Ortiz was a contemporary and close friend of the influential US coin magician, David Roth, and was initially mentored by the seminal British/US close-up performer, Derek Dingle. During that time, he initially supported himself playing blackjack (using card counting techniques) and as an instructor at Harry Lorayne's memory school in New York City. In 1974, he dropped out of NYU Law School and pursued card magic full-time. Ortiz was born and raised in New York City, where he had a keen interest in card tricks since childhood. JSTOR ( November 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭarwin Ortiz (born 1948) is a magician, who is an authority on gambling and card manipulation.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification.