Putting More Meaning in Cardistry

I'm not a cardist. I never was. And it wasn't because I lacked the talent, even though I did. But that's beside the point.

The problem with cardistry was just juggling that magicians started getting into because it looked "cool". The videos people would put up online were always the same thing. Boring static crotch shot, or bust shot, videos of someone standing in their room spinning cards around to dubstep that played loudly in the back ground.

There was no emotional hook. No reason to care about the performer or the performance. The audience got nothing out of the video and more than half of these videos were done, spread around the net, and designed to say one thing: "Look at me, look how cool I think I am."

Honestly the only people that cared about these videos were those who were into it.

Cardistry offers nothing of interest or value to the average layman watching. You couldn't book a commercial show doing just cardistry and make it fly. Cuts, spins, fans, one handed shuffles, little artistic twirls, these are things that you do in conjunction with a larger display such as a card trick. These flourishes are designed to compliment the existing performance and give the audience the impression you know what you are doing. They were never meant to be the entire show by themselves.

There has been many a VERY talented magician step forward and put out some solid work on this subject too. Andre is probably one of my personal favorite artists who does this kind of stuff, and my hat is off to him because of the things I've seen this guy do. So don't get me wrong about my understanding of the skill, time, and dedication that goes into perfecting this. I am not going to downplay that at all.

I just haven't seen enough performers find a way to present this that could hold an audiences attention for the duration of the song being used to set the moves to.

Maybe better videos would help? It's hard to say. Like someone before me pointed out the market right now is saturated. Too many people are trying to put out videos both instructional and otherwise.
 
Aug 17, 2010
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I feel that for those not really into cardistry, it doesn't really offer anything.

Earlier in the thread, the comparison to sport was brought up, and I think that's a flawed analogy for many reasons; first and foremost, that "sport" (which itself is a pretty broad term, covering everything form darts to MMA) is a competition, not a form of theatre as performing arts tend to be. Sport has the conflict between the competitors as its dramatic element, in that they both cannot win.

The problem I have with cardistry is that there's nothing beyond a display of a skill that's somewhat limited in use. There's no real conflict in the dramatic sense; there's no element of danger as there is when someone is juggling knives or torches. There's no room for comedy as there is in juggling. There's no experience of the impossible as there is in magic or in mentalism, no conflict between the laws of nature and the resolution of the trick.

I think until someone finds some kind of intrinsic dramatic conflict to exploit, there's no real entertainment aside from a display of skill.
 
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