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Jon Racherbaumer

Jon Racherbaumer

#2 Cards author
#3 Magic & Mentalism author

(22nd January 1940 - 22nd October 2024)

Born in Oak Park, Illinois, under the sign of Aquarius. His early years were spent in Elmhurst, Illinois (Harlan Tarbell's hometown), a western suburb of Chicago. His interest in magic was sparked by seeing Dr. Tarbell perform in 1950. Soon thereafter, he received his first magic book, Tarbell Course in Magic - Volume 1, on his eleventh birthday. After discovering that Dr. Tarbell had donated his entire course to the local library, Jon spent many hours diligently studying each volume along with other magic books in the library.

Jon joined the Mazda Mystics Club (Juniors) in 1953, a club started by Russell Shaw and his wife in Oak Park, Illinois. Meetings were held in the basement of the Mazda Magic Shop. He maintained his interest throughout his schooling and thereafter when he moved to New Orleans in 1963. The Big Easy, home of the Mardi Gras, jazz music, and voodoo, is often called the Dream State, an ideal place for all things magical to ferment. From 1957 to 1965, Jon attended four universities and worked at various jobs: radio programmer, disk-jockey, promotion man, salesman, restaurant manager, male model, tree-trimmer, blackjack dealer, construction worker, warehouseman, program consultant (voluntary health agency), institutional house-father, social worker, gym instructor, bartender, ambulance driver (at a race track), and finally he went to work for Eastern Airlines from 1965-1990 as an airlines business person.

He eventually joined the IBM and the SAM in 1966, is a member of the Order of Merlin, and is a Lifetime Member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. He was the Associate Editor of Richard Kaufman's Genii magazine. Prior to accepting this post, he contributed to numerous other magazines.

Jon's mentors were Ed Marlo and Eddie Fields.

His other interests are: body-building, literature, book-collecting, martial arts, philosophy, poetry, film, theater (theory), cosmology, painting, and mathematical recreations.

website: www.JonRacherbaumer.com

Coauthors: Edward Marlo, Norm Osborn, Steve Reynolds, Robert Walker, Daryl Easton

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$8
Jon Racherbaumer
Swipe by Jon Racherbaumer

Everything I perform, if and when I perform, I've learned and taken from other magicians. I truly believe we are 'parasites of our precursors' and I'm indebted to many, many creative and enterprising magicians over the years. If it were not for them, my repertoire would consist of the prayer vase and the ring off string.

Thoughts about building on the ideas of others. Jon then explores the example of the secret addition move in "Adding to an Add-On" that was first described in the Sphinx Volume 20 in 1921.

1st edition 2015, PDF 12 pages.

$15
Jon Racherbaumer
Grifty Business by Jon Racherbaumer
  • Band Slam: A chosen card is lost in the deck and a rubber band is wrapped twice around its sides. The magician inserts his fingers under the top strand of the rubber band and holds the deck in an overhand grip. He then slams the deck against the table and the selection suddenly appears face-up on top of the magician's knuckles and under the rubber band.
  • Post-Graduate Twenty-One Card Trick / Edward Marlo
  • Wide-Open Prediction / Paul Curry & Robert Parrish
  • Swoggled and Boggled / Charles McFarland
  • Beyond Fabulous / John Bannon
  • Cogent Triumph / Bill Goodwin & Larry Jennings
  • The Spectator Works Harder To Triumph / Racherbaumer & Duffie
  • Trait Secrets / John...
$20
Edward Marlo & Jon Racherbaumer
Edward Marlo's Compleat Devilish Miracle by Edward Marlo & Jon Racherbaumer

A mysterious, baffling, entertaining, eye-appealing transposition of two selected cards.

A selected card vanishes, reappears, vanishes, and transposes itself with another previously selected card. This PDF includes the original manuscript, plus all the refinements and methods Marlo added over the years.

More detailed effect description:

Two spectators freely select cards from a shuffled deck. The selections are returned to the deck, which is mixed and cut. The cardician removes five cards. Each one is shown and tabled, then he asks, "Did anyone see their card?" One of the spectator...

$10
Jon Racherbaumer
Provenance Hunter by Jon Racherbaumer

This ebook includes issues 1 and 2 of the Provenance Hunter.

