Magic & Conjuring: page 212

This is an interesting study of the X-Force and variations thereof only the way Jon Racherbaumer can do it. The X-Force is the simplest force that every magician has learned to do at one point in their life. Jon dissects the X-Force or Criss-Cross Force and then puts it back together in different and new ways. This is fodder for those that want to go into the fine and nuanced details of performing this force.

• Introduction
• Drilling Down
• A Little History of the X-Force
• Layered-Cross-Cut Force
• First Method
• Second Method – Layered Double-Cross
• Two Cuts Are Better Than One
• Three Free...

This ebook features six presentations by Edward Marlo, one of the most prolific producers of card magic ever known. My criteria for selecting these six presentations was to pick effects that stressed subtlety and psychological cunning and required little or no difficult sleight-of-hand. The irony here is that such tricks are seldom associated with Marlo, even though he devised scores of easy, semi-automatic tricks during his career. But don't despair. The ones in this ebook run a gamut.

Cozy Card to Case is a subtle version of an ancient trick dating back to Walter Gibson's Popular Card Tricks. Most versions are based on miscalling a...

Beautiful close up magic by Jon Racherbaumer, John Cornelius, Roger Klause, Ed Marlo, Jim Hunter, Steve Draun, Eddie Adams, Lee Fried, Chuck Smith, Phil Goldstein, Tom Mullica, and Simon Aronson. Here is magic that is unique and that you will not see in other books. The ebook is divided into chapters on Coins, Cards, Linking Pins, Mental Magic, and Diversions. You will find such unusual items as Marlo's complete presentation of the Color Vision box, Racherbaumer's close up Miser's Dream, Marlo work on Linking Pins, Cornelius' Coins thru Table, Mullica's version of Jarrow's Cig thru Hanky, and more. The section on card magic (mostly Marlo...

A different take on the usage of the mini-plunger or tiny plunger. When Danny Orleans showed the item to Jon it sparked his creativity. Read about the outcome here.

• About the Mini-Plunger
• How to Make a "Breather"
• Stuck Up
• Suck-Up Sleuth
• Malini Lite
• Pokerratum
• A Plunger Went A'Courting
• Aces Take a Plunge
• In-Depth
• Bonus: Ham-Fisted Find

1st edition 2013, 41 pages.

This manuscript is ancestrally related to Criss-­Crossings: Unleashing the X-­Force insofar as it also deals with cutting cards. In this case, it deals with "cuts" and "turnovers."

This type of combinatorial maneuver began with Henry Christ's forcing technique that he developed in the early 1920s. He originally developed six variations but he only published the fifth one in Ted Annemann's book, Sh-­h-­h It's a Secret, calling it "The 203rd Force." It subsequently has been referred to as the Christ Force and it spawned many versions and applications.

Because of the cut-­?turnover-­?and-­?replacement mechanics, the Christ Force is often confused with Ed Balducci's...

This ebook explores variations on the Universal Card theme, is part of the Yod series. Universal Card is a classic card plot in which a single card (like the joker) transforms to one at a time to match each of the selected cards. Originally posed by Karl Fulves in his Pallbearers Review, where he used the term "Universal Card", a name that caught on.

• The Hypnotic Card
• Marlo's Favorite Universal
• Universal Solutions
• Universal IV
• Tout's Universal
• The Chameleon Card
• Universal Combine
• Hypno-Versal Way
• Cervon's Universals
• More Universals
• Not Quite Ambiguous Universal
• Full-Circle Universal
• Open-Faced...

The Gemini Motif is an apparently fair-looking, semiautomatic dealing procedure that forces two, three, or four cards, depending on its application.

• Introduction
• The Gemini Motif: Background of the Gemini Motif
• The Basic Automatic Placement Procedure
• Junking Gemini (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Blushing Gemini (Jon Racherbaumer)
• On Perfection Day (Henry Evans)
• Caster & Pollux (Allan Slaight)
• Multiple Gemini (Al Thatcher)
• Free Will Refutation (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Collected Bibliography

1st edition 2016, 31 pages.

The presentations in this manuscript are homage to the nonmanipulative, off-the-cuff approach taken by Chan Canasta.

The material is stuff Jon has published elsewhere, mostly piecemeal. The thrust of the ebook, though, is how these effects are PRESENTED in a CANASTA WAY. This then is its organizing principle. It is basically designed to demonstrate Canasta's approach. The material is easy and commercial.

• INTRODUCTION
• KISS MET
• OPTICUNNING CUTTING
• SOMATIQUE
• TACITRIX
• VOCALYSIS
• THE JOKER EATS YOUR MIND
• UNTOUCHABLY YOURS

1st edition 2016, 25 pages.

