We often speak about the magic of the theatre, but rarely consider the theatre of magic. Big stage shows such as David Copperfield's extravaganzas are usually dismissed as mere entertainment. Another guy who also started out as a kid magician in New Jersey has upped the ante, so to speak. In 1994, Ricky Jay, who had brought his card throwing act to Broadway a decade or so before opened off-Broadway. Under the direction of his friend David Mamet, he created a show with the snide title, "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants", which quickly became the fastest selling off-Broadway attraction on record, garnering an Obie and a Lortel award to boot. Film aficionados also know that he's appeared in most of Mamet's films, including the current "Heist", which is part of the reason for the current revival of this show. It's also a warmup for a new production the pair are conspiring about, due to open next Spring.
The Market Theatre is an ideal venue for such a show. The decor of this former Harvard dining club blends right into the shelves of Victorian bric-a-brac and oddities backing the setting designed by Kevin Rigdon , which includes a stuffed antelope head with several playing cards impaled in its forehead. Jay presents his feats of legerdemain as a demonstration, a venerable technique stretching back to the Chataucqua, interspersed with doggerel recitations from musical hall days. He's a student of popular entertainment over the last two or three centuries, and obviously relishes the ambience of the period when a sleight-of-hand artist, paid or unpaid, would be a welcome guest at an evening function. Unlike most stage magicians, however, he doesn't perform in formal attire harking back to that time, but merely rolls up the sleeves of his sports coat, and gets down to business.
What makes this technique work as an evening of theatre is Mamet's very careful orchestration of Jay's stage persona and fascination with the minutiae of magic. French magician Robert Houdin, the father of modern stage prestidigitation, defined a magician as "an actor pretending to be a magician." In this post-modern show, Jay is a card mechanic -- to get technical -- pretending to be an actor playing at being a magician. He starts off by proving just how well he can manipulate a fresh deck of cards, neglecting to mention that the very fact that they are in top condition and in perfect order is essential to what he's doing. On one level, he's become a magician's magician, playing "catch me if you can" with the knowing while amusing the credulous, all with an amiable stare, a somewhat brash voice honed as a carnival talker, and a satisfied smile.
At most magic shows, the audience is supposed to wonder "How did he do that?" In this piece, we are merely asked to accept that the performer's doing this all very well, we know he's doing it but we don't know how, and it doesn't matter that we don't. There's none of the overheated circus atmosphere and simulated danger that makes most magic shows essentially false. Here, what's true is simply that when confronted by a master closeup magician, you can't believe your eyes -- or your ears.
Jay is not the only close-up performer working in this mode, though he is surely one of the best. Normally his level of skill is only seen in small Vegas venues with high prices, or in the more private areas of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, usually for a smoking and drinking audience. Bringing such a magic show into an intimate theatrical venue, supported by a whimsical setting , may give a boost to the art, or at least encourage other skillful closeup workers to give theatre a try. On the other hand, it must be noted that, on a grander scale , Marco the Magnificent and his community cohorts have been presenting real old-time stage magic shows in two theaters in Beverley on the Massachusetts North Shore for two decades. There are other options to the packaged touring show.