On another Q&A you did over at the Magic Woods, you mentioned that you were a big fan of Juan Tamariz. Would you be able to elaborate on that? What impact has Juan Tamariz had upon you as a magician, and what impact has he had upon the magic community as a whole?

While it's true that I don’t perform any of Juan’s routines nor do I use any of his personal presentational bits of business; however, I am GREATLY influenced by his work. He inspires me! I love the way he thinks about magic, his selection of material, his routine construction, his presentation, his flawless technique etc., etc., etc. I believe that he has made a TREMENDOUS impact on the magic community as a whole because while so many others are hurting magic in so many ways, Juan Tamariz is RAISING THE BAR! What can I say… he’s a master!

I'm particularly interested in what you have to think about routine construction. Over at the Magic Video Depot we've been trying to analyze things like Cancelling Methods and other ways of routining multiple-phase routines, and I was wondering if Juan Tamariz had much influence on you in this way...

For instance, your Ambitious Card Routine seems to go to great lengths to eliminate all possible non-magical methods of the card reaching the top. This seems to be in line with some of Tamariz's thinking...?

Actually, I’ve been using the “Canceling Out” idea long before I ever heard of Juan Tamariz. When I learned that Juan had identical thoughts on this topic, I couldn’t help but feel that I was in very good company. This is far too broad a topic to discuss in any detail here. Perhaps it would make an interesting book.