The family of a legend

So Saturday night at What if in Hershey, I had a wonderful experience. As I approached a table of about 15 adults, teens and children, one man looked up and said "Oh, you must be the magician." I explained that I was and as I took out a deck of cards he asks me if I ever met Herb Zarrow. I stammered a bit as this is not a name laymen toss around, "Yes, I met him a few times." "He was my cousin" the man replied. This name will not mean anything to most of you. Herb was a marvelous magician who passed away a few months ago. Now, I'm asked all the time if I've ever met David Copperfield, Criss Angel or David Blaine. I have, and I wasn't that impressed. Let me assure you, meeting Herb was a much bigger thrill. How big of a deal was Herb Zarrow to magic? It's like saying you have a British cousin who plays drums named Ringo. Herb was not a professional magician. I believe he spent the majority of his life as an accountant. However, he is responsible for inventing one sleight of hand technique in 1940, that is still in use today. I won't go into the gist of it here, but it's fairly common when reading a magic textbook to see the phrase, "Place the deck on the table and do a Zarrow."

No one else in the family is a magician. In fact, Herb was a very humble man. They knew he was involved in magic as a hobby, and when pressed he would to a few card tricks for friends. But it wasn't until his death that they began to get an idea how important he really was. They were shocked when at his funeral someone told the family that "Every magician in the world would know exactly who Herb was, and how important he was to our art." I guess they just had to ask this big guy from Hershey if he knew. He did, and he was very honored to perform for them. A young man named Jonah asked me if I could do "Uncle Herb's move". Now, this is something that when done correctly, looks like nothing at all. I got up my nerve, and after dinner, I performed one of my favorite effects, Triumph. I included the move and they applauded loudly. Jonah looked up and said, "I didn't see anything." My only reply was, "Well, then your Uncle Herb would be proud that I did it right.