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Flourishes are fantastic and canmake a trick.

I use them all the time. The reaction from just doing a good flourish is as good as a reaction from doing a trick.

Time after time I have sat at my desk just fanning the deck then closing it with one hand then started doing and L cut and peaople come across say "do that again"

People want to see fancy flourishes.

Take a look at Oz pearlmans Born to perform: http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=618 This has got some nice flourishes and make an entertaining watch.

I've wondered about this. It does look good when you see someone perform a whole bunch of flourishes but it does broadcast the fact that the performer is very skilled at manipulation. One of the reasons I really like Juan Tamarez is because he looks like a bit of a fool and like he doesn't really know what he's doing. It therefore comes as more of a surpise (and more magical) when he pulls off a minor miracle.

Yes, flourishes look great.

But you have to be slightly careful that they don't outshine the actual effects you are performing.

Spending 2 years perfecting a double waterfall dovetail vanish backpalm production to distract someone from your awful classic pass is time spent in the wrong area

If you are a serious cardician, you should also consider that using flourishes *can* lead to your audience finding your performance pretentious and flashy—and that makes you seem like a show off. Fine if you're a big name in lights.

The only real flourishes I will recommend learning for magical purposes are false cuts. I find them invaluable.

But, I agree, we as magicians ALL have learned some fancy flourishes and they are GREAT fun to play with.

But I've always found, at a party or gathering, for example, that picking up a deck of cards and going full-on into some flourishes isn't half as impressive as getting the audience engaged in a magic effect.

Flourishes, after all, aren't so much a 'How the heck did he do that?', more of a 'wow, I bet that took a long time to learn'.

But, each to their own, I guess. It's all about finding your own style.

I provide this as my own tuppence worth—food for thought rather than advice.

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I do have to add......... I only use flourishes in the right place like getting the spectatour to pick a card. The Le paul spread is nice for this. A great one (which I am trying to master at the moment) is De'vo's Flipback vanish http://superhandz.com/videos.html

They look great, so its certainly makes it easier?

Message from Mods: What the heck does this actually mean, Hawk? Please treat TalkMagic with some respect and stop posting this drivel, OK?

Fancy flourishes only impress magicians. Joe public are more impressed with a magic trick well executed with entertaining patter.

It would be a much better use of time for any budding magician to develop skills at entertaining rather than learning fancy moves, believe me.

Entertain first, its a must.

I kind of agree with Tenko.

I like flourishes, but I don't do them too often. I have my 3-4 fancy cuts i do on a regular basis, but that's just to show the spec that, yes i know how to handle cards, so the magic I do, is not pure luck It's nice to have a couple of flourishes, for a show off, but they should be implemented as part of a routine, and not just a pure show off flourish.