Jon Racherbaumer was born January 22, 1940, in Oak Park, Illinois. His early years were spent in Elmhurst, Illinois (Harlan Tarbell’s hometown), a western suburb of Chicago. His interest in magic was sparked by seeing Dr. Tarbell perform in 1950. Tarbell’s daughter, Marian, was involved in community theater with Jon’s mother at the time. Soon thereafter, on his eleventh birthday he received his first magic book, Tarbell Course in Magic –Volume 1. After discovering that Dr. Tarbell had donated his entire course to the local library, Jon spent many hours diligently studied each volume along with other magic books in the library.

Jon eventually joined the Mazda Mystics Club (Juniors) in 1953, a club started by Russell Shaw and his wife in Oak Park, Illinois. Meetings were held in the basement of the Mazda Magic Shop. He maintained his interest throughout his schooling.

In 1963 he moved to New Orleans, home of the Mardi Gras, jazz music, and voodoo. Often called the Dream State, it is an ideal place for “magical things” to ferment. From 1957 to 1965, Jon attended four universities and worked at various jobs—radio programmer, disk-jockey, promotion man, encyclopedia salesman, restaurant manager, male model, tree-trimmer, blackjack dealer, construction worker, warehouseman, program consultant (voluntary health agency), institutional house-father, social worker, gym instructor, bartender, and ambulance driver (at a race track). He ultimately landed a job at Eastern Airlines, working there from 1965-1990 as an airlines business person.

Jon joined the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians in 1966, is a member of the Order of Merlin, and is a Lifetime Member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. He is currently a Consulting Editor of M-U-M magazine. He also writes a column (“On the Slant”) in Genii magazine and was a columnist and contributing editor to Stan Allen’s Magic magazine for six years. He has been the Parade Editor of the Linking Ring since 1991 and was an active columnist on Joe Steven’s Gemini Magic Network. He also contributed at column to M-U-M (“At the Table”) for several years and writes a quarterly column (“The Artful Ledger”) for Antimony magazine. He has contributed scores of tricks and articles to various magazines: Genii, The New Tops, M-U-M, Linking Ring, The New Pentagram, Blue Print, Precursor, The Looking Glass, The Conjuror, and Apocalypse. He has published over 60 books and is a recipient of a Literary Fellowship from the Academy of Magical Arts and Sciences.

Jon’s primary mentors were Ed Marlo and Eddie Fields; however, at different times he was inspired by Channing Pollock, Cardini, Don Alan, Albert Goshman, Chan Canasta, Tony Slydini, Finn Jon, Lennert Green, Tommy Wonder and Juan Tameriz. His (magic) literary influences are Martin Gardner, John Northern Hilliard, Walter Gibson, Ted Annemann, Bruce Elliott, P. Howard Lyons, and Victor Farelli.

His other interests are: body-building, literature, book-collecting, martial arts, philosophy, poetry, film, theater (theory), cosmology, painting, and mathematical recreations.

He has seven children (Karen, Michael, Jona, Jonathan, Erika, Robynn, and Ry) and 10 grandchildren (Lindsey, Matthew, Thomas, Sasha, Autumn, Ben, Adam, Allyssa, Sophina, and Kirin).