Magic Tricks

Even though I think I've seen just about every YouTube clip he's been in as well as his previous DVDs & downloads, my first impression of Utopia is this is a Dani DaOrtiz I haven't seen before. Disc One has him in a formal close up show for approximately 50 spectators and he's more commanding, theatrical yet charming than ever. The show itself has a feel of an actual paid performance being taped for this DVD shoot vs a magic DVD shoot with a live audience (I hope that makes sense). The crowd's reactions were enthusiastic but restrained with none of the over-the-top stuff you almost always see these days on magic DVDs.

The impression I had after watching the formal close up show was DaOrtiz was just toying and jazzing around while performing these miracles and having a grand old time with his audience. David Britland's piece in this month's Genii calls him 'happy-go-lucky' and he's right. Dani is charming, warm, funny, intelligent and passionate about the art which comes through in his performances as well as his instructions and even while conducting 1on1 interviews with producer Luis DeMatos.

Dani speaks in both Spanish and English with subtitles available for seven languages. If you view Dani's teaching lecture on the 2011 EMC discs you'll get an idea of his command of the language and the type of teaching he does on Utopia.

As for the impact of the magic itself, my jaw was dropping throughout both the performances and explanations. The technical difficulty of the set runs from "very easy" (an unintentional running joke by DaOrtiz) to intermediate. You don't have to be a move monkey but some tricks require the ability to handle doubles very well, perform a classic pass, etc.

As to detailed instructions on the moves themselves Dani does provide explanations but this isn't an instructional set on foundational card sleights. DaOrtiz's advice on how to master the picking up of a double from the table and snapping it as a single is to do it 1000 times ("It's very easy").

Utopia is the result of more than a decade of DaOritz collecting field data from thousands of live performances. He shares his knowledge of timing, focus, attitude, human nature, behaviour patterns, perspective and psychology in the art of magic as it was taught to him via the Spanish school of card magic. He says Ascanio, Jose Carroll, Fred Kaps, Gabi Pareras, Lennert Green and of course Juan Tamariz have played an important role in his development.

While most of the tricks are technically within the grasp of an intermediate card person it's the subtleties, psychological games and construction of his routines which makes your jaw drop when DaOrtiz perfectly executes the trick. The lessons are wonderful and this could very well be a new instant classic for card magic because DaOrtiz focuses on what should be going on between the performers ears.