For his next trick: Listen closely

Ricky Jay has heard the comments about the oddity of being a magician on the radio and even made a few jokes himself. “I can’t very well ask the audience to pick a card,� he said.

But it’s his other talents and interests that have landed him a spot doing weekly, albeit brief, commentaries on KCRW-FM (89.9), starting Thursday.

“What’s appealing is they really are giving me free rein to say whatever I want,� said Jay, who in addition to being a magician is an actor, magic historian and author. He’s written “Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women,� “The Magic Magic Book,� “Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck� and “Jay’s Journal of Anomalies,� which features essays on ceiling walkers, sword swallowers and the origins of the flea circus, among other subjects.

He’ll begin his foray into radio with stories about a supposedly psychic myna bird and a turn-of-the-century Chicago detective who fancied himself the American Sherlock Holmes.

“I like unusual entertainment,� he said and added that KCRW gave him no mandate to be topical. That’s a good thing, he joked, because “I’ve never been steeped in relevance.�

His four-minute commentaries will air Thursdays at 3:55 p.m., between “Fresh Air� with Terry Gross and “All Things Considered.�

It’s the same time slot filled on other days by the likes of humorist Sandra Tsing Loh and critics Edward Goldman, Joe Morgenstern and Sam Hall Kap- lan. Jay will replace “Theatre Talk.�

Morgenstern said listeners will appreciate Jay “as a prestidigitator without peer, as a performer par excellence and as a scholar peering into precincts of human knowledge that entirely escape the notice of most humans these days.� He added that Jay’s performances and scholarship are “zestful,� because “everywhere he goes, Ricky finds and gives cause for wonder.