Dani DaOrtiz

[Richard Kaufman]

Have you sent him a PM on Facebook?

[katterfelt0]

Have you sent him a PM on Facebook?

I sent one to the gkaps group but not to him personally. I'll try that.

[katterfelt0]

Still nothing from Dani via any of the methods I've used to contact him.
sigh.

[Brad Henderson]

For what it’s worth, I never got my book.

[Tarotist]

I should ask some Spanish sources that know him.

[katterfelt0]

For what it’s worth, I never got my book.

Brad, have you taken any further action on this?
I'm debating options.

[Tarotist]

I bet he is travelling somewhere and is probably disorganised. This sort of thing happens all the time with creative people. They just aren't business people.

[Richard Kaufman]

I wrote to Dani and this is his reply, which I consider perfectly reasonable:

"When we released the book we reached an agreement so that the same printing company would receive the orders and distribute them, since the majority would be from America, and the printing company is in Mexico. It would be foolish and useless expense if they sent books to Spain and from there back to America.

"Since then we have had many problems. When we receive an email, what we do is redirect it directly to the printer so that it can be managed, answered and resolved. But from what I see, they're not doing that either.

"Luckily this has happened with no more than a dozen orders, but we have learned our lesson.

"I am going to try to contact customers who have purchased and not received, refund their money and give them the book as soon as it reaches my hands."

[Tarotist]

He should probably get a book printing company in America since that is no doubt where the bulk of his customers come from. My own books are printed in three locations. America, Britain and Australia. And they are distributed to bookshops worldwide. I rarely get delivery issues.

[Brad Henderson]

The book I ordered was before fism. I tried to reach him by email to no avail but spoke with him briefly while there. We did manage to make contact via email after and I was told the book would be sent to me. It never arrived and subsequent attempts to contact him were met with no response. I paid the extra for the deluxe edition that came with opportunities to participate in various online events.

[DennisLisi]

I am a critic. And as such, I find very few subjects worthy. I always have something negative to say.

Most people are not critics. They are critical about certain things, but not trained to find any and all faults that a performer possesses.

So I can appreciate how Mr. DaOrtiz appeals to the crowd. He is amusing, in a naive way that disarms folks of their critical arsenal.

But I find that approach suspect. Anytime a magician pretends to be clueless, he is engaging in misdirection. But it's not traditional misdirection--or rather technical misdirection. It's purely theatrical.

Don't misunderstand my point. I use this method myself, and I think it's a good idea. But I don't regard it as a magical skill. I judge the magic separately from the acting.

Often times, a magician will cover his or her lack of expertise with comedy; a weird sort of mysticism, or a supercilious attitude of self assurance. I acknowledge it, and respect it for what it is.

It may seem unfair (and even irrelevant) to analyse the moves apart from the manners, but that's what critics do.

I would say the man is entertaining (and thus recommend him to audiences), but for reasons similar to Mark's, I personally consider him a bit frustrating.

Bottom line--If you want to be fooled and have a laugh, go for it. But if you want to admire his skill as a prestidigitator, you might be rather annoyed by his unwillingness to let you focus on it

[Richard Kaufman]

Nonsense.