Ricky Jay (born Richard Jay Potash in Brooklyn, New York) is 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.

Famous for his astounding ability to throw playing cards, and is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for throwing a playing card a hundred and ninety feet at ninety miles an hour. From ten paces he can throw a playing card into the flesh of a watermelon.

Serious scholar of unusual performances and the author of 'Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women' which chronicles the bizarre performers found in circuses, sideshows, and other odd places - a copy of which appears prominently amongst Stanley's volumes on a table in Magnolia (1999). Also the author of 'Extraordinary Exhibitions', 'Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck', 'Jay's Journal of Anomalies', and 'Cards as Weapons'.

He is noted as one of magic's expert card technicians. He was the curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts.

Sleight of hand expert.