Mnemonica Miracles By Juan Tamariz is a set of five DVDs that demonstrate some of Tamariz’s favorite effects from his book Mnemonica.
They come in a 5 DVD slip case and the packaging is great.
These DVDs were shot at Tamariz’s house using basic production equipment so they don’t have studio level quality. These are not HD quality videos. But these videos are completely usable.
If you have never seen Juan Tamariz perform for lay people, then these DVDs provide a great opportunity to do just that. The lessons in spectator management you get from watching these DVDs are priceless.
Its very important to note that these DVDs are not meant to be used as a standalone product. These should be used along with the Mnemonica book by Juan Tamariz. The DVDs do clear some finer performance points in the effects described in Mnemonica but they are not to be used to learn the effects. Even Tamariz agrees with this as In DVD 5, he says, “I think that the DVD is not a very good way to learn magic.”
Tamariz pointed out in the Mnemonica book that he omitted some of the memorized deck effects from the book due to lack of time. But these DVDs were shot at the same time when the English version of Mnemonica book was released in 2004. So, they do not have anything new in them. All the effects in the DVDs are directly from the Mnemonica book.
Along with detailed explanation of each effect, he also discusses the psychology and subtleties that makes the effects miracles.
It’s a given that simply seeing Tamariz perform these and discuss his approach and psychology behind them is amazing.
DVD 1
| Effect | Description | Mnemonica Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Prediction | Hofzinser Method performed and explained as per the book | Page 91 |
| Telescopic Coincidence | Hofzinser Method performed and explained as per the book | Page 91 |
| Prediction | Performed and explained as per the book | Page 228 |
| All of a Kind | Includes Tamariz’s “one more note” regarding his handling post-effect for putting the deck back into proper stack. | Page 94 |
| Answering Computer | Presentation of one of the infinite possibilities with this. During the explanation, Tamariz shows a slightly different take on the maze (not that I’ve ever used it) than is described in the book to illustrate that you can tailor any questions/directions/whatever to the upcoming cards. | Page 220 |
| Everything in Order | For me, this was the winner on DVD 1. – Very cool to see this performed. I’ve never used the antifaro-4 table deal, but he actually made it seem… not completely ridiculous. Also, in the explanation, his little nuance of ending with a Charlier cut to apparently toss the remainder into the middle… I like that very much. – Cool point you might miss: his explanation showed a slightly different way to get into staystack that never dawned on me! (He didn’t do it in the presentation–there, he did it as is in the book). This one almost flew right past me, until I realized he skipped a step I expected–and I had to rewind to figure out why. I will definitely be using this. – Also, in the presentation, he demonstrates interesting motivations/effects for two of the processes normally used to get back into staystack (which are the two processes he explains in the book, but I don’t recall reading these motivations/effects.) – Tamariz ends the explanation of Everything in Order with a presentation-to-the-camera and explanation of “A Grand Bridge Deal” |
Page 35 |
| Name of Effect | Description | Mnemonica Book Reference |
|---|---|---|
DVD 2
| Name of Effect | Description | Mnemonica Book Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Any Cards Called For | – Great performance. It reinvigorated my desire to perform this one again. – Far better to see his perform the reveal and included psychological convincers, rather than read it in the book. – Lots of additional thoughts at the tail end of the explanation, all of which are good and that I’ll put into use. From displaying post-effect to resetting the stack, they’re valuable tips. |
Page 211 |
| Any Card at Any Number | Page 82 | |
| Cards Called for to Pocket | The explanations for this one is voice-over with a replay of the presentation. These are performed and explained as per the book. | Page 129 |
| A Star is Born | The explanations for this one is voice-over with a replay of the presentation. These are performed and explained as per the book. | Page 135 |
| Come and Go | The explanation of this matches the book, but the performance being in a significantly different manner. Tamariz performs the setup of a half stack from a fully shuffled deck. Once finished (far into the performance) only then does he go into the Come and Go effect. For the technicals behind some of the things he’s doing during the performance to reset the half stack, the same DVD (#2) has a section on “Resetting the First Half Stack” later. | Page 214 |
| Jumbled Divination | Tamariz has described this as one of his most-performed tricks from Mnemonica. Given the seemingly impossible nature of it and how far ahead you are on the amount of information you have available to reveal however you’d like, I would tend to agree. Good stuff. – Many small, good nuances in the performance that are noted and detailed in the explanation. |
Page 240 |
| Resetting the First Half Stack | This is the explanation for the first half of the performance in “Come and Go” on the same DVD, pertaining to setting up the half stack. This section is very nice, and provides techniques you can use with any deck, anytime, to get into half stack via entertaining effects. | |
| Rising Cards | Explained as per the book. A few additional thoughts regarding motivation, but not much. | Page 125 |
DVD 3
| Name of Effect | Description | Mnemonica Book Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Carbuquillo | Performed and explained as per the book. | Page 119 |
| Flying Through Thin Air | – A few extra thoughts in the explanation that expand a bit upon the notes for this effect in the book. It’s nice to see the notes applied in the full presentation. – Much like in All of a Kind on DVD 1, Tamariz describes his post-effect way to get back into proper stack. |
Page 102 |
| Sympathy | – This performance actually begins with Divining One Card Out of Thirteen (p293) to set up the lower half of the stack. So, bonus. Very nice to see. Tamariz explains this in a “part 2” of the explanation. – This presentation is more simplistic than “Sympathy” as detailed in the book. It’s the age-old version where the spec names a card, and Tamariz names a number. Not really missing seeing some of the writing-driven versions from the book where both the card and the number come from the spectator, as the ACAAN stacked deck effect is so ubiquitous and straight-forward. |
