Going pro... without magic

[MaryJane]

Ok just want to get a few opinions on this. Has anyone ever gone "pro" doing solelly flourishes? Without being a magician? I have an interest in flourishes and unfortunately not so much for magic at the moment, even though I work for a couple of magicians.

I have recently finished a course where I've either met magicians who "poo poo" flourishes ("I'm not a juggler I'm a magician"). Or at best others who think flourishes are there to make magic look better.

Are flourishes solelly hobby material, a magical filler? Has anyone ever made a successful career just performing them? (even Dan and Dave know magic).

ie to take it further from the bedroom do I need to learn magic?

 

[Hero0804]

Jerry and De'vo just perform flourishes/XCM

 

[AceOfSpades2662]

I truly believe you can go pro at anything. There are countless numbers of crazy things to go pro in. Flourishing isn't crazy. It may appear due to the quick, unbelievable, and flashy moves. But in all seriousness I'm sure you could if you tried to be the best.


-Michael

 

[Dex]

Just make a cool routine of flourishing and then go out there and present it to audiences, if it works then there's no reason you can't go pro.

Plus flourishing is a pretty new thing now, which is good and bad, good because you are original and unique, bad because there is not as much (if any) demand for flourishers.

 

[Cyrus]

De'vo has. I find it very interesting, in De'vo's Xtreme Beginners he states that magic should be used to enhance flourishing, not the other way around (flourishing enhancing magic). Two completely different points of view, I'm honestly one who thinks that flourishing should enhance magic. Its going to be very difficult to advertise yourself, people aren't looking for a flourisher to put on a show for them. Thats what I think.

-Cyrus

 

[RichmanMatthew]

I completely agree with Cyrus. There are multiple points of view. I would advise you to do atleast a little bit of magic.

 

[TomIsaacson]

Flourishes, much like juggling is hard to do without getting repitive after only a few minutes. Flourishes can ENHANCE a performance tremendously and showcase the performers skill, but I wouldn't stand alone a performance on flourishes, because people will always demand more...
There are rare cases like the Bucks that they can craft choreographed flourishes to music and do performances...but even then I dont think they make a living being paid for flourish performances.

 

[dejavu05]

If I were you I would learn some tricks. The trilogy has some great tricks on there if you have that, which you might since you said you like flourishing. But I think it is mainly up to you. If you really feel like you don't want to learn tricks then don't. But if you are unsure I would go with tricks. In the words of Forest Gump, Thats all I have to say about that.

 

[Nate Malini]

XCM reminds me so much of the yo-yo days.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBXWXbympeQ&feature=related

 

[tsarothpaco]

Jerry and De'vo just perform flourishes/XCM

De'vo does tricks, in his De'Ring performance
(http://www.ellusionist.com/product/dvd+training/devo/de'ring+by+de'vo.do) he teaches tricks and these are part of his routine.

 

[Toby]

First of all, De'Vo is doing magic since he was 7 years old, and he went pro. He is just more popular as a flourishman because he didnt make any magic DVD (exept De'Ring but thats not what i mean).

And i do think that you can become pro with just a flourishes but it's going to be really hard. There is alot of competition out there, and you need to put ALOT of work and dedication to it. But it can be done, esspecially because it's new and it's only going to grow.

 

[Jeff Fitzgerald]

I'm not so sure I agree that you can go "pro" and make a living off of cardistry. As far as I know, De'vo and Dan and Dave Buck have made a living from flourishing because they create their own work and sell it to magicians and cardists. Unlike magic, you can't really just pay with cards for 2 hours at a birthday party or wedding.

 

[mattlee]

I'm not so sure I agree that you can go "pro" and make a living off of cardistry. As far as I know, De'vo and Dan and Dave Buck have made a living from flourishing because they create their own work and sell it to magicians and cardists. Unlike magic, you can't really just pay with cards for 2 hours at a birthday party or wedding.

Exactly. I would say it's almost impossible to 'go pro' doing cardistry. With magic you can actually entertain for an hour quite easily. For flourishing, anything upwards of a minute is going to be a serious bore. Too much of the same thing over and over.

 

[UnknownEnemyZero]

The great thing about card manipulation vs other manipulations, is that it uses magic as a crutch to convince people to accept gigs with this focused manipulation material. With cards in today's society any showmanship of skill and dexerity is usually associated with magic, no if's and's or but's. REQUESTS will be done, "Can you do that one trick where the card comes to the top?" "Can I pick a card?" People are going to want to see that stuff, the more you can showcase the more it seems like anything is possible with a deck of cards in your hands. At most if you were mainly wanting to focus on manipulation sets you would probably only need at most 5 effects. Remember, who wants to JUST know 100 magic tricks vs 10 tricks which are mastered/tested/almost 100% foolproof with outs and great presentation.

Jerry Cestowski on some occasions on his radio show has spilled some details on how he does his shows. But again this sort of thing requires good performer skills: being able to deliver good lines, be entertaining, talk to the audience, and most of all DEAL WITH MISTAKES AND MISHAPS without losing cool.

 

[Shanku]

To go pro you would have to come up with LOTS of ORIGINAL material...

 

[trashmanf]

naw maybe if you're trying to "go pro" by selling DVDs to other flourishers or something. but it doesn't matter to laymen whether or not you're original, because EVERYTHING will be new to them. I remember the first time I saw a giant fan... I was like %$#$@!^&&***

its pointless to try to do "NO magic" at all because like Jerry said on flashcards, versatility is never a bad thing. like if they go "damn i wouldn't want to play poker with you... I bet you could deal yourself 5 aces from a shuffled deck" and you reply "no because I only do manipulation"... it's going to diminish your skills in their eyes. ideally you should be able to do traditional sleight-of-hand magic, gambling demonstrations, productions/vanishes etc... make your act all about XCM since that's the coolest sh!! anyways... but still have that other stuff in your repertoire.

 

[DdM1991]

I think when you start with flourishing sooner or later you will get a little bit in card magic, they're very close related. But if you don't want to you can just flourish. I got from magic into flourishes and now I more into flourishing but it's just fun to do magic.
It's a free choice.