[HN Gopher] Juan Tamariz, the godfather of close-up card magic
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Juan Tamariz, the godfather of close-up card magic
Author : wallflower
Score : 149 points
Date : 2023-01-04 14:55 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| forgingahead wrote:
| https://archive.is/eq15t
| neonate wrote:
| http://web.archive.org/web/20230104151246/https://www.nytime...
| Orlan wrote:
| If you enjoyed reading this article, you'll probably also enjoy
| Joshua Jay's book How Magicians Think. Among other things, he
| describes the experience of spending a few days visiting Tamariz.
|
| There's a significant number of magicians worldwide that have
| learned Spanish just to spend time around Spain and around other
| Spanish magicians.
| BaRRaKID wrote:
| To add to this, Juan Tamariz paved the road for other great
| (and arguably better) spanish magicians to follow him, and it's
| worth watching them to see how different and amazing Spanish
| magic is. To name a few check Dani DaOrtiz, Mario Lopez, Rubi
| Ferez, and Juan Colas on Youtube and Instagram.
| iainctduncan wrote:
| Don't forget Woody Aragon! :-)
| amval wrote:
| As a Spaniard I had of course heard of Tamariz, but I had no
| idea there was an Spanish "scene", so to speak.
|
| Are you also spaniard or just into the topic?
| Orlan wrote:
| The Spanish "scene" has been around for a while! I have a
| friend who moved to Spain in the 90s to study under
| Ascanio. After Ascanio, Tamariz and the late Gabi Pareras
| seem to have the biggest influences, but Gabi was not well
| known outside of Spain (until his later years). Only got to
| see him once in London.
|
| Tamariz is still a big influence in the magic scene of
| course, but DaOrtiz and his Villa Kaps seem to be expanding
| the circle at a faster pace for the next generation.
|
| (Not Spanish, from Puerto Rico now living in the US, and
| very much into the topic. =) )
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| Yes, Villa Kaps is a beautiful and wonderful place to
| study magic.
| Orlan wrote:
| And Luis Olmedo - 2022 FISM winner! Great act.
|
| Plus many more.
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| I have not learned Spanish, but I do travel to Spain to work
| with Spanish Magicians, so this is quite true.
| ankaAr wrote:
| I will add my recommendation about Rene Lavand, card magician
| with only one hand.
| the_af wrote:
| "No se puede hacer mas lento" ("this card trick cannot be done
| even slower than this")
| ankaAr wrote:
| I still remember someone doing a slow motion analysis and
| they cannot find how was made a trick.
| fauria wrote:
| If you like Juan Tamariz, have a look at some of Dani DaOrtiz
| routines, another Spanish magician heavily influenced by Tamariz.
|
| This one from 2022 for Penn and Teller is amazing:
| https://youtu.be/5_KcQt0z-eE
| bambax wrote:
| > _This one from 2022 for Penn and Teller is amazing_
|
| For some reason I'm not very interested in magic and I don't
| especially like being fooled. But this... this is well beyond
| anything I have ever seen. So thanks for that.
| drcongo wrote:
| I usually can't stand magicians, but absolutely loved this.
| defective wrote:
| I was wondering about that, actually. I am interested in
| magic, very much, and I have seen tons and tons. I also felt
| like it was beyond anything I have ever seen, and wondered if
| it would be noticeably different to people who haven't seen
| as much as I have.
| toast0 wrote:
| You might like Penn doing a rope trick
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvz_JKqJiP8
| eezurr wrote:
| Pretty good, but this one by Javi Benitez can't even be slowed
| down on YouTube to figure out what he's doing. Its mind
| blowing.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLB5oOq76c8
| Lewton wrote:
| Fun fact (from penn jilettes podcast):
|
| At the point where he's tearing up a card, it's chosen at
| random and he's just taking the <2% risk that it won't ruin the
| trick
| toast0 wrote:
| It certainly isn't random. He's showing the chosen card at
| the top of the face up deck moments before. If you watch at
| 0.25x very carefully, you can see what happens next.
