Just saw Ricky Jay’s “A Rogue’s Gallery” in which Mr. Jay allows the audience to choose 20 or 30 from 108 rogues projected behind him on a screen. Jay demonstrates his memory and affection for these rogues by reciting their dramatic points without notes, often connecting them with others on the board. It was delightful and impressive…but a bit less so than I thought it would be. Anyway, it got me and the missus-to-be out of the house on a Sunday night.

Apparently Roger Ebert was also impressed:

I went to see Ricky Jay's new show, “Rogue's Gallery,” at the Royal George. I've seen him more than once before, so I was prepared for an astonishing experience. He is one of the greatest card manipulators of all time, and he outdid himself.

How the hell does Ricky Jay do that? (via Roger Ebert’s Journal)

Ricky Jay is an astonishing magician — a grand master of the art and craft required for the dramatic manipulation of things that appear to be in full sight. Yet sleight-of-hand is almost the least of the many extraordinary talents and enthusiasms of this actor, writer, historian and performance artist. Just consider, for starters, the grand panache with which Jay begins his tremendously engaging, endlessly imaginative one-man show, “A Rogue's Gallery,” now in an all-too-brief run at the Royal George Theatre.

‘Verbalist’ Jay unleashes witty ‘Rogues Gallery’ by Hedy Weiss (via CHICAGO SUN-TIMES)