Today comes sad news from Argentina that René Lavand has died at the ripe age of 86. Perhaps the name doesn’t ring any bells with you, dear kind and mainly anglophone audience of IKN, but among magicians and particularly card trick illusionists Lavand was one of the most esteemed artists in the world.
Famous for his catchphrase “No se puede hacer mas lento” (“It can’t be done more slowly”) and for only having one arm, Lavand would often perform card tricks as slowly as possible but would still confound people as to how they were done as his sleight of hand (quite literally this time, he only had one) was peerless.
Here’s a great example of his work, when appearing a few years ago on a four minute slot on French TV. In the show he speaks in Spanish and there’s also a French simultaneous translation, but even if you’re not versed in either language you miss very little. He was truly amazing and took the classic magician’s question “How the devil did he do that?” to a whole new level.
René Lavand, QEPD.