|
| He's very good at what he does, and it's hard to spot in real
| time. Amazing card scanning, too.
|
| (start around
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_KcQt0z-eE&t=229s )
| Lewton wrote:
| > It certainly isn't random.
|
| It's random in the context of the trick, it's not like he
| specifically chose that card because he knew he could avoid
| it later
| aidenn0 wrote:
| The question is what does he do at the end if Alyson
| Hannigan picks the card that he saw himself tear up.
| toast0 wrote:
| Alyson couldn't have picked the card that was torn up,
| because she selected a card from the deck after the card
| was destroyed; https://youtu.be/5_KcQt0z-eE?t=332 is
| around when she's given cards to select from.
|
| On the other hand, Penn was asked to name a card which
| was then shown, an alternate card destroyed, and the
| named card shown again. If a further name a card was
| attempted on the 51-card deck, you'd have the chance of
| naming the destroyed card.
| iainctduncan wrote:
| fun follow up fact: if it is the card, I can guarantee he has
| an alternate ending so it will never ruin it - it will only
| change it. Tamariz is a master of the "outs" (as magicians
| call them).
| [deleted]
| Lewton wrote:
| Did you mean DaOrtiz?
|
| This is coming from his own mouth, the trick is mostly
| improvised, but for the ending he literally was gambling
| that she would not mention the ripped up card
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| Hrm.. I am not so sure about this. Of course he would do
| something, but it wouldn't be a traditional out. It's a
| much more complex topic when it involves Dani.
| iainctduncan wrote:
| That's still an out to normal people. But yeah, i get
| that it will be a next level out for sure.
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| But like, it wouldn't be. I'm sorry though, I'm not
| willing to explain it fully.
|
| I get what you're saying though. I get why you're saying
| it.
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| I am a student of Dani DaOrtiz, and have traveled to Spain to
| train with him. Planning to do it again this year.
| iainctduncan wrote:
| Wins the thread. You lucky dog! This is like having Michael
| Jordan as your basketball coach..
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| He's a brilliant man, and I am extremely happy to devote my
| life to try to understand as much as possible, and
| implement it. There is so much nuance, and detail, and it
| extends through all of life, not just magic.
|
| Thank you. I agree. I am happy as well to call him my
| friend.
| have_faith wrote:
| Juan has a great book on his card system that I think Dani is
| using for this routine (or at least a modification of it).
| Years ago I spent some time learning it and I think it's one of
| those things that only gets more impressive when you understand
| the methodology. It takes so much practice to present a routine
| as casually as Dani does in this.
| AndyNemmity wrote:
| Dani has his own system, he doesn't use Juan's, but of course
| Juan's is great.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Many magic tricks, particularly close-up acts, are of the
| sort that knowing how it works only makes someone good at
| them even more impressive. I saw Ricky Jay once, and I _know_
| he must be doing false shuffles and switches, but his motions
| are so natural and consistent that I was just more impressed,
| not less.
| kace91 wrote:
| >But in Spain, Tamariz is an icon, less like Blaine or David
| Copperfield and more like Kermit the Frog.
|
| As a spaniard, I think this is a great way to put it.
|
| It's not that we consider him a clown, or aren't aware how
| extraordinarily skilled he is. It's just that he's got such a
| one-off charismatic personality that your mind ends up
| classifying him as something separate from reality.
|
| There's no need to set a stage or act like he's an otherworldly
| being. Tamariz just strolls by looking like he's just out of bed,
| casually defies physics laws, says goodbye and walks away,
| because he's Tamariz; in the same way that the Roadrunner can
| keep running through the drawing of a road because he's the
| roadrunner.
|
| It's just the nature of things.
| narag wrote:
| The comparison with Kermit is, for people of certain age, very
| natural. We first knew both of them at the same time. And
| Tamariz used to appear in TV for children. Not only he
| performed awesome tricks, he also made us laugh with his
| explosive style. Instant connection with children.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Great way to see it. The man should be an honorific Sesame
| Street character. Is as close to a real life muppet as you can
| find.
