Sunday, June 16, 2002


RICKY JAY, a remarkable magician/performer whose latest Off-Broadway show ON THE STEM was directed by David Mamet, is featured with Mamet in this interesting interview at the Times. Jay's next to last answer is on how he gets ready on show days:

JAY: Rehearse a little, go to sleep, get up, take a shower, go to the theater two hours early, rehearse some more, and do the show. It's completely consuming. I have maybe three hours a day to myself, so I can do one thing, maybe have lunch with someone. And then after the performance I can't sleep, I'm up till 4 or 5 in the morning, wired from the adrenaline.

This is exactly how I've been living for the last two months, in which time there have been 72 performances, which works out to approxiamately 108 hours of stage time. I don't think I've ever done anything so fully absorbing in all my life.

Read the article--it's very good.


11:34 AM