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RIP Ricky Jay


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Loved him in Deadwood. He was a really talented magician, too.

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Known for his professional career as a magician and his roles in films like Boogie Nights and the HBO series Deadwood, Ricky Jay has died. He was 70.

Details about Jay’s death have not been revealed, but his attorney Stan Coleman confirmed his death while his partner at Deceptive Practices, Michael Weber tweeted, “I am sorry to share that my remarkable friend, teacher, collaborator and coconspirator is gone.”

Richard Jay Potash was born in Brooklyn, New York and had an impressive resume of films. In addition to Boogie Nights and Deadwood, Jay appeared in films such as Magnolia, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Spanish Prisoner, Mystery Men, and, appropriately, the magician drama The Prestige. He was also the subject of PBS’ American Masters in 2015 and was the first magician to be profiled in the series. He was also the subject of the documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay.

Acclaimed playwright David Mamet directed three of Jay’s one-man shows which were “Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants”, “Ricky Jay: On the Stem”, and “Ricky Jay: A Rogue’s Gallery.” Mamet went on to cast him in his films Heist and House of Games.

Jay was also a consultant for magic, gambling, con games and unusual entertainment. That said, be became the man in Hollywood when it came to magic. He worked on Francis Ford Coppola’s The Escape Artist and worked with Robert Redford on The Natural to show him how to manipulate coins.

Jay and Weber created their firm Deceptive Practices on the ’90s and provided their expert services to film, TV, and stage productions. They helped design the wheelchair that gave the illusion that Gary Sinise had no legs in Forrest Gump and provided other tricks of the eye in movies such as Congo and for the Broadway production of Angels in America, part 2: Perestroik. They also worked on The Illusionist, Sneakers, and Oceans Thirteen. 

 

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Between last week’s oral history of Boogie Nights on Grantland and this week’sPaul Thomas Anderson WTF interview, this past month has been a treat for those of us who can’t get enough Boogie Nights behind-the-scenes stories. The most recent one that stuck out to me is a story from WTF about Burt Reynolds’ line read of “Nevertheless.”

I couldn’t find an embeddable version online, but if you remember the movie, there’s a scene where Mark Wahlberg is screaming at Burt Reynolds’s character, demanding to shoot a scene, and Reynolds is telling him that he can’t shoot it because he’s been up for two days. Dirk protests that he hasn’t been up for two days, at which point in the original script, Jack Horner says “Nevertheless, you don’t look good and I’m not going to shoot you this way,” or something to that effect. Meanwhile, Horner’s cameraman. played by Ricky Jay(pictured, right) holds them apart.

ANDERSON: Every time Burt said ‘Neverthless,’ I kept noticing something was happening to Ricky’s face. I said ‘What’s going on?’

And he said, ‘I can’t… I’m suppressing laughter when he says Nevertheless.’

I asked why, and he told me this great story, of being at a football game where this woman is being introduced to sing the national anthem, and her name is Helen Forrest or whatever it is. And the announcer says, ‘And now to sing the National Anthem, Helen Forrest.’

And somebody in the stands screams, ‘HELEN FORREST SUCKS COCK.’

And the announcer [without missing a beat] says, ‘Nevertheless…’ [WTF]

Anderson says every time the film comes on cable, he can’t help but notice the pained expression on Ricky Jay’s face during that scene.

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a few years ago i went to a screening of house of games at the new beverly (a small theater owned by tarantino in west hollywood) and mantegna was supposed to be there, but they brought ricky out also.  i actually didn't know it was on youtube until just now but it was great hearing them talk about mamet and the movie.  if you haven't seen house of games, get on it, ricky jay has some great scenes (what am i supposed to threaten someone with an empty gun?).

 

mantegna had a great story about mamet telling him they were turning glengarry into a movie, but he wasn't playing roma (whom he had played to much acclaim in the play).  if i remember right, it was something like, "hey joe, we're doing the movie, but you're not.  we got pacino."

sidenote, after a year of renovation, the new bev is reopening dec 1, and showing butch cassidy.  the week after is gangster week.  i'm gonna be busy.

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