The Onion’s AV Club has a fantastic interview with Ricky Jay today, where he remembers many of his most memorable film, television and theater roles. He even dusts off his “outside talker” (a.k.a. carnival barker) schtick.
AVC: A 1993 New Yorker profile mentioned that you could recite from memory the spiel you had to deliver when you were a carnival barker. Do you still remember that to this day?
RJ: Yeah. I mean, as one gets older, what you forget is something that happened 10 minutes ago, not that. I still do remember that quite well. And that’s exactly the kind of piece that might come up at one of the shows, it might not. Am I intuiting from this that you want me to give you a little bark?
AVC: That would be delightful.
RJ: “Showtime, circus time, see the magician that lights up the girl with the yellow elastic tissue, the Electrode Lady. Yes, the Electrode Lady, at the age of 7, she and her sister were struck by lightning. Her sister died, but she lived to tell the tale. 20,000 volts of electricity for the young girl’s body. The doctors said she lived because she was immune to the shock of electricity.” I could go on.
We’re ready to get into the tent.