#scarne

From an interview with Harry Riser:

1960. Lou Tannen's Magic Shop.

"I had heard John Scarne was back in town. So we were all standing there when the door opened and in walks Scarne, with a cigar stubble in his mouth, and he said: 'All of you who want to see the heralded and much wanted second deal of John Scarne, line up here and you will be witness to it.'

He then pulled out a deck and started to deal, and he was good at it.

Frank [Garcia] watched Scarne deal for a few moments and said: 'Scarne, you want to see somebody do the deal?' Scarne kept going, and Frank turned around and said: "Hey kid, come here!" pointing to 15 year old Persi Diaconis.

Persi's holding this deck, it looks about two inches thick, like it just came out of the gutter. You couldn't even deal tops off the deck. And Persi starts dealing. Top, bottom, second. Top, bottom, second. Top, bottom, second. Top, bottom, second. Top, bottom, second.

Scarne looks at Persi for a second, and Persi looks like he's twelve - he always looked younger than his age.

Scarne said: 'shit', and walked out.