Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants

This was an HBO special, a filmed performance of Jay's Broadway show, directed by his friend, David Mamet. It is literate, intelligent, and better than any magic performance you have ever seen. Jay is a heavy-set man who projects an image of a slightly seamy autodidact -- not too far from what he really is; he has, without the benefit of formal education, made himself THE authority on the history of magic. In any case, Ricky Jay does things with cards and close up magic that will leave you stunned. What he does even leaves other magicians stunned. And his finale here is a version of the cup and balls that drop dead amazing. If you really like magic, and can appreciate how awful David Copperfield is, you will love this. It's a shame that there is no DVD or video available. I would love to acquire one. Jay is simply, flat-out, the best.

I'm 26 and every time I see this it makes me be overcome with nostalgia. Nostalgia, because I feel there will be nothing even remote to this performance I will see in my lifetime. This man is telling a life story of the con-artist, the cheat, the swindler, the impostor, the jester and he tells them in the evening of the trade, he tells the tale of one who would perform for people in theatre for a ticket price three times the yearly wage of a normal worker and he tells the tale of one who would pass around a hat in bars in the darker end of town. He tells tales across centuries, he tells his own. And he performs the best slide of hand you will ever see.

He plays the audience and participants, so charmingly - that they allow themselves to be - played. He excels in providing absolute nonsense alongside the knowledge of generations. Sharper intelligence at work you'll never see. And he does it, never missing a beat, counting cards alongside, masking moves with words and - pauses, crafting a rhythm out of thin air -

When at the heart of this performance, he shows a truth where each profession is...

When he tells of the never to be fulfilled struggle of the plebeians to reach the upper circles he does it in the voice of a plebeian, startling the higher ups, outplaying them in whits, and he tells of what really matters - when "booze and the blowens" have "copped the lot".

No really, it is that multi-layered and more importantly it is that good. If you watch it for the first time, or for the twentieth - it keeps on giving. A true classic.