A tongue-in-cheek look at the newest method of self-defense details the history of card-throwing, exercises to improve your throwing ability, and fantastic stunts

A popular magician offers a guide to the most exotic entertainers in the history of showbusiness--from the amazing feats of handicapped individuals to the unusual talents of trained animals (view table of contents)

The complete set of quarterlies offers an entertaining journey into the history of bizarre entertainments, such as dogs stealing acts from other dogs, an anthropological hoax involving the only survivors of a caste of Aztec preiests, and a diet of only air. (view table of contents)

Product Description: A classic small celebration and meditation on dice through the ages; both brilliant and beautiful."Jay's writing is exactly what one would expect from the extremely erudite, witty and decent author of Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women and Jay's Journal of Anomalies...read more

Product Description: 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.

Product Description: An informal history of sensational, scientific, silly, satisfying, and startling attractions based on seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century broadsides from Ricky Jay's extraordinary collection.It includes observations on the convention of promoting such appearances, digressions on the manner and method of printing advertisements to do so, and insights into the psychology employed to that end...read more

Product Description: Alan Wakeling’s acclaimed magic has for years been the “secret source” for leading professional magicians. His career featured stage magic, illusions, close-up and stand-up effects, including several complete acts. This book contains professional material developed by Wakeling and used by magicians...read more

Product Description: The art of magicMagic has enchanted humankind for millennia, evoking terror, laughter, shock, and amazement. Once persecuted as heretics and sorcerers, magicians have always been conduits to a parallel universe of limitless possibility whether invoking spirits, reading minds, or inverting the laws of nature by sleight of hand...read more

Product Description: Celebrations of Curious Characters cracks open the personal vaults of Ricky Jay—raconteur, historian, and one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists—exposing a wonderful world of amusing and arcane knowledge. Adapted from his popular radio series “Jay’s Journal of the Air,” Celebrations of Curious Characters features one-page anecdotes of mind-bending performers (limbless jugglers, banjo-picking birds, Anglo-Texan saxophone-playing siamese twins) paired with engravings, mezzotints, and broadsheets from the author’s remarkable collection...read more