Juan Tamariz, an illusionist who made Spain “capital of magic” died

“ ANDhe was accompanied until the last moment by his children, he quit this world without suffering and, as was always his identity card, smiling and in peace”, wrote on social networks the journalist of TVE Moisés Rodriguez Martínez, on behalf of the family.

For her part, daughter Ana Tamariz, director of the Great School of Magic to which she names, also said goodbye on social networks to “an incredible person, very dear and admired by all”.

In 2023, the American newspaper New York Times published a profile of Tamariz, entitled “The Man Who Made the World Capital of Magic from Spain” and in which professional colleague David Blaine adjectived him as “the greatest and most influential magician of living letters”.

The journalist who interviewed him reports how Tamariz took a deck and gave it to him to cut it in half. From one of the halves, the journalist chose a letter and rejoined it to half the deck, which he cut over and over again.

Then Tamariz asked him to cut the other half of the deck, as often as he wanted, and to look at the letter that was below, which was a queen, which has a value of 12. By taking half the deck where he mixed his card – a four of spades – and taking 12 cards (the queen's value) found his four of spades.

“The problem with describing what happened is that the only report I can give is objectively impossible,” the journalist wrote.

Author of dozens of books, in which he sought to densify what for many is considered little more than a joke, Tamariz studied Physics and Cinema before dedicating himself fully to the art that made him famous.

In a publication in the sub-Reddit of Magic of Letters, a user wondered why Juan Tamariz was seen as so influential by the other magicians. The answers were consensual: “Because it changed the paradigm in card magic by innovating, modifying and mastering truly powerful techniques and presentations of some very creative tricks and sequences that have inspired magic and entertained the general public over decades.”.

In Spain, it was an assiduous presence on television for decades, which made it a popular and beloved figure of the general public. In Portugal, he was invited to the “Magic Night”, by Luís de Matos, RTP, in the 1990s.

As the Spanish newspaper tells it El País was the first magician without a tuxedo: “I wanted to play my [tricks] games sitting near the public, and that profession existed neither here nor in Europe.”.

“ Magic tries to produce astonishment, which is the principle of knowledge, as Socrates said. If you haunt yourself and ask why, science begins, philosophy... I am easily amazed. I once played Camilo José Cela (1916-2002) a game in Galicia and then sent me a book with a very beautiful dedication. It said: ‘I felt the astonishment’. That's how it is. Sometimes you turn yourself in and you're amazed, with your mouth and your eyes open. And this is precious”, said Tamariz, quoted by the Spanish journal.