[MofoMojo]

Interesting....Not the direction I was intending to go with the question but let's keep it going. Personal taste, not that I can flourish worth a darn, is that a flourish definitely can add some spice to a performance. Here's my thoughts. They don't have much experience to guide them, and instead just resonates my current feeling on the subject, limited as it may be.

I have a pretty decent false shuffle down and can pull of some nice tricks, but outside of weaving a good story/patter around a routine there's little I can do that shows I have "mastered" something outside of something that boils down to, "It's a card trick". That's obviously the point... if you know I'm doing a false shuffle, then where's the fun in that. My approach currently has a mentalism spin and I look to weave card tricks that fit that spin into my routine. But tricks aside...

...A good flourish, to me, shows that you've definitely taken the time to master an art, and it is an art... and in the same sense magic is an art. Magic is the art of telling a story, suspending disbelief, misdirection and legerdermain (apologies if I left something out...this is of course card magic I speak of). In the words of Paul Harris we work for that moment of astonishment. But the work involved behind the trick is secretive. There's no correlation of how difficult a specific trick may or may not be to pull off. But flourishes... wow.

Anyone who watches Dan and Dave, Dan Sperry, even De'vo (what's with all the Ds?) and attempts to recreate one of those moves knows how difficult it is. How difficult a simple. A good trick, combined with a nice flourish that doesn't attempt to overshadow the trick, tells the spectator you have truly worked toward mastering cards. I believe overshadowing is the key, or more accurate the thing you want to stay away from if you are performing a trick. You can make a job of flourishing, you can make a job of trickery. You can combine the two as long as the flourish doesn't distract the spectator. Daniel Madison, what I have seen, does a good job of limiting his flourishes when performing a trick. His interests appear to be more in card control than flourishing but he's certainly got good cardistry skills.

So to end...I think a good flourish has it's place in card magic. I believe flourishing is definitely an Art as much as Magic is an Art. And I believe that TOO much flourish can detract from a trick. Where to spend my current time, is in learning sleights, card handling and maybe a small flourish or two to seal the deal that I'm working on mastering my skills.

Sorry for the ramble...I'll stop now.

-MM