business People Television
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I like being fooled. When I watch someone who does sleight-of-hand and fools me, it's a great feeling.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Feelings
Fool
Fool Me
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My father was the Formica King of Long Island, and my mother was the daughter of a Bengal Lancer in India.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Daughter
Kings
Long Island
Mother
Island
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I started doing radio pieces with no clear, preconceived idea, except that I have a tendency to be theatrical.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Clear
Ideas
Pieces
Radio
Theatrical
Except
Preconceived
Tendency
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I always read what I write out loud, and I did that long before any radio thing. My editor finds that unusual.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Editors
Long
Loud
Unusual
Writing
Editor
Finds
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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 / Magician
Amazing People
Dazzling
Magic
People
Performing
Thinking
Love Amazing People
Greatest Things
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I'm probably the only kid in history whose parents made him stop taking music lessons. They made me stop studying the accordion.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Kids
Lessons
Parent
Accordion
History Music Me
Studying
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I've been really lucky in terms of film projects with people, terrific actors and also writers and directors that I really respect.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Directors
Projects
Terrific
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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 / Magician
Armor
Cards
Covered
Magic
Tv Show
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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 / Magician
Age
Magic
Tv Shows
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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 / Magician
Cards
Nineteenth Century
Weapons
Distances
First One
Magicians
Nineteenth
Threw
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For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Entertaining
Fooled
Lovely
Magic
Would Be
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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 / Magician
Appropriate
Fruit
Stomach
Upset
Me Bad Know
Ate
Attack
Bad One
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I think the toughest thing about being an actor in a film is to be with a director who doesn't know what they want. And that can be really, really frustrating.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Actors
Frustrating
Thinking
Want
Toughest
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There are enormous dangers in thinking that the world online is the world as it exists, that what you get from your one stroke on the Internet is all there is to know.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Enormous
Online
Dangers
Exists
Stroke
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I never talk much about my family, but my grandfather was friendly with these guys, with magicians and ventriloquists on the highest levels, and I was just interested.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Friendly
Grandfather
Guy
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I never talk much about my family, but my grandfather was friendly with these guys, with magicians and ventriloquists on the highest levels, and I was just... interested.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Friendly
Grandfather
Levels
Highest Levels
Magicians
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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 / Magician
Jobs
Challenges
Difficulty
Ease
Live Performance
Vary
Writing
Gig
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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 / Magician
Baking
Biscuits
Chinese
Chinese Food
Cocktails
Our Time
Powder
Shrimp
Sunday
Jewish
Time Best Food
Best Time Food
Unlike
Spent
Sundays
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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 / Magician
Anger
Camaraderie
Competitiveness
Form
Magic
Enthusiast
Among
Art Form
Perform
Magicians
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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 / Magician
Egotistical
Magic
Magicians
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I wouldn't want to try to make a living as an actor. I think actors... I give them a lot of credit for what they go through, but putting myself on the line like that would make me crazy.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Crazy
Giving
Thinking
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That's one of the ways language evolved, by some very obscure form becoming common usage. And I must say that I'm very intrigued by use of language and slang, and criminal underground terms.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Becoming
Common
Form
Intrigued
Obscure
Slang
Usage
Use
Way
Criminal
Terms
Underground
Ways
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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 / Magician
Cards
Comfortable
Hands
If I Could
Roots
Card
Certainly
Effect
Suppose
List
Solid
Root
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I'm pretty fortunate that I'm in the films I'm in largely because the directors have asked me to be in them. I'd love to do more of them, but the writing and historical stuff I'll probably always do.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Film
Historical
Writing
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In the winters, I enrolled in the hotel management program at Cornell University. I naively thought that I knew something about sleight-of-hand, entertainment and food, and that would be all I needed.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Entertainment
Hands
Hotel
Management
Program
Winter
Enrolled
Winters
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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 / Magician
Comfortable
Performing
Stage
Writing
Young
Act
Certainly
Large
Large Portion
Portion
Published
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Theft annoys me more than anything else. The purloining of effects from another magician. Some people think it's massive to steal the secrets of nuclear reactors, but to steal a card move is trivial. They're wrong.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Effects
Magician
Massive
Moving
Nuclear
People
Theft
Thinking
Me People More
Me People Anything
Annoys
Anything Else
Card
More Than Anything
Secrets
Some People
Steal
Trivial
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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 / Magician
Magic
Obsessive
Claim
People Say
Practiced
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I'm much more interested in lesser-known eccentrics and characters and performers. Like Matthew Buchinger, who was born in Germany in 1674, had no arms or legs and yet did magic, and had 14 kids, and made the most extraordinary calligraphy.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Arms
Eccentric
Extraordinary
Germany
Legs
Magic
Matthew
Performers
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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 / Magician
Art
Hands
Magic
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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 / Magician
History
Enormous
Fool
Influence
Magic
Range
Whole
Greatest
Often
Figure
Hand
Invented
Magicians
Performed
Rarely
Vernon
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Maybe the the luxury of not having acting be my only profession is that I can be more selective about what I choose to be in. I've been really lucky in terms of film projects with people, terrific actors and also writers and directors that I really respect.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Acting
Lucky
People
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To obfuscate the reconstruction of the effect - when a magician is fooled by another magician doing magic. In my career that's not been the major passion, but it's been the passion of a number of my mentors. The crowning achievement for them would be to create magic good enough to fool other magicians.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Achievement
Fool
Magic
Reconstruction
Crowning
Magicians
Mentors
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There are people who try to figure things out. Often, magic is presented in a way that sets up a challenge that I actually find kind of appalling. You know, "I'm clever, I can do something, and you don't know what it is." And that instills in the audience the idea that, "Yes, I do. You're not that clever."
Ricky Jay / Magician
Challenges
Clever
People
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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 very tight about secrets and don't share them with anyone.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Available
Digging
Frightening
Magic
Overwhelming
Accessible
Group
Included
Individuals
Tight
Tiniest
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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 do, I actually think that's a kind of serious moral issue.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Code
Deception
Odd
Profession
Tricks
Moral Issue
Remarkably
Something Kind
Ultimately
Violate
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Sitting with a deck of cards in your hand all day is an obsession. Visiting print shops and bookstores and libraries is an obsession. And writing about this is an obsession. I think, in general, most collectors are obsessed. I think the only form of a rationalized greed is when you're collecting something you are supposedly serious about.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Bookstores
Cards
Collecting
Collectors
Deck
Greed
Obsessed
Obsession
Print
Serious
Shops
Sitting
Thinking
Visiting
Writing
All Day
General
Hand
Libraries
Supposedly
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Once you get into the era of the printed book, it gets a little easier. After years and years, you make a serious survey of that literature, and then you make it more specific depending on what kind of case appears. I never set out to collect material on cheating at bowling, but I found out that after 20 years, I had a lot of material on cheating at bowling.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Book
Cheating
Literature
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One of the reasons I don't like to use the word "tricks" , I do think of them as theatrical pieces, and as pretentious as that might sound, there's a real reason for it. It's not the idea of tricking you; it's the idea of taking you along on this particular journey the way you would in any other theatrical situation. But, hopefully, you're going to be fooled at the end.
Ricky Jay / Magician
Journey
Real
Reason
Thinking
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Ricky Jay Quotes - Page 1

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