| Birth Name: | Ercole Castagnone[1] |
| Birth Date: | c. 1864 |
| Birth Place: | Turin, Italy |
| Death Date: | unknown |
| Nationality: | Italian |
| Known For: | Juggler Magician |
| Years Active: | 1885–1907 |
Yank Hoe (born Ercole Castagnone c. 1864 – unknown) was an Italian magician known for performing the trick "Card through Cigarette" and inventing "Sympathetic Coins" also known as "Coins-n-Cards". Hoe began performing in London at the Trocadero in December 1885.[2]
Hoe started as a juggler and magician. He began his professional magic career in 1883, when he became a manager of an unidentified Japanese juggling troupe.
In 1886, he worked with Nadine Osborne also known as Omene who was a London girl that acted as his assistant until 1892. She began a solo career in "exotic dancing" and later became a magician as well. After their split, Yank Hoe continued to perform mainly as a juggler, rather than magician.[3] [4] [5]
Hoe stage act employed mentalism, juggling and magic. John Northern Hilliard recorded some of Hoe's tricks in Thomas Nelson Downs' The Art of Magic.[6]
Hoe's trick "Sympathetic Coins" was published in The Art of Magic which later evolve into the modern variation known as Matrix, developed by Al Schneider in 1960.