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Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz
(c. 2004) (Submit Review) (Submit Update)Details: A celebrity of television and stage in Spain and South America, JUAN TAMARIZ is known internationally among magicians as a true master of his art, and one who generously shares his time and knowledge, both in print and in person, with the magic community. He is the author of three critically acclaimed best-selling books in English: The Five Points of Magic, The Magic Way and Sonata. Along with Arturo de Ascanio, Tamariz has spearheaded a school of thought in close-up magic that has produced FISM award-winning champions and deeply influenced the craft of magic worldwide.
Among those things Juan Tamariz is most recognized for, among magicians, is his trailblazing work with the memorized deck-a tool with extraordinary potential for creating utterly baffling magic. Over the past two decades, Tamariz has been the recognized leader in its use and, with Simon Aronson in the United States (who contributes an introduction to this book), the most influential.
Tamariz’s memorized deck stack, “Mnemonica”, has become a legend with card magicians throughout the world, and within this book he reveals at last its complete workings, as well as teaching the reader how to memorize the stack-forever-in as little as three hours. Accompanying this information are more than a hundred tricks and routines that radically expand the range of effects commonly thought possible with a memorized deck, and an annotated bibliography that leads the reader to an amazing body of additional material on the memorized deck, making Mnemonica the most complete study of its subject ever done.
Mnemonica is a virtual encyclopedia on the subject of memorized-deck magic, by the world’s leading exponent and one of magic’s acknowledged masters. It is a book crammed with magic from the working repertoire of Juan Tamariz, magic that leaves everyone, public and magicians, utterly astounded. It is a book capable of changing the reader’s entire approach to card magic, and a work that supports Juan Tamariz’s reputation as one of the most important and creative thinkers in magic today.
Contents:
xvii Introduction (Simon Aronson)
xix Preface
xxiii Contributors
3 Part I
3 Chapter One — The Memorized Deck: a Bit of History
5 The Key Card
5 From Ace to King
5 The Mathematical Deck
6 The Rosary Deck
7 Non-periodical Numerical Decks
7 Disguised Arithmetical Decks
7 The Mnemonic Deck
8 The Mnemonic Deck with Added Properties
10 Tamariz’s Mnemonica
11 Chapter Two — Tamariz’s Mnemonica (Structure)
13 1. The Order of Mnemonica
14 2. How to Attain This Order
14 First Method: With Faros
16 Second Method: Without Faros
16 Third Method: Direct Setup
17 3. Specific Properties of Mnemonica
19 4. From Mnemonica to Stay-stack
21 Chapter Three — Ultra-Rapid Memorization
23 Questions and Answers
24 1. The Auditory Method
25 2. The Visual Method
26 3. The Muscular Method
26 4. The Conceptual Method
27 5. The Security Method
29 Chapter Four – Tricks Specific to Mnemonica – Tricks with Stay-Stack
31 1. Super Poker
34 2. Aces, Kings and Other Poker Hands
35 3. Everything in Order, an Outstanding Climax
35 4. A Grand Bridge Deal
36 5. Other Tricks
37 Chapter Five – Specific Tricks With the Mnemonica Order
39 Deal of a Complete Suit
44 Spellings
44 Spelling a Thought-of Card
45 Spelling the Color Value Suit and Card
46 Spelling Four Cards and Four Aces
48 Gambling Demonstrations
48 Any Poker Hand Called For
54 Rummy Exhibition
54 Blackjack Exhibition (Jim Krenz)
56 Flushes and Pluses (Ariston)
60 Back-to-back Deals—After Dai Vernon’s Formula (Cuesta)
62 Poker Demonstration for Eight Players
64 Other Tricks
64 Controlled Pairs
65 The Three Hours (Aronson-Rioboo)
68 Prediction a la Kruskal (Antonio Jose Arenillas)
69 A Strange Coincidence (Angel San Frutos)
71 The Good Fortune Routine
77 Chapter Six — Tricks with the Whole Stack
79 Five Classics
79 Divination
82 Any Card at Any Number
85 The Three Piles
88 Obedient Cards
89 Total Memory
91 Three Crown Jewels
91 Prediction
94 All of a Kind
97 Mnemonicosis
102 Eight More Jewels
102 Flying Through Thin Air
104 Cards to Pocket
106 Sha-la-la-la-la (A Multiple Musical Location)
111 Memorized Brainwaves
113 Coincidence with Two Decks and Three Cards
116 Control in Chaos (Aronson-Rioboo)
119 Carbuquillo
123 Cutting the Aces or Any Four of a Kind
124 A Few Direct Ones
124 The Direct Production of Cards Called For
125 Rising Cards
