I HAVE OFTEN WRITTEN OF MY TOTAL ADMIRATION for John Ramsay, one of the finest close-up magicians I ever saw. He was a short, rotund little man with a shock of white hair, dressed in a conservative three piece suit with a Scottish twinkle in his eye as he would wind you up in his own quite unique way. I’ve seen him sit with a group of magicians at a convention for thirty minutes with some coins palmed in his hands knowing that he would inevitably be asked to do something later on .And then baffle everyone as he reached into the air to produce the coins and go into one of his very personal routines.

He was quite mischievous both with magicians and lay people in his magic. He kept a grocery shop in Ayr in Scotland and the story goes that a provisions salesman called on him to take an order not knowing that Johnny was a magician. The salesman said “Oh Mr Ramsay I’ve got a wee magic trick you might like to see” and then proceeded to show the cap and pence effect. Johnny played along and said “Oh no, that’s very good, I don’t know how you did that, it’s very clever”

A month later the same salesman called on Johnny who said “I think I’ve worked out that wee trick you showed me last time you were here” and then proceeded to perform the cap and pence on the back of his hand. But when he lifted the brass cap at the end of the trick – a pile of rice tumbled out! The salesman’s face was typical of the many people both in  and out of magic who were fooled by Ramsay’s unique subtleties.

Filed under: Magic Biographies, Magic Miscellanea