| dieselgate wrote:
| The comparison to roadrunner is an awesome one for someone not
| familiar with Tamariz
| Eumenes wrote:
| I was hoping for Magic the Gathering
| [deleted]
| uberuberuber wrote:
| His student Dani Daortiz is amazing to watch.
| https://youtu.be/5_KcQt0z-eE
|
| The explanation of this 10 minute act using a non-gimmicked deck
| of cards is 3 hours long. https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/card-
| magic/dani-daortiz-fo...
| willcipriano wrote:
| No video?
|
| Found this one: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=alfwdvQaLIE
|
| New to me but I'm a fan.
| feiss wrote:
| This one is also amazing. So clean..
| https://youtu.be/tW_8iwB96BQ
| jacquesm wrote:
| He makes the people around him feel like children again, so
| amazed by the magic. Incredible talent. The closest analogue I
| can find is Tommy Cooper, who had the same kind of act making
| you think that he really just can't do it only to come away
| with your mind utterly blown by how he totally owned you and
| wondering how far back it all started.
| InCityDreams wrote:
| I turned down an opportunity to see TC live...boring, TV etc.
| A friend thtat went told me that the show 'started', Tommy
| came out - and for 20 minutes did nothing. Nothing. And the
| audience was howling, and crying, with laughter. And then all
| night.
|
| Friends comment: TV did not do any justice at all to to the
| man (except, the tv execs could see his genius), as
| everything was 'rushed'. When something went 'wrong', live,
| he had time to react to the situation. The reaction had
| people on the floor and unable to breathe - for minutes, and
| minutes, and minutes.
|
| By the way - it took my friend about 20 minutes just to
| explain nothing happened for twenty minutes, he was laughing
| so hard.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Tommy Cooper was severely underestimated by lots of people.
| His death must have been the strangest thing ever. Alcohol
| really got the better of him, rumor has it he was quite
| traumatized from time spent in the army.
|
| "The trick with the egg..."
| willcipriano wrote:
| He is what I imagine a wizard would be like.
| anthk wrote:
| If you can read Spanish, I suggest you "El cerebro ilusionista:
| el cerebro detras de la magia" (The magician brain: the brain
| behind the magic). It explains you the link between neuroscience
| and magic tricks.
|
| If you are learning Spanish, technical/science books share lot of
| Romance origin words which already exist in English, so half of
| the road it's paved to begin your learning path.
| georgehaake wrote:
| NY Times. I gave them money for a subscription. I'm fine with
| that. What I found to be just enough of a deal breaker is the ads
| remain as a subscriber.
| asdff wrote:
| Of course the ads remain, they are for their subscribers. Non
| subscribers don't even see the article let alone the ads.
| InCityDreams wrote:
| ...let alone the trackers.
|
| Anyway, thanks for being a $upporter.
| hajile wrote:
| I'm pretty sure that Erdnase or Dai Vernon would be the true
| godfather of card magic.
| kleiba wrote:
| Richard Turner.
| lillesvin wrote:
| Even though the phrase "the godfather of ..." suggests
| otherwise, it's really not a competition or an attempt to
| determine the exact origin of "close-up card magic", it's just
| acknowledging the fact that Juan Tamariz has contributed a lot
| to the art form.
|
| That, however, doesn't diminish Dai Vernon's or Erdnase's
| contributions, but yeah, not a competition.
| hajile wrote:
| If we're going with "contributed a lot", then there are a
| tons of great card magicians to mention: H.N. Hofzinser (the
| real father of card magic), Richard Turner, Cardini, Charlie
| Miller, Jimmy Grippo, Rene Lavand, Bill Malone, Juliana Chen,
| Michael Vincent, and Shin Lim (off the top of my head -- I'm
| sure I'm missing someone)
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(page generated 2023-01-04 23:01 UTC)