Jay entertained a packed house during a City Arts & Lectures appearance Thursday night, and hinted during an interview that he would love to bring his card-trick-themed "On the Stem" production to San Francisco. His favorite printer, Patrick Reagh, lives in the area, as does Persi Diaconis -- a Stanford statistics professor and sleight-of-hand icon with a career path as strange as Jay's.

t whimpers

Ricky Jay is the coolest.

WHY isn't he on Deadwood this season?! I loved him and his character.

We do have people that freeze when presented with yelling, usually because of a past history. But freezing at yelling is some of what we're trying to get them past, and it's hard to do without, well, yelling.

I get that. Freezing isn't my problem. Wanting to go to "end this - now" is. Of course, that's what you're teaching.

I ADORED getting asked up onstage at Ricky Jay's show and sitting at a table with him while he dealt a rigged poker game.

Wow. Ricky Jay is fantastic. That's so cool.

Totally jumping in to the conversation, but Besty or anybody, do you know if you can or should iron black-out lining?

I think the key differences between the MM rape scenarios and the krav ones is the performer -- when I work with my partner, and s/he pins me down, there's a natural limit to how uncomfortable they're comfortable making me. So it stays pretty physical.

When we up the stress it's usually in standup scenarios -- having a gun held to my head while being showered with obscenities is terrifying, but ... different from the rape scenario. Less personal. Less dirty.

when I work with my partner, and s/he pins me down, there's a natural limit to how uncomfortable they're comfortable making me.

I'd imagine. That's one of the reasons the MM organizations have such strict rules about relationships between instructors and students.

Besty or anybody, do you know if you can or should iron black-out lining?

DON'T. It's rubberized/plasticized. Let the wrinkles steam out.

DON'T. It's rubberized/plasticized. Let the wrinkles steam out.

What do I do about my seams then?

That's one of the reasons the MM organizations have such strict rules about relationships between instructors and students.

That makes sense. However, we really have no such rules. I wonder how that will play out for us?

The main difference (perhaps only) between the MM and what we're going to do is that our defense techniques are different -- so the instructor/attackers receive the same training, we're just getting the students to ... you know, turn their heads towards the hand when being put in an arm bar, not towards the elbow.

But all the attacks will (necessarily) be by a trained person. It's going to be weird having someone I know pull that crap on me.

I can't wait.

I think I just left 'em alone. They're hidden on the inside of the lining anyway.