127 Double Color Change
128 Reversed Cards (Mago Anton-Tamariz)
129 Cards Called For to Pocket
130 Thought-of Card to Pocket (with an Added Advantage)
132 A Card Vanishes Instantly
133 Other Beautiful Tricks
133 Sympathy
135 A Star is Born
137 The Stop Trick
138 Face to Face (Marlo-Tamariz)
139 A Grand Triumph (Camilo Vazquez)
140 A Predicted Triumph
141 The Theft of the Century
142 Royal Location
143 Double Prediction (Zingone-Tamariz)
145 Exact Location (Jordan-Clive-Tamariz)
147 Cards from Pocket Stop Trick (Ramblar)
148 Named Card from Pocket (Ramblar)
149 Card to Number in Pocket (Ramblar)
149 Card to Wallet (Ramblar)
150 Assembly of Selections in Poker Hands (Leipzig-Tamariz)
151 Miscellaneous Ideas
151 A Special Idea: The Eight Mnemonicas
156 Stay-stack with Mnemonica
157 A Card Index
157 An Assortment of Very Beautiful Loose and Simple Ideas
161 An Idea for Magicians: Mnemoncia and Strippers
162 The Art of Improvisation with Mnemonica
162 To Introduce the Subject
163 The Techniques
164 The Effects
165 Chapter Seven — Tricks Specific to Mnemonica Using Stay-stack
167 The Missing Card (Marlo-Tamariz)
168 Prodigious Memory (Evans-Hull-Annemann-Tamariz)
169 The Rite of Initiation (Luis Garcia Soutullo)
Part II
175 Prologue to Part II
177 Chapter Eight — Tricks Unique to Mnemonica Using the Half Stack
179 Incredible Card Control
182 Total Spell (Dr. Jacob Daley)
184 Spelling to Four Cards
185 Spelling to the Four Deuces
186 Colors on Parade
189 Two Stories
193 Chapter Nine — Tricks with the Half Stack
195 One to Begin With
195 Memory Jumble
197 Three Classics and a Semi-Classic
197 Weighing the Cards
201 Total Memory
204 Sense of Touch—and Other Senses
204 Sense of Touch
206 …and Other Senses
207 A Card and a Number (Gombert-Baker-Tamariz)
211 Five Aces
211 Any Cards Called For (Jordan-Tamariz)
214 Come and Go
218 The Liar—A Classic (Dalban-Nyquist-Tamariz)
220 Answering Computer
223 T.N.T. (Finley-Jordan-Tamariz)
226 Three Coincidences
226 The Miracle (Chesbro-Thompson-Tamariz)
228 Telescopic Coincidence
230 Stop at the Same Time
231 Four Direct Ones
231 A Gambling Demonstration
234 Card to Wallet (Daley-Tamariz)
234 The Reversed Card
236 The Selection Between the Aces
237 Five Divinations
237 Fingerprints and Cardprints
239 Double Divination
240 Jumbled Divination
242 Mnemonicosis with a Half Stack
243 Spectator Misses Magician Hits
245 Five Assorted Ones
245 Half Sympathy
245 Pocket Calculator (Mago Anton)
246 Tell Me Who You’re with and I’ll Tell You Who You Are
248 Bingo!
249 How Many Reds?
253 Two Ideas
253 Mnemonica with the Spanish Deck or with Other Decks
253 The Half Stack with the Spanish Deck
254 …And an Ending
254 Some Time Ago (Dr. Daley)
257 Appendix I — Tricks That Improve with Mnemonica
259 Neither Blind nor Stupid
261 The Clock
262 Stop at the Same Time
263 A Curious Coincidence (Hofzinser?)
264 Triumph (Dai Vernon)
265 Mnabacus (Jack London)
267 Appendix II – About Order and Disorder
269 Tricks That Don’t Alter the Stack
270 Actions That Don’t Alter the Stack While Appearing to Do So
277 Resetting the Stack
285 Setting Up the Stack in Front of the Audience
285 Setup from a New-deck Order…
286 From a Random Order
287 In One Stage
289 In Two Stages (Half and Half)
295 In Three Stages (A Half a Quarter and a Quarter)
297 Appendix III — Notes About Any Poker Hand Called For
309 Appendix IV — About the Structure of Mnemonica
319 Appendix V – The Antifaro Concept
321 For a Fifty-two-card Deck
323 For a Thirty-two-card Deck
324 A Very Important Observation
325 Appendix VI — Useful Sleights
327 Glimpses
331 Finding Cards
333 Shifting the Position of a Card
333 First Objective: To Move a Card Without Altering Rest of Stack
338 Second Objective: Pretending a Selected Card is Returned…
339 Third Objective: To Exchange Two Cards…
340 Fourth Objective: To Gather Several Cards…
341 False Shuffles
346 Deck Switches
354 Other Useful Sleights
364 Note for Sailors
365 Bibliography (with Commentary)
- Publisher: Hermetic Press
- Pages: 408
- Location: Seattle, USA
- Edited by: Rafael Benatar (Translator)
- Dimensions: 7″x10″
- Date: 2004
- Binding: hardbound
Contents: magicref.net – click for details
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Approx. Price: $65.00 (2004) ***
Notice: I am not a dealer and this item is not for sale on this site. It maybe available in the links below or at our sister site: qualitymagic.com, but not from here so please do not ask.© Martin's Magic (unless otherwise stated). All Rights Reserved.
