A biography for Ricky Jayhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I've been really lucky in terms of film projects with people, terrific actors and also writers and directors that I really respect.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I'm probably the only kid in history whose parents made him stop taking music lessons. They made me stop studying the accordion.”
“One of the best sleight-of-hand guys I know is a plumber.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I always read what I write out loud, and I did that long before any radio thing. My editor finds that unusual.”
“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.”