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Vinnie C.

cardistry moderator / t11
Aug 31, 2007
352
2
Los Angeles, CA
Hey everyone,

First off, you might be asking... What is Cardistry/Flourishing?

For this, read The Cardistry FAQ.


Another common question for any beginner is, "are there many places to learn flourishing? Where do I start?". To answer those questions, yes, there are many places to learn flourishing, and I'll give you some tips on where to start:

If you are brand new, I would recommend getting the Xtreme Beginnerz DVD Set by De'vo, there are a couple places that you can buy this DVD right from De'vo, they are http://www.xtremehandz.com (this online store is based in the USA) or http://www.handlordz.de (this one is based in Germany.

This DVD set covers the scope of card manipulation, from fanning, to one handed cuts, to table cuts. It also includes introductions into areas of flourishing such as the armspread, the spring, and the one-handed shuffle. It is a great DVD set, easy to learn from, and perfect for beginners!

Once you get this DVD, I would recommend learning a few flourishes that you like and practicing them until you can do them decently, then pick a few more that you like and practice those, and do this until you have learned what you want to from this DVD set. The DVD set also includes the "Q Section", which follows the learning process of a beginner over a four-week period, this beginner is taught moves by Jerry Cestkowski and De'vo and we get to see his progress, problems, etc. This section includes a vast amount of great tips as well.

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The next products I would recommend to go after Xtreme Beginnerz is either the Encyclopedia of Playing Card Flourishes (http://www.flourishman.com) or The System (http://www.dananddave.com). I'll give a description of the Encyclopedia first:

This HUGE book was written by Jerry Cestkowski and contains a vast assortment of moves, from armspreads, to one-handed cuts of all kinds, to springs, spreads, shuffles, drops, card throwing, card juggling, etc. It has a TON of pictures for each move, and is very easy to learn from. To make learning EVEN EASIER, he also sells "Companion DVDs" that go along with the book, these DVDs don't teach the moves, but they show the moves being performed, and they also show routines using the moves in the chapter that they are covering. They also show a creative possibility with each move that they demonstrate. This book has enough knowledge to keep you busy for a long time.

You could also get The System. The Encyclopedia has a good amount of single and multiple two-handed cut types of things, but only a few two-handed cuts that are complex, while The System specializes in more complex multi-packet two handed cuts. It's a great DVD that teaches some nice material, though you need to know the Revolution Cut before you buy it (this can be learned from a DVD such as Brian Tudor's "Generation eXtreme"). It depends on what kinds of moves that you like, check out both product descriptions and reviews and see what interests you, or even buy both if you want. :)

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Another nice place to learn some beginner moves is 4Jacks' YouTube account: 4jacksFort

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Now the next step is an interesting one. You certainly have your roots, where do you go from here? Well, that is really your decision. Once you have your basics down, you can really tackle almost any move. The journey from here is up to you, but for your benefit, I'll list out some good products:

Cradle to Grave by De'vo

The Trilogy by Dan and Dave Buck

Generation eXtreme by Brian Tudor

The Cobra Collection by De'vo

Lethal by Daniel Madison (http://www.devilsadvocateproductions.com)

Tutorials on Decknique.net

And remember to really look into a product before you buy it, watch any previews for it to get an idea of the material, check out the price, read reviews, and really know a bit about what you're getting before you get it. :)

Check back every now and then, I will update this post as I discover new and good products.

-Vince
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Aug 31, 2007
689
12
33
Lacey,Washington
Hey, I was in the middle of creating these today and had a long list of products, reasons, cards to use, where to start and all that. But gave up for today since my window was close dout of. It was long to :)
 
Vinnie....amazing. I'm still kind of confused (or, rather, I just don't know) of a good starting place for multi-packet cuts. They are really what I'd like to get into, but I don't know of any good starting places for learning them, so if you could address this that would be just orgasmic.

