So what if it all happened in their hands?
What if the magician wasn’t even in the room?
What if only his voice were guiding them…
From the radio—or the television—or from far away?
– and the magic happened while they did everything!

That is what Spain’s greatest magician, Juan Tamariz, asked himself. And from this question, an idea was born that went on to amaze large audiences in Spain and Latin America when it was performed on the radio, on TV, on stage, and in close-up! It is magic that has fooled both the public and professional magicians.

Just a few cards, pieces of paper, and other everyday items are used to guide the audience through a varied show that will truly amaze them. By combining clever principles—both old and new—with cunning psychology and groundbreaking strategies, Juan Tamariz can make magic happen in other people’s hands.

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So open this book and join the amazed. Then share the amazement and fun with your audiences, whether they are listening to the radio, watching television, or in the room with you.

Follow along as Juan Tamariz tells you to take a few red and black cards from a deck and mix the colors in ways that are random, chaotic, and independently determined. Yet, when you are finished, the colors magically separate! That’s right, you perform Oil and Water for yourself and have no idea how it happened—just as thousands of people have done while listening to Juan Tamariz on the radio, on television, and in live audiences.

People freely choose a card, lose it in a packet, mix the cards thoroughly, and then magically discover their own selections—without knowing how they did it. The magic leaves Tamariz’s hands and settles in their own!

This book collects over forty such tricks and presentations, all refined and tested through professional performance. Close associate Gema Navarro, under the guidance of Juan Tamariz, has meticulously transcribed presentations from tapes of numerous radio broadcasts. The transcripts are so detailed that they first let the reader fool himself, and then provide him with the information necessary to entertain and astonish his audiences, as well as the tools to devise many other effects that happen entirely in their hands and minds.

Scattered throughout the literature of magic are a scant number of participatory effects suitable for performance on radio and television; and those tricks are sought after and coveted by professionals. In Verbal Magic, Juan Tamariz reveals the largest collection of such magic ever offered, while taking it in new directions and teaching new principles with wide-ranging possibilities for further application. He also shows that this type of magic is just as astonishing when performed close up and for theater audiences. As a final bonus, Verbal Magic provides the most comprehensive account yet, for non-Spanish speakers, of what it is like to be part of Tamariz’s audience. Here is a long, in-depth look at how a master magician simultaneously entertains and mystifies.

English, 176 pages – Deluxe Hardcover.