Question For XCMers & Flourishers

Sep 8, 2007
48
0
What is your motivation for doing flourishes and mastering them. Like why not spend your time on sleights instead. From my experience doing The Werm and Sybil, the people you show it to aren't that impressed. Dont get me wrong I like watching you guys do your stuff and give you a lot of credit, but when your working on a new magic effect, you get the motivation from thinking "man, people are going to flip out when they see this" Thanks for your time, and sorry if I have discouraged any of you in any way I just want to know why you do flourishes.
 
Aug 31, 2007
807
0
interwebz
Why do you sleep?

You could be up making millions?



I see what you're saying, and I never quite understood it....its just fun.


I like your thinking.





-Brad
 
May 14, 2008
22
0
Why not impress them with both flourishes and sleights?

Im only a beginner but i would try and put max effort in perfecting them both
.
 
May 9, 2008
603
0
Werm Sybil

THE CHALLENGE. I've never thought that Sybil or the Werm were visually pleasing, however they are fun to perform. It's a challenge learning the moves, and it's an accomplishement. It's a good feeling when you've mastered a move, even though you don't receive a rumbling applause. I do it for the challenge. There are so many magicians and XCMers that practice in solitude, and never perform, because they love the challenge of learning the sleights and flourishes.
 
I flourish just for my own pleasure, i never thought that by doing this i would get people to applaud or be amazed by it, i have always thought of it as a self accomplishment... even when i first started (about 8-10 months or so of practicing) i noticed ppl staring at me while i flourished in public and getting their friends to look at me with their jaws open... yes if felt nice to have ppl be amazed but that was not the reason i was doing it.

i love magic for as long as i can remember and i do practice sleights every now and then, but after a while the idea of sleights doesn't appeal to me anymore, to practice so much on a move that wont (in theory) be seen by spectators seems pointless after a while... when you practice a flourish it is meant to be open and seen by everyone, nothing is hidden which lets ppl appreciate the dexterity that you have and recognize your skill..
 
Sep 8, 2007
48
0
Dan and Dave are amazing with cards but theres one thing I wanted to add. There tricks are really fast pased and sometimes the audience has no idea of what just happened, and they look at it more as a display of how quick the hands are rather than it being magical. This is also why I sometimes disagree with the flourishy card controls. While they are fun to watch and even more fun to perform, they can seem unfair to the spectator because they cant follow it thoroughly. When people do flourish like false cuts really fast I kind of think of it as a 3 card Monte kind of thing rather than losing it the card in the deck in the deck.
 
Mar 19, 2008
396
1
My place!
it all depends how much the spectator likes magic. If they do i do magic if they dont i show them flourishes (fans and springs work well) and then they are impressed because before they thought i had no skill, and that type of person really appreciates flourishes
 
Nov 11, 2007
88
0
Memphis, Tennessee
Not to get too philosophical, but basically technology has a huge part to it.

Our generation (the young'uns), have grown up with a lot of technologically advanced stuff. This allows for communication etc. over the internet, and has thus HUGELY minimized our human to human contact. Given, this isn't true for everyone, but it is very true for many people.

Technology has also made it a lot easier to learn magic. This means there are a huge number of people that know magic, but we still don't see that many people out performing. People learn the magic, master the sleights, but are then afraid to go out and encounter actual people. As stated previously, it gets pretty boring mastering a sleight, especially if there's no one you're performing for.

Flourishing is an art in and of itself. It is able to be enjoyed by the performer, or any spectators. Not discarding the rewarding sensation of mastering a flourish and all of the other things flourishing does, a large part of XCM's popularity comes from the fact that people are becoming more afraid of people. It's easy, ironically enough, to sit in front of a computer screen and do whatever, but human interaction adds entirely new elements.

Dan and Dave, clearly a, if not the, driving force behind flourishing will be the first to admit that their presentation is what they've been lacking in. I actually spoke with the owner of a magic shop over in California who said he knew the Bucks as kids, and always saw them, heads down, walking around practicing their flourishes. They were shy, and flourishing provided an entertaining way to amaze with cards without the "awkwardness" that magic can cause.

Does this even fit here? And wow, this was a lot longer than I'd thought it would be :D Oh well, just my two, or three, cents.
 
Apr 7, 2008
21
1
That's completely it for me. In card magic, you generally have to sell the effect with your personality, your misdirection and patter so that the cards themselves are almost secondary. You spend most of your time trying to keep them out of the heat. Whereas in flourishing, the cards are the effect--they take all the heat while you almost disappear behind them.

Practicing alone is essential for both, but I think it's generally less satisfying for a more solitary person to practice a card effect than it is to practice a flourish. And you are never going to hear (if you're lucky), gasps from the audience and murmurs of "Great pass! Look at that pinkie break! What a fantastic palm to the pocket!" Flourishing has an immediate visceral payoff for both the audience and performer.

It's a bit like surfing and skateboarding, and not just the 'stunt' aspect. We all know that there are more practical ways to travel by land and sea, but none of them offer the same kind of thrill and opportunities for creativity/nonconformism.
 
Nov 3, 2007
85
0
35
Kyrgyzstan
For me it's FUN!!! :0 I like to perfome flourishes on a live auditory. I like combine magic with flourishes. It looks cool. And I like when people say me that it's cool and nice.
 
The people i perform to always says: ''Thats cool! But do you know any magic tricks?''

The only tricks that I do a lot is Dan and Dave's tricks. I usually dont remember the other tricks. *sight*
 
For me, I don't do it to entertain others. I do it because it's a beautiful hobby. And it soothes my nerves. Kind of like a meditative experience, just to feel your hands and cards working in harmony and nothing else matters. =)

I really love it when I just sit at somewhere alone, preferably facing the sea, and do stuff with my cards, and listening to the sea and just simplify the moment. It's like zen for me.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Magic is too boring for me, or at least the digging part. Just digging for all the information I can gather ends up becoming useless anyway cause it won't fit my style or repertoire so what's the point? I decided a long time ago to never buy magic products just because I wanted to know and just because I thought it would work. I already have about 10 solid effect which always get response and have had success with and complies with angles and what not to my liking.

When it comes to manipulation information is used different. Everything you learn becomes important and constructing the next thing you want to be doing. The more you know the better and there's no need to stop. Broaden the horizons and learn all the you can and your manipulation can only get better. So time spent learning and mastering all that you can becomes vital. So hardly any of it can really go to waste.
 
Sep 17, 2007
24
0
You know, I've always had that fantasy of leaning against the side of the wall at the corner of the street and flourishing to entertain myself. Somehow whenever I do that people will start looking, and if you catch the time right you can pop in a change or some aerials, and people will go OMG. A lot of things can happen after that...

-pyA
 
I enjoy the challenge of flourishes, and the dexterity required and I love nailing a new flourish. I don't really "perform" but I do carry cards around with me and my friends and sometimes randoms see me doing my thing as I just fiddle with cards as I hold them, it's become a subconscious habbit nowadays :p I've just started magic kinda because when you're good at flourishing people go "Can you show me a trick?" and the answer "I don't do tricks" kinda dissapoints them.

I feel that flourishing can stand on it's own, but often the audiance can't tell the difference between most, and while the first sybil may entertian them, the 100th wont. Arm spreads aren't always practical, such as in wind or drunk people are around, so you're pretty much left with springs and a few fans to occupy them then they eventually get bored being a casual bystander of your awesome skill. Many people however want to get involved which magic lets them do, and when you can't do any magic, they are dissapointed.

Who knows, once I start getting into magic a bit, I might learn to love it, but at the moment its just the basics for when I absolutely need it, flourishes are still my lifeblood.
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results