Darwin Ortiz (born 1948) is a magician, who is an authority on

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

and card manipulation.

Life and work

Ortiz was born and raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where he had a keen interest in card tricks since childhood. In 1974, he dropped out of NYU Law School and pursued card magic full-time. During that time, he initially supported himself playing blackjack (using card counting techniques) and as an instructor at

Harry Lorayne Harry Lorayne (born 4 May 1926) is an American magician and a memory-training specialist and writer who was called "The Yoda of Memory Training" and "The World's Foremost Memory-Training Specialist" by ''Time'' magazine. He is well known for hi ...

's memory school in

. Ortiz was 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 Derek Dingle (1937–2004) was an English close-up magician. Early life Dingle became interested in magic after receiving a box of magic tricks when he was about eight years old. Upon joining the Royal Air Force, he met another magician, James G ...

. Ortiz later became a consultant to a number of casinos in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, UK and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

, and was a regular featured presenter for a succession of years at the World Gaming Congress in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. Ortiz currently resides in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Books

Ortiz is the author of books on gambling and magic. He is particularly respected for his written contributions on the theory of magic. According to Vanishing Inc Magic, the site of magicians Joshua Jay and Andy Gladwin, "Darwin Ortiz is unparalleled in his theoretical writings. His two theory books, ''Designing Miracles'' and ''Strong Magic'' are, in our estimation, some of the most important writings on magic written in the last two decades."Magic by Darwin Ortiz
Vanishing Inc Magic. Retrieved 1 February 2020 His book ''Strong Magic'' focuses on practical presentational techniques for close-up magicians. 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''. Demand for the book has been high, despite the initial inability of the original publisher to reprint the text. 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. 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''. 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. The most recent book published with Darwin Ortiz's original routines was ''Lessons in Card Mastery''. Ortiz's major work for the lay public on gaming protection is ''Gambling Scams'' 1984. He also authored an influential annotation of

S. W. Erdnase S. W. Erdnase is a pseudonym used by the author of ''The Expert at the Card Table'', a book detailing sleight of hand, cheating and legerdemain using playing cards. Still considered essential reading for any card magician, the book (usually known a ...

's ''

The Expert at the Card Table ''The Expert at the Card Table'', is an extensive book on the art of sleight of hand published in 1902 by S. W. Erdnase, a pseudonymous author whose identity has remained a mystery for over a century. As a detailed manual of card sharps, the book ...

'' titled ''The Annotated Erdnase'' in 1991 which was published to the magic trade.

Bibliography

Notable works published by Darwin Ortiz include: * Gambling Scams (1984) * Darwin Ortiz on Casino Gambling (1986) * Darwin Ortiz at the Card Table (1988) * The Annotated Erdnase (1991) * Strong Magic (1994) * CardShark (1995) * Scams and Fantasies with Cards (2002) * Designing Miracles (2007) * Darwin Ortiz Lessons in Card Mastery (2012)

References

Citations

Sources

Darwin Ortiz, Cover and featured magician i
Genii, Vol. 56, No. 5, March 1993, page 296

External links

Darwin Ortiz, Professional Magician & Game Protection Consultant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortiz, Darwin 1948 births Living people American magicians American male writers