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Like I said - it's just showing off

No, I admit Daryl's "Hot Shot Cut" is a nice touch to a production - as is Michael Vile's "Under Pressure" or a card spring whilst saying "Think of a Card". Those are nice little flourishes that can add to an effect. I think I just have a dim view on 8 way cuts and displays as they're impractical for performing magic. You wouldn't say "replace your card anywhere in the pack" and then go into a Sybil-wibble cut . You'd want to present the idea to the audience that you're mixing the cards as they would mix them, openly and fairly.

In the words of Dai Vernon "Be Natural", and if you naturally return a card to the deck whilst doing the splits, and shuffle whilst doing a back flip somersault then who am I to argue!

That is why flourishes need to be used with great care. We are arguing the same side of the coin.

On an aside I really am not a Vernon fan. *shudder*

I agree with everyone on this. It looks great and I love watching it but I've always thought where the hell would I perform it. I see it as more of an offbeat thing you just throw in. An expensive offbeat if you ask me but certainly impressive.

And as for Jordan Lapping I think he's great. Very smooth and his patter is good. Maybe he has a slightly boring voice but it kind of suits him, if that makes sense. There's a video knocking about somewhere on these forums of him doing a trick which I think is called The Blast or Burst or something. Very nice video to watch should definately check that out.

I must admit to buying Brian Tudors "Generation Extreme" - not for the want of learning the stuff, just to watch and marvel. It is a completely different skill - not one that I would class as magic, but certainly (to me) very watchable and entertaining.

like no fancy cuts and all that business so if he is against it then all magicians should be too!!!!!

wow246 wrote:like no fancy cuts and all that business so if he is against it then all magicians should be too!!!!!

I'm sorry can you explain this post? Who is "he"? You say if 'he' is against it then all magicians should be. Who is this he? I cannot possibly believe that you mean Vernon. And if you are you can't honestly be saying because one magician does not see a place for flourishes in magic then all magicians should feel the same way or believe the same thing. Please tell me you are being sarcastic. I seriously hope that you are. Actually I can calm down now because of course that was a sarcastic post because nobody can be so pathetic that they can't form their own opinion about an issue such as this, or see that there are all kinds of styles and just because some styles don't work for some does not mean that they won't work for another.

I apologize in advance for this post. At first I didn't see it as sarcastic so I got a little upset over it, which by the way is rare, very little on message boards upsets me. But then I figured out it had to be sarcastic but by that time I was already typing like a mad man and I didn't want to waste all that typing time by hitting delete. So I just went with it.

i do hope hes being sarcastic but obv. now he will say he is....

Just as a small aside here...

Last weekend, amongst other things I was visiting a buddy who has a 15 year old son. My mate asked me 'if I still sold cards'. I asked him what sort he wanted, and he stated "Dunno, Ollie (NAME CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT) wants some, he's ruined ours".

When "Ollie" emerged, aside from the obligatory 'rib crunching' of Seige (yes, I've known him since he was knee-high to Paul Daniels), he told me he'd downloaded some stuff that he saw on YouTube... which on further inspection would seem to have been Brian Tudor's XCM. The full DVD.

I asked him how he'd gotten it off YouPube... he said "I didn't, we saw some dudes playing with cards on YouBoob and saw the comments said XCM, then found a download site that had it"

A little befuddled, and slightly bewildered, I asked "Well, you know if you want any magic stuff just let me know and I'll sort you out a pocket money deal"

To which he replied:

"No, I don't like magic... this is to impress the dudes whilst playing poker".

From my point of view, that typifies to me the relationship between XCM and Magic.

I can't really comment on the 'download' or piracy issue... it won't stop him at all. He has literally got CDs and DVDs piled up in his bedroom full of movies and music. The kids of today don't see it as piracy, no more than kids of the 80s like myself saw recording the charts on Radio 1 on a Sunday as theft. Different era, different media.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I've never really been into all the over flourishy stuff but more and more people seem to be doing it. I think that conventions and magicians in general should be more accepting of it, it's a different style to what a lot of the old crustys like but it does have a young following and it's those young magicians that need to be encouraged.

I absolutely disagree. Please note I'm not saying that it shouldn't be encouraged, rather that there should be some good consideration given to the matter to try and assess whether it is of benefit or detriment to magic beforehand.

The idea that 'well, lots of people are doing it so we should encourage it' is ridiculous. If it does turn out that it's not doing their magic any good should it really be encouraged (as a branch of magic, at least)?

Flourishes of any Kind are apealing and add ALOT to an effect. But its not a must. Im impressed with the performaces, but as i mentioned before after seeing the peformer mentioned in first post perform some effects I realized that he focuses to much on the flourishes and no where near enouph time on the effect...yeah it looks pretty but the effect is flawed. Spend time on the effect and added needed flourishes not on the flourishes alone.