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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.

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...

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) ...

A study of Daley's Aces its history and spin-offs.

This treatise is a compilation of methods for performing a simple transposition of pairs of cards - namely the red and black Aces. The basic plot has a checkered history and, despite being associated with Dr. Jacob Daley, there are lots of tangled connective tissue and ancestral than meets the eye.

Besides these aspects, you will discover that this treatise is a rich mixture of memes. That is, there are lots of bits and pieces to play with and, if you are the kind of student that likes to study the history of a trick and then work through...

This treatise is a detailed exploration of a glorified location-divination, framed by a whimsical conceit - namely that an inanimate object - a playing card - is the supposed agency that makes the entire trick work. In this regard it was an effort to upgrade an essentially puerile divination effect.

Here is the basic approach or plot: The way the performer learns the identity of a freely selected card is apparently due to enlisting the assistance of another playing card (usually a Queen), which whispers the name of the selection to the magician. The magician then acts as the Queen's proxy...

From the Foreword:

Elucidations of a classic card trick: The Biddle Trick

The basic plot is fairly straightforward: A card is selected and in the process of determining its identity it is winnowed down to five possibilities. Then, in a surprising act of differentiation, the selection disappears from this five–card packet and reappears elsewhere. In most cases, the selection ends up face up in the middle of a spread deck. This trick has been variously named but ultimately it was christened "The Biddle Trick", named after Elmer Biddle who published the trick in Genii magazine in 1947. It marks the first appearance of the well-known...

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...

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...

Memes to quicken.

• Swoggled And Boggled / Charles McFarland
• Beyond Fabulous / John Bannon
• Cogent Triumph / Bill Goodwin & Larry Jennings
• The Spectator Works Harder To Triumph / Jon Racherbaumer & Peter Duffie
• Trait Secrets / John Bannon
• Strout Fellow / Allain Slaight & Cushing Strout & Stewart James
• One-Kai / Marc Serin
• Hull-Scam / R. W. Hull & Jon Racherbaumer
• The Elusive Jacks / Edward Marlo
• Last-Minute Departure / Jon Racherbaumer
• Post-Graduate 21-Card Trick / Edward Marlo
• Hefty Oil & Water / Larry Jennings
• Definitive...

Racherbaumer thinks that the greatest sleight of the 20th-century is the Double Lift Turnover. If we consider the scores of different ways to lift, turn, toss, propel, flip, rotate, and spin two cards as one—not to mention ways of getting ready, gripping, insuring alignment, and unloading, then this is certainly a pretty valid move to pick as the most important sleight. At the minimum Racherbaumer has me convinced.

In this ebook Jon collects ways to finesse the move and also traces its historical development. I am pretty sure you are using probably several times a double lift turnover somewhere...

As a plot, Cards Across is fairly simple and direct. It's a transition effect where a number of cards - usually three - magically travel from one packet to another. There are methods that use gimmicked cards, others use purely sleight-of-hand.

This manuscript is an exploration of subtle methods based on Stewart James' "Pockethereal." Its selling point is that there are no switches or exchanges. The only sleight of hand is the false counts. This put it in a class by itself.

• INTRODUCTION
• POCKETHEREAL (Stewart James)
• POCKETHEREAL, MINUS POCKETS (Bert Fenn)
• POCKETHEREAL MINUS POCKETS (Edward Marlo)
• CLARIFIED PACKETHEREAL...

Henry Hardin's plot has been around for 107 years and his initial three methods are explained in The Art of Magic (1909). Card tricks of this kind were atypical when Hardin devised his trick. During his time, spectators physically picked cards. They seldom, if ever, mentally selected them. Because only five cards are used in "The Princess Card Trick," Hardin strengthened the challenge by finding the mental selection by tactile means while the five "possibilities" were in his pocket.

This is how the his trick appeared to audiences: Five cards are shown to a spectator who is asked to think of one of them....

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...

The Ascanio Spread is a beautiful false display move, generally used to display 4 cards and hide a fifth one.

From the Introduction:

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• To Begin
  • Racherbaumer Variation
  • Some Comments On The Mechanics Of The...

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...

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...

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....

Excerpt from the introduction by David Goodsell:

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.

• 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...

The title of this manuscript indicates that four classical plots are being covered.

• Classical Quickie transforms a "wrong" card to a "right" one, but the speed and visibility of the methods make it different. It's quick, interesting, and mysterious. You have several methods to choose.
• Doubly Ambitious takes the Ambitious plot out of the humdrum class.
• Double Transposition effects will give you a sense of happy accomplishment.
• Chameleon Queens inevitably intrigue audiences fascinated by repeated transformations.

The manuscript does not ignore the technical side with a set of techniques...

Edward Marlo and Jon Racherbaumer study three similar effects:

• Everywhere and Nowhere
• The General Card
• The Universal Card

2nd edition 2002, 50 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Afterword
9. A Future Classic
16. Streamlined Classic
20. Comedy Classic
21. Quick Three-Way
24. In Lieu of the Hindoo Shuffle
27. Mini-Classic I
28. Mini-Classic II
29. A Sixy Effect
31. Early Marlo: Everywhere and Nowhere
33. No Deck: Everywhere and Nowhere
37. Spade Book: Everywhere and Nowhere
40. Marlo's Hofzinser
42. Additional Climax
43. Future Classic Double-Cross
45. Four Eightses Classic
48. 'Tis Rough On Hofzinser

Can a magic trick be too perfect? Too impossible? Well, opinions differ. Some of the most prominent minds in magic disagree. Reading these essays will help you form your own personal opinion on this fundamental question. The theorists are:

• Rick Johnsson
• Jon Racherbaumer
• Tomas Blomberg
• Magic Christian
• Robert Neale
• Bob Fitch
• Jamy Ian Swiss
• John Carney
• Michael Close
• Darwin Ortiz
• Harry Lorayne
• Martin Lewis
• Patrick Watson
• Simon Aronson

1st edition 2008; 61 pages....