Of my two favorite things ever recorded for television, the second is Ricky Jay’s magic show taped for HBO, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. I was lucky enough to randomly see this when it aired, and it was the most impressive thing I had ever witnessed. I grew up watching magic specials with large-scale illusions (and, in my mind, always hosted by John Ritter), but I had never seen anything so tactile, precise, and cool. Everything was close-up, mostly involving card control, including throwing cards so forcefully to pierce a watermelon rind. The thing that stuck with me forever was the last segment, titled “The History Lesson,” where Ricky Jay walks the audience through the history of the cups and balls trick while performing it in different iterations. Even now, I am still so amazed by this, not because of the trick itself (watch the dozen Penn and Teller clips of them showing how it’s done), but the storytelling on top of his command over what is being witnessed. I’ve watched this segment at least a hundred times in my life, and I still get immersed in watching a trick that is relatively rote and commonplace, however impressive, become extraordinary because of how it’s so uniquely shaped.