Issue 1:

• Proem
• Marlo Handles the Open Prediction (10 Variations, 15 Methods)
• Addition to Marlo's "Matching Miracle"
• Heldman's out of this World Clean-Up
• Estimations: Faro Fantasy, Finagling, and Paul Swinford
• The Satiricon
  • Cardmanship
  • Footnote to Ferris
  • Mirabile Dictu
  • Excerpt from a Dialogue Overheard at a Convention
• Postscript

• New Fangled Glimpse Anthology
  • If Glimpse
  • Fi Glimpse
  • Spring Glimpse
  • Neo-Piquant Glimpse
  • Marlo's Beveled Deck Glimpse
  • Turn Around Center Glimpse
• Marlo Stalks the Ultimate Sandwich
  • Marlo's "Collectors"
  • Alternatives for the "Collectors" ...

Issue 3:

• Major Arcana
  • Hurley's Chinese Enigma
  • Repeat Signed Card To Case
  • Signature Transposition
  • Simplex or Comples
• Minor Arcana
  • Cervon's Dealing the Flush
  • Allan Ackerman's The Fickle Card's Fingered Fate
  • The Professor's Incubus
  • Card-Nundrums
  • Roy Walton's Friendly Persuasion
  • 3 to the power of 2 Deal Duplicated
• The Satiricon
  • La Fleury, Pagan Cardicienne
  • Dove Droppings From All Over
  • Ask the Millwright
• Olram Returns
  • Convincing Control
  • Marlo on the Charlier Pass
  • Variant of Hit Second Deal
  • The Surprise Packet
  • Signed Card In ...
  • No-turn Triumph
  • Tilt Collectors ...

Issue 5:

• Publisher's Palaver
• Hurley's Automatic Boston Box
• Coin Concatenation
• Ambush
• An Easy Ambush
• A Clean Ambush
• Let's Ambush and Kill "The Collectors"
• Dingle's "Collectors"
• All You Had To Do Was Watch And Still You're Not Happy
• "Collect Double"
• Marlo's Visual Retention Change
• Marlo's Technical Variation of the Veeser Concept
• Almost Like Trick Cards
• Estimations
  • The "Too Perfect" Theory
  • Dunbury's Delusions
  • Riffs of Henry Christ
  • A Dialogue with Merritt
• The Satiricon
  • Further Cardmanship - part two

• Notes on a Miracle
• Have Another Sandwich
• Variation...

More than 40 years ago Jon Racherbaumer wrote a book on the Universal Card plot introduced by Karl Fulves. This is an updated and expanded version.

• By Any Other Name – Karl Fulves
• Universal Card – Robert Parrish
• Universal Card – Francis Haxton
• Universal Ghost – Roy Walton
• Universal Mexican – Roy Walton
• Universal Joker – Horace Bennett
• Reflection – Edward Marlo
• Hypnotic Card – Edward Marlo
• Favorite Universal – Edward Marlo
• Universal Solutions – Edward Marlo
• Universal IV – Edward Marlo
• Tout’s Universal – Edward Marlo
• The Chameleon Card – Jon Racherbaumer
• Universal...

This manuscript is a compilation of methods in order to identify and track its history. In the process, it hopes to show how a given trick evolves, sometimes devolves, and ultimately reflects the periods of time this process has occurred.

The trick in this case is the "Red-Hot Mama" or "The Chicago Opener," a presentation that has been around for almost 60 years and has been a useful, dependable and enduring workhorse.

In its basic form it is an effect where a card is selected. Its back changes color and is set aside. A second card is selected, lost in the deck, and the initial selection...

From the Foreword:

• Last Card to Laugh (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Sounds of Silence?
• Face Value?
• Elevated Elevator (Edward Marlo, Frank Garcia)
• Shiner Notes (Files of Jon Racherbaumer)
• Remembrance of Things Passed (Jon Racherbaumer)
• About a Procedure for the Clock Trick (Jon Racherbaumer)
• The Cardini Control (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Niggling Narrativity (Jon Racherbaumer)
• New-And-Clear Force (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Bare-Faced Boys With Decks In Hand (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Impromptu Casino Shuffle (Gene Castillon)
• Notes on Peek Decks
• Marlo's Spread Lift (Edward Marlo)
• Magic: On the Edge: Trick-Soup For Dummies? (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Constructive Criticism ...

From the Preface:

The methods explained in this manuscript involve cutting a deck to ostensibly change its order. They are semi-automatic because minimal dexterity is required. Otherwise they are subtle in seductive ways and all of them are completely or partially false.

