Escape to San Francisco

As I took a picture from the window of my Jeep, a Hells Angel appears from nowhere.

It was difficult to leave Southern California behind with it's amazing people and beautiful beaches. Los Angeles is a city of angels (hells angels?)  and even more a city of kings. (think hockey.)

However, as I crossed the bridge into San Francisco, I marveled at the magical  mysteries in front of me. It is a city like no other, a bay often clouded in mysterious mist, with a history as colorful and rich as the gold which filled the leather satchels of the forty-niners during the gold rush. To this day the song still rings out "open up those golden gate, California here I come."

The city by the bay has a flavor (mostly Chinese) and temperature all its own. It's often said, "the coldest winter I ever spent was the summer I spent in San Francisco." But even after purchasing a sweatshirt because of an unexpected temperature on July fourth, San Francisco is an easy place with which to fall in love. I've often felt as I do now that, "I left my heart ... in San Francisco." It is beautiful, has amazing food, but I'm sure that living in San Francisco must have it's ups and downs (that's a joke.) I once walked up and down the entire city from downtown to the bay. If you don't have good shoes, and strong legs, take the trolly car.

When I got to San Fran I had two wonderful friends to stay with, Mike and Lisa. Lisa reminded me that we have a tradition for spending the 4th of July together. I'm not sure she recalls our very first, but many years ago, 1998 to be exact,  we were out with her and her boyfriend on 4th of July in Martha's Vineyard, and I was friends with her boyfriend and really didn't know her all that well. After a night of drinks and fun, I told her and my wife at the time, that we needed to go home. She told me, "A, it isn't happening, and 2, you're a f%$#ing @#!hole" So the next day I brought it up jokingly and she was embarrassed about the incident. So in order to defuse any tension, I told her that now because of that, we were going to be friends for life. I figured we had to be friends because she had my number, and it was the number: "2."

Mike and Lisa and new baby.

Mike and Lisa were great hosts, and we spent the 4th of July at a family BBQ. Of course it wasn't over 'til I did a little magic. Then one of the little girls told me that she knew a trick. Of course it was one with 21 cards. (An inside joke for magicians) You see almost everyone in the world that "knows a trick" wants to show you the 21 card trick. So much so that my friend, magician, Jon Racherbaumer, (from an earlier posting) wrote a book dedicated to what to do when someone brings up the 21 card trick,  which is available at H&R Magic Books.

Louie, Louie, Louie, Louieeee

I had a wonderful time and I usually wouldn't complain about anything, but I think this is worth a mention. You see, their dog, Louie, must have had one too many sausages at the BBQ. Seems that he is "sausage intolerant." That dog passed gas sitting next to me that made my eyes water. I had no idea such a cute little guy could be so powerful. I think that Louie would be a great weapon of war because he seems to be filled with deadly gas. However I do believe that I need to switch gears and write about magic, since farting dogs really have nothing to do with magic at all. Unless you need to make an audience vanish, in which case Louie would be a great addition to the show.  Okay back to magic.


I had no idea where I'd meet a magician in San Francisco to interview. But, as fate would have it, when I got there Mike told me that right around their house lies a little magic shop. One of the last of a dieing breed. Most Magic shops have pretty much disappeared from existence because of competition with the online magic sites. But there are still a few spread around the country and this one is called, Misdirections Magic Shop. I thought that I had found my magic connection for San Francisco, as I hadn't really booked a magician to talk to and just  figured that the magic universe would somehow provide one for me. Now I could just walk around the corner and talk to the proprietor about the vanishing magic shops around the country and once again, the death of magic.


But I found that magic was indeed dead. At least July 3rd through 5th, as the shop was closed for the holiday. So much for my theory that the universe was going to provide everything so easily. I decided that I'd have to go down to Fisherman's Wharf and see if I could find a magician working the street. If not then San Francisco could end up being a total bust.
I found a place to park and wandered the streets for a while searching for someone doing magic. Instead I saw and smelled amazing sea food. My search was looking somewhat bleak, as I wanted to get on the road before 3:00 in the afternoon so I would make it to Reno before night fall. I was beginning to think my San Francisco search was a bust, however, it was a beautiful day down at Fisherman's Wharf and I so I stopped in the oldest seafood restaurant in San Fran. It established in 1925, a place called Alioto's, and at least the food was magical. Of course when you are in San Francisco, at the Fisherman's Wharf, there are two things which I believe you should eat. First and foremost, Crab in garlic butter dip and you have to absolutely have some clam chowder. And this is exactly what I did before I continued my search for the elusive San Francisco magician.A delicious meal and I was once more invigorated to find a magician.

Then I saw someone that I just new would point me in the right direction. It was as if the very gold of the gold rush had come to life to show me the way. There he was a shining pedestal of gold. Of course I gave him a dollar and asked him if he knew where I could find a magician performing. "Sure," he replied, "Just go on down to pier 39, you'll find one there." Just as the forty-niners before me I had struck gold.

When I got to pier 39 life was once again shouting, "MAGIC!!" at me. There was a magic shop on location, a theater showing a magician three nights a week, and as I wondered to the back of the pier area, there was the prize, a real live magician performing. His name was ""BIG AL CATRAZ." 

.... next time we talk to Big Al about the death of magic.

Ghosts, Vampires and Voodoo

A Gentleman and Scholar

Along with the jazz and party atmosphere of New Orleans, are the stories of ghosts in haunted cemeteries, of vampires walking amongst the night, and of voodoo witches who can work their magic on you. None of which would compare with the pure mystical power demonstrated by a magician who calls this mysterious place his home. His name is Jon Racherbaumer. And my meeting with him was mystical, magical, and more than I had imagined.

