Magic or Flourishing?

[SorenErik]

I think that people are only looking at the technical aspect of the difficulty of magic. While a pass may be easier than a big flourish, being a really good magician is also about being able to hold tension, create patter that hits hard, hold off hecklers, and much more. A good flourisher can make flourishes that go together and flow, a good magician can make tricks that go together and flow, make patter for that routine, pull of some good misdirection, and leave the audience stunned. However, they are two different things entirely, as you can see, magic takes a lot of work, but that is mentally and physically, flourishing takes big hands and nimble fingers.

I agree. I think too little emphasis is placed on being able to truly present magic as a powerful art form. In most cases it isn't even shown in a presentable fashion (just look at all the awful videos on YouTube).

For me cardistry can be difficult, but after a while it becomes muscle memory, and gets much easier. It is much more difficult for me to take an effect, tear it down and structure it to fit me, and then go out and be able to perform it in a solid routine linking multiple effects together in a presentation with each effect building off of the next. It requires a much stronger mental aspect than flourishing. So I guess my answer would be flourishing is physically harder and magic is mentally harder.