The book posits and analyzes various theories regarding the perception and cognition of lay audiences and provides practical examples and advice on the construction of effects, aimed at maximizing their impact and deceptiveness to a lay audience. Ortiz's second book on magic theory, Designing Miracles is an exposition on the design of powerful magical effects, and is subtitled Creating the Illusion of Impossibility. Ownership of the copyright has recently returned to the author (along with two other books Darwin Ortiz At The Card Table and Cardshark) and the books are once again being made available to the trade. Demand for the book has been high, despite the initial inability of the original publisher to reprint the text.
The book has been broadly embraced by the professional and amateur magic community but initially met with negative reviews from the two major US trade publications MAGIC and Genii.
His book Strong Magic focuses on practical presentational techniques for close-up magicians. The most recent book on his original routines was Lessons in Card Mastery. Ortiz is the author of books on gambling and magic. Ortiz later became a consultant to a number of casinos in the United States, Europe, Africa, UK and Australasia, and was a regular featured presenter for a succession of years at the World Gaming Congress in Nevada. Ortiz is a contemporary and close friend of the influential US coin magician, David Roth, and was initially mentored by the seminal British/US close-up performer, Derek Dingle. During that time, he initially supported himself playing blackjack (using card counting techniques) and as an instructor at Harry Lorayne's memory school in New York City. In 1974, he dropped out of NYU Law School and pursued card magic full-time. I’m looking forward to seeing Darwin again later in the year in Washington.Ortiz was born and raised in New York City, where he had a keen interest in card tricks since childhood. He has inspired me to embrace even more technique into my arsenal and raise my standard even higher, more than I thought was possible. If you aspire to a high standard of technical and artistic excellence in card magic, then studying the work of Darwin Ortiz will broaden your horizons and give you vision of beautiful card magic which I believe is in keeping with the work of the great Hofzinser.Įvery conversation I have with Darwin expands my love and appreciation for card magic. If you haven’t read any of Darwin’s books, then do yourself a favor and pick them up NOW…you will not regret it.ĭarwin’s approach to card magic is challenging, provocative and inspiring. “The Annotated Erdnase” tracks the development of sleight of hand with cards over the last 100 years in relation to the classic book by S.W.Erdnase.ĭarwin’s latest book “Scams and Fantasies” continues his legacy of inspirational card magic. This book takes the bible of card cheating, “The Expert at the Card Table”, and brings it right up to date with historical references’ and annotations of 20th century sleight of hand. Here is Darwin’s masterpiece from CARDSHARK “The Unholy Three”.ĭarwin enhanced his reputation as a world-class author and magician with his wonderful book, “The Annotated Erdnase”. The routines in this book will completely devastate any audience. This would be consolidated with his next book “CARDSHARK”, which happens to contain some of the most powerful and brilliantly constructed card magic I have had the pleasure of learning and performing. When “Darwin Ortiz At The Card Table” was published, Roger Klause said in his introduction, “What would make a professional give away his hard earned secrets”? This statement endorsed the high quality of Darwin’s material. Here is my interpretation of Darwin’s “Back Off”.
Two routines appeared in this magazine which brought his name to my attention, namely, “The Jazz Ace” and “Back Off”. This fueled his passion for sleight of hand card magic and gambling related techniques. Over the years, Darwin would publish his ground breaking card magic to various magazines like Apocalypse. Growing up in the Bronx, Darwin saw and became fascinated with the card mechanics in his neighborhood. I would like to begin with a special thanks to my friend and mentor, Darwin Ortiz.ĭarwin is from New York City and has been creating and performing card magic for well over thirty years. Over the years, I would meet many of the great magicians, some of them would become my mentors and friends. They inspired each generation to raise the bar even higher.
Where would we be if the great masters of magic hadn’t set the standard for excellence.