Thanks,

Ryan
 

Vinnie C.

cardistry moderator / t11
Aug 31, 2007
352
2
Los Angeles, CA
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'll be adding more sections tomorrow. :D

Vinnie....amazing. I'm still kind of confused (or,
rather, I just don't know) of a good starting place for multi-packet cuts. They are really what I'd like to get into, but I don't know of any good starting places for learning them, so if you could address this that would be just orgasmic.

Thanks,

Ryan

Hmmm, good question. The System is a good place to get some good two-handed cut concepts, but the problem is that you need to know the Sybil cut and the Revolution cut before you buy it. Also, the teaching is a little hard to learn from unless you already have some manipulation experience. There really is no "perfect product" to start you off with mutli-packet cuts. I suppose your best bet would be (if money is a concern) to buy disk 3 of The Trilogy for the Flourish 101 section (this teaches both the Sybil and the Revolution cut) and then move on to The System after that. Once you learn from The System, you can probably then move onto the main flourishes from The Trilogy (which are on disk 2, the magic is on disk 1), or you could look into a product such as Generation eXtreme. Or both if you want.

-Vince
 
Sep 1, 2007
146
0
Amsterdam
Actually you can also start from the tutorials on Decknique, The first multi package cut i ever learned was jamz sybil when i first signed up on decknique one and half year ago.
 
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Vinnie C.

cardistry moderator / t11
Aug 31, 2007
352
2
Los Angeles, CA
Actually you can also start from the tutorials on Decknique, The first multi package cut i ever learned was jamz sybil when i first signed up on decknique one and half year ago.

That's a possibility, but a large amount of those need the person to have some experience or knowledge of certain moves beforehand. You could give Jamz Sybil a shot, see how that works.

-Vince
 
Sep 1, 2007
146
0
Amsterdam
That's a possibility, but a large amount of those need the person to have some experience or knowledge of certain moves beforehand. You could give Jamz Sybil a shot, see how that works.

-Vince

i suppose that explains why it toke me 13 month to do it as fast as the guy who made the tutorial. :D
But hey, it made learning alot other moves significantly easier after that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sep 1, 2007
1,005
3
You could also get The System. The Encyclopedia doesn't have very many multiple two-handed cut types of things, teaching only one two-handed cut (the Tower Cut),

-Vince


WHAaaaa huh? Vinnie, do you really mean this or is it just a typo? The encyclopedia has an entire chapter on two-handed cuts...

it also has what I consider the most relevant (in this forum anyway) quote on the infinitude of two-hand cut possibilities: I'm paraphrasing but its something like 'you can invent as many two hand cut variations as your ever-descreasing judgement allows'... hehe
 

Vinnie C.

cardistry moderator / t11
Aug 31, 2007
352
2
Los Angeles, CA
WHAaaaa huh? Vinnie, do you really mean this or is it just a typo? The encyclopedia has an entire chapter on two-handed cuts...

it also has what I consider the most relevant (in this forum anyway) quote on the infinitude of two-hand cut possibilities: I'm paraphrasing but its something like 'you can invent as many two hand cut variations as your ever-descreasing judgement allows'... hehe

When I say "multi-packet two hand cuts" I mean the Dan and Dave/Brian Tudor type of material. As they bear a bit of a difference from the simpler two-handed cuts in the Encyclopedia. Though looking through the Encyclopedia again, the differences between them are not large enough, I will make the needed edit.

-Vince
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,005
3
i think, that it'd be hard to enforce/encourage, but the n00bs could really benefit from some grounding in the most basic cuts - which the encyclopedia provides - rather than "want to learn cuts? pick up the system!" you know what I mean, you could pick an analogy from any avenue of life, but since I've got a basketball game in a couple hours, there are lots of kids that think they know all kinds of fancy dribbles and takes and 'shake-ups' juking ankle breakers from watching all these And-1 videos. but the same kids can't even make a layup or a foul shot... you have to ground yourself in the basics before going for monster moves... but it's hard because you don't get the instant gratification of busting these "power moves" that the bucks teach. I think the Bucks material is GREAT for advanced flourishers but I feel when n00bs buy their stuff FIRST , it tends to define and restrict their original style and technique.
 
