talkmagic.co.uk

Hey everyone.

I was having a conversation with a few long term friends about this who have some background in magic. Myself, I learned from a young age the basics of card magic, Royal road to card magic, Mark Wilson stuff etc. But over time, I got interesting in some of Dan and Dave's stuff, De'vo, Bone Ho, The Virts etc. when they were getting quite big, and became involved in the 'XCM crowd' communities so to speak. But during this time, I also understand that some magicians frown upon it, some say it ruins magic by removing showmanship all together and it's just 'juggling cards'.

Do you see a link with XCM/Cardistry and Magic? Could it be linked flawlessly? Meaning to say during my 4 years or so in learning XCM, I did forget most of the stuff I did know. Just like to hear your views on the subject.

Cheers

As you might expect, we've discussed this many times and the general consensus was that XCM is skillful and very visual but not really magic. Juggling with Cards is a phrase we've seen used several times in this respect and that seems to be about right.

Richard Wiseman did an interesting experiment recently where he showed a large group of separate groups videos of a card performance. The first, the performer did a number of flourishes..nothing too fancy, some fans, a one handed cut etc and then performed a very simple DL ambitious card concept..just once.
The second time, all the flourishing was left out.

In rating the impressiveness of the effect, the spectators were a lot more impressed with the trick after watching the flourishing. Many conclusions have been made from that, some seem likely others...a little more far out.