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All Backs: a select compendiumJon Racherbaumer
The All Backs Motif is odd. For one thing, it casts a revealing light on we magician's claim (when it suits our
purpose) that we use ordinary cards. That is our decks, which we prefer to borrow, consist of cards that have
faces and backs on both sides. Therefore, if we show a deck that consists of all backs and faces we are admitting
that such anomalies exist and the cards being used are probably gimmicked in some way. Why do this?
A better question may be - What motivated someone to create such an effect using this kind of deck? That "someone" was Dai Vernon and my guess is that he wanted to... | $15 to wish listPDF |
Dustbin Dossier 2Jon Racherbaumer
The contents of this series, for the most part, emphasize the history of effects and ideas. There are effects and methods in some of them, though.
- Proem
- About this Issue
- Excerpts Taken from a Photocopy of a Letter Written from Ed Whitford to Edward Marlo
- A Marlo Letter to Persi Diaconis
- Racherbaumer Letter to Charlie Miller
- Shall We Ask All The King's Horses and Men?
- Correspondence Between Jon Racherbaumer and Stephen Minch Regarding the So-Called Hide-Out Move
- Appendix: Paul Curry's "Out of this World"; a new version / Ed Whitford
1st edition 2014, PDF 30 pages.... | $7 to wish listPDF |
Dustbin Dossier 1Jon Racherbaumer
The contents of this series, for the most part, emphasize the history of effects and ideas. There are effects and methods in some of them, though.
From the introduction:
Dustbin Dossier will service a distinct minority interested in examining documents (letters, notes, booklets, diaries, journals) in their original, "aboriginal" forms. Personal letters, for example, are a primary source of raw, unfiltered knowledge - seasoned with salt, not sugar. They are usually characterized by their spontaneous candor and unguarded subjectivity. After all, most of them were written for one person... | $7 to wish listPDF |
MythopolisJon Racherbaumer Unpacking the Smith Myth and the Rashomon Concept.
This collection of tricks focuses on a similar motif because they fit the precise definition of that word and, in each case, the goal is to show what unifies and specifically defines each one. I'm also using the term "curate," because I sifted through lots of material so readers can compare and analyze everything. I consider this to be a contextualizing exercise that reveals the motif's history and pinpoints its rightful place in the Creative Continuum.
The two motifs compiled here are the Smith Myth and what's popularly known as the Rashomon... | $12 to wish listPDF |
Monte-MazementsJon Racherbaumer Offbeat alternatives of the Three-Card Motif
This compilation makes a distinction between the well-known Three-Card Monte wagering game, and motifs using three principal cards in different ways. All of the motifs challenge a spectator's ability to follow the actions to keep track of certain principal cards as they are physically moved around.
In some of the motifs, the principal cards are moved by the spectator while the performer's back is turned. Then, sight unseen, the performer is able to ascertain the location of a card previously designated as the "money card."
In other motifs... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Minutia Memes 1Jon Racherbaumer Regarding changes, sexual and otherwise.
This is an unusual one, but Jon Racherbaumer always weaves an interesting yarn meshing history with magic and card tricks with culture. In this short but nevertheless interesting ebook Jon starts out with a historic event that in the 1950s made huge waves. Today it would hardly make the news. In 1952 a man by the name of George William Jorgensen Jr. had a number of operations to change his sex and became Christine Jorgensen. Edward Marlo exploited this event and created a card trick called "Christine", and with Christine, he meant Christine Jorgensen. This is... | $5 to wish listPDF |
TwixtJon Racherbaumer Reviving "Between the Palms" one of Alex Elmsley's most offbeat plots. This is sort of a "locked room" mystery with playing cards.
It is an offbeat plot because the implicit aspects of effect, particularly its climax, are not immediately understood or appreciated. Yet the effect still has an emotional impact. Compared to other card tricks being done in 1952 it was very different. (Perhaps its closest cousins may be Fred Braue's "The Prechosen Chosen Card" from The Gen (February 1962) or Brother John Hamman's "Signed Card.")
Effect: The performer removes a card from the deck and, without showing its face, places it between... | $15 to wish listPDF |
Mulling Over Mexican JoeJon Racherbaumer
'Mexican Joe' refers to a specially crimped card or deck, one that is crimped at diagonal corners in opposite directions.
The first person to publish anything on this crimp was Victor Farelli when he published Farelli's Card Magic. Several years passed before another mention is made. This time it was explained in Dai Vernon's More Inner Secrets of Card Magic. Racherbaumer collects a number of routines and ideas with this crimp. In so doing he weaves his way through some interesting nooks and crannies of card magic history.
- Prologue
- Introduction
- Origins
- The Double Crimp
- Mexican Joe's Crimp: Dai Vernon
- Applying The Work
- Marlo Dead...
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Picnic PocusJon Racherbaumer This manuscript is about one trick that incorporates a seminal sorting procedure now given the name Belcho's Disbursive Deal. Over the years the trick eventually morphed into an organized compilation that shares the same identifiable title: "Poker Player's Picnic."
It begins with Vernon Lux, an enterprising amateur who founded the International Society of Junior Magician in 1931 and began a magazine called The Dragon in 1932. Therein Oscar Weigle had a column called "Themes and Schemes" where he explained a trick called "The Million to One Trick." (Later it was changed to
"Belchou's Aces.") It's unclear... | ★★★★★ $18 to wish listPDF |
Mirroring Maximizing MiraskillJon Racherbaumer
"One of the greatest card tricks ever invented." - George Anderson
"It fooled the hell out of me!" - Ted Annemann
"Without any possible doubt, Stewart James' 'Miraskill' is one of the greatest self-working card effects to have appeared in print. Apart from its own value, it is the ideal prelude to 'Out of this World'." - Peter Warlock
Miraskill came into being in 1935 when Stewart James self-marketed it. According to him, only one copy was sold. But it leaked out and Dr. Jacob Daley demonstrated it to Ted Annemann, who eventually published it in the Jinx, which was the starting point for much thought and commentary by other clever minds.
... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Psi-VJon Racherbaumer A retrospective look at Dai Vernon's Five-Card Mental Force.
- Introduction
- The Prototypal Version From Early Vernon
- A Woolgather's Aside
- My Skirmish with the Five-Card Mental Force
- 30 Years Passed
- Five Card Mental Farce / David Acer
- Max on Five-Card Mental Force / Max Maven
- Outtings
- Rescuing the Five-Card Mental Force / Allan Slaight
- The Ultra Effect / Paul Rylander
- Dai-Cipher / Phil Goldstein
- I Have It / Edward Marlo
- Psyboards / Tom Frame
- Indisputably Predictable / Jon Racherbaumer
- Post Mortem
1st edition 2020, PDF 32 pages. | ★★★★★ $10 to wish listPDF |
AvatarRobert Walker & Jon Racherbaumer  Robert Walker was a unicycling, high-school student. Looking five years younger than he was, he was a dyed-in-the-wool card guy tutored in Marlovian ways. He was also a precocious writer-creator, obsessed with false counts and packet tricks. He spent many hours "twisting the night away," taking voluminous notes, and developing new methods and approaches. His first mini-treatise dissected a marketed packet trick by Larry West ("Wild, Wild West") which he passed onto Jon Racherbaumer to publish. It became the second installment of the loose-leaf Avatar, printed on pink paper and unadorned by illustrations... | $6 to wish listPDF |
All That JazzJon Racherbaumer Jazz Aces was inauspiciously introduced to the magic world in 1971 when Peter Kane published Another Card Session. It was a fortuitous event because it appeared about the same time the Elmsley Count was gaining favor with magicians from coast to coast. Like weeds in an open field, packet tricks were also popping up everywhere. Furthermore, Kane's routine clarified the transposition aspects of basic Ace Assemblies. Using only 8 principal "players" (cards), his action procedure was simple and direct. Best of all, the final transposition was squeaky clean. As a result it did not take long for Jazz... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Trix FixesJon Racherbaumer
- LEITMOTIFS
- Copycat Cards
- Rashomonian Universal Card
- Counting a Conclave
- LOCUS POCUS
- Mine Finds Yours
- A Narrow Margin
- Bubkus Divination
- No-Frills Invisible Toss
- PUZZLETS
- Changling Sandwich
- Another Challenge
- Easy O. Henry
- Recliner Mind Reader
- Either-Oracle
1st edition 2020, PDF 39 pages. | $10 to wish listPDF |
May The Flop Be With YouJon Racherbaumer Remixing the Gardner-Marlo poker deal - its history and histrionics.
- Introduction
- How To Study This Manuscript
- An Effective Poker Deal / Jean Hugard
- Gardner-Marlo Poker Deal / Martin Gardner, Edward Marlo
- The Surprised Gambler / Martin Gardner
- Can You Deal A Good Poker Hand? / Jean Hugard
- Meyer Poker Deal / Orville Meyer
- The Lorayne Poker Deal / Harry Lorayne
- Of Course I Can Deal A Good Poker Hand! / Edward Marlo
- Solomon Meets Gardner-Marlo / Dave Solomon
- The Ultimate Gardner-Marlo/ Steve Mayhew, Jack Carpenter
- Marlo/Gardner/Britland Poker Deal
- Riverboat Poker / John Bannon
- Addendum: Duts / Edward Marlo
1st edition 2020, PDF 50 pages.... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
SunkenJon Racherbaumer A deep dive into a key principle - the sunken key card.
- So It Begins ...
- Adding the Pips / Larsen - Wright
- Automatic Location / Oscar Weigle Jr.
- The Three Pile Trick / C. W. Jones
- The Twenty-Sixth Location
- The Triple Discovery / Charlie Miller - Jack McMillen
- Watching the Pitchman / Charlton Chute
- Improved Twenty-Sixth Location
- Middle Maze / Bruce Elliott
- The Twenty-Sixth Card Location - Using a Corner Short / George G. Kaplan
- Koran's Miracle Card Stab / Al Koran
- A New Use for a One Dollar Bill / John Henry Grossman
- Buried Treasure / Alex Elmsley
- Shadowed / Alex Elmsley
- S-D Location / Dave Solomon - Steve Draun
- S-D Plus / Simon Aronson
- An Exploration...
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Cull-MinationJon Racherbaumer Culling (cards) is not a particularly fashionable technique. During the past forty years, card magicians started to pay closer attention to various ideas and techniques, especially those having broad application. In this treatise three types of culls will be examined:
- Desired cards are secretly culled during the logical and natural course of an effect.
- Free selections are controlled (culled) to desired positions during a visible procedure that looks fair and
above board.
- A cull done during another fair procedure that results in separating the four suits in Ace to King order.
Contents:
... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Elevation OvationsJon Racherbaumer Although Marlo is generally credited with the Elevator plot, analysis of the action steps taken in the Four Burglars,
Jacob's Ladder, and Marlo's Penetration exhibit procedural similarities and could be presented as "elevating tricks" if accompanying patter expressed the "elevator" analogy. As far as the "elevator" trope is concerned, we can credit Bill Simon for naming rights.
- Part One: The Burglazing Beginning
- Introduction
- Gibson Puts Perps On Parade
- Rising Crime / Daryl Martinez
- Rising Robbers / Jon Racherbaumer
- Four Burglas / Jerry Mentzer
- Mystery Of The Penthouse / Nick Trost
- Burglar Trick / Nick...
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Facsimile 3Jon Racherbaumer This issue of Facsimile includes the complete contents of the first two (and only) issues of Jon Racherbaumer's periodical Marlophile. Jon has reformatted Marlophile, and added some additional routines.
- Publisher's Note
- I
- Introduction
- Marlo's Personal Annotation
- Marlo's Variation Of The Zarrow Shuffle
- MARLO In IBIDEM (1956-1969)
- II
- Introduction
- Marlo's Personal Annotation
- The Easy Way: A Bottom Deal For The Millions
- Two Memory Bits
- Mental lie
- Slop Shuffle Or Triumph?
- Whispering Snitch
1st edition 1995, 50 pages; 1st digital edition 2020, PDF 50 pages. | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Facsimile 2Jon Racherbaumer
- Introduction
- Marlo's Routine For Abbott's Chinese Coins
- Cursory Commentary On Close-Up Fantasies Books 1 & 2 By Paul Harris (1980)
- Bombshell Twins
- LSDM Aces
- LSDR Aces
- Patter For The "Ropes Of India"
- Clipper Passage
- Deuce Sandwich Ideas
- Better Than Best Lie Speller
- Simplex Lie Speller
- Complex Simplex Lie Speller
- Whose Oil And Water?
- Million Dollar Card Secrets By Frank Garcia
1st edition 1994, 50 pages; 1st digital edition 2020, PDF 55 pages. | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Facsimile 1Jon Racherbaumer
- A Decade Later
- Publisher's Notes
- Round-Trip Travellers
- Student's Exchange
- Marlo Card-To-Pocket Items In Print
- Detached Collectors
- Table Side Manners
- Future Trap
- Olram Cunningly Catches A Card
- The 1003-1006 Aces
- An Apparitional Bit Of Nonsense
- On The Spread Cull
1st edition 1983, 2nd edition 1994, 50 pages; 1st digital edition 2020, PDF 52 pages. | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
The Ascanio SpreadJon Racherbaumer The Ascanio Spread is a beautiful false display move, generally used to display 4 cards and hide a fifth one.
From the Introduction:
The Ascanio Spread immigrated to this country from Amsterdam. Del Cartier, Herb Zarrow, Mike Rogers, and Pete Biro were instrumental in bringing this technique to America. In fact, Del Cartier is a close personal friend of Ascanio and was the go-between in obtaining the original Ascanio manuscript for Mike Rogers, who in turn passed it on to me.
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- To Begin
- Racherbaumer Variation
- Some Comments On The Mechanics Of The...
| ★★★★★ $19.50 to wish listPDF |
BlufferyJon Racherbaumer Jon explores the bluff pass and its spin-offs.
- INTRODUCTION
- THE EXEMPLAR THE BLUFF PASS
- THE "BLUFF" PASS AND PALM
- SPIN-OFFS
- TOMMY TUCKER'S BLUFF PASS
- FAKE OR BLUFF PASS.
- LE PAUL'S PASS
- TRACKING ATTENTION
- THE BLUFF FORCE / Andrew Galloway
- BLUFF BOTTOM PLACEMENT / Edward Marlo
- NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED / Edward Marlo
- BLUFF-BLUFF PASS / Roger Klause
- THE MARLO-THOMPSON BLUFF PASS
- THE BLUFF CUT / Edward Marlo
- BLUFF CENTER DEAL
- BLUFF SHIFT / Bob Vesser
- VERBAL BLUFFING
- PUT / R. Paul Wilson
- BLUFF ACE ASSEMBLY / Edward Marlo
- TWO-TIMING BLUFF ACE ASSEMBLY / Edward Marlo
- BLUFFERY TRICKS
- BLUFF SANDWICH / Edward Marlo
- REPEAT...
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Grand HotelJon Racherbaumer An exploration of the Hotel Trick, aka "A Night on the Town". A trick with a good plot is half the battle. This one has an interesting plot that can be styled and modified to fit your needs. Sleight-less and sleight-of-hand versions are being taught.
Jon was introduced to this trick by Persi Diaconis in the 1970s. In this ebook he has traced it back to its roots, and forward to modern variations and spin-offs.
The core effect:
Two Queens and four Kings are shown. The Queens are tabled face down next to each other. Two Kings are added onto each Queen to form two three-card packets. After... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Dunbury DelusionsJon Racherbaumer
"It is one of the very best tricks which can be done for close-up work." - Hugard and Braue from Show Stoppers With Cards
From the Foreword:
The Dunbury Delusion has an illustrious pedigree that has been up, down, and all around the magic scene for at least 100 years. Charlie Miller's method that was published in Expert Card Technique in 1940, more or less branded his name on it, but seven year earlier Victor Farelli published a modified version ("The Partagas Sell") in Farelli's Card Magic. He did not claim paternity but credited a Spanish magician named Partagas who apparently taught him the trick in 1908.
Basic Plot:
A selection "lost" in a deck is successfully found by using three... | ★★★★★ $16 to wish listPDF |
Tickling TekelJon Racherbaumer From the Introduction:
The purpose of this compilation is to incentivize and "tickle" students to reexamine the Mene-Tekel deck and reconsider its possibilities. This has been done before and as recently as 2003 when Chris Wardle (via Paul Hallas) published a 27 page booklet titled Investigating the Mene-Tekel Deck (Magic's Forgotten Trick Deck).
...
We begin with Ed Marlo's groundbreaking addition of what he called the Roughed Mene-Tekel. We end with ends with David Britland's clever routines. In between there the other contributions are meant to provide further context and stimulation - enough to tickle anyone's fancy. At least that's the presumptive impulse that led to its creation.
| ★★★★★ $13 to wish listPDF |
Fifth-Business Monkey BusinessJon Racherbaumer Eight select bits of rascality from Harry the Hat.
From the Introduction:
When Harry Anderson lived in New Orleans, we regularly discussed tricks, scams, and what Harry liked to call "throwaways that are keepers." These are tricks that symbolically serve the same purpose as Mardi Gras beads and doubloons tossed from floats during carnival season.
The following 8 things in this booklet are stunts and tricks Harry performed in his inimitable, fast-and-loose way when he held court in barrooms, poolrooms, or at his night club called Oswald's. In the right time and place they are worth knowing... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish listPDF |
Speeding BulletsJon Racherbaumer A survey of the seven-card assembly.
This ebook is a survey of the Seven-Card Assembly, a subcategory of Ace Assembly. Its name due to the number (7) of principal cards used, which makes it different from other Ace Assemblies. Standard versions use sixteen cards - four Aces and twelve X-cards - and when the preliminary layout is made, the Aces are dealt into a T-formation and three X-cards are placed onto each Ace. In a Seven-Card Assembly three X-cards are added
onto only three of the Aces. The Leader Ace lies alone. This reduces the duration it takes to set the stage. Then the four Aces... | ★★★★★ $15 to wish listPDF |
Further MoreJon Racherbaumer This manuscript is an exploration of the origin and evolution of one of the most dependable, commercial, and semiautomatic card tricks extant. Even its name is unusual and memorable - "Further Than That"
- INTRODUCTION
- FURTHER THAN THAT / Stewart James
- FURTHER THAN FURTHER THAN THAT / Harry Lorayne
- FURTHER THAN THAT / J. W. Sarles
- A LITTLE FURTHER / Darwin Ortiz
- THREE-DIMENSIONAL FURTHER THAN THAT / Cushing Strout
- STROUT FELLOW / Allan Slaight
- A Poker Demonstration
- A POYGRAPHICAL POLLOOZA / Jon Racherbaumer
- TAKING IT TOO FAR?
- MUCH FURTHER THAN THAT / Al Thatcher
- TAKING FURTHER THAN THAT TOO FAR / Jon Racherbaumer
- THIS...
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Lazing: Lazy Man's Card TrickJon Racherbaumer This compilation, like my others, my goal is to discover the "bits and pieces" and in this particular case, to partially answer how and why The Lazy Man's Card Trick came into being?
- A Few Words Before You Begin
- Introduction
- An Inauspicious Beginning
- Origin Story: The Seed
- The Row of Ten Cards (S. W. Erdnase)
- About the Supposed Operative Principle
- Ziska's Incomprehensible Card Effect
- Incomprehensible Divination (Hilliard)
- Who Was Ziska?
- A Morphing Begins
- That Number Down (Doc Miller)
- The Traveling Card (Jack Miller)
- A Lazy Man Does a Card Trick (Al Koran)
- Lazy Man's Card Trick (Harry Lorayne)
- The Plot Resurfaces...
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