I use to know and be amazed by a guy in Raleigh, NC named George Vaughn, AKA Scorpio. I heard he died many years back, and I wonder if anyone on the forum knew him.

George was SO good, even as a magician he had me convinced he had extrasensory "powers"...and I'm a skeptic!

The reason I'm writing in this forum particularly is because George had a version of the McDonald Aces that was just killer. The finale required an Elmsley Count and a few other simple sleights and it just looked like "real" magic. There were 3 gaffed Aces and the rest was just perfect handling.

I wonder if anyone has any information on this effect? I lost mine in a move years ago and would really like to do this trick again.

thanks!

your friend,


Lobsta

Try searching "McDonald's Aces" in The Workers forum here in the Café.

I never heard of Scorpio's version of McDonald's Aces, but you can find Qua-Fiki's "McFiki Jumbo Aces" variation in The Wizards' Journal #23, for which there is a video available to see if you like his version. He and Spellbinder did a lot of research into various McDonald Aces versions and so the e-Book also contains quite a bit of background history on the effect which might help.

George was a pal and I do have a copy of his instruction sheet somewhere (which could be a problem.) I can also ask his best friend, Tate, if he's got a copy handy.

I'll look for mine tomorrow or Saturday, Lobsta. Just got back from a very painful dermatological sesh and am not able tonight to go digging through boxes.

Steve H

Steve! I wonder if we ever met...I used to go to George's hypnosis sessions at the Pier in Raleigh and I worked at WRAL TV for years before going to medical school. I think I remember Tate, too. That name is very familiar. If you find anything, feel free to PM me. It's great to find another Scorpio fan!

PS: sorry about the dermatology session...I can relate!

Ok, just for everyone's edification (if you're interested)

This McDonald Ace DVD + Gimmick: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/1115 encompasses most of George's version.

Using the "advanced setup" with the "live" vanishes basically reproduces his routine as I recall.

Anyway, I'm glad to be doing this again; it's one of my favorite card tricks.

thanks!


Lobsta

So, is everyone in Raleigh, NC known by names such as "Lobsta" and "Scorpio"?

:wow:

Ha ha, tomsk!

Glad I stumbled onto this thread...

The first magic trick I ever bought as an adult was a "Wiffle Wand" which was a paddle trick made and sold by George Scorpio Vaughn (George A. Boisvin.) When I met him, George ran a little magic shop called The Scorpion's Den in Boone, NC. It was located in the back of a local tourist attraction called Mystery Hill where water ran up hill, etc. At any rate, I was absolutely floored by George's handling of that little paddle trick and, being a complete neophyte, couldn't figure it out for the life of me when he demonstrated it. I bought it and when he taught me how to do it, I just couldn't believe how great it looked and how deceptive that little paddle move was... That was when the magic bug bit and bit hard. Been in love with magic for more than 20 years now and it started with Scorpio Vaughn's Wiffle Wand.

Sadly, George passed away a couple of years after we met... He was quite a character and based on newspaper clippings and photos in his shop, he had made a couple of national TV appearances on the Merve Griffin Show. As I recall, his second love behind magic and mentalism was hypnosis and he had worked with area police by helping witnesses remember details about their experiences, etc.

George was a really neat guy and although we only got together a few times before he died, I still remember him fondly.

That was, without doubt, the very worst performance of McDonald's Aces that I have EVER seen - and believe me, I've seen some pretty dire ones over the years.

Sheer laziness; and the guy performing it is an utter disgrace to the art of magic 'demming'.

That description fits a lot of versions of McDonald's aces I've seen. Most of them use an Elmsley Count.

Michael Ammar teaches one version on one of the Easy To Master Card Miracles DVDs.

However, the best version I have seen and the McDonald's Aces routine I perform is Derek Dingle's McDonald's Aces, which can be found in the Dec. 2004 edition of Genii magazine. In Derek Dingle's routine, the audience sees the front and back of the four aces at the start of the routine. The setup is simpler than most (all?) other McDonald's Aces routines too.

Oddly, I brought up that same issue of Genii magazine in another topic just a short time ago - I had put that issue in a special place in my bookcase because of an article by Jon Armstrong and because of Derek Dingle's excellent routine.