My Ode to Jon Racherbaumer

[Dustin Stinett]

My Ode to Jon Racherbaumer

As a teen, wanting to soak in more and to add to my burgeoning skillset of magical technique, how could I possibly ignore the catalog come on, “Here are the top professionals’ innermost secrets—often described in the past only by word of mouth—but finally revealed by Jon Racherbaumer in brilliant, concise, completely informative descriptions”?

So, of course, I took the plunge and purchased all four volumes of Hierophant. (Let’s face it, of course it was my mother who bankrolled the plunge, after all, $34 was out of my reach.) When I got them, I soon discovered that it wasn’t just the price that was out of my grasp. The material was out of my depth. But … whoever this author was … he had me hooked. I started looking for source material and adding to my little library of magic books. And I also was reading those books with a dictionary close at hand. As my magical abilities increased, so too did my vocabulary.

This was my introduction to Jon Racherbaumer in the mid-1970s. Soon, Kabbala was on my shelf—though that was number three and now I was covetous of numbers one and two. They had to be somewhere. Good Turns was discovered at my local magic shop, and the version of Twisting the Aces that I use to this day came from that little booklet. During my stints working for Paul Diamond at magic conventions, I acquired the marketed trick booklets Hyper-Twist and the Mandarin Mystery Coin. (And yes, I still have them.)

Already trying my own hand at writing, the prose I was now exposed to was thrilling. I also knew it would be ridiculous to try and emulate this style, and not just because I couldn’t. So, it was fair to say, I was a full-fledged fan of Jon Racherbaumer’s before the decade rolled into the 1980s, adulthood, and the still-spine-tingling requirement of me funding my own purchases; mostly—right Mom?

The following, in (mostly) alphabetical order, are the books and periodicals by Jon Racherbaumer that remain in my library (I had a large purge some years ago—I needed the money—so some have gone on to others; I do not recall all the titles, but Card Finesse, Card Finesse II , and At the Table were among them—and it breaks the heart.)

The 21 Card Trick
Arch Triumphs
At the Table
Back to the Future Classic
Big Easy Card-Cunning
Buried Alive (lecture)
Card-Coins
Cardfixes
Classical Foursome
Clockwork
Dreamwork
Dust Motes in the Gird
Ed Marlo's Complete KM Move
Facsimile 1
Facsimile 2
Facsimile 3
Facsimile 4
G. Castillion's Redoubling the Double Cut
Good Turns
The Greater Artful Dodges of Eddie Fields
Grifty Business (lecture)
The Hierophant, 1 and 2
The Hierophant, 3 and 4
The Hierophant, 5 and 6
The Last Hierophant
Hierophant, The Resurrection Issue
Hofzinser's Lost Ace Problem
Hyper-Twist (with R. Walker)
In a Class by Himself: The Legacy of Don Alan
Jon Racherbaumer Lecture Notes
Jon Racherbaumer Lecture Notes 1
Kabbala Volume I
Kabbala Volume II
Kabbala Volume 3
Lost Pages of the Kabbala
Ladies on the Loose
Mandarin Mystery Coin
Marlo Without Tears (with Ed Marlo)
Modus Operandi
Piddlings and Pettifoggery
Riffle Shuffle Systems
Sticks & Stones 1 to 12
Sticks & Stones 13 to 24
Synergistic Sandwiches
Think Ace
Tri Psi
The Universal Card
When a Hat Drops (lecture)
Who was Gombert?

It’s a mere drop in the bucket of his incredible output.

I would finally meet him in person in September of 2000 when Joe Stevens put together a Stevens Magic Emporium “GeMiNi” Day that was hosted at the Magic Castle. I didn’t bring all of my books for him to sign, but I brought several. He graciously indulged fanboy Dustin. We started regularly corresponding when we both became regulars on the then new Genii Forum, which started in the summer of 2001. Then we both became moderators of the site.

