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

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

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.

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

This excursion into the history of bizarre entertainments includes armless calligraphers, mathematical dogs, tightrope-walking fleas and assorted quacks, flimflammers and charlatans of spectacle.

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.

Plato said God invented dice. This we learn from one of the fascinating essays, which take readers from the origins of dice to the myriad forms of cheating throughout history. Rosamond Purcell's luminous photographs transform dice made from unstable celluloid into an art form.

Published to accompany the exhibition "Wordplay: Matthais Buchinger's inventive drawings from the collection of Ricky Jay" held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, January 5-April 11, 2016.

Profiles unique entertainers, including musical prodigies, cannon-ball catchers, conmen, card cheats, and other side-show performers and oddities.

From a newspaper column that gained tremendous popularity for its upbeat celebration of ingenuity in nature comes 100 of the best bite-size articles celebrating "intelligent Design." Covering a wide range of examples from nature in ways rarely considered, Alibrando engages the reader with scientific accuracy and a pinch of wit. This 2nd edition is an update of some details, minor editing, and some graphic upgrades.