I feel that riffling just draws more attention to it, in my mind a pass should be completely silent and motionless, with nothing to attract the eye.
Hmm, but again I would say to you, what if riffling the deck at the back is such a natural thing for him to do, he does it enough throughout his whole performance
(not just during that trick), then by the time it comes to execute the pass the spectators eye isn't attracted to the deck? Rather, they hear the sound and assume it's just him playing around with the deck like he was before?
I agree, some of the best passes are silent and motionless. However, for me at least, I would also say that your pass doesn't
have to be silent and motionless. If the way you execute
your pass fits in with the way
you handle the cards naturally then why not? I'm not very good at putting thoughts into text, sorry I can't put it better than that.
- Sean