Our email correspondence was soon supplemented by phone calls. His generosity with his time, advice, and wisdom was eclipsed only by that printed output. I was proud to now consider him a friend as well as a mentor. As the years went by, our conversations would include subjects other than magic. Books, of course, were a favorite theme. I once said I’d like to live in a library, where I could go to whatever subject I wanted to and start in. He said that was his dream as well, and of course he tried his best to make that come true in his own house. We would also just talk about … things. Stuff. Whatever.

There was always the plan that I would visit him in New Orleans. It was a lock what with a big combined IBM/SAM convention scheduled for the city. I was to spend an extra week with Jon, Harry the Hat, see Oswald’s Speakeasy, the Spade and Archer, and more. That is until Hurricane Katrina literally blew those plans all to hell. Then such talk was back to … when I could, you know, “maybe next year.”

Our next personal connection took place at the first Genii Bash. He staked out a spot for us, house left, against the side wall in the main room, with a small table and a couple of chairs. We put a “staff only” sign next to it. There, throughout the convention, we watched, whispered critiques, astonishments, and, between sets and shows, talked about magic, magicians, books, plans, projects, and, of course, things.

What should be needless to say is that Genii was a mutual love and a constant subject between us. And little made me happier than to become the editor of his “Exhumations” column in 2022. I kept that honor up to the last one he turned in not that long ago. He subtitled it “Finale.” It will appear in the December issue.

I last spoke with Jon in early October. He seemed fine, and after dispensing with the business at hand—his final column—we turned to chatting about the goings on out here in Hollywood, the future of Genii, the magazine’s past, how we both enjoyed his previous column, “On the Slant,” where he gave us all the gift of possibly expanding our home libraries beyond that which was strictly magic. I, in fact, did take advantage of several of those opportunities. My first ever Amazon purchases were of books recommended by Jon. (My local bookstore did not carry them—too obscure I suppose.)

We talked, too, about my visit. We locked it in. It would take place in the fall of 2025 when I would hitch a ride with my daughter and son in law on their annual trip to the Crescent City. Now, I am sorry to say, I have no reason at all to go there. None.

In all the years of talking with him, there were two subjects that were never broached; politics and religion. I have no idea what his leanings were in either regard. But I do hope that there is some kind of dimension where the energies of our bodies—our souls—can possibly meet again. I would like, even if just one more time, to talk with Jon; talk with him about things.

[Bob Farmer]

Thank you for a wonderful essay it reflects many of my interactions with Jon.

[Jim Martin]

Thank you, Dustin.

[Leo Garet]

Excellent.

[Doug Thornton]

Dustin, your story about and tribute to Jon are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[chetday]

Beautiful tribute to a wonderful man, Dustin. Thank you.

[Joe Lyons]

Mr. Racherbaumer led an enviable life. I had great regard for his literary wizardry.

Beautiful tribute, Dustin.
Sorry you missed both trips to New Orleans.

I'm sure Mr. Racherbaumer would have appreciated this.

[Brad Henderson]

How else would any one of us know the other meaning of the word talon?

[AJM]

Onward, Mr R, onward…

[Tom Gilbert]

Well done Dustin.

[Joe Lyons]

How else would any one of us know the other meaning of the word talon?

Or the tertiary one about locks? By reading JR with Funk and Wagnalls at hand.

[Leo Garet]

How else would any one of us know the other meaning of the word talon?

Or "copacetic".

[Bob Farmer]

When I used a particularly graceful and stylish line peppered with odd words in some of my books, I always said it had been created with the "RPG,"--the Racherbaumer Phrase Generator.

[Zig Zagger]

What a beautiful tribute, Dustin!

If you PM me your mailing address, I‘ll be happy to send you my copy of „At the Table“. It will sit much better in your collection. Please take it as a little gift and thank you for all your wonderful contributions and dedication to Genii magazine and the Forum here!

[magicam]

Lovely piece, Dustin. Thank you for sharing it with us. Hope you still have those early Hierophant volumes.