Joshua Jay (born October 30, 1981) is a magician, author, and lecturer. He has performed in over 100 countries, and he was awarded the top prize at the World Magic Seminar in 1998. He fooled

Penn and Teller Penn may refer to: Places England * Penn, Buckinghamshire * Penn, West Midlands United States * Penn, North Dakota * Penn, Oregon * Pennsylvania ** Penn, Pennsylvania * Penn Lake Park, Pennsylvania * Penn Township (disambiguation), several muni ...

on their hit show, ''

Fool Us ''Penn & Teller: Fool Us'' is a Magic (illusion), magic competition television show in which magicians perform tricks in front of American magician-comedian duo Penn & Teller. Its first two seasons were hosted by Jonathan Ross, and the third s ...

'''','' and he holds a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for card tricks. Jay has done magic on numerous television shows, most recently ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' and ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...

''''.'' Most recently, in January 2018, Joshua was recognized by the

Society of American Magicians The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and t ...

with their highest proclamation, for his contribution to the art of magic. Joshua attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and currently resides in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Early Years

Joshua attended Canton Country Day School and then

GlenOak High School GlenOak High School is a public high school in Plain Township, Ohio, United States, near Canton. It is the only high school in the Plain Local School District. Sports teams are called the Golden Eagles, and they compete in the Ohio High School ...

, in

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

. He was raised Jewish. He became interested in magic when his father showed him a

card trick Card manipulation is the branch of magic that deals with creating effects using sleight of hand techniques involving playing cards. Card manipulation is often used in magical performances, especially in close-up, parlor, and street magic. Some ...

but did not explain how it was done.

Career

Joshua has designed illusions for stage and screen, including a recent collaboration with

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

for

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

. Joshua consulted with the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

on the design of their postage stamp series, Magic. On January 30, 2016, at the Columbus Magi-Fest, Joshua set the

for Most Selected Cards Found from a Shuffled Deck in One Minute. He found 21 cards, a record that still stands. Joshua has done innovative research into what he has classified as "Tragic Magic," tricks that have proved fatal to magicians, assistants, and even spectators. Joshua has delivered keynote addresses on the history of magic at museums across the country, and written an academic article on the subject for Gibiciere. Joshua appeared at the 2008

Inaugural Ball United States presidential inaugural balls are large social gatherings, both white tie and black tie, held to celebrate the commencement of a new term of the President of the United States. Planned and sanctioned by the Presidential Inaugural ...

for

President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

, and has also delivered private performances for former

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

. In 2008, Joshua and friend

Andi Gladwin Andi Gladwin (May 10, 1983) is a British magician, speaker, and publisher. He has appeared on television (ITV's The Next Great Magician, Next Great Magician, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, The Big Breakfast, Lance Burton's Young Magician Showcase, Maste ...

founded Vanishing Inc. Magic, a retail magic outlet that manufactures and distributes props to magicians. Vanishing Inc. is currently one of the largest magic shops in the world, with warehouse and shipping operations in the US and Europe.

Author

Joshua majored in Creative Non-Fiction at the

with the intention of writing for and about the magic community. His senior thesis would eventually become ''The Amazing Book of Cards.'' He has authored three books for the public: ''MAGIC: The Complete Course, The Amazing Book of Cards,'' and, for children, ''Big Magic for Little Hands.'' His latest book, ''How Magicians Think: Misdirection, Deception, and Why Magic Matters'' will be published on September 28, 2021. Joshua has also authored a dozen books for magicians and served for 12 years as the Tricks Editor at ''MAGIC Magazine.''

TV Appearances

Joshua Jay has become one of the most prolific writers of the contracting literary scene in magic. Nearly all his books have been translated into other languages, and two titles have been published for the public: ''Magic: The Complete Course'' and ''The Amazing Book of Cards'' (

Workman Publishing Workman Publishing Company, Inc., is an American publisher of trade books founded by Peter Workman. The company is comprised of either imprints: Workman, Workman Children’s, Workman Calendars, Artisan, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill and Algonq ...

). He is also the publisher of many titles, through his company Vanishing Inc Magic with magician

. *

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's ''Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic'' * Fox Network's '' Lance Burton's Young Magician's Showcase'' * NHK's ''Magic of America'' (Japanese National Television) * NBC's TODAY SHOW (two appearances) * ABC's Good Morning America * The Daily Buzz (broadcast on the Spike Network) * Brad Meltzer's Decoded (Broadcast on the History Channel) *

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

's '' Penn & Teller: Fool Us'' (Episode: Teller Plays with a Full Deck)

As an author

). He is also the publisher of many titles, through his company Vanishing Inc Magic with magician

. * "Overlap" (2005) * "A Teens Routines" (1998) * "Joshua Jay's Magic Atlas" (1999) * "Destroyers: The Magic of Troy Hooser" (2001) * "Session: The Magic of Joel Givens" (2004) * "Magic: The Complete Course (Book & DVD)" (2008) * "Joshua Jay's Amazing Book Of Cards (Book & DVD)" (2010) (translated into German, Japanese, and French) * "Moments: More Magic of Troy Hooser" (2010) * Jay was a featured contributor in

The Linking Ring ''The Linking Ring'' is a monthly print magic magazine published by the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) for its members since 1922. It is based in Bluffton, Ohio. In 2007, Samuel Patrick Smith, a magician, author and publisher based ...

magazine in May 2010 (he also appeared on that issue's cover)

Awards

First place awards include: * 2011 Merlin Literary Achievement Award * World Magic Seminar, 1998 First Place Champion (Presented by

Lance Burton William Lance Burton (born March 10, 1960) is an American stage magician. He performed more than 15,000 shows in Las Vegas for over 5,000,000 people until retiring after 31 years in 2010. Professional history Burton first became interested in mag ...

) * International Battle of Magicians (twice, 1996 and 1998) * Columbus Magi Fest * Kleinman Incentive Award, Most Promising Youth (SAM National Convention) * Best Published Trick, Award for Creativity (

magazine) * Youngest magician to write One-Man-Parade (twenty page exposition of original effects) in

magazine * Society of American Magicians Close-Up Magician of the Year Award 2011

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jay, Joshua 1981 births Living people American magicians