Quitting Cardistry To Do Magic....

[BlueSpade1000]

Hey guys, I have been doing magic for about 5 years, and cardistry for about 4 years. I noticed that in the past 4 years cardistry has been severely hindering my development in magic. I would always spend hours at a time practicing flourishes, and I would always feel mentally drained trying to retain all of the cardistry moves that I know while trying to retain and learn new magic. In the past 3 years I barely learned any new magic, in fact I was forgetting how to perform many of my effects because I was too busy trying to retain card flourishes and create original ones. I am sick of this and today I decided that I may have to just let go of cardistry if I want to advance my magic at the pace I was at on my first year of magic...I have done birthday parties with magic and I know I can make money and be succesful with magic, so magic goes before anything...

I noticed that many of the best cardists are full time cardistst and don't do magic...I also noticed that the people who do both cardistry and magic only have a certain amount of flourishes...

So should I retain only a certain amount of cardistry moves and focus on magic (Like Dan and Dave Buck Do), or should I drop cardistry completely, and only retain the moves I need for magic so that I could advance my magic???

 

[RyanHazlewood]

I say you can do both, just perform magic regularly and you will be pressured to learn more magic and just learn flourishes on the side. Here's an idea for you, make a schedule to where you practice flourishes every other and then practice magic every other day so you will be alternating days of practice.

 

[Mike.Hankins]

I am rather torn on separating magic with cardistry. While I do know people personally who do not perform magic tricks, and just perform cardistry, I feel that as a magician, we SHOULD be able to have unexplained skill with a deck of cards. And that just doesn't mean a great pass. I mean something that the spectator can SEE that we can do.

I will take Calen Morelli as an example. I've seen Calen do some really wicked awesome tricks for people when we were out, and then mix it in with some crazy "Dope" (as Calen would say) flourishing too...

Makes me REALLY want to "up my game" with cardistry.

I think defining who your character is, will help you understand a balance between how much magic vs how much flourishing you do within your set/show.

 

[Randy]

It's not that hinders your magic, it's that it takes away the mystery of it. If people see that you do manipulate cards in such a fancy way, then in the back of their minds they KNOW that you can control a card, Palm a card, steal a card. Thus they will end up burning your hands like the sun. I personally believe in going in the complete opposite direction. Give them the impression that you are TERRIBLE with a deck of cards. When you spread the cards, do a terrible spread. When you shuffle them, shuffle them in a big mess letting a few of them fall to the floor or table. Then when they aren't paying attention, do your palms/steals/controls.

They will never SEE or FEEL it coming.

 

[yyyyyyy]

It's not that hinders your magic, it's that it takes away the mystery of it. If people see that you do manipulate cards in such a fancy way, then in the back of their minds they KNOW that you can control a card, Palm a card, steal a card. Thus they will end up burning your hands like the sun. I personally believe in going in the complete opposite direction. Give them the impression that you are TERRIBLE with a deck of cards. When you spread the cards, do a terrible spread. When you shuffle them, shuffle them in a big mess letting a few of them fall to the floor or table. Then when they aren't paying attention, do your palms/steals/controls.

They will never SEE or FEEL it coming.

I'd say it depends on what kind of performer you want to come across as. I could mechanically perform "magic tricks" and present them in a very non-magical manner. The varying performance styles bring out different emotions from people. Not to say one is superior to the other, both are equally valid in my opinion and are completely up to the personal preference of the performer. A bit like comparing Lennart Green to Dani Daortiz. One with a very physical approach and one with a psychological approach. Lennart Green even teaches some flourishes on his Masterfile DVD.

 

[Craig Browning]

Most magicians develop a kind of co-dependency on playing cards that's unhealthy and certainly doesn't adhere to the public's POV (most people moan when it comes to card tricks and many will fall asleep by the 3rd one in your set); this problem is so well known that magicians that actually work for a living joke about it, even to the point of using the words "Pick a card" as a means by which to put the young lady to sleep prior to a levitation. . . not kidding, Mike Caveny did it for years. . . so waking up to the need to grow in magic is a good thing. I'd start with coins but would encourage you to look seriously at routines that require strong manipulative skill such as Thimbles and Ball control in that these three areas will take you the furthest, fastest when it comes to intermediate skills. The other thing to remember is that your background with playing cards can help you in developing routines that use other kinds of "cards" i.e. business cards, index cards, post cards, photos, even brochures so this could be another way for you to step across the abyss from card trick purgatory to the "real" world of magic. REMEMBER. . . look at it all as technique & technology and that much of it can be adapted to other things and you'll go far.

 

[BlueSpade1000]

Most magicians develop a kind of co-dependency on playing cards that's unhealthy and certainly doesn't adhere to the public's POV (most people moan when it comes to card tricks and many will fall asleep by the 3rd one in your set); this problem is so well known that magicians that actually work for a living joke about it, even to the point of using the words "Pick a card" as a means by which to put the young lady to sleep prior to a levitation. . . not kidding, Mike Caveny did it for years. . . so waking up to the need to grow in magic is a good thing. I'd start with coins but would encourage you to look seriously at routines that require strong manipulative skill such as Thimbles and Ball control in that these three areas will take you the furthest, fastest when it comes to intermediate skills. The other thing to remember is that your background with playing cards can help you in developing routines that use other kinds of "cards" i.e. business cards, index cards, post cards, photos, even brochures so this could be another way for you to step across the abyss from card trick purgatory to the "real" world of magic. REMEMBER. . . look at it all as technique & technology and that much of it can be adapted to other things and you'll go far.

Yeah, I started with the trilogy so I was only performing card magic and cardistry for a while, but I feel like cardistry drains me mentally and it keeps me from having time to expand to any new genres of magic. Should I drop
Cardistry and just retain the moves I need for magic? Or should I do it but just have a limited amount of flourishes?

 

[Craig Browning]

I still do the same six or so card tricks I learned more than 30 years ago and they work fine, there's nothing complicated and they are entertaining enough to get me through a night of table of hopping. So to answer your question "NO" don't abandon the skills you've learned; stay practiced! You just don't need to dig deeper with things at the moment and so you can move on to other arenas, cultivating new skills that you add to your personal arsenal.

 

[Mike.Hankins]

Most magicians develop a kind of co-dependency on playing cards that's unhealthy and certainly doesn't adhere to the public's POV (most people moan when it comes to card tricks and many will fall asleep by the 3rd one in your set); this problem is so well known that magicians that actually work for a living joke about it, even to the point of using the words "Pick a card" as a means by which to put the young lady to sleep prior to a levitation. . . not kidding, Mike Caveny did it for years. . . so waking up to the need to grow in magic is a good thing. I'd start with coins but would encourage you to look seriously at routines that require strong manipulative skill such as Thimbles and Ball control in that these three areas will take you the furthest, fastest when it comes to intermediate skills. The other thing to remember is that your background with playing cards can help you in developing routines that use other kinds of "cards" i.e. business cards, index cards, post cards, photos, even brochures so this could be another way for you to step across the abyss from card trick purgatory to the "real" world of magic. REMEMBER. . . look at it all as technique & technology and that much of it can be adapted to other things and you'll go far.

I agree to a certain extent. More times than not, pulling out a deck of cards can lead to spectators rolling their eyes. BUT, I feel if you have already built rapport and they generally like YOU as a person, then they will care more about what you are doing and will want to see whatever you have to show them, even if it is a card trick.

 

[Test884]

I think that you should keep a couple of flourishes in your back pocket (like Sybil) just to impress people or something to do in free time. But me personally think magic is the choice if you want to make money. But don't forget all your hard work in cardestry. Hope this helped!!