Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay

Perhaps best known to movie going audiences from films by David Mamet, Paul Thomas Anderson, Christopher Nolan and even a role on the acclaimed, short lived TV Western Deadwood, Ricky Jay is the short, bearded, stout, and unassuming character actor with that unmistakable voice who is also one of the most respected magicians currently performing. Deceptive Practice, which is partially based on Mark Singer's 1993 New Yorker article Secrets of Magus which profiled Jay's Mamet directed stage show, and details the sleight of hand master's lifelong obsession with the illusory arts and documents his many influences, several of which he was actually able to train with in his youth. The profile expectedly offers virtually no secrets of the trade but is a real treat, even if you carry no interest in the subject, to be let into the engaging, mysterious necromancer's world and be dazzled by his compulsively achieved suspensions of disbelief.