Ask Jay Sankey

[EddWithers]

Jay Sankey is a Canadian close-up magician and creator of magic effects active since the mid-1980s. David Copperfield performed Sankey's trick "Airtight." Sankey also develops tricks for Criss Angel.

He is also known as a stand-up comedian as has authored a book about the art of stand-up.

Jay Sankey was also recently nominated for a TMW Magic Award, so it is a real pleasure to have him here!

A real gem in the magic industry, I had the pleasure of seeing Jay perform at Blackpool and he was great. A very endearing and professional performer and creator.

Welcome to TMW Jay! Let the questions begin!

//Edd Withers
//Manager

[MitchellStafiej]

Hey Jay, it's good to have you here and thank you for coming to answer these questions.

You are a MASTER creator, what goes on in your head when you're creating tricks/effects? What are you surroundings like when you create? Do ideas come sparradically or do you have to put a lot of thought into it?

Mitchell

P.S. Are you doing any lectures in Montreal soon?

[MoritaNaoki]

Jay, I also wish to note my appreciation for your work: although it is rare that I will perform any of your effects directly as you present them, it is often that I have used them as stepping stones to my own effects. In fact, my favourite is my development of Resistance Is Futile (a performance of my 'Leading Questions' can be found here for anyone that is interested).

From reading design articles for Magic: The Gathering one the Wizards of the Coast website, there are two distinct styles of card design there, which I feel can be looked at in the sense of design of conjuring effects. The more predominant method in M:TG is termed 'bottom-up' on the website, and is predominantly focused on the attributes, with flavour built up on top of that. The other method is 'top-down' where the card is designed from a viewpoint of flavour first. In conjuring (I use this term here to distinguish from the game), I feel that flavour is represented by effect while attributes is represented by methods.

So my question is this:

Do you design 'top-down' or 'bottom-up' more commonly? Do you feel that effect-led design is stronger or weaker than method-led design?

[Puremagik]

Hi Jay,

Ok I'm not going to absolutely smother you with comments but your work is UNREAL! I was hoping you could tell us what other skills or tools you may use or find useful when creating effects. I've already heard a podcast interview about you giving tip on creating effects but it would be nice to get some evaluation on it. (:

Cheers

P.S. Any chance you might come to NZ?

[ace18]

Hi Jay! Awesome of you to be here! Alright get ready for a bunch of questions:

What is your favorite magic plot? (ie. Triumph, Sandwich etc...)
What was it like working with David Acer?
What are some of you "upcoming" projects? If you can tell...
And finally, Do you ever run out of ideas? It seems you just constantly think up of stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

[googoodolls]

Hi Jay Sankey. I love your work. I was wondering what you did when you were starting out performing magic and got sick and could not perform what did you do to make your customer still happy with you.

Another question I heard you worked with Criss Angel. How was it working with his team?

What do you think the hardest thing to do in the magic industry is?

What do like to do in your spare time other than magic?

Finally what music do you like?

[garethwitty]

Hey Jay

Thanks for the mention in your newsletter and yes the Assasins Pouch is working a treat!

So dude, where are you aiming to go this year magic wise?

News books? New DVDs?

[kliao93]

First of all, I would like to say ur one of the greatest magicians ever. You are very creative. What kind of music do u like to use? COuld you please give me a range between stage magic music, and just for videos? Please let me know.

[KeenanG]

Hey Jay,

Glad to see ya here...

What is your inspiration to do the magic that you do?

Fav. Magician?

Favorite effect (of your own and someone elses)

Favorite Dvd of yours?

Thanks for being here!

Keenan

[alanclimb]

Hi Jay

You are known for your comedy as well as your magic and you mix the two together. Do you ever find that as you are performing that you have to check yourself to avoid doing to much comedy. I find that laughs feed laughs. And before I know it I am doing comedy stuff while holding a pack of cards.

Your vids were the first that I bought and set me up well. Just the right amount of explination and not overkill like some of the stuff out there

A//

[DarthRidiculous]

Oh My God.


Welcome Jay!!!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!! you are friggin AWESOME Jay, I LOVE your work, I recently purchased Nailed! from mjmmagic.com......been using it as a closer in my little impromptu performances, and it kicks EVERY time.

I just want to applaud your effort with the TV show, "Spellz", what made you decide to do a kids show, and can you tell us what kind of stuff you'll be teaching on it? I'm going to be volunteering a couple hours a week at my local hospital doing magic for kids in the hospital. Asking our members here what material they would recommend, they suggested Guy Hollingsworth's Once Upon A Time and those little sponge bunnies who's name escapes me at the moment.....What kind of material can you recommend to me for the walkaround shows at the hospital?

And on the polar opposite ofdoing magic for kids, and reverting back to my original statement above, I hear "Oh My God" is some of the funniest stuff ever released, but its not being released anymore. Any chance you will re-release it again? I'd LOVE to see it!!

Thank you so much for joining us for the Q&A, and hope to see you continue to pop in when you have some time!!

David

[philliefan4life1]

first, id like to thank you for taking your time to come help us on TMW. you have been one of my favorite magicians for a long time because of how you perform.

my question is, how do you mix comedy with magic? how do you get them to stop laughing for a second to be amazed at the magic? ive seen many cases, that the comedy takes away from the magic. how do you prevent that?

again, thank you for your time.

[Karisma]

.... ......... .. ....... . . ........

Jay Sankey here at TMW. Wow.

Jay first off let me start off by saying not only am I a fan of your presentation and creativity in magic, but I also enjoy your view and psychology behind it all. I have enjoyed every DVD I have bought from you and used many of the effects. And although I could pull off most of the patter you use with my style, I figured it's only fair if I use my own...I mean after all, you provided the effect. With all the praise out of the way, and probably still plenty more to come, here are my questions.

1 - Throughout your career you have released a number of DVD's and effects as well as books and notes containing a number of effects. Out of all of those, which one do you consider your favorite? Which did you have the most fun producing and creating?

2 - I too am curious as to how many weird looks you got from people when you and Mr. (David) Acer were together. I mean, both of you are off the wall, but when combined...I can only imagine....How was it hanging out with him?

3 - Have you ever attended a Texas Association of Magicians convention before? If not, how about you make this year your first? I mean, it's in Corpus Christi, Texas...Oh My! And I live right next to there!! How convenient! So how bout it...See you there? Heh....

Thanks for taking the time to answer all of these! Take it easy Mr. Sankey and have a good one.

Frank Fogg

[cards88]

hey jay. Its great to have you as a special guest. You have a lot of products out there and I was wondering if you will ever release a best of the best DVD. All your top favorite tricks you have ever released and some tricks that you haven't. That would be really cool. Great to have you here!

[AlanJ]

Hi Jay
Welcome to the magic woods, being british and living in britain,i dont get to see magicians from other countries very often,so The Blackpool masgic convention is one of my favourite conventions to visit,i really admire your magic but also your sense of humor is wicked,the way you handled your lecture when you opened the wrong envelope showing the torn card effect was amazing, not many people could have handled it the way you did,anyway my question to you is ...do you intend coming to the Blackpol convention in 2008?