Jon is one of those magicians which can blend into the scenery, but he has those clues which to the trained eye, identify him as different, as someone special, even someone with extraordinary abilities. First he dresses in black - often a tell tale sign of a magician. When I asked him about if it were some mystical or magical thing, he disarmingly stated, "I started wearing black, because I could never decide which colors went together. I'm just glad you can buy the black underwear to go with it."

I believe that Jon is without a doubt "the expert" on card magic. Even though Jon and I have known one another for a while, for me to perform a card trick in front of him makes my hands shake. To me it's like "trying to do algebra in front of Einstein." We met years ago (when I looked much older) both of us sporting the gray pony tailed look. I drove to his home and when he first greeted me, of course he noticed my change, and we started our discussion with a talk about haircuts and Just For Men beard dye. This was probably the best illusion I was going to do the entire afternoon. But when Jon and I began to talk about "the magic life" he was simply amazing. Jon grew up in a truly historical time for magicians. We talked about the change in culture amongst magicians.

You see, when we started in magic, both Jon and I learned from books and if we could find them, other magicians. Today magicians are really spoon fed from the likes of readily available DVD's and Youtube videos. A couple of clicks and you've downloaded what took years for us to find and read. Well I should say some of us learned from books, and some of us wrote those books. Jon wrote 72 books on magic so far, (mostly on cards) and amongst magicians he is famous for his works. His personal library of magic books is the most impressive I've seen so far in my life.

I wanted to talk with Jon, not about magic and tricks, although we spent hours talking cards, but I wanted to talk about the real magic in life, about life's challenges and mysteries. He opened up to me and we talked about his relationships over the years. Jon has been married three times, he has 7 children and 10 grand children. I can tell what his priority in life is because when his phone rang during my interview, he said, "I don't have to take that unless it's one of my kids."

Jon and I discussed how magicians look at life differently and always look for more information. Magicians are curious by nature. Something about learning that there are secrets behind those things we call illusions lead us magicians to search for those secrets behind the mysteries and the problems or puzzles which life presents to us. Jon told me something quite interesting, which he was told by a former CIA agent. He said, ninety percent of the decisions we make, both large and small are made with insufficient information. All of us, from the President making earth impacting decisions, to you and I deciding which toothpaste to buy. He believes magicians at least take the search for information one step farther because we are skeptical from the start. Jon believes we have an obligation to research our questions thoroughly before making our decisions.

Magicians are almost always infected by what we refer to among us as "the bug." It is the moment that we see that magic trick for the first time that just blows our mind and suddenly we are thrown into the realm of being haunted by not knowing the secret. For Jon he was in the right place at the right time. When he was about ten years old, he saw a magician perform some miraculous illusions in Elmhurst, Illinois. Little did he know that that magician turned out to be the father of the magic encyclopedia (which to this day is a hall mark of magician's education). His name was Harlan Tarbell and his seven volume course on magic written in 1928 became a standard. Jon received the first autographed, volume of the Tarbell Course in Magic, encyclopedia as a kid, and was at that time, injected with the magic virus. He has had a bad case of magicianitus ever since. He showed me some of the results of his almost obsessive studies of the paste boards.

Years later he discovered, as I did, that asking a magician "how do you do that?" was pretty much forbidden. It not only branded you as an amateur, it was in bad form. Magicians then, simply said, "where did you find that?" or if you couldn't find it, or eventually figure out how something was done, you hoped you had something good enough of your own to trade.

Jon was lucky in that respect because he learned much of his magic in a totally different way, one which shaped him into the magician he is today. One magician asked Jon to write his tricks into a book, and after much cajoling, Jon agreed to do it, and a defining moment of his life took shape. Jon learned many of the tricks of his trade by writing books about magic for other magicians.

Quite frankly, I found this leaning method quite a trick in itself. It's no wonder the man is so skilled. Describing a magic trick in writing, especially something involving sleight of hand, is extremely difficult and time consuming. To do it well takes a certain knack for creating and expressing details. This may well be why Jon has been so successful, his attention to details. But also the mere act of writing the trick up for students of the craft, would include learning the trick far better than any student ever would be able. Even today, finding new magic sometimes involves the old fashioned, meeting with other magicians.

As I've stated before, there is just something about a magician which others in the profession or even amateurs can somehow perceive or identify. Perhaps the way they dress (black underwear?) or the way they seem to hold objects in their hands, but there is something about them. When Jon and I went from his home to go have a bite at a local pub, before we practically set down, a young man came up to our table from across the restaurant and asked, "Are you guys magicians?" We both answered, "yes" and Jon told him to come back after we had lunch and we'd talk tricks with him.

His name was Andrew. Andrew was actually studying to be a chef, but he was still bitten by the magic bug. I could see it in his eyes. He had the same eager look which I had when I was young and hungry to find more and more magic. Jon and I shared some tricks with Andrew and I certainly enjoyed Andrew's positive participation in the conversation. I could see his amazement when Jon did certain tricks and could tell that Andrew was dying to ask that age old question, "How did you do that." But I think that the magic culture hasn't changed much in that respect over the years as he only asked for our autographs. I'm sure he had no idea who I was, but he no doubt had heard of Jon.

As for me, I've learned that when you get older and have done magic for what seems like a hundred years, you never even find yourself finding anything which prompts that feeling of "how did you do that?" However, Jon did bring that to me once during this meeting. And unlike our young friend still bound by a brotherhoods conventions, I said "Jon, tell me how you did that one thing where you?" And he did. LOL Older does have it's advantages.