We appreciate everyone who emailed us with the somber news of Herb Zarrow passing on. He was 82 years of age.

We are told services will be held on Tuesday in his home state of New Jersey. Zarrow, of course, will forever be remembered for pioneering the Zarrow Shuffle and is described by Whaley’s Who’s Who In Magic as such…

Inspired and learned at age 11-12 from Gilbert magic set & library books. Accountant in New Jersey. Amateur closeup with cards & coins. Innovator & improver in card & close-up magic. Invented Zarrow shuffle around 1953-54, having “worked on it at various times, from late forties” & published it in 1957 in Phoenix. MIMC 1995. Louie Award 1998.

This is an example of a false shuffle. The shuffle appears to be a normal riffle shuffle to spectators. In fact, it leaves the cards in exactly the same order as before the shuffle.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. We hope to have a proper retrospective up soon.

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Call your mom and let her know you appreciate all the times she drove you to gigs or watched you struggle through new routines or paid your internet bill so you can read these very words.

Happy Mothers Day from everyone at iTricks!

PHOTO CREDIT: Matt McGee

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• Big Daddy Kane once said… “Busking ain’t easy.” Wait, is that how it goes? [Ye Olde Magick Blogge]

• Celeracadbra so far… from the Ellusionist perspective [The Ellusionist Blog]

• Happy (belated) Birthday Tim Ellis! [Magic Unlimited]

• A magic blog talking about comic book super powers will always have a home in the Magic Chatter. Always. [Fun Inc.]

Got a great post you want the iTricks audience to read? Send them along to iTricksNews@iTricks.com for the next Chatter.

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UPDATE: Roy reportedly arrived in Austria hours ago and has reserved an entire floor of the Hansa hospital, according to iTricks reader Walther in the country. The picture below was taken today…

The AFP is reporting that illusionist Roy Horn is set to undergo knee surgery in Austria.

There is no detail on why the operation is needed, or if the injury is in anyway caused by Roy’s rehabilitation from the attack by one of his tigers in 2003.

A spokesman for Peter Panzenboeck, the surgeon who was to carry out the operation, confirmed the report to AFP, adding that Horn was currently undergoing medical exams at the Sanatorium Hansa in Graz.

Roy received a standing ovation from the crowd at Cher’s debut show in Vegas last week when he stood up from his wheelchair and walked for the cheering fans.

More on this as it develops….

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Eric DeCamps is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only is he a legendary sleight of hand artist and good friend of iTricks, for this weeks episode he also brought along the man directing his current show in New York City: Bob Fitch.

This week’s topics include Penn’s backstage impressions of Dancing With The Stars, the Tampa-area teacher fired for ‘wizardry’ and why magicians have gone crazy for the iPhone.

Also discussed is the progress of Celebracadabra and if either Eric or Bob have any questions for executive producer Chris Martin, who you may have heard is answering a whole podcast worth in the coming days. Just send your question to Show [at] iTricks dot com with Celebracadabra in the subject line.

Anyhow, Eric and Bob gave us so much good material that we decided to to give you an exclusive part of the show, not heard in the podcast. Listen as Bob breaks down why he’s enjoying Celebracadabra, why making magic on television is hard and how his experience as an acting coach on NBC’s Phenomenon left him with a bad taste in his mouth.

Magic Week in Review should go up right here sometime in the next few hours or you can always subscribe on iTunes.

 Eric And Bob Extra [4:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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We would like to thank the mysterious stranger who sent this one along to us. WARNING: THIS CLIP CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE, SERIOUSLY. You can get it here.

Remember, Celebracadabra airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. and this week, the folks take on comedy magic in what producer Chris Martin said in our interview with him this week is the funniest episode of the series. Also, Kim Wyatt does a sexy dance. Be prepared.

Also, we are still accepting questions for the very gracious Mr. Martin. Email Show [at] iTricks dot com with Celebracadabra in the subject line and we will ask him all the best in a new podcast next week.

In the meantime… ding dong.

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Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s all over. David Letterman welcomed a fantastic sampling of magicians throughout the week and… what? You didn’t see Magic Week?

Well, this is why you read this site right? Here are the YouTube clips for all the performances (sans Penn and Teller for now). If you want to see the highlights, check out Letterman’s Late Show Rewind.

Check out all the clips AFTER THE JUMP…

Read the rest of this entry »

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