I know I'll get flamed for this. No one is allowed to hold an opinion that Juan Tamariz is a bit
over the top in his performances. To put it more simply while trying to be polite, Juan's
performances don't float my cork. Never have, ever since I first saw him perform live in the UK
many, many years ago.
His performance style (which apparently everyone in the world except
for me loves) is present on the first 4 of these discs. I'm not sure I really picked up anything
from these discs that isn't better covered in his book "Mnemonica." Mr. Tamariz tells us at the
beginning of disc 1 that these are good, but not great tools for learning. For me, since I find it
hard to sit through a performance, I fully agree with him. The book is far, far better.
There are 2 "howevers," however. The first is disc 5. Disc 5 is one-on-one tutoring, advice,
details, tips for success and tips to avoid failure. Excellent disc! He explains performance
considerations rather than performs them. The advice is excellent and given in congenial manner.
The second however is that Mr. Tamariz pretty much requires you to get the book (not TRULY
necessary, but he constantly refers you to it for more details, similar tricks, discussion). The
book is outstanding if you are into the tool that Juan and Simon advocate, and which a number of
highly paid magicians use on a daily basis. I would put the book on par with Simon Aronson's "Bound
to Please" and "Try the Impossible." I use Simon's approach but after years working with it, I
wanted to see what Juan's version is all about. (It's different, not better, just different than
Simon's).
As for the discs, well, if it wasn't for the 5th disc I would offer mine up for
sale, each played once. Disc 5 sort of makes the entire purchase valuable.
Thank God for your honest review! Personally, I find Mr Tamariz very difficult to watch and often impossible to follow, even though he is a well-respected teacher. His written work is outstanding though and - like you - I recommend the book more than the vids.
I am fluent in English and in Spanish. I thought it was a language barrier issue with watching Juan Tamariz; but, it isn’t. He is a genius, no one doubts that. But, I myself find great difficulty watching him instruct. I also agree that the last disc makes the purchase. Ultimately if I can EVENTUALLY get two tricks out of this series that can go into my card show it will be awesome. I just need to take to heavy alcohol to be able to watch him. I don’t even drink!
Yes, I'm with you both. I can't stand watching him perform, esp all the screaming and the violin thing. OMG, make it stop already. I really want to find a video of a pro using mnemonica who can just focus on a few of his tricks and make them easy to understand. Does anyone know of such a video?
It's OK
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