Page 133 |
| Divination of Card (actually Deal of a Complete suit, Hearts | This is not a simple memdeck divination (from p79) but, rather, the excellent full deal of the hearts suit. | Page 39 |
| Any Poker hand Called For | – Four of a kind (kings), reset of the stack, then the excellent straight flush routine – The explanation portion is nice, with Tamariz expanding a hair his explanations in the book, and showing how he resets after a deal (same as in the book.) – I’d really hoped to see him respond to the “straight flush” request with one of my favorites in all of Mnemonica: the optional altering for three (actual) straight flushes, and continuation into the complete deal of all the suits. Alas, nothing on that. – At the end of the explanation, the camera shows a hand-written chart of some various setups for poker deals, which matches what is described in the book. Various charts/effects from the book pertaining to the effect are shown. |
Page 48 |
| Historie with the Cards (actually Second Story | – Tamariz performs (no explanation is really needed) the Second Story lower-half stack version from the Two Stories effect section. The verbiage isn’t as nuanced as what is in the book, but it’s the same story. Fun to watch. | Page 190 |
DVD 4
| Name of Effect | Description | Mnemonica Book Reference |
|---|---|---|
| The Liar | – Performed and explained as per the book, with a few extra notes and optional presentation points at the end of the explanation. | Page 218 |
| The Good Fortune Routine | – A performance of only Phase 1 of this routine (but with a nice quad-card ending). The explanation goes into Phase 2. All as per the book. | Page 71 |
| Undo a Real Shuffle | – Performance of a basic undoing of an overhand shuffle. This (under the guise of a card selection) is followed up with a very (very, very) short Mnemonicosis. – The explanation covers the simple divination of a card selected from an overhand-shuffled deck, and a note on what to do when said divination fails. – After the shuffle undoing explanation, Tamariz goes into some of his thoughts on Mnumonicosis, and various slights, methods, and approach to how he jazzes. This portion, however, is unfortunately far too brief. – Tamariz follows up all this by noting there are ways to reset other types of shuffles, but no explanation is given–just direction to refer to the book. |
Appendix 1 |
| Cards Called For to Pocket | – Like the other Cards Called For to Pocket (on DVD 2) the explanation is given over a repeat video of the performance. This seems very close to what he says/does in DVD 2’s. There are a some good thoughts on the psychology/timing of palming, of course. | Page 129 |
| Super Poker | – This performance begins with the deck in Mnemonica stack, so you get to see Tamariz take it to staystack in the performance before he makes the necessary corrections to the staystack order for Super Poker (note: he uses the method shown in the Everything In Order explanation to get to staystack.) – The explanation, funnily enough, has yet another method/patter for taking Mnemonica stack to staystack. Nice. |
Page 31 |
| Weighting the Cards | – Performed and explained as per the book. | Page 197 |
| Total Memory | Performance of the half-stack version as per the book. Specifically, the Version With Deals (Antifaros) from p203. | Page 201 |
DVD 1
Below is a list of each DVDs and a break-down of items/differences I noticed. Here’s hoping at least one person finds it helpful!
DVD 5
I thought this DVD would be a wash, as it seemed to be mostly dedicated to learning Mnemonica and explaining the structure of Mnemonica. But, there was value to be had.
– Tamariz has a nice section on how to remember key cards (glad to know I’m not the only one that’s been half-way through a stack effect and thought “Crud… what card was I keeping in mind?”) Some good techniques/thoughts there.
– Tamariz covers his style of estimation/checking/correction
– The bulk of the Counting Cards Secretly selection was very basic, but it did end with a nice nuance to spread counting (which I’ll undoubtedly start using.)
– There’s a section of false shuffles, a section on false cuts, and one on glimpse methods. So if you don’t already have a host of those, hey… there you go.
– He goes over the TPC (Tamariz Perpendicular Control) in great detail.
– There’s a lengthy portion on deck switch methods which, of course, has some good ideas.
– There’s a section on approaching mental calculations better (and be able to do them while interacting with spectators). As one would expect, some good ideas there.
– Ticks That Don’t Alter The Stack is basically the same as what’s in the book.
So, that’s it. I feel it was well worth getting. I’m very happy Tamariz put out these videos. I learned a lot this first run-through of them, and I’m sure I will when I watch them all the way through again… which is right now!
Thanks for taking the time to comment on the set. Had a question for you if possible, of the 20 effects you graciously listed are stack dependent to Mnemonica? I’m an Aronson stack user myself so would really like to know how many effects that I could use with Aronson stack.
Baobow
Yes, you can use a very significant portion of the material. Although you’ll have to modify some of the instructions for your stack, I believe you should be able to perform all the effects on DVD1 with the exception of “Everything in order”; everything on DVD2, including the fantastic “Any Cards Called For” and invaluable lessons on resetting half your stack from a hopelessly shuffled deck which allow you to perform the half-stack effects; you would not be able to do a fair portion of DVD3, as “Divination of Card”, “Any Poker Hand Called For” and “Historie with the Cards” are highly stack-dependent; DVD4’s “The Good Fortune Routine” will not be something you can perform, nor will Super Poker, but again you’ll get extremely helpful information on DVD4 as tara s undoing shuffles, and the remaining performances on that DVD; DVD5 will be worthwhile as well, as nearly all the information given apart from the “Learning Mnemonica” and the “Structure of Mnemonica” is applicable to any stack worker.
In short: it doesn’t matter what stack you use. Every DVD is full of things you’ll be able to adapt to your own stack. The same holds true for the Mnemonica book itself, which is (as Nicolino noted above) a masterwork publication on the topic of stack work and contains many, many more effects, techniques, and thinking you’ll be able to apply to your own stack.