In this post I will discuss with my personal views on cardistry and flourishes mixed into magic.

Cardistry

In a nutcase Cardistry is artistic manipulation of cards, which is based upon flourishes. Flourishes are visual moves, cuts and feats of skill, done with playing cards. Commonly the whole genre and the whole form of art formed around it is called “Cardistry”. As a hobby it’s very popular especially among 12-20 year olds. Cardistry is a school of thought all of its own, which was born within the magic community. To everyone’s surprise it has become its own form art, which as a hobby has spread more widely than anyone could have anticipated. Nowadays it’s almost completely separated from the “traditional” magic-community. Although it’s mostly the new generation of magicians that have mixed cardistry to their magic, letting it influence the way they handle cards and more importantly how they handle effects. The community focused to this is very active and popular.

The magic communities stance on Cardistry as a part of magic

There are many schools of thought within the worldwide magic community regarding Cardistry as a part of performing magic. Many of the old masters of card magic represent the notion, that a magician should hide his/her skill, so that the spectators aren’t aware of the magician’s actual level of skill. The common reasoning for this has been pleading to the nature of magic, the mission of creating something impossible in the eyes of the spectators. Therefore the magician should convince the spectators that all the unnatural phenomena is occurring without direct “interference” from the magician. Thus presenting different feats of skill might interfere with reaching this goal. However even with most of the old masters views and beliefs on the matter, more and more magicians are leaning toward the notion, that presenting feats of skill with their magic is a good thing.

Performing Cardistry with magic – Good or Bad?

To answer is performing Cardistry hurtful or beneficial to magic, relies very much on you and the type of magician you want to be. What type of emotions and experiences do you want to convey with your magic? I for example have decided to follow the more traditional school of thought, which states that the most important task for a magician is to offer something impossible to the spectators. As childish as it sounds I try to create situations, where the spectators belief that I really can do magic. I belief that, even for a little while, the audience can suspend their disbelief and belief the impossible. For this reason I try to create a chain of events in the minds of spectators, where I do nothing. I want to create an unnatural phenomena, without interference from me. That is why I have stripped away everything from my magic that might be in the way of my goal.

The enchanted feeling from magic creates a battle between astonishment and reason in the human mind. I have noticed, that a layman’s most common escape route from impossible and engrossing magic is the explanation; “He (or she) is just good with his (or her) fingers.” I want to eliminate this escape route by crafting an image in the mind of the spectator that my skill has nothing to do with my magic, but rather something more mysterious and amazing. As you can see, by performing feats of skill the layman find it harder to believe the mysterious and amazing source of my magic. In my opinion it is simply absurd to demand a spectator to believe in magic if the magician has clearly shown and implied with his/her actions, that he/she possess extreme amounts of skill. Then the spectator can put two and two together and realize that it is actually your skill behind the magic. Of course the spectators cannot explain directly how the effect was achieved, but they don’t have to. It is your skill. Thus I conclude that in my opinion performing Cardistry while attempting to create the illusion of real magic, has the same effect as sticking a needle in a balloon.

Balancing on the edge of a knife

In my opinion a magician doesn’t have to hide his/her skill completely. The elegant handling of cards is charming for the spectators, raising their interest in you and convincing the spectators of your professionalism. A couple of slick and simple flourishes can elevate the performance. It’s also good to think about what you actually want to entertain with in your act. I have personally used simple flourishes to prove that I know what I’m doing and also that I am not that uncle-Sam who does a couple of bad card tricks.

I use a very aggressive filter on which flourishes I use to entertain audiences and to prove that I know what I’m doing. However using them is unnecessary because my magic talks for itself. It’s more about catching the spectator’s interest and giving them some eye candy, while still maintaining the illusion that my skill doesn’t cause the magic. I think one of the key factors here is not using flourishes that directly fool the eye. In other words it would be best perform flourishes that are simple and easy to comprehend. Very often magicians perform flourishes that the audience just can’t keep up with. And when they see that you can perform feats of skill that they can’t comprehend, they can simply explain all your magic to be feats of skill. Alas the mystery is gone.

Of course it’s important to note that feats of skill don’t offer an explanation to the spectators in certain effects. One example is the Haunted Deck. The phenomena in question is uncreditable to skill, so feats of skill cannot weaken the effect. Although some effects aren’t weakened by performing feats of skill among them, they still remind the audience that you have practised handling cards. And this creates a contradiction in the minds of the spectators: why would you practise handling cards if you can perform magic without even touching the deck?

To summarize

I want to emphasize here in the end that I have nothing against Cardistry itself. I can only look in awe when I witness truly talented people’s effort, creativity and ability to channel their time into something like Cardistry. Their ability to handle playing cards and the movement they create with them is inspirational and touching. However in my opinion showcasing these skills doesn’t mix with trying to create the impossible—magic. Of course whether it works for you depends solely on the type of feelings and thoughts you want to convey with your magic. Performing Cardistry with magic is A-Okay if you want to and/or need to convey the idea of fast fingers in the minds of the spectators.

I do believe that there is a time and place for demonstrating skill. Most of the time it’s good to hide skill, sometimes showing skill can even be a good thing. There are no set rules on the matter. There are many waterproof theories that nobody can deny. Then there are theories, which practicality might depend on the situation. It’s wise to sometimes avoid black and white theories on how magic works. A good magician uses his/her judgment and adapts, creating magic suitable for any given situation.

Depending on the situation it’s always good to remember, what is the most important meaning and purpose of magic. Its purpose is to open the hatch in the human mind, on which is stacked all the information of what is real and what isn’t. Opening this hatch creates the feeling—a magical experience—in the heart of the spectator. This feeling isn’t only unique, but also the most powerful that can be channelled through magic. When the magician hasn’t made creating this feeling as his/her number one priority, he can in my opinion forget magic and pursue a different path, for example juggling with cards.

Thank you for reading,

Miika Korkatti from Finland

I totally agree with you, I think, especially when performing mentalism or selling yourself as someone who actually has magical powers, demonstrating skill with cards can imply that there is sleight of hand involved. However, I generally introduce myself as someone who uses a combination of misdirection, