What should I buy for fast pace great looking flourishes and vanishes like what Peter Marvey does? I want something so cool that everyone forgets the trick that I did before the flourishs.




:donut1:

Then why do a trick before the flourishes?

You might try Jeff McBride's The Art of Card Manipulation video trilogy, produced by L&L Publishing and available directly from L&L or your favorite dealer.

Cuz If you mess up...or if they try to remember the trick after the performance to figure out how it was done they would get a blank and want to see how it was done so they go to another performance and get dazzled again not suspecting what really is happening. Like what Lee Asher does with "wipe my ace." He does something total imposible to follow and ends up with total confusion on how the trick is done and the flourish. Thats what I love about magic it causes confusion.


Wikiro

Let me just say that I'm not trying to pick on you. We're just from totally different schools of thought.

"Confusion is not magic." -Dai Vernon

OOOOPPSSS!!!! I said that totally wrong. What I really meant was that I like people to be amazed, but usually when some body is amazed they are in a state of confusion like "how?" "What?" "WOW how did you do that? (this is my favorite)", and You are to good where did you learn that? All these fraises come out at once in the head causing confusion. Also I will listen to you and Dai Vernon and try not to confuse someone totally.

Wikiro

I have nothing against flourishes. In fact I have some pretty good ones myself. However they must be used intelligently and at the right psychological time.
If I were to post my thoughts here on flourishes it would turn out to be a very long posting.
Suffice it to say that I believe there are THREE types of flourishes. I won't go into them all now because it would take far too long.
I will simply say that magicians can cut their own throat with unwise use of flourishes. They have to be done with intelligence and moderation. You must at all costs not throw your skill at people.
You can cut your effectiveness in half if your work consists of nothing but flashy skilful moves. The worst type of flourishes are the ones done in the course of a trick rather than as a separate thing altogether.
No time to explain why.
I will simply say that the greatest close up magicians in history (I am not referring to the present crop, I am afraid to say-I believe their skills are sadly lacking) were men who believed that the art of magic was "the art that hides art".
You need skill certainly but the skill SHOULD BE HIDDEN FROM THE AUDIENCE.
You can still use flourishes but you have to be bloody careful that you do not misuse them
The greatest magicians such as Goshman, Slydini, Vernon and so on HID their skill as much as they could. It seemed that what they did was "magic" not finger manipulation.
Of course the audience often knew there was skill but this skill was by and large hidden.
This is the way the great magicians of the past worked.
It is a great pity this style seems to be disappearing.
I am not a particular fan of David Blaine butI notice that he tends to eschew a lot of fancy manipulative flourishes. I suspect this is adding to his effectiveness.
The less fancy things are , sometimes the more effective they can be.
A good window does not draw attention to itself. It simply lets the light in.

Hehe when everone said Id like it here they meant it. This is great I get great quotes and information that counts thx Alexander and Scott this helps me a lot. Also that is a cool idea Alexander to hide your skill. Ill start doing it. Keep the info coming it helps greatly since I dont have a magician in miles and a good magic shop around.

Wikiro

re;
I am not a particular fan of David Blaine butI notice that he tends to eschew a lot of fancy manipulative flourishes. I suspect this is adding to his effectiveness."

Just wanted to post that again Alexander. Good point, and the youngsters tend to want to emulate Blaine so maybe we should post it every couple of weeks? :)

Paul.

But confusion can be funny!

Blurr

You can't go wrong with Brian Tudor's Show off tapes. some crazy flourishes in there.

Use everything in moderation.

it's all about balance!

I think little flourishes are great things to throw in a trick: a table spread, a fan, a nice turnover of the top card, it gives the audience a more "profissional" impression of you and your work.
I really hate when people do a springing the cards, or a one hand cut when the spectator is looking at the card...

Just remember that flourishes aren't magic. Too many and you'll be remembered as the guy who juggles cards, and not a magician!

As for resources:

- The Art of Card Manipulation (McBride)
- Show Off I & II (Tudor)
- The Buck Twins Tapes are also very good.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Sean Piper.

There is another reason why I want to learn flourishes and vanishes. I know many of you probably try to show off magic some times, but you have to test the crowd so you start off with a easy trick (I use the do as I do trick)and if the crowd is grabby then you dont do the magic usually. So they say you suck or worse, but what I want to do is not show them any pick a card tricks cuz they will purposely try to screw you up.
So usually the kind of tricks you use are flourish based tricks just to entertain them a bit and still get them to remember you and the next time try to get a better crowd to get a nicer tricks landed. This is probably going to sound dumb tho.

Wikiro

My turn? I personally like doing a flourish or two simply to draw attention to myself. I was doing a few at school in ping pong. One student asked me if I was doing "some fancy card stuff" and I said "yea,yea" and then he came over.. well this was cool that he tried to perform a card trick, (I kinda saw exactly how he did it, but didnt say anything.. that is what *****es me off the most. Hecklers and wanna-be know it alls in magic) So I did a very simple trick.. his friend sort of caught on (these are juniors I am freshmen) and he is cool, so it didnt bug me. But the friend was amazed haha! That is allways a nice feeling, so I just sat back down and continued some flourishes and great false shuffles. So here are my suggestions!

- I would say, stay away from the Show Off I and II, unless you have lots of time to put into just flourishes and showoffy moves. If you do, then that is a good route to take.

- Lee asher, cant go wrong with his video "Five Card Stud" not only some great magic, but he teaches some good flourishes and false shuffles that are in the package."

- I just wanted to make a comment on the "you do as I do" trick. It can be good, but you need to think, somtimes if a person can see what is coming they will not follow your instructions as closly as you say too. So be careful on that part.

Hey, thats all I have to say right now!
-chw

wikiro,
I really recommend to read Darwin Ortiz book "strong magic" where you will find no tricks, but answers to the question how to increase an magic effect, how to react to audience expectations and so on...

Martin

Excellent advice! The Ortiz book is awesome--one of my alltime fav's.

I like the Ortiz book too.
I have a few reservations though. I don't like the digs at legendary magicians. I think it demeans the book and is quite unnecessary. Digs at Slydini in particular irritated me.
I also think some of his advice on how to handle hecklers while OK is not top class.
I also feel that his ego permeates the book.
These are minor considerations, though. By and large, I would say that it is certainly a book worth having.
You probably won't agree with everything in it but at least it is dealing with a more important subject than the trick itself.

Oh, I absolutely didn't agree with everything in it! But it made me think about why I disagreed, and that is what makes it so valuable.