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I am a big fan of flourishes. I have tried for a long time to get the one handed shuffle to work out perfectly.

Does anyone have any tips for me on this or any other flourishes I could try?

Thanks in advance

The one handed shuffle is a real treat for your audience - and something that they will never ever in the reign of pig's pud expect that they will be able to do it. That's the essence of flourishes, I think, it's to learn them so well that you do them so quickly and fluently, that the audience wonders where you stashed your extra digits.

Some people have great difficulty with this move, and personally, the 'revelation' which made this whole move fit into place was getting the start grip and angle of the hand correct.

It is essential that after the first cut - to get the pack into two piles, that your fingers are 'in position'. Also, it pays to practice the cut itself quite heavily, as getting two pretty even piles is essential. Then, it's a matter of getting the correct balance of grip and pressure - i.e. a weak grip = cards all over the floor, and yet, too much grip pressure = cards not interleaving properly.

This move is all about delicacy, and I think you'd be better learning each little stage one at a time, as the whole thing relies on a fluid action - you can't do this one slowly... or so I've found.

As for other flourishes, personal favourites which I use all the time are:
1. Illogical cut
2. Riffle shuffle
3. Swivel cut - blind
4. Le Paul spread (not so much a flourish, but a gorgeous 'spread' move
5. 'sloppy' table riffle... as opposed to a perfect weave, loosely drop lumps of cards. Looks nice.
6. Blind cuts
7. Running Hindu shuffles
8. Card springing

Most of the above actually condition the audience into seeing you do odd things with the cards - which is great at making your actual sleights look natural. Also, some are utility moves as well - such as a a blind swivel cut - it not only looks good, but keeps the deck in perfect order. As does a simple blind cut to the table. And believe it or not, the complex 4-cut 'illogical' cut does the same - they are blind cuts - i.e. they retain the order of the deck.

Card springing can be used to bridge the deck, or part of it, to aid in location of a particular card. And of course, a reverse spring will 'straighten' the deck again, to alleviate suspicion.

In fact, there are loads of flourishes which are also useable as utilities - i.e. they don't just look good, they serve a purpose.

And, it's also nice to have a few simple flourishes tucked away for best, for such things as Triumph routines - where you make a REAL effort to look flamboyant when locating a card!

There are loads of resources for learning flourishes... and if you then prefer to go the route of 'flourishes and manipulations' as a whole show, you should check out Jeff McBride - this guy turns card flourishes into a magic-less, solo performance. Awesome stuff!

seige wrote:Most of the above actually condition the audience into seeing you do odd things with the cards - which is great at making your actual sleights look natural.

Hmm thats the 1st "argument" for doing flourishes that I'v heard, a lot of people I know say that you shouldn't do them because they take away from the magic, that they make the specs think "card sharp" instead of magician.

... it's something that Jay Sankey believes in strongly...

If you condition the audience into seeing that 'yeah, you can handle the cards fancy man, but what can you do with them'... that's a magical thing in itself.

And there's a fine line between 'Card Manipulator' and 'Card Magician' and 'Card Shark'.

I think displaying a certain amount of deftness with the cards is paramount to the conditioning, and is also useable as a misdirection.

The theory behind this is that if you play a 'straight' 10 minutes of card magic, then suddenly throw in a flourish, your audience will all of a sudden become suspicious.

Sankey STARTS his set with some flamboyant stuff, as a convincer that 'Hello. I'm a real magician, paid to come and entertain you' instead of 'Hello. I'm an escaped lunatic, sent to come and annoy you'.

Personally, I think that flourishes set the mood, grab the audiences attention, and make your 'real' moves slightly less obvious, as they become almost hypnotised by the way you can make the cards work for you.

Lennart Green is an absolute master of this. His flourishes and flamboyancy is amazing. What looks more like real magic than someone who can juggle 52 items?

Poetry.

I am also a great believer that whilst the cards are in your hands you should always be doing something.

If the cards have just been held in the dealers grip for sometime and then you do a move it is like "HELLOOO". Also by doing false cuts, shuffles etc its keeps the audience relaxed and when they are relaxed they are not looking at you.

If you are planning to do mentalism then yes doing a one handed riffle shuffle is the wrong thing to do.

Midas Kid wrote:If you are planning to do mentalism then yes doing a one handed riffle shuffle is the wrong thing to do.

I guess the same thing applies to cups and balls

If you put brains under the cups instead of balls does that count?

Midas Kid wrote:If you put brains under the cups instead of balls does that count?

That would certainly count as misdirection, yes.

I was thinking more along the lines of mentalism. I suppose this would just go under the banner of plain old MENTAL.

Which would be best sheep or goat brains?

Stop it stop it going off thread.......

Some of my favorite flourishes are:

Daryl's Super Duper Cut
One handed cuts in general
Springing the cards
Double fan
Coin rolls
Coin fans

I'm of the opinion that flourishes are very important to a good magic routine. It lets the audience know that you have real skill and aren't just Uncle Bob with a few cheesy tricks. I also feel they can be overused. If you use flourishes as a sharp stick to poke people with and go "Hey look what I can do that you can't!" then I think it severely diminishes any effect you're trying to create.

Thank you all for your replies and I will definately try out some or all of the flourishes mentioned in this thread.

I am still trying to get to grips with the one handed shuffle, but I will keep trying until I can pull it off perfectly. The hardest parts for me is getting the cards pushed together.

Thanks for all the advice

I found that you can get them to interweave a bit easier if you remove your index finger from between the packets and give the outside (non-thumbside) packet a small push from the end. That way the two packets slide past each other a little bit and seem to interweave a little better.

nickj wrote:I found that you can get them to interweave a bit easier if you remove your index finger from between the packets and give the outside (non-thumbside) packet a small push from the end. That way the two packets slide past each other a little bit and seem to interweave a little better.

Are the finger positions on the other cards still the same when you try this? My first attempt resulted in all the cards dropping on the floor.

I will keep trying. Thank you

I keep the fingers on the same place but my grip may be different to yours. I am not surprised at the dropping though, this is hard and any changes to the way you do it are likely to confuse the muscle memory you have already developed.

I guess that perseverance is the key.

My wife says that if I keep this pack of cards in my hand any longer it will become part of me, however she is still practicing the riffle shuffle so she shouldnt complain too much.