Magician Brian Scott began his magic before his show got under way on July 15. The Escalon Public Library and surrounding areas of Escalon experienced a power outage that put the 2015 Summer Reading Program finale in jeopardy. With minutes to spare before his show, Scott pulled up to the library and, like the magic he would perform for the kids and adults shortly after, the lights came on and the library was back in business.
Though that was just a coincidence, it helped set the tone for what would prove to be a magical final act for the popular library summer series.
Scott began his act with help from members of the audience, whom he affectionately referred to as “oddballs.” The first oddball that came to assist Scott was eight-year-old Natalie Titsworth. Scott asked her to hold one solid piece of rope while he cut it into thirds. After cutting it he mysteriously made the rope a solid piece again. His follow up trick involved nine-year-old Gracie Bracco as his assistant, asking her and the other oddballs if they were familiar with a deck of playing cards and what each suit looked like. Once he confirmed they knew, Scott asked Bracco to think of a card. After some witty banter between the two, Scott revealed that he knew which card it was that Bracco chose. When Bracco revealed what card she was thinking of, Scott had Bracco look under a wooden stool that was in front of her. Tied to a string was a folded up card, which was indeed the same card that Bracco had just announced to the other oddballs.
Other acts that Scott performed included the first trick he said he had ever learned, a wooden egg disappearing in a sack, and then he demonstrated floating books over the head of ten-year-old Joey McDowell as his finale.
“Escalon is a wonderful place to perform because it seems like all the kids know each other and feed off each other’s reaction and it is nice to see that during shows,” said Scott about performing in Escalon.
Like the bulk of the library summer programs, the meeting room at the library was filled to capacity for the Wednesday afternoon show.
