Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women
Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women
A cult classic and a work of remarkable scholarship restored to print.
Ricky Jay is one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists. He is also a most unusual and talented scholar, specializing in the bizarre, exotic, and fantastic side of the human species. The youngest magician to have appeared on television, Jay has become well known for his astonishing stage show as well as for his cameos in such movies as Glengarry Glen Ross and, most recently, Boogie Nights.
Jay’s unparalleled collection of books, posters, photographs, programs, broadsides, and, most important, data about unjustifiably forgotten entertainers all over the world made this unique book possible. An investigation into the inspired world of sideshows, circuses, and singularly talented performers, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women is history of the most unusual–and irresistible–sort.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Eyebrow-Raising, Awe-Inspiring History of Peculiar Performance.
“Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women” is a tour of peculiar performance through the ages by modern master and scholar of the magic arts Ricky Jay. Each of the book’s 17 chapters is dedicated to a different type of performer that awed audiences with his or her unusual skill or expert illusion. These are not all practitioners of misdirection or deception. Many are people who possessed very real unusual mental or physical talents. And some were not even human. There are scholarly pigs and horses, slight-of-hand artists, hypnotists, faith healers, poison resistors, and mind readers. Also featured are painters who happened to be limb-less, a blind and dumb musical prodigy, daredevil divers, mnemonic sensations, sword swallowers, musical farters, a man who could grow 6 inches at will, and more.
The book does not attempt to be comprehensive on its subjects. Ricky Jay limits himself to “pioneers or refiners of peculiar performance”. The truly extraordinary and inventive, not their many imitators. So many famous and impressive performers are not included. Ricky Jay’s writing is precise, fluid, and conveys his admiration and awe at these human oddities and pioneering showmen. Jay’s occasional references to his own experiences when they are relevant add interest. There are black-and-white reproductions of posters, playbills, and other illustration throughout. In the center of the book are 16 pages of full-color poster reproductions. “Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women” is an education in eccentric performance and the unusual, determined individuals who have created it. And it’s great fun.
5 Stars A treasure
This wonderful book profiles some of the most unusual entertainers of all times: calculating pigs and acrobatic horses, stone eaters, poison resisters, daredevils, and mind readers. The contents of this meticulously researched and lovingly presented book often boggle the mind, inducing, at times, a wonderment that is nearly stupefying. Profusely illustrated with contemporary broadsides, lithographs, and photographs, the book is also enlivened by JayÕs seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of each performerÕs antecedents, biography, and critical reception. Engrossing from start to finish, but particularly notable for JayÕs account of the controversial career and bizarre death of mind reader Washington Irving Bishop, whose story beggars imagination. Also not to be missed is the final chapter on Joseph Pujol, whose career as Le Ptomane was based on his ability to create music and sound effects with the least reputable of bodily orifices. A treasure
5 Stars Ricky Jay, Master Magician, Master Writer
As a magician and card wielder Ricky Jay is fascinating to watch as well as listen to. As a writer Mr. Jay also brings his own fascination at the work of others to play and writes a truly well-written, very interesting and enlightening book about the arcane world of many sometimes downright odd entertainers.
Thorough in his presentation of details Mr. Jay’s book is well-researched and his appreciation and awe for these unique people makes us quite enthralled as we read page after page about performers such as Le Petomaine, with his unusual ability to produce sounds of musical quality from a most unusual source on his body.
Ricky Jay, besides being fascinating to watch, is also fascinating to read.
5 Stars Ricky Jay is having a lot of freaky fun
In Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, Ricky Jay takes on the history of oddball performers: men who claimed to cram their entire bodies into quart jars, armless ladies who could paint miniatures holding a brush between their teeth, gentlemen whose specialty was to enter large ovens accompanied by raw meat and exit (unharmed) with fully-cooked steaks, as well as mind readers of all sorts and species (human, pig, and horse).
Organized into chapters by skill by oddball skill, Jay is sometimes able to document such performers back into the 1700s by tracking newspaper reports, handbills, etc., many of which are reproduced in color plates and black-and-white photographs.
Ricky Jay occupies an engaging hole in intellectual space between enthusiast and academic. He is comprehensive in the extreme, but his writing style is anecdotal and he does not go for any elaborate sociological explanation of why such performers exist or what they `mean’ to society. He just wants you to have fun, and perhaps to freak you out just a wee bit.
The book is also very nicely designed; its large wide pages lie flat and there are loads of remarkable illustrations. Definitely worth a look!
5 Stars Step right up folks;see it for yourself!
A delightful book covering some of the most unique and entertaining acts presented over the years in Side Shows,Circuses,Stages,and famous Rooms in Europe and America.Although I remember going to Carnivals,Side Shows and the Circus since I was a kid in the late 40’s and after.I also remember many great Magic and Illusion Shows over the years ,brought right into our home via Television.I always had a preference for the side act,oddities,daredevils,illusionists,etc., over the animal acts.Yes,I can still see the Monkey Woman,the King and Queen of the Midgets at home in their Castle in Montreal. Then there was the World’s Smallest Horse,The Alligator Boy ,whose body was covered in scales,the man without arms who drew portraits with chalk using his feet, A Flea Circus where real fleas did all kinds of things,even pulling a tiny carriage, and on and on.
What surprised me most about this book is that many,even most of the people and acts covered were new to me.I guess this sort of stuff was more popular in the 18th,19th and early 20th Centuries and more so in Europe than America.I really haven’t seen much in recent years. I guess Political Correctness and activist groups have had a major impact on these acts and people. The media is forever doing a story about mistreatment of animals in the Circus etc. Maybe the diversions this kind of entertainment gave us did us more good than realized.I know as kids we waited with anticipation for the Circus to come to town and particularly the Side Shows that accompanied them. I can tell you one thing,there was no need to drug up the kids on Ridlin,then,like you see today.
For my money,I would far prefer to watch an act like La Roche climbing the spiral tower while inside a sphere;than any Olympic event.To me ,shaving one hundredth of a second off some record I’ve seen hundreds of times is pure boredom.It seems that the most excitement is created with announcers debating calls by referees ,judges or as a last resort;who has failed a steroid test or broke some rule.
So, if you ever saw a good Side Show, saw some great feat of magic or illusion;this book will give you some wonderful memories of how entertaining this all was.It is jam packed with photographs and wonderful illustrations ;both in color and B&W. You may have to make a bit of an effort to find this book.It is out of print, but thanks to finding books on the Net now,It is available at a wide range of prices and some even signed by the author.It is a “must have” for anyone who loved this form of entertainment that may become a thing of the past.All we can hope for is a revival.
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