Allan D. Lakas –
"Mnemonica" by Juan Tamariz
"Mnemonica" by Juan Tamariz- Translated from the Spanish by Rafael Benatar
I would like to start off by saying that Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz is one of the greatest works on the memorized deck in the history of magic; an encyclopedia on the subject Tamariz has painstakingly researched nearly every form of memorized deck since the 16th century. Lovers of magic will consume his 50 page bibliography in which he makes comments on the best memorized deck effects from such masters as Theodore Annemann to contemporaries such as Simon Aronson and Martin Joyal. Indeed the bibliography suggests a lifetime of "required readings" that will provide a plethora of inexplicable "pieces of strange" that will captivate and fool any audience neophyte of experienced magician. In addition he also generously provides another section dedicated to useful sleights including a number of useful glimpses, deck switches, and crimps from the likes of such legendary cardmen as Edward Marlo, Dai Vernon and Tamariz himself. The reader will also discover a number of useful complete false shuffles and other brilliant ideas such as the Tamariz Perpendicular control and the Green Angle Separation. There is also extensive ideas for resetting the stack even after it has been riffle shuffled AND overhand shuffled by spectators. All this and I haven’t even described the main reason for buying Mnemonica, this being the stack and the tricks provided itself!
For starters, the Mnemonica stack itself is a brilliant creation that was recently released to the magic community after 20 years of development by Juan Tamariz:
"The Mnemonica stack contains all the tricks for a memorized deck; all the tricks using stay stack; "Super Poker"; "Any Poker Hand Called For"; the production of whole suits of hearts, spades or clubs; Aronson’s routine using the whole diamond suit; the routine of lucky coincidences; two stories told by the cards; the mental spelling of ten cards; a series of fifteen cards for a divination of three thought-of cards; rummy, poker, bridge and blackjack demonstrations; a version of "The Vernon Poker Demonstration"; other productions and spellings for the Aces, Kings, Queens, and Jacks, spellings to several selected cards, the four Deuces, colors, suits, values, etc.
And finally. It is set from new deck order.
Can be converted to stay-stack order and
You can finish with the whole deck in order."
If you’ve never learned a memorized stack before, or even if you have, you are probably thinking about what a daunting process it must be. I can assure you the system that Juan has devised, entitled "Ultra Rapid Memorization" is just that; the stack can be easily learned in as little as three hours. I did it over the course of two afternoons, about two weeks apart, spending about an hour and a half for each session. And because of the way it is memorized it will stay with you for life. I’ve gone three weeks without thinking about the stack and it is still automatic- the learning process burns the image of the card and its corresponding stack position in your mind indefinitely.
The tricks are divided into a number of different chapters including "Specific Tricks for Mnemonica," "Tricks with the Whole Stack", "Tricks Specific to Mnemonica with the Stay Stack Wheel,"Tricks Unique to Mnemonica using Only Half the Stack," "Tricks with the Half Stack," and "Tricks that Improve with Mnemonica"
Each chapter is filled with many different professional caliber effects and presentations that can be used in both restaurants and for more formal close up demonstrations at the card table, many of which are completely inexplicable even to other magicians. I can’t encourage you enough to pick up this book and see for yourself why Juan Tamariz is considered the master of the memorized deck.
Here’s what Simon Aronson (another giant of magic) had to say about Juan in the introduction of his book:
"Juan is way ahead of us, all the time. Always thinking, always observing, always innovating, always making use of whatever opportunity presents itself. That what makes his use of the memorized deck, and all of his magic, such a joy to experience, and such an inspiring example to learn from. Juan’s magic is a living illustration of his own theoretical writings, urging us to gently cause the spectator to just "give up" rational analysis so that he can revel in the joyous impossibility of that moment."
For those who want to take their card magic to the next level, consider Mnemonica and you will enjoy a wealth of material that will keep you busy for the rest of your life.