It doesn’t seem that many remember Scotty York. He’s faded from memory as the magic culture shifted over the last decade or two. Like his counterparts Jamy Ian Swiss, Eric Mead, Steve Spell and Doc Eason, he was a bar magician.
According to his biographical sketch on Genii’s Magipedia:
Scotty York (1937-2012), known as “The Silver Fox”, was an Engineer by trade who performed as close-up magic as a bartender at Brook Farm Inn of Magic in Silver Spring, Maryland and later at the Inn of Magic in Wheaton, Maryland.
I saw Scotty lecture in the early 1980’s in a magic and comedy club in the south side of Pittsburgh. The reason I have any clue to the date is that I found his lecture notes recently -while sorting through my collection in an attempt to downsize.
Scotty was a bit of an anomaly compared to his peers. He didn’t perform a lot of card magic as he focused on prop magic. One of the effects I remember him performing was the Scotty York Light Bulb. A card was selected and lost. The deck was cut into a few piles. A small light bulb was introduced and placed inside a handkerchief. The helper held onto the ends of the handkerchief and passed it over the piles. The bulb lit when it passed over the selection. It was a clever gimmick released at the time by UK dealer, Ken Brooke.
Scotty explained his decision to shy away from card magic in his notes:
Early on, I realized that the great bulk of magic literature deals with the subject of card magic and that I would likely spend years gaining a sufficient command of either the literature or the ability to converse or perform at anything above a mediocre level. Consequently, I concentrated on other less developed areas of magic and only turned to card magic within the last few years, after I had a basic knowledge of magic concepts and knew the right people to ask for guidance.
If I knew then what I know now about card magic, I could have saved much time and trouble and focused on the essential sleights for the performance of what I feel are the most entertaining and mystifying card effects. This is the information 1 will pass on to you in the portion of this lecture dealing with card magic.
Like Chicago bar magician, Matt Schulien, Scotty recommended a short list of sleights to master. He believed that this list was all a professional needed. His list was:
The following is a list of card sleights which I wish someone would have suggested that I learn 10 years ago… and I would have listened!
The Ghost Count or Alex Elmsley count – Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic by Lewis Ganson (page 5)
The Carmen D’Amico Double Lift – Card Control by Arthur Buckley (page 15)
The T. Nelson Downs Side Steal – Card Control by Arthur Buckley (page 56)
The Hofzingser Force – Card Control by Arthur Buckley (page 79)
The Frank Thompson Blind Cut – Super Subtle Card Miracles by Frank Garcia (page 143)
The Paul LePaul Diagonal Left Hand Palm – The Card Magic of LePaul by Paul LePaul (page 61)
The Mercury Card Fold – Expert Card Technique by Hugard and Braue (page 303)
It seems to be a comprehensive list. I only know two of them myself. I plan on exploring the others – especially those in the Buckley book. I have the ebook but haven’t spent much time exploring it. I believe all of the texts are available digitally with the exception of the Frank Garcia book. For some reason, his books are elusive.
