Widely regarded by his peers as the world’s greatest living close-up magician, Juan Tamariz is one of the few people I’ve met who deserves legend status.
Famous in Spain and several Latin American countries, Juan is not so well-known in the English speaking world, apart from among other magicians. I had to search quite a bit to find some decent video footage of him performing in English. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, and be amazed.
Born in 1942 in Seville, Tamariz now resides in Madrid where he runs the “Escuela Magica de Madrid”, a close-up magic school which has produced several award-winning magicians. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him on a couple of occasions. The first time in Portugal in 2000, and then again earlier this year in the UK at a close-up magicians’ conference (yes – these things really exist!)
At events like this, there will be a point in the evening in the bar, maybe around midnight or 1am, when Juan will appear in the room, sit at a table, and ask to borrow somebody’s pack of cards. A crowd will form, and over the next hour or so he produces seemingly impossible magic – fooling event he best card magicians in the room. I’ve been fortunate enough to see this happen twice and it’s a memory I’ll never forget.
Me with Juan Tamariz, January 2015
