Conversations

Geoff Dyer & Ricky Jay

  • This is a past program

Geoff Dyer is the author of the novels Paris Trance, The Search, The Colour of Memory, and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi; two collections of essays, Anglo- English Attitudes and Working the Room; and six genre-defying titles, But Beautiful, The Missing of the Somme, Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It, The Ongoing Moment, and Zona, about Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. His collection of essays, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

While Ricky Jay has long been considered one of the world’s great sleight of hand artists, his career is further distinguished by the remarkable variety of his accomplishments as an author, actor, historian, and consultant. His consulting company, Deceptive Practices with Michael Weber, has supplied “Arcane Knowledge on a Need to Know Basis” for more than a score of films including Forrest Gump, The Illusionist, and Oceans 13. He is the author of Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women, and Jay’s Journal of Anomalies, both New York Times “Notable Books.” Among his other works are Dice: Deception, Fate and Rotten Luck, with photographs by Rosamond Purcell; Extraordinary Exhibitions; and Celebrations of Curious Characters.

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