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

manipulation.
Ortiz was born and raised in New York City, where he had a keen interest in card
tricks since childhood. In 1974, he dropped out of NYU Law School and pursued c
ard magic full-time. During that time, he initially supported himself playing bl
ackjack (using card counting techniques) and as an instructor at Harry Lorayne's
memory school in New York. Ortiz is a contemporary and close friend of the infl
uential US coin magician, David Roth, and was initially mentored by the seminal
British/US close-up performer, Derek Dingle.
Ortiz later became a consultant to a number of casinos in the United States, Eur
ope, Africa, UK and Australasia, and was a regular featured presenter for a succ
ession of years at the World Gaming Congress in Nevada.
Ortiz is the author of books on gambling and magic. The most recent book on his
original routines was Scams and Fantasies With Playing Cards. His book Strong Ma
gic focuses on practical presentational techniques for close-up magicians. The b
ook has been broadly embraced by the professional and amateur magic community bu
t initially met with negative reviews from the two major US trade publications M
AGIC 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 r
ecently returned to the author (along with two other books Darwin Ortiz At The C
ard Table and Cardshark) and the books are once again being made available to th
e trade.
Ortiz's latest book, Designing Miracles is an exposition on t
Alexander Theodore Annemann Carl Ballantine David (Fu Manchu) Bamberg Tobias Bam
berg David Berglas Harry Blackstone, Jr. Harry Blackstone, Sr. J.B. Bobo Walford
Bodie Ali Bongo Kuda Bux Chan Canasta Cardini Charles Joseph Carter Milbourne C
hristopher Tommy Cooper Joseph Dunninger Br. John Hamman Erik Jan Hanussen Rober
t Heller Doug Henning Alexander Herrmann Black Herman Harry Houdini Burling Hull
Harry Kellar Al Koran Max Malini John Nevil Maskelyne David Nixon Jean Eugne Rob
ert-Houdin Tony Slydini P. C. Sorcar Howard Thurston Dai Vernon The Zancigs Herb
Zarrow Roy Benson
Contemporary
Jewel Aich Ed Alonzo Criss Angel Guy Bavli The Amazing Johnathan Herbert L. Beck
er Jason Bishop David Blaine Derren Brown Brian Brushwood Eugene Burger J C Sum
Lance Burton Lu Chen Magic Babe Ning David Copperfield Rudy Coby Paul Daniels Do
rothy Dietrich Simon Drake Ahmed El Bayed Terry Evanswood Dynamo Lennart Green R
icky Jay Mac King Hans Klok Matt the Knife Jason Latimer Lus de Matos Max Maven A
ndrew Mayne Jeff McBride James More Gopinath Muthukad The Pendragons Penn & Tell
er James Randi Ta na manga Siegfried & Roy Jerry Sadowitz Maneka Sorcar P. C. So
rcar, Jr. Cyril Takayama Juan Tamariz Marco Tempest Val Valentino Dick Willams M
ark Wilson Steve Wyrick
By nationality
American Australian Austrian Bangladeshi Belgian British Canadian Dutch Finnish
French German Indian Irish Israeli Italian Japanese New Zealand Saudi Arabian Si
ngaporean Spanish Swedish Ukrainian
Authority control
VIAF: 23501571
Categories: 1948 birthsLiving peopleAmerican magiciansAmerican writers
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This page was last modified on 25 April 2014 at 06:39.
Ortiz's latest book, Designing Miracles is an exposition on the design of powerf
ul magical effects, and is subtitled Creating the Illusion of Impossibility. The
book posits and analyzes various theories regarding the perception and cognitio
n of lay audiences and provides practical examples and advice on the constructio
n of effects, aimed at maximizing their impact and deceptiveness to a lay audien
ce.
Ortiz's major work for the lay public on gaming protection is Gambling Scams 198
4. He also authored an influential annotation of S. W. Erdnase's The Expert at t
he Card Table titled The Annotated Erdnase in 1991 which was published to the ma
gic trade.[1]
Ortiz currently resides in Washington, D.C.