Matthias Buchinger

The Greatest German Living

By Ricky Jay

2015

First Published

3.83

Average Rating

160

Number of Pages

4H53M

Audio Length

Matthias Buchinger (1674-1739) performed on more than a half-dozen musical instruments, some of his own invention. He exhibited trick shots with pistols, swords and bowling. He danced the hornpipe and deceived audiences with his skill in magic. He was a remarkable calligrapher specializing in micrography-handsome, precise letters almost impossible to view with the naked eye-and he drew portraits, coats of arms, landscapes and family trees, many commissioned by royalty. Amazingly, Buchinger was just 29 inches tall, and born without legs or arms. He lived to the ripe old age of 65, survived three wives, wed a fourth and fathered 14 children. Accompanying the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition "Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger's Inventive Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay," the book is a cabinet containing a single, multifaceted wonder, refracted through author Ricky Jay's scholarship and storytelling. Alongside an unprecedented and sumptuously reproduced selection of Buchinger's marvelous drawings and etchings, Jay delves into the history and mythology of the "Little Man," while also chronicling his encounters with the many fascinating characters whom he meets in his passionate search for Buchinger. Ricky Jay is considered one of the world's great sleight-of-hand artists. His career is further distinguished by his accomplishments as author, actor and historian of "unusual entertainments." He has appeared in films directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Gus Van Sant and David Mamet. His "Jay's Journal of Anomalies" and "Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women" were "New York Times" "Notable Books." The subject of the documentary "Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practices," Jay is the only conjurer to be profiled in the PBS series "American Masters."

Avg Rating

3.83

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

36%

4 STARS

23%

3 STARS

30%

2 STARS

11%

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Ricky Jay

Author · 8 books

Ricky Jay (born Richard Jay Potash in 1946) was an American stage magician, actor, and writer. Born to a Jewish-American family, Jay is considered one of the most knowledgeable and skilled sleight-of-hand experts in the United States. He is notable for his signature card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter. At least two of his shows, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants and On the Stem, were directed by David Mamet, who has also cast Jay in a number of his films. Jay has appeared in productions by other directors, notably Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and Magnolia, as well as The Prestige and season one of HBO's Deadwood as card sharp Eddie Sawyer. Until recently, Ricky Jay was listed in the Guinness Book of Records for throwing a playing card 190 ft at 90 miles per hour (the current record is 216 ft, by Rick Smith, Jr.). Ricky Jay can throw a playing card into a watermelon rind (which he refers to as the "thick, pachydermatous outer melon layer" of "the most prodigious of household fruits") from ten paces.