The false cut triggering this manuscript is Jay Ose's False Cut that was auspiciously introduced to magicians by Harry Lorayne. This false cut eventually made its way into the repertoires of card specialists, but early on it was primarily meant to be easily and quickly performed after false shuffling. It was to the point, expressing a pleasing, sixbeat...

Includes a more clarified explanation of Marlo's "Super Count" routine, and a lot more.

• Frank Shields: Bits And Pieces
• Super-Counting Caper
• Tabled Bottom Placement
• Gutting The Glut
• Everybody Is A Magician
• Re-Rereading
• Quick Note For The Cow-Pawed, Gibblefisted,
• Scram-Handed, Ballock-Handed,
• Keg-Handed And Cack-Handed Brethren
• Shades Of Ricky Jay
• The Credit Game
• Magic As Stamp Collecting?
• Marlo And The Second-Dealing Monkey
• Remembering Al Koran
• Guess What?
• Color Monte Notes

1st edition 2017, 70 pages.

• Introduction
• Charlie Miller's Material in Expert Card Technique
• A Glimpse through the Fourth-Wall Window
• Uncontrolled Prediction (Edward Marlo)
• Indecent Exposure?
• Numero Trois (Blair Bowling)
• Breathing Heavy (Blair Bowling)
• Hofzinser, Carried Away (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Mental Selectivity (Charlie Miller)
• Putting a Placement in Its Place
• Wee Madness in Vegas
• Yakety-Yak (Don't Talk Back)
• Footnotes to a Book-In-Limbo
• Busby Follies Redux
• "F" Is For Fake

1st edition 1996, 35 pages.

This ebook explores the classic "Quick Three Way" plot. How can the faces of three playing cards be shown to be the same?

• Foreword
• Quick 3-Way (Ed Marlo)
• New Quick 3-Way (Ed Marlo)
• Freeway Three-Way (John Bannon)
• Another Quick 3-Way (Ed Marlo)
• Slide Three-Way (Phil Goldstein)
• Cervon’s Quick Three-Way
• Revised Quick D-Way (Derek Dingle)
• Tweaked Three-Way (Jon Racherbaumer)
• Okal's 3-Way (Bill Okal)
• Kay-Kay Tri-Way (Kevin Kelly)
• Flustrating Three-Way (Brother John Hamman)
• Rhumba Three-Way (Vallarino)
• Montesque Three-Way (Ed Marlo)
• Bonus: Least-Likely Find

1st edition 2017, 42 pages....

The five easy "pieces" in this manuscript are relatively easy to do. The important aspect, however, is how they are combined. The tricks are not the tricky part. They can be broken down into basic, understandable action steps. Or, to put it another way, tricks are to magic books as recipes are to cook books. One should not then equate plans, schemes, or sets of instructions with hale and hearty presentations. This is the reason the extended presentation in this manuscript surpasses mere exposition. Besides explaining the action steps of five otherwise grab-bag tricks, it reveals how they have...

The oil and water effect is a classic of card magic, some love it, some hate it. If one has ever seen Rene Lavand do it slow motion with one hand you probably love it. But there is only one Rene Lavand. Some say the effect of red and black cards separating is rather weak, until Roy Walton added a kicker in 1969 where half the cards change to Queens. Dave Bendix tweaked Walton’s handling. Bob Stencil and Terry LaGerold devised a narrative that logically excused the surprise appearance of the Queens. Jon Racherbaumer and Jeff Busby independently expanded the kicker to not only change half the cards but...

Polishing and old principle of mooted origin ...

Jon Racherbaumer explores an old but fascinating self-working trick which can be performed with any set of counters, be they cards, sticks, stones, coins, matches, business cards, bottle caps, gummi bears, ...

• Prelude
• Introduction
• My Introduction To The Version With Playing Cards
• The Quickie Card Trick
• Beginnings
  • A Novel Card Trick (Howard L. Grant)
  • Toothpick Magic (U. F. Grant)
  • Counting Trick (Rufus Steele)
  • A Matter Of Debit And Credit (John Northern Hilliard)
• Spin-Offs
  • Balancing Debit And Credit (Ian Baxter)
  • The Trick That Fooled Einstein (Harry Franke) ...

Jon loves to collect, compare, and organize tricks into themes and plots. This is his latest work on the piano trick.

WHAT IS THE PIANO TRICK?

A spectator places his hands palm down on the table in the same way a pianist places his hands on a keyboard. Then pairs of cards are placed between the spectator's fingers to set the stage. These pairs are then fairly removed to form two equal piles. An extra or "odd" card is added to one of the piles. Then, without any further movements or fanfare, the "odd" card inexplicably travels to the other pile.

• Introduction
• At The Beginning
• Thoughts...