Win the Secret Books of De’vo and Arcane Playing Cards

[Houdini]

Ekaterina Dobrokhotova “BabycatXD” is giving away her first edition copy of the Secret Books of De’vo Vol.1 and a few Arcane Decks. If you are interested in entering the draw: All you have to do is click “I like” on a facebook fan page. To read the full instructions head over to my post at .thecuso and [...]

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[Misjief]

Hay!! Its Kate from the 3c forum!

Boy did I tick her off. Oops. Lets say I put my foot in it and leave it at that LOL

-misj-

[Tadiko]

Cool stuff to give away

[MofoMojo]

Originally Posted by Misjief

Hay!! Its Kate from the 3c forum!

Boy did I tick her off. Oops. Lets say I put my foot in it and leave it at that LOL

-misj-

Hand Foot Mouth Disease?

I'm curious, what do some of you think of De'vo material?

-MM

[Jacob Hatfield]

I think De'Vo has some nice stuff....but I have mixed feelings about XCM.

XCM is a great art all it's own, but I get a bit curious when I see Magicians mixing the two arts. Yes, it's nice to know how to do some fancy cuts and learn how to do some card handling, but I am not sure why you see a Magician do a ACR and then a bunch of CRAZY insane cuts and then do another card effect.

I don't know. To me they are to beautiful arts that CAN compliment each other, but can also destroy the purpose of both worlds. You have a to find a balance if you want to blend them.

-Jacob

[haroldross]

I remember hearing Simon Lovell talking about XCM, here referred to it as 'card juggling.'

I have some De'vo DVDs on XCM. I do enjoy watching others perform XCM.

I prefer to spend my time learning and practicing blind shuffles, cuts, and different ways of dealing cards. It's just my opinion.

[CutNstuf]

Do you think that after a demonstration of pasteboard gymnastics that spectators won't think, "well, of course! did you see how he just juggled those cards?!" Personally, I consider XCM to be a related art, not magic. JMHO

Cut

[Alex Hess]

I agree with Cut, that it is much more of an art then magic. However, my routines have to have some type of flourish or 'suave' to it. I enjoy being crips, clean, and skilled with my deck. I really enjoy it when I am successfully able to misdirect someone and they think I did a flourish.

[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

[Misjief]

I think the difference is who and what is in the spotlight... The first magic forum I joined was 3c - cool people fun to hang with, but not much really happening in the way of magic. (You guys think I am a strange duck, here. I really stuck out there!) LOL

With XCM the extreme flourishes are the whole point and can get way involved kinda like a contortionist. They'd tuck cards behind their ears if they could! I really like some of the flourishes I saw when I hung out with them and I saw some them as a flash way to add class to a card trick, as long as it is quick and simple, something elegant and understated. LOL

On the other hand if you go way overboard with it, you are going to start inviting some heat, as the audience starts suspecting every little move you make because you made it so OBVIOUS how good you are at juggling the cards. I don't think you want to become too slippery with the cards - because it will be viewed as something akin to 'cheating'. They certainly won't want to 'play' with you, as they know they have no chance of keeping up. To me it is kind of like demonstrating you have a black belt and then inviting them into the ring! XCM is certainly more of a solo sport, where I think good magic encourages audience participation.

Also I suspect there is something in the blood of a XCM fanatic much like there is for Magic and Magi, that just makes you love it so much. I would sit there and listen to them argue technicalities between two different moves - and as a layman I could NOT tell the difference nor did I care too. It has been brought up before but bears repeating whether you are doing XCM or Magic you can't forget the point is to entertain your audience rather then a test of skill. Skill alone is not entertaining... In fact it is really boring.

-misj-