If current trends in the showy realm of professional magic – conjurers and illusionists re-envisioned as self-styled rock stars – are any indication of where the craft is headed, then Ricky Jay is the odd man out.

“You probably will not be seeing people dressed in fringe and severing various parts of their bodies,” he says about his act, on the phone from Los Angeles. “My show is a blend of sleight-of-hand, stories and conversation.”

Talking about the show, called A Rogue’s Gallery – yet another collaboration between himself and long-time friend and theatrical demigod David Mamet – Jay sounds interested in keeping his act both simple and old school, eschewing the lowbrow for an intellectual approach.

He’s devoted much of his life to magic, while also dabbling successfully in acting, academia and antiquarianism.

Jay writes about the history of unusual entertainers, and has collected a huge amount of visual material going back to the 16th century: pictures of pickpockets, swindlers and people who rode around a circus ring standing on the backs of horses with their faces covered with swarms of bees.

“I’m going to show many of these images and have the audience suggest which ones will decide the direction of the show.”

Jay, sounding nervous and not at all like the performer famous for his onstage Shakespearean flow, is as modest and accommodating as he is elusive.

When I ask where he sees himself today within the broader magic community – and keep in mind that Jay is a performer who handles cards (he prefers a good pack of casino-quality Bees or Bicycles, btw) the way Michael Jordan did a basketball – he leaves me guessing like any good magician would.

He’s far more willing to discuss his own tricks. Jay admits to taking upwards of a year to perfect new material, and as far as inspiration goes, well, the more random the better.

“It can be absolutely anything from a sentence someone says at dinner to watching a scientist describe something. I used to do a piece based on the Velvetones’ version of The Glory Of Love.

“One of my inspirations is old magic literature. Even as a kid, I realized that people who were interested in magic would buy the latest trick for sale, and I always wanted what I did to be different.”

Jay knows more than anyone that good magic is about interaction, and although sleight-of-hand might seem to require intimate scrutiny on the part of the crowd, he assures me his show works just as well in front of 1,000, though he sounds torn as to his preferred audience size.

“My ideal crowd would be two or three people, but I do love live theatre.”

Interview Clips

On his new show, A Rogue's Gallery

On his approach to performing

On the difference between magicians

On revisiting old magical texts for inspiration

stage@nowtoronto.com