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Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers [Paperback]

Ricky Jay
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)


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Book Description

November 1998
A cult classic and a work of remarkable scholarship restored to print.

Ricky Jay is one of the world's great sleight-of-hand artists. He is also a most unusual and talented scholar, specializing in the bizarre, exotic, and fantastic side of the human species. The youngest magician to have appeared on television, Jay has become well known for his astonishing stage show as well as for his cameos in such movies as Glengarry Glen Ross and, most recently, Boogie Nights.

Jay's unparalleled collection of books, posters, photographs, programs, broadsides, and, most important, data about unjustifiably forgotten entertainers all over the world made this unique book possible. An investigation into the inspired world of sideshows, circuses, and singularly talented performers, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women is history of the most unusual--and irresistible--sort.



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A magician himself, the author offers a history of magicians and other performers, including animals trained to do arithmetic and limbless people able to play musical instruments. PW stated the dozens of illustrations alone "are worth the price of the book."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA A historical compendium of the world's most bizarre and outrageous entertainers by one of the world's great sleight-of-hand artists. Reaching back into history as early as the 16th Century, Jay introduces readers to daredevils, mind readers, talented animals and their trainers, sword swallowers, and other wonders of the past. Some have been geniuses, others charlatans, but all have captured the imagination of their public. Although Jay handles the material unevenly, readers should leave the book with awe of the inventive genius of man, and of the incredible stamina of the human body. This is a delightful book for YAs who have a penchant for the extraordinary. It is full of colorful illustrations, posters, and billboards of yesteryear. Anne Johnson, formerly at St. John's School, Houston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 356 pages
  • Publisher: Noonday Press; 1st Farrar, Straus and Giroux pbk. ed edition (November 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0374525706
  • ISBN-13: 978-0374525705
  • Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #966,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
(14)
4.8 out of 5 stars
It is written with style, wit and humor: a thoroughly engaging work of scholarship. "rb480"  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
The fun reading this book kept me going from beginning to end. Kohl and Company  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
As a magician and card wielder Ricky Jay is fascinating to watch as well as listen to. MLIS2012  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars a catalogue of the amazing December 2, 1999
Format:Paperback
You've come to the right place. Buy _Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women_ if you want amazing stories, incredible histories, unbelievable accounts of some of the best acts of the last few centuries.

If I didn't know Ricky Jay's fine reputation as a magic historian, I'd think this book was a joke. The people and acts described are too outlandish, too impressive to be true. But I trust Jay to strike awe into me, and he does so repeatedly and without fail in this book.

The book's illustrations and photographs are marvelous supplements to Jay's smoothly written histories of performers--memory artists, dwarf magicians without arms or legs, women who walk into ovens. This is the quintessential introduction to this bizarre world.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Ricky Jay is having a lot of freaky fun February 7, 2003
Format:Paperback
In Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, Ricky Jay takes on the history of oddball performers: men who claimed to cram their entire bodies into quart jars, armless ladies who could paint miniatures holding a brush between their teeth, gentlemen whose specialty was to enter large ovens accompanied by raw meat and exit (unharmed) with fully-cooked steaks, as well as mind readers of all sorts and species (human, pig, and horse).

Organized into chapters by skill by oddball skill, Jay is sometimes able to document such performers back into the 1700s by tracking newspaper reports, handbills, etc., many of which are reproduced in color plates and black-and-white photographs.

Ricky Jay occupies an engaging hole in intellectual space between enthusiast and academic. He is comprehensive in the extreme, but his writing style is anecdotal and he does not go for any elaborate sociological explanation of why such performers exist or what they `mean' to society. He just wants you to have fun, and perhaps to freak you out just a wee bit.

The book is also very nicely designed; its large wide pages lie flat and there are loads of remarkable illustrations. Definitely worth a look!

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The book, like the author, is a national treasure September 2, 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
A celebration of the strange in performance, by a man who has made a career out of amassing the most comprehensive collection of stage and vaudeville arcana imaginable. Jay isn't just a brilliant performer: his writing crackles with desert-dry wit, and deep affection -- never, and this is important, condescension -- for his subjects, even for the crackpots and con artists. This is a glorious celebration of performing artists who are wonderful in their sheer oddness, and a paean to all that is uniquely human, and humanly unique. Marvelous; it's one of my favorite books of all time, and more than stands up to multiple re-readings.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved reading this book
Anything written by Ricky Jay is a wonderful read.
This book has so much great detail and is written so well that it is hard to put down. Read more
Published on May 20, 2011 by Kohl and Company
5.0 out of 5 stars High Praise
This has been one of my favorite books through the years. I have often 'dug it out' to show friends that I am not making this stuff up. Read more
Published on December 9, 2009 by Michael Gooch
5.0 out of 5 stars Step right up folks;see it for yourself!
A delightful book covering some of the most unique and entertaining acts presented over the years in Side Shows,Circuses,Stages,and famous Rooms in Europe and America. Read more
Published on June 29, 2007 by J. Guild
5.0 out of 5 stars Eyebrow-Raising, Awe-Inspiring History of Peculiar Performance.
"Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women" is a tour of peculiar performance through the ages by modern master and scholar of the magic arts Ricky Jay. Read more
Published on February 26, 2007 by mirasreviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Ricky Jay, Master Magician, Master Writer
As a magician and card wielder Ricky Jay is fascinating to watch as well as listen to. As a writer Mr. Read more
Published on December 12, 2002 by MLIS2012
5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure
This wonderful book profiles some of the most unusual entertainers of all times: calculating pigs and acrobatic horses, stone eaters, poison resisters, daredevils, and mind... Read more
Published on June 27, 2002 by Jeff Topham
5.0 out of 5 stars True Stories of Amazing Phenomenons of the Human Race!!
Loaded with photos and Mr. Jay's learned commentary, this book must be the best of it's kind, a celebration of what individuals can do, even under the toughest of circumstances. Read more
Published on January 12, 2002 by S. Henkels
3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite odd enough
I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something here, but this book is not nearly as marvelous as everyone claims. The entertainers profiled are not nearly as odd as claimed. Read more
Published on October 15, 2001 by Ken Zirkel
5.0 out of 5 stars AN amazing work of scholarship
Ricky Jay, card virtuoso, has collecting a fascinating volume dealing with all manner of unusual, exotic, and bizarre performers. Read more
Published on September 12, 2001 by "rb480"
5.0 out of 5 stars What more can I say...
All the reviews have hit this book on the head. What more can I say? However I do have a request. Several years ago PBS ran a lengthy television show where Ricky brought his... Read more
Published on August 23, 2000 by rob weaver
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