Racherbaumer recommends more
inquisitiveness to improve shows
By Bobby Warren

Listen to Jon Racherbaumer discuss performance of the magical arts long enough, and you might begin to formulate a Shakespeare-like question in your mind: To be yourself, or not to be yourself, that is the question.

In the cover story on Racherbaumer that appeared in the October 2009 edition of The Linking Ring, the legendary card man suggested performers ask questions to improve their performances. Those questions included: Who am I, or who do I want to be, when I step out in front of an audience. What is the point of what I am doing and how is it relevant to the people who are watching? Why should the audience want to watch this?
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Well, in that interview, Racherbaumer had more to say about questions and how they can help magicians and mentalists improve their shows and heighten the audience's attention. However, these questions are not asked by the performers before they begin to craft a show, rather they are injected into the patter used during routines.

Racherbaumer, who is a voracious reader, remembers coming across something by Don Alan: Instead of making statements, change those statements into questions. Instead of telling the audience, "I have an ordinary deck of cards," Racherbaumer recommends engaging them by asking, "Have you ever been to Vegas?"

When the question is asked, everyone is answering it in their heads, Racherbaumer said. "Look at the shape of a question mark. It is shaped like a hook. If you ask the audience a question, you hooked them. You engaged them.

"There are two things that are irresistible: A ringing telephone and direct question."

Instead of asking a volunteer to pick a card, magicians might want to try this from Racherbaumer: Spread out a deck of cards and ask your helper, "Do you believe in free will? Do you believe you have free will to make choices. I do, too, but I'm not sure if it is necessarily true. We have 52 things, which one would you pick, how would you pick it?"

Looking at your assistant, you ask, "Are you a picker, a peeker, a puller or a snatcher?" When the helper looks at you not understanding what you mean, ask them if they are the kind who picks a card, peeks at a card, pulls a card or snatches a card. When they answer you, tell them to pick, peek, pull or snatch the card.

"It's a small point, but now the trick is now about them," Racherbaumer said. "There are hundreds of opportunities to do this in your magic and in your presentations. You have to figure out how to do it."

After the spectator selects a card, you ask, "Did that feel free? Well, we will see. Did I know what you were going to pick that card? Did you know you were going to pick that card?"

Racherbaumer always performs a prediction effect with no foreshadowing. "Where is surprise? The only surprise is you were able to make it happen," he said.

He described a way of performing a prediction effect without tipping off anyone it is a prediction. "Magicians have to follow rules the audience knows nothing about," the performer says while placing a blue-backed card face down on the table. He then pulls out a red-backed deck. "Do you know why I did that? No? It's because it is the rule," the performer says. Racherbaumer noted that nothing has been said about a prediction. "There is another rule. I have to shuffle the deck twice. The third thing is you cannot pick a joker. Take a card out and put it down. I want you to slide it out carefully, and put it down. I can't pick it up."

Now there is the blue-backed card on the table and the spectator's red-backed card, too. Let's say the card if the Five of Spades. "Do you know why I had to follow the rules?" Turn over the cards and show they match. Racherbaumer says the audience does not anticipate the prediction. The performer continues, "What about the rule of the joker? Why couldn't you pick a joker? Because the whole deck is nothing but jokers."

"It's a hell of a mystery if they want to think about that," Racherbaumer said.

While the card magician and author did not offer advice on how to perform the effect, a solution should be readily apparent.