  • Tracking the Lazy Man's Card Trick
  • Laziest Man's Card Trick / Edward Marlo & Jon Racherbaumer
  • In Situ Lazy Man's / Jon Racherbaumer
  • Select Bibliography
  • Card-to-Mouth and the Mercury Card Fold

1st edition 2014, PDF 19 pages.

$15
Edward Marlo & Jon Racherbaumer
The Card Puzzle and Other Diversions by Edward Marlo & Jon Racherbaumer

Excerpt from the introduction by David Goodsell:

This book is not for everyone, because not everyone will want or be able to do the magic contained herein. It is a particular brand of close-up material with cards and coins that requires considerable practice to master, for the most part, and will send the intermediate or beginner to the reference books to learn specific sleights. For the serious student of close-up magic this issue will be a delight. The Marlo treatise on the "Observation Test" is very thorough and the items by Garret, Castillion, Aronson, Solomon, and Racherbaumer are all first rate....

$10
Jon Racherbaumer
Provenance Bulletin 1-5 by Jon Racherbaumer

The purpose of these reports is to cite known references, suggest ancestral ties, credit precursors and progenitors, reveal any chronology, and trace the evolvement of ideas, tricks, sleights, and presentations.

  1. Automatic Placement Used to Produce a Different Effect
  2. Flustration Count
  3. Three Jacks Deal
  4. In-the-Hands False Riffle (Waterfall) Shuffle
  5. About Convincing Control

1st edition 1997, PDF 10 pages.

★★★★ $14
Jon Racherbaumer
When a Hat Drops by Jon Racherbaumer

Ten things to do when spurred by the moment.

  • Rules Of The Game
  • Further Impact
  • Snap-Slap Transpo
  • Houdini Breaks Out
  • Between Elmsley, Brown, and Himber
  • Pushing Past Failure
  • Why Is This Odd Card So Queer?
  • Stranger Succession Aces
  • Simple-Simon Copper-Silver
  • Marlo's Pellet Classic

1st edition 2002, PDF 31 pages.

$7
Jon Racherbaumer
Dustbin Dossier 3 by Jon 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
  • A Double Take on "Double Trouble"
  • Double Trouble, Marlo Miracle No. 2 / Edward Marlo
  • Lalapaloopa / Deane Moore
  • Never Touch the Pack! / Gerald L. Kaufman
  • The Loop and I
  • Joseph K. Schmidt's Letter to Marlo
  • Treble Trouble / Roy Walton
  • Redouble Trouble / Jon Racherbaumer
  • Andrus False Slop Shuffle

1st edition 2014, PDF 25 pages.

$14
Jon Racherbaumer
Edward Marlo's Think Ace by Jon Racherbaumer

The Think Ace effect is a hybrid, reduced to a packet trick. It was inspired by an effect described to Marlo by Bill Simon in 1955.

  • Introduction
  • Beginnings
    • Touch Turn
    • Named Reverse
    • Think Ace
    • Gaffed Think Ace
  • Tributaries
    • Swindle Think Ace
    • Technicolor Think Ace
    • Four-Card Technicolor Thought Number One
    • Four-Card Think Ace Number Two
    • More Four-Card Technicolor Thoughts
    • Cased-In Technicolor Thought
    • Tabled Think Ace
    • Spread Think Ace
    • Contingency Aces
    • Bold B'wave
  • Unanswered Letters

1st edition 1993, PDF 35 pages.

$12
Jon Racherbaumer
Lecture Notes 1 by Jon Racherbaumer

Excerpt from the opening remarks:

My advice - as pedantic as it may sound - is simple: AVOID COMPLACENCY. NEVER ASSUME THAT YOU KNOW IT ALL. When it comes to the Real Work, we never stop learning. Look at cardmen like Vernon and Marlo! Both continue to explore the subject, look for flaws, seek perfections, discover new things. Lectures, books, notes, and sessions with our brethren are invaluable aids; however, we must never forget that learning the Real Work is an exciting, life-long pursuit; a challenge that obstinately renews itself no matter how old, experienced, and knowledgeable we become. ...

