Jay's Journal of Anomalies [Paperback]

Ricky Jay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2003

One of the New York Times "Notable Books" and a Los Angeles Times "Best Book of the Year, " Jay's brilliant excursion into the history of bizarre entertainments is now available in paperback.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Author and actor Ricky Jay (Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women) gathers four years of his quarterly Jay's Journal of Anomalies in one volume of the same name. An expert on the improbable, Jay trains his curiosity on unusual forms of entertainment and recorded history, and entries include "A Compendium of Giant Children" and "A Verbally Challenging Bestiary." He has unearthed gems like an advertisement for "Miss Silvia, Skandenavian Ceiling Walker" and a centuries-long fascination with the public spectacle of nose amputation. Jay's new one-man show, Ricky Jay on Broadway, opening this spring, and his role in Mamet's forthcoming movie Heist promise publicity for this witty and bizarre collection. Color illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Jay is a deliciously deadpan tour guide...to whom nothing is shocking, and everything is full of wonder. -- Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly

Ricky Jay is the coolest person currently walking the planet. He's talented, charming and shrewd. -- Mark Luce, San Francisco Chronicle

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Quantuck Lane Press (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593720009
• ISBN-13: 978-1593720001
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Weirdest Shows on Earth, October 25, 2001

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jay's Journal of Anomalies : Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments (Hardcover)

_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.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fabulous Journey Into The Bizarre, September 27, 2001

By 

Charles H Pearson (Kansas City, KS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jay's Journal of Anomalies : Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments (Hardcover)

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'An Anomaly of Anomalies', May 27, 2004

By 

Dr. Christopher Coleman (HONG KONG) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jay's Journal of Anomalies : Conjurers, Cheats, Hustlers, Hoaxsters, Pranksters, Jokesters, Imposters, Pretenders, Side-Show Showmen, Armless Calligraphers, Mechanical Marvels, Popular Entertainments (Hardcover)

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."