Sep 1, 2007
146
0
Amsterdam
Isnt instant gratification part of beeing a kid? to think long term reward is beeing grown up, Remember yourself when you were 10, all you can think of was 5 second away tops.

I WANT THAT CANDY IN MY MOUTH, NOW !!
 
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Vinnie C.

cardistry moderator / t11
Aug 31, 2007
352
2
Los Angeles, CA
i think, that it'd be hard to enforce/encourage, but the n00bs could really benefit from some grounding in the most basic cuts - which the encyclopedia provides - rather than "want to learn cuts? pick up the system!" you know what I mean, you could pick an analogy from any avenue of life, but since I've got a basketball game in a couple hours, there are lots of kids that think they know all kinds of fancy dribbles and takes and 'shake-ups' juking ankle breakers from watching all these And-1 videos. but the same kids can't even make a layup or a foul shot... you have to ground yourself in the basics before going for monster moves... but it's hard because you don't get the instant gratification of busting these "power moves" that the bucks teach. I think the Bucks material is GREAT for advanced flourishers but I feel when n00bs buy their stuff FIRST , it tends to define and restrict their original style and technique.

Why do you think that I recommend people buy Xtreme Beginnerz first? :) The main path that is mentioned in this topic is the one that I recommend. But for the sake of appealing to all tastes I also make mention of other possibilities. Some people want to go right to the two-handed stuff and focus on that, and while I can recommend them to build up to it, I also will tell them a place they can do if they really have their mind set on learning just the two-handed cuts.

But for the record, as I have said before, I recommend building up to things, and starting with the basics. :)

-Vince
 
Thanks for the tips, Vinnie. I actually bought the Trilogy set when it first came out for the Tricks section, not thinking I would EVER look at Flourishes or some of the stuff in Everythingelse. But I'm happily surprised to find that the 'Flourishes 101' section on the Everythingelse is a pretty good beginner resource.

At the moment I'm working on Sybil and all i can say that learning from the Trilogy's Flourishing 101 section is haaaaard. Well worth it, though.

Not sure what I'm going to try tackling after the Sybil, though. We'll see.

EDIT: I'm also finding everyone in the Decknique MeBeam chatroom to be very helpful. If you're reading this, thanks Brian (Afraidofzombies)!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nov 5, 2007
34
0
Benicia, CA
Deck Use

At what point should I put down a deck and pick up a fresh one? I have several fancy new decks with their modern finishes and I have the classic Bicycke decks that most people use in their Thursday night poker game. Card technicians back in the hayday of card pastimes (I'm thinking of Dai Vernon's day), mechanics and magicians didn't rely on technology to pull off their moves. Then again, I think either of the Buck Twins would make Dai well up with amazement.

My point is this - cards get used, and it wasn't always necessary to have a slick smooth finish. So at what point is a deck too used, too worn for card manipulation? And what are your thoughts on cards with modern finishes versus standard evryday playing cards? Should a beginner practice with a XTC deck, or is that just a gimmick to make money?
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,356
2
Los Angeles, California
At what point should I put down a deck and pick up a fresh one? I have several fancy new decks with their modern finishes and I have the classic Bicycke decks that most people use in their Thursday night poker game. Card technicians back in the hayday of card pastimes (I'm thinking of Dai Vernon's day), mechanics and magicians didn't rely on technology to pull off their moves. Then again, I think either of the Buck Twins would make Dai well up with amazement.

My point is this - cards get used, and it wasn't always necessary to have a slick smooth finish. So at what point is a deck too used, too worn for card manipulation? And what are your thoughts on cards with modern finishes versus standard evryday playing cards? Should a beginner practice with a XTC deck, or is that just a gimmick to make money?

If it feels like worn out to you then go get another deck. It all depends on you.

Never heard of XTC decks... care to explain more on it? Getting regular bikes are fine. TH9's are good too.
 
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