$7
Daryl Easton & Jon Racherbaumer
Double Dazzling Triumph by Daryl Easton & Jon Racherbaumer

If you can perform the easy block-transfer shuffle by Dai Vernon you will be able to perform Daryl Martinez's/Easton's commercial routine with only a little practice. The routine is structured to produce maximum impact with minimum effort and it creates a lasting impression on lay audiences.

EFFECT: Two selections are made from a shuffled deck, then are returned and lost. The deck is given a topsy-turvy shuffle so that face-up cards are mixed into face-down cards. This mixture is shown to be erratic and random. When the cards are eventually ribbon-spread, all the cards are face-down except two, which...

$9.50
Jon Racherbaumer
Tri Psi by Jon Racherbaumer
  • Hull-Scam: This is a variation of the R.W. Hull trick where an unknown card is placed aside, a spectator thinks of any card in the deck, and later the unknown card turns out to be the mental selection. In this variation, two selections are made. One is mental, the other, physical. The performer finds the physical selection - say, the Ten of Hearts - then rubs it against the unknown card, which turns out to be the mental selection.
  • Hull-Quik: The magician removes a card from a borrowed, shuffled deck and places it face down on the table. He asks a spectator, "Just guessing, what's the name of this...
$12
Jon Racherbaumer
Psi-Clones by Jon Racherbaumer

In these wonderful lecture notes, you will find a lovely self-working card trick called Dueling Card Tricks, which uses a unique principle discovered by Alex Elmsley. It has a great presentational theme of how a mathematician, a psychic, and a magician go about their business. It finishes with an unexpected climax and thus has everything a good magic trick needs.

This lecture was prepared for the participants of the Midwest Magic Jubilee - St. Louis, Missouri - August 5-8, 1993.

  • Pumping B'wave
  • Wide-Open Prediction
  • Hull-Scam
  • Opportune Oldie
  • Cased-In Vision
  • Ladyspell
  • Chi-Psi Opener ...
$39.50
Jon Racherbaumer
Card Finesse by Jon Racherbaumer

To become a master in anything you have to pay attention to the details. This ebook is all about details, the details of sleight of hand with cards.

Excerpt from the foreword:

You may ask, "Who wants to read long, complicated algorithms? Who enjoys atomic analysis? Why does magic have to be so technical?" The answer to these questions is implicit in this book.

Almost everyone has heard of the Vernon Touch. It has been lauded by countless respected names in magic. What is the Vernon Touch? In brief, it is nothing more than fastidious attention to details. Great magicians like Vernon and...

★★★★★ $29.50
Jon Racherbaumer
Counthesaurus by Jon Racherbaumer

This is the authoritative reference for false counts and displays. It is the only encyclopedia of its kind. If you read somewhere a reference to the Copdiddle Count or the Biddyro Count and you have no idea what they are and how they are done, Racherbaumer's Counthesaurus will provide the answer. More than 70 counts and displays are explained. False counts are particularly useful for small packet tricks. If you want to create your own small packet tricks and you need a false count with particular characteristics and features you will likely find it here.

Includes Robert Walker's trick "Hyper...

$12
Jon Racherbaumer
On the Tabled Reverse by Jon Racherbaumer

A finessed examination of a unique technique.

This manuscript is about a basic card technique that is sui generis, although it remains a limited application. Nevertheless, it is worth knowing because it's been cleverly used to perform one of the best short versions of "Triumph" extant.

The basic move permits you to secretly reverse a card while the deck is tabled and simultaneously riffle shuffled. This manuscript also reveals the how, when and who worked on it. The first Tabled Reverse appeared in Marlo's Off the Top in 1945, credited to Russell Barnhart. Therein it was sparsely explained,...

$14
Jon Racherbaumer
Virtual Visitations by Jon Racherbaumer

Diving into double-back transits.

  • Jennings' Visitor: The spectator selects a card and the performer places it between two black Queens. The card becomes restless and upon command leaves the black Queens and is found face-up between two red Queens. Upon command, once again the card jumps from the red Queens back between the black Queens. The selected card may be initialed.
  • The Visitor Sans Deck / Dave Solomon: Four Kings and four Jacks are removed from the deck. The Kings and Jacks are separated into two fours of a kind and are placed as two packets on the table. A spot card is selected from the...
★★★★★ $16
Jon Racherbaumer
Dreamwork 2 by Jon Racherbaumer

This short compilation follows on the heels of another compilation titled Dreamwork. Both relate to Bob Hummer's "The Midreader's Dream." Bob Hummer introduced to the magic world many interesting principles and effects. One of the first to make a splash was introduced in 1952. The dreamy dealer ad seemed too good to be true: A spectator merely thinks of a card and then performs a few, unseen dealing procedures with a deck of cards. The magician, whose back was turned throughout these actions, turns and faces the spectator. He takes the deck, briefly scans the cards, and consults a "dream book." He then names...

