Few lives seem to have been as preordained as that of Ricky Jay. At the tender age of four he was already learning sleight-of-hand from his beloved grandfather, Max, an amateur magician. By seven, he was performing before audiences, and as he grew up he received lessons, advice and encouragement from many of the true giants of magic: Al Flosso, Slydini, Cardini, Francis Carlyle, and Roy Benson. So it’s little wonder that, now in his sixties, Ricky Jay is widely considered the world’s greatest magician, a performer whose one-man shows draw rave reviews and sold-out houses.
Molly Bernstein and Alan Edelstein’s warm and fascinating portrait of Jay offers a rare glimpse into the very private world of professional magicians, an entertainment tradition that stretches back hundreds of years and yet continues to delight and astonish contemporary audiences around the world.
New York Film Festival
‘One of the most compelling characters in magic gets his due’
The Hollywood Reporter
‘a wonderful movie about a great artist’
Woody Allen
‘So entertaining...Just watching this magician’s hands at work with a deck of cards is positively mesmerizing’
New York Post
