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Hi again,

Any tips on getting a nice, even pressure fan? I've been practicing it for weeks but cant seem to get it even. Ive read the workings of it in RRTCM and Mark Wilson's but just cant seem to get the cards to spread evenly no matter how much I try.

Odd thing is, I can do the one-hand fan quite nicely, which I thought would be harder, but I'd really like to be able to do the pressure as its a really nice looking flourish.

Is there a knack to this I'm just not getting?

Because I'm left handed, to get the indexes on show I have to fan the cards clockwise (face down) in my right hand with my thumb, and since I started doing it that way I've noticed a marked improvement. Try using your thumb to fan them out, maybe?

Well Matthius, take it from someone who spent a LONG time getting the pressure fan down. Numerous decks of cards were warped beyond belief, and i gave up more than once.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why i wanted to be able to make one so bad. Perhaps because I'm stubborn and don't like things getting the better of me...

Anyway, i'll say that though books and certain DVD's try their best to cover this flourish, they rarely tell you anything that will really make it click and you just get it.

You just have to practice practice practice. It will happen, eventually. I found my thumb kept getting in the way, the cards weren't even, loads of stuff that made me want to quit.

I can do the pressure fan pretty well now, and don't listen to people who say it warps your cards. Practicing it does, but when you can do one properly it's the most even fan you can do.

Just remember to bevel the cards well before you start, and your initial grip is very important. Thumb on the bottom left hand corner of the deck, with the deck cocked back into the crotch of your hand (yes yes, innuendo bingo), and your right hand fingers applying the pressure on the top right hand corner of the deck.

It's a bitch alright, best of luck.

Good to know its not just me that thinks its a bitch of a flourish then, Grimshaw!

Practice practice practice it is then. I have no ends of patience normally but this one thing has just annoyed the hell out of me. Many decks of Waddingtons have given their lives for this flourish.

Thanks for the advice on the grip and the bevel, I'll try to focus on that a bit more.

madvillainy wrote:Because I'm left handed, to get the indexes on show I have to fan the cards clockwise (face down) in my right hand with my thumb, and since I started doing it that way I've noticed a marked improvement. Try using your thumb to fan them out, maybe?

I just tried this out, felt very alien to me, but didnt produce any worse results than my usual method, so its not a bad alternative.

Like Grimshaw, I'm more than adept at say the thumb fan but the pressure fan, along with the Le Paul Spread has always alluded me. The benefits of the pressure fan are great as with Bicycle cards if they get warped or grimy then that little pretty thumb fan aint so pretty and is more sloppy.

One day!

I think I'm less keen to prove myself as a fancy flourisher these days and concentrate more on being engaging and magical, whereas in the earlier days I was keen to shoot my magical load. Perhaps it's not a case of being less keen, but recently I just feel that i've been more than adequately aiding and abetting amazement. Accordingly the desire to flourish, whilst being the cherry on the iced cake, is less evangelical and more restrained.

I've always felt the pressure fan and in the air riffle shuffle are the two standards of magic I should be able to and can't. They just alude me. Give me side steals, top changes, diagonal palm shifts and palming any day of the week. As rufio says though, one day, one day

I hate the freakin' pressure fan. I spent way to much time on it and I've never been happy with it. Instead I use the spring fan, at least I think thats what it is called when the cards just seem to float from the left hand to the right. Also happy to note that all the card effects that say you must use a pressure fan are wrong. There are always ways around it. And I too can do a one handed fan better then I can do a pressure fan. Go figure.

Each to there own in my opinion I am not really a master of any flourish I can do a few relatively good but find with most effects there are ways you can do it without it.

Although I also find myself often fiddling with cards and doing fancy flourishes.

TLS

Yeah, mega fancy flourishes are pretty awesome to watch, but nobody really needs them for an effect.

A good solid fan is useful though, if only to give the spec an easy way to choose a card, and doing a one-hand fan for that always looks a bit odd I think.

mark lewis recently wrote some thought provoking stuff (well, I say thought-provoking, i had thought about this previously) about flourishes generally.

Things like the pressure fan and the Le Paul Spread for instance, do add that touch of spicy cinnamon to that occasionally lacklustre caramel macchiato of a magic effect. Not that I do those particular ones well (although there are others i excel in, mmwahaha). I think of flourishes as being those drops of Tabasco to an under-seasoned casserole served last minute.

In moderation, a flourishy cut transcends the humdrum and has the non-verbal scream of a magi who knows what he or she is doing. I think there's something to be said for a comparing flourishes to that moment where you, for instance, silently show your hands empty. NOT saying something along the lines of "look, there's nothing in my hand, there's nothing in my hand! Look!" is much like a visually stunning cut in a blase, if somewhat smug demeanor.

As Mattius88 says, they do serve as a useful and elaborate way as opposed to fanning from left to right.

Little quirks or patter lines, like flourishes, should also deployed to make an effect special. For instance, I'm a big fan of asking to sniff a lady's fingers so I can find a card. It's flirty and fun, and gets great reactions. Please don't plagerise this though.

Quoting straight from Expert Card Technique here, "...the flourish is the spice with which the conjurer seasons his ephemeral diableries"

I saw some old Paul Daniels stuff on Youtube not too long ago. I think it was his brilliant take on card to wallet. He does a pressure fan in the routine but doesn't hold it up for all to see, he just does it as he's talking. If you see it, great, if you don't, doesn't matter.

Not sure where I'm going with this.

Pressure fan = hard.

Hi Matthius88,

I found Dan & Dave Buck's 'Trilogy' DVD a great help with this and other flourishes. You need to study the DVD entitled 'Everything Else' which is one of the DVDs in this great three part DVD set.

dgm

dgmagic wrote:Hi Matthius88,

I found Dan & Dave Buck's 'Trilogy' DVD a great help with this and other flourishes. You need to study the DVD entitled 'Everything Else' which is one of the DVDs in this great three part DVD set.

dgm

Have to say i disagree with you there old boy. The Pressure Fan is covered in The Trilogy, but it's not ' taught ' in any detail. It's essentially performed, then performed again from another angle. There are no on screen pointers or voice overs. I find the whole Flourishes 101 section a load of old rubbish to be honest. Just because D and D find them easy, it doesn't mean they don't warrant a thorough explanation for those that don't.

"I find the whole Flourishes 101 section a load of old rubbish to be honest. "

Bit harsh that, Old Boy!

True, the no words, music only and repeated close-up performance style of tuition favoured by many may not appeal to some, but to be so dissmissive of an item of instructional material which is clearly not designed to provide a word-by-word account of the moves demonstrated seems a little harsh to me. I am not particularly into flourishes nor would I consider myself a hardcore cardican. At best I would say I am competent with cards to a very limited degree. That said, I do not feel there is anything on that particular disc ('Everything Else') which could not be acheived with repeated viewing, the will to achieve and a bit of practice.

Now, the other two discs....thats a different story!

dgm