Mnemonica by Juan Tamariz

Published by Hermetic Press, 2004, 408 Pages

Reviewed by Eric Rose

Juan Tamariz drifts in and out of the popular magic media. Some years he’s everywhere, some years he’s just spoken of reverently for his incredible magic, but you don’t see much of him. That’s too bad for us. Juan Tamariz is a household name in Spain – people know him on the street. It would be the same in the U.S. if we knew how to pronounce his name and we weren’t so hung up on orthodontia.

As for me, I’ll be selfish and be glad that few laypeople in the U.S. know Mr. Tamariz’ work. If they knew how good magic can be, a lot of magicians would be out of a job over here. His English language books, The Five Points in Magic, The Magic Way, and Sonata include some of the most thoughtful magic theory put to paper. Rumor has it that someday those are going to be reprinted. There was also a long-standing rumor that Juan’s super-tome on his memorized deck, Mnemonica, would be translated into English someday. Well, we’re still waiting for the Tamariz trilogy to be reprinted, but the good news is Mnemonica has finally been translated to English and it lives up to all the hopes of the faithful.

At a hefty 400+ pages Mnemonica gives the same thoughtful treatment to the Tamariz Stack that his Magic Way trilogy affords to closeup magic. Mnemonica is broken up into two main sections and includes six appendices as well as a 40 page illustrated bibliography with commentary and helpful sources. The layout is very similar to the Card College series and the illustrations have been retouched to clearly define edges of cards – a very nice approach that more photo-illustrated books should adopt. Minch’s Hermetic Press continues to set a high bar for other publishers.

Mr. Tamariz starts the book mentioning the history of memorized decks and then shows how to create his stack either with faros or without. This keeps it well within the grasp of the average magi. After showing what the stack looks like, he addresses the Achilles’ Heel of memorized deck magic – you actually have to memorize the deck. He claims you can memorize the deck with only three to four hours of concerted, tiring effort. It took me just under three hours, I had music in the background (Sammy Davis Jr. and Leon Redbone), and I wasn’t that tired by the time I felt I’d gotten it. I even ran through it a couple times while watching SpyKids 3D. Who’da thunk it could be so easy? For the fearful, he even shows how to make up a cheat card on the back of a joker to act as a safety net.

What then? Well, imagine a stack that lets you deal any poker hand called for. You can give blackjack demonstrations, any card at any number and so many other tricks that I got tired of counting them in the table of contents. Some only work with the Tamariz stack, but some work with other stacks like the Si Stebbins or 8 Kings, so you can learn a few tricks before you even put in the afternoon to learn the Mnemonica stack.

The descriptions, details, footnotes, and resources receive the classic Hermetic Press treatment and make Mnemonica a book that will make a lot of guys’ desert island must have lists at the online magic boards. (Oh, and by the way, at the bottom of page 342, Tamariz mentions his upcoming book Flamenco. No, they don’t give a publication date. Some things never change.)

The bottom line: Buy this book, learn the deck and routines, then send Stephen Minch a thank you note.