$20
Jon Racherbaumer
Harry Anderson's Square Dancing by Jon Racherbaumer

A selective history of magic squares and routines and performances which are somewhat unusual and different from the regular magic square presentation of 'give me a number and I write down a magic square of that number'.

  • Brother Can You Paradigm? (Jon Racherbaumer)
  • Harried History of the Magic Square
    • B.A. (Before Annemann)
    • 1930 – Present
    • Wise-Guy Square
  • Kick-Starters
    • Okey-Sidokey
    • Charlier Shuffle
  • Miscellaneous Matrix Trix
    • Phoning Marrakech
    • Squaring the Deal
    • Upside Down
    • Cool Things about the Magic Square
    • Harry Ending
  • References

1st edition 2008, PDF 31 pages....

$12
Jon Racherbaumer
Black Jackery by Jon Racherbaumer

Tricks that allude to the game of BlackJack.

  • Black Jack Kicker / Paul Gertner
  • Blackjacked! / Don Alan & Eddie Fields
  • Duck or Deal Blackjack / Nick Trost
  • Black Magic / Ron Ferris
  • Black Jack Versus Poker / Edward Marlo
  • The Almost Perfect Blackjack Hand / Dan Block

1st edition 2023, PDF 30 pages.

★★★★ $19.50
Jon Racherbaumer
Analects and Analogues by Jon Racherbaumer

Ten card mysteries Annemann would have loved.

This book was part of a two-person three-hour lecture session given by Harry Anderson that Jon gave at a Daytona Magic Conference.

Excerpt from the foreword:

Anneman believed that the effect is the most important thing and, to paraphrase Vince Lombardi, the effect is the only thing.

Anneman believed, as deists believe in a god, that a magician must do something extraordinary with the ordinary…and what is demonstrated must also have no practical use or relevance in the real world. It is a demo, not an application of real power.

Anneman...

★★★★ $12
Jon Racherbaumer
Devious Departures by Jon Racherbaumer

A deep dive into Elmsley's Point of Departure.

The original effect is the following. A card is chosen and placed face down on the table. The two black aces are then removed from the pack and with the utmost fairness, the chosen card is placed between them, and this sandwich is handed to a spectator to hold. On the magician's command, the chosen card vanishes and is found in the performer's pocket.

  • Point of Departure / Alex Elmsley
  • Card Vanish Supreme / Edward Marlo
  • A-E-I-O-U / Sam Schwarz
  • Last-Minute Departure / Jon Racherbaumer
  • Escapade / Max Maven
  • Between Your Points of Departure / Earl...
★★★★ $12
Jon Racherbaumer
Rub-a-Dub Digest by Jon Racherbaumer

ABOUT RUB-A-DUB: The rhyme is of a type calling out otherwise respectable people for disrespectable actions, in this case, ogling naked ladies - the maids. The nonsense "Rub-a-dub-dub" develops a phonetic association of social disapprobation, analogous to "tsk-tsk," albeit of a more lascivious variety.

The Rub-a-Dub Move's inauspicious beginning began in 1909 at a time when, relatively speaking, magicians had a limited number of utilitarian sleights and techniques at their disposal. Besides, the Rub-a-Dub Move happened in the blink of an eye and was only an offbeat way to make a card disappear. ...

★★★★★ $15
Jon Racherbaumer
All Backs: a select compendium by Jon 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...

$7
Jon Racherbaumer
Dustbin Dossier 2 by Jon 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
Jon Racherbaumer
Dustbin Dossier 1 by Jon 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...

$12
Jon Racherbaumer
Mythopolis by Jon 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...

★★★★★ $15
Jon Racherbaumer
Monte-Mazements by Jon 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...

$5
Jon Racherbaumer
Minutia Memes 1 by Jon 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...

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