Magic in Flourishing

[heavymetalholic]

I myself do not flourish much, although i would love too, it looks beautiful and elegant, but i have never taken the time to sit down and just work on flourishes, and I am sure at some point I will.
That was not the topic of this thread though, I see some flourishing in magic, for example during preformence of a card effect, one may flourish instead of shuffeling the cards with a simple riffle shuffle or so. Something that I have not seen done yet though is Magic in Flourishing. I am not talking a bout card productions or so out of flourishes because it looks like skill and not magic.
A lot magicians i have talked too are against the idea of putting flourishes into their magic for that exact reason, it will look like skill and slight of hand instead of clean beautiful magic.

But what if you reversed it and somehow incorperated magic into your flourishes,
it may be more interesting to the spectator now.
I see flourishing a lot like playing the guitar, you can learn some very very complicated songs to make you a better player, you can learn to shred and all that, but as a listener having to suffer through 5 minutes of nothing but shredding will get very very boring for most people.

If you are learning these complicated flourishes, why not show somebody?
but i think to most lay people they will not be able to distinguish apart
all the different cuts you are showing them, and it will start to blur together and get boring fast.

I'm not saying this is fact, I'm just saying this is my view on it.

Instead of looking at flourishing and magic as two different things,
I been trying to see them as a unit, that go hand in hand.


What effects could you build into a flourish routine?

maybe some magic devices like the ultra smoke or so, think deep and tell me what you came up with.

thank you for taking the time to read this post.

 

[RickEverhart]

I think a little bit of eye candy flourishing as you are approaching a table shows them that you have some skill and that you are there to entertain. I am not one though that would spend hours watching flourish videos when I think the magic and presentation, subleties, are more important. (my opinion as I know others will disagree)

In my mind too much flourishing would take away from the magic and look like you were doing way too much. In my eyes if I saw a magician flourishing like crazy and they were good, I am not sure if I would be that impressed with a card transpo, etc.

Locating cards and four ace routines do look kind of sweet when some flare is added to the routine. A nice hot shot cut or something else may suit the situation.

Also..knowing how to coin roll looks neat during coin effects.

I guess if you combine the flourishes and magic it is fine but if it starts to overshadow the magic....I am not so sure then.

 

[Sidekick]

In my opinion, when you do a flourish in the middle of a routine its not good presentation wise because of these two points:
-When the spectator looks back over the performance in their mind, they will think that the flourish is how the performer did the trick. You want to look natural.
If they remember the flourish (its flashy), because it is so unnatural, they would question your actions leading into hecklers.
-It takes attention from the trick, the spectator would remember the flourish rather than the trick. You want to make an experience for the spectator by the using the trick, then when the spectator would only remember the flourish (after a long time), they would just say something like "he is good with cards" .

I would do flourishing like in the streets in the corner to get attention then approach for magic, flourishing in my opinion is pretty much a sweet attention grabber.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

It's a very delicate balance. Personally, when I watch someone control a card with an elaborate flourish, I just stop caring. There's no mystery there. Obviously the card was controlled during the complex interchange of packets. It's skillful, sure, but I'd rather watch a contact juggler. It looks much better and is just as magical. Sometimes more so, actually.

 

[M.Thariath]

Wow, I actually thought of the exact same analogy you used (about the shredding.. and was going to make a topic, and mention the same analogy haha)

I agree that laypeople won't be able to see the difference between one cut and another. it's not "magical"... just a show of skill. And while I can see the artistry and creativity necessary to be good at flourishes, laypeople will just get bored quickly.... laypeople can enjoy a good, simple transposition effect, depending on the presenter, many times, and not get bored. The same can't be said about flourishes. If you perform a good magic trick for someone, they could be left thinking about it for hours and and hours thinking "HOW THE **** DID HE DO THAT??",and I doubt such a lasting impact will be left by someone doing flourishes.