Customer Reviews

Jay's Journal of Anomalies : Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments

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_Jay's Journal of Anomalies_ (Farrar Strauss Giroux) is no cheat, even though it is a production of one of the cleverest sleight of hand tricksters who ever lived. Ricky Jay, author, magician, and actor, continues the theme of his _Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women_, a survey of strange entertainments through the ages. This book contains reproduction of his quarterly publication issued from 1994 to 2000, a periodical famous for its production values, rarity, and expense. The sixteen issues are gathered in one volume here, a good looking oversized book with charming period woodcuts and engravings, amazing tales of very strange human endeavors, and an afterword to bring all the issues up to date. Even at the listed... price this book is therefore an undeniable bargain, and it is good that it is going to have a reach to a larger audience.

For Jay's subjects are so stupefyingly surprising. They almost all have to do with some sort of performance, and the stranger the better. There is a chapter on, of all things, crucifixion for showmanly profit. Tommy Minnock, at the beginning of the twentieth century, gained wildly enthusiastic response from his audiences as, nailed to a cross on the stage in a supposed hypnotic trance, he crooned, "After The Ball Is Over," one of the most popular tunes of the time. "I am told by those who saw me," he wrote "nailed to the cross that I presented a weird but impressive spectacle." Evatima Tardo around the same time was regularly nailed to a cross, suspended there for over two hours. She seldom had volunteers from the crowd who would come up to run the nails through her limbs, so her
assistants had to do so. The nails were dipped in poison beforehand; she
was quoted as saying, "There wouldn't be any fun unless I had prussic acid
on the ends." She laughed and sang, and declared that she had never had
such a pleasant time: "This is so easy, I am going to do it all over again
tomorrow night, and three nights next week." Jay writes that, "while no one
would claim that Minnock and Tardo inspired a trend of copycat
crucifixions," there were successors, including Faith Bacon, who hung nude
from a cross and gyrated to Ravel's Bolero. Some fakirs participated in
crucifixions in the spirit of competition, outdoing each other by staying
aloft for days at a time.

You will find here surprising chapters on such thing as the magical amputation of the nose. You will learn of the surprising, longstanding connection between legerdemain and dentistry. There are trained dogs and pigs, and a description of how flea circuses worked. There are those who made their fortunes by making faces; the means by which performers were able to dance upon the ceiling (including "The Great Philosophical Antipodean Pedestrian from Ohio"); the rascally ways in which hustlers would gain the trust and the pocketbooks of novices in ninepins; the adventures of professional fasters; and much more. The careful, quietly amused way in which Jay tells these odd histories is perfect for his subject matter, and shows a matchless enthusiasm for his themes. "I really do love this stuff," he tells us at the end, and there is easily sufficient evidence here to show that in that there is no deception.

Ricky Jay in not a magician, and would cringe at the term. He is a deceiver. Unlike more convention illustionists, like Copperfield, Jay never asks you to suspend your disbelief. In his live stage shows, he is out to deceive you, and he wants you to know it. He defies the laws of physics before your very eyes in his live stage show, and in this remarkable book, he introduces you to people who have done the same over the centuries. This is not a man you want to play cards with!

In this book, Jay takes you on a journey spanning centuries of some of the most deceptive, fascinating, and truly bizarre characters that have populated the fringes of the conventional world. The characters in this journey are truly bizarre, but truly human. Jay doesn't merely describe their acts. He presents them as real human beings, living in a world all their own. They may seem to be 'freaks' but Jay presents them to you with a dignity and admiration that is rarely seen in this genre.

Jay is as adept at playing games with words as he is with games of cards. Jay has a true love of language, and revels in the poetry of the con man. As a curator of rare books, he loves the history of con men, and other things that we all love to see, if not fall victim to. He describes how we today fall for the same tricks as we did centuries ago.

Jay clearly loves the people who he describes in his book. He introduces you the the people behind the acts. The reader is introduced to these hoaxsters and con artists as real people, living in a real world. He gives them a unique dignity.

Ricky Jay has the gift of a true appreciation for language. He plays the same games with words as he plays with cards. Jay never views his subjects as 'freaks' who are exploited. He presents them as unique people with very unique talents.

This book is a pleasure to read. At times, you'll laugh out loud, and at times you'll cringe. But you will never be bored.

Ricky Jay will take you on a fascinating journey into a most unique and bizarre world.

Fans of Ricky Jay will love the book. And those who don't know about Ricky Jay will be introduced to a new world, and introduced to one of the most fascinating people in the world today. There are only two types of people in the world -- those who think Ricky Jay is a genious, and morons. And if Mr Jay reads this review, I want you to autograph my copy of this book!

What wasn't quite clear to me when I got this book is that it is exactly what it says it is: a compellation of a quarterly 'newsletter' or journal written by magician Ricky Jay over a period of six years. The newsletter combines Jay's interest in entertainers of the outrageous kind with high quality publication; as he says,"a magazine printed letterpress on mold-made paper, with tipped-in color plates to present the illustrations I cherished with dignity and clarity." Although I have not seen either the original newsletters or the paperback version of the book, I can testify that the hardback retains these fine qualities.

As one might expect given the nature of the project, the quality of individual chapters evolves with time. Each chapter of the book is one volume of the newletter, preserved with the original masthead; the first few chapters show Jay warming to his subject. Chapter one, on trained dogs, is only 6 pages long; Chapter two, on Edward Bright and other early "Fattest Man/Woman/Child" is eight pages. Honestly, these opening chapters did not particularly interest me. But then the topics became more interesting to me and Jay seemed to 'hit his stride'--the final chapter, on the Amazing Chess Automaton, is twice the length of the first. Nonetheless, I still found the book a bit uneven--the chapter on bowling begins superbly, with a short description of Matthew Buchinger, born in 1674 who became a bowling wizard in spite of having neither arms nor legs. But after a single paragraph and picture, this singular character is not mentioned again. Instead, Jay concentrates the remaining pages on a general discussion of cheating at bowling--substitute "pool" for 'bowling' and the situation is pretty much unchanged today; and the association of bowling with amorality in the Victorian mind. Moderately interesting, but give me a ceiling walker, chess automaton, or Bonassus any day. It would be churlish of me to make more of this--it is, after all, Jay's Journal of Anomalies, not Coleman's Journal.

Among the more fascinating chapters are those on fasters, where Jay brings in the modern example of the Breatharians, who supposedly live on air alone; the Aztec Lilliputians; and a quirky chapter on "nose amputations". The common but unspoken thread among all the chapters is that odd but universal human quality--an eagerness to be deceived. The Amazing Chess Automaton, a device which has been treated at great lengths elsewhere, is a real testament to this quality; having been purchased by not one, but two members of royalty!

Each chapter is thoroughly footnoted, so that the book stands not only as an entertaining collection of quirks, but also as a scholarly source of information. One of the highlights is the Afterward, in which Jay publishes, presumably for the first time, additional material and pictures supplied by his readers in response to the original newsletter. All in all, Jay has succeeded admirably in creating (in his own words) 'an anomaly of anomalies."

All right-thinking people everywhere have a solid affection for Ricky Jay, be it for his magic acts, his winsome and too-infrequent film roles, or his research and writing.

The essays here are marvelously entertaining, each one on a specific historical performer or performance phenomenon. The subjects vary, and, somewhat inevitably, some are more interesting than others. What is clear, however, is that Jay has done an astonishing amount of research, and he brings his love of the material to life. At times his writing is a bit archly formal, but that perhaps only adds to the showman like tone of the work. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of odd performers or for anyone who simply enjoys learning about how the world is always a little bit stranger than the previously thought.

If you enjoyed Ricky Jay's book, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, you will most certainly enjoy this new book by the same author. Jay's Journal of Anomalies is a hardbound, full collection compilation of his quarterly publication of the same name.

Ricky Jay, an accomplished magician and show biz historian, culls some of the best information, from his vast collection and library, and sends you back in time to experience the excitement, the cheating, the charlatanism, the absurdity, the amazement and the gullibility of audiences of past centuries. This is truly fun reading.

What you will find in this book is the same type of off-beat oddities found in Learned Pigs, with the same eclectic variety of persons and animals, with amazing in-depth knowledge of these acts long past.

As a professional entertainer myself, I am truly astonished at the types of amusement the people of the 18th and 19th centuries enjoyed. Here, in this book, you will find such creatures as learned dogs, trained fleas and the rare-but-famous Bonassus.

You will enjoy learning about crucifixion acts of the 19th and 20th centuries, persons who amputated their nose, people who stopped eating completely and the tiniest and fattest of persons.

You will enjoy learning about crucifixion acts of the 19th and 20th centuries, persons who amputated their nose, people who stopped eating completely and the tiniest and fattest of persons.

What's the odd relationship between magician and dentists? How did Automatons work? Could people really float? Read about these in Jay's Journal of Anomalies.

This is truly a fun and fascinating book to read; I can see how the subscribers of the original publication would look forward to reading it every three months.

One thing to note is that this book is more than just a compilation of newsletters. Added to this book are some beautiful (and sometimes colorful) posters, pictures and such that were not in the original set of newsletters. There is also a section of the book that updates much of the information in the original manuscripts.

(Expect to increase your vocabulary, too. Ricky Jay's utilization of the English language is extraordinary. I thoroughly enjoyed his unique writing style.)

I highly recommend this book to anyone who entertains. Get this book.

Ricky Jay is an odd bird, and I guess most people would consider his fans (myself included) odd for liking him. I can't imagine that anyone unfamiliar with Mr. Jay and his trademark deadpan delivery, use of archaic multi-syllabic synonyms, and fondness for esoterica will be interested in Anomalies. But for those who are into him (and you know who you are) the book is quality through and through. The topics are interesting, fun and wide-ranging. The research is, of course, top notch. The genuine admiration he shows for the entertainers he writes of and his respect for their craft are abundantly clear.

As far as the appreciation of Jay's writing and his selection of content, you either get it or you don't. And if you get it, then by all means get the book. The fact that the book is a reprint of his newsletters, and therefore various subjects can be read in a single sitting, makes this compilation all the more enjoyable. My only itty-bitty complaint would be that the updates would be more accessible if they came immediately after the individual articles rather than a collection of endnote.

A superb book stuffed with bizarre topics and weird old illustrations. The previous reviewer's remark about "there's nothing in here I need to know" totally misses the point. Of course you don't NEED to know this stuff! It's the simple joy of human weirdness that makes this book worthwhile. Where else are you going to learn about recreational nose-slicing and the fine art of ceiling-walking? Also check out Jay's "Learned Pigs", Bondeson's "Feejee Mermaid," Collins's "Banvard's Folly," and Standage's "The Turk" ... all great stuff in this same line.

"Jay's Journal of Anomalies" reproduces all 16 issues of Ricky Jay's quarterly that was published by Antiquarian Booksellers in Los Angeles for a subscription rate of $90 per annum from Spring 1994-2000. The publications are numbered Volume One, Number One through Volume Four, Number Four, and I assume they appear much the same as they did originally. The "Journals" have essentially been bound into book form with a few additional illustrations and an "Afterword" in which Mr. Jay talks about the publication of the Journals, provides additional information about the subjects therein that he obtained after their original publication, and makes the occasional correction.

Ricky Jay is master of the magic arts and perhaps the foremost scholar on their history as well as the history of "peculiar performance" in general. His 1986 book Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women chronicles some of the most creative and amazing performers in the annals of popular entertainments. That is probably the book you should start with if you're new to Ricky Jay's writing. The entertainments explored in "Jay's Journal of Anomalies" are less spectacular but no less curious. This book cuts a broader swath, including the unvirtuous origins of bowling, the first successful attempts to mimic the human voice mechanically, and an American buffalo exhibited disingenuously as a startling new species. No contents of "Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women" are repeated in this book except in passing reference.

Mr. Jay's prose is, as always, erudite, wry, and a pleasure to read. He loves this stuff. And the reader can't help but love it too. Each Journal is dedicated to a different subject and includes extensive endnotes, in which you will discover interesting tidbits of information and references to Jay's sources. The subjects covered in these 16 Journals are, speaking generally: dog performers, exhibiting obesity, common animals exhibited as rarities, performances of crucifixion (real and fraudulent), performing fleas, facial contortionists, 18th century showman Isaac Fawkes, ceiling walkers, nose amputation (fake), the "Aztec Lilliputians", the athletic legless Harvey Leach, the artful history of bowling, fasters (who starve themselves for profit), the shared history of dentistry and legerdemain, early levitators, and early machines that replicated human abilities.

There are over 130 black-and-white and color illustrations throughout that reproduce playbills, engravings, broadsides, woodcuts, lithographs and more from the author's collection. Also included are 2 large fold-outs: One is a 1931 photo of the cast of the "Dreamland Circus Side Show" in New York, which featured a "crucified man". The other is a drawing of the Bartholomew Fair in 1729, which featured Isaac Fawkes. I offer a bit of trivia for Amazon shoppers: The Automaton Chess Player built by Wolfgang von Kempelen and described in Jay's last Journal is the same that inspired the name of Amazon Mechanical Turk, an Amazon subsidiary that solicits humans to perform tasks that we do better than computers.

Wonderfully entertaining and enjoyable scholarship on extremely odd topics: flea circuses, hunger artists, nose-removal devices, and humbug of all sorts. Jay proves himself once again to be not only a supremely talented performer on the stage but on the page as well. Peruse this and be amazed at what people found entertaining a century or two ago... it's not so different from what you watch every evening on the TV (especially if you watch Fox).

Jay has done a splendid job with his book, "Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women". If you ever wondered "What is REAL show business"? this book tells the tale. Very well researched and very entertaining. This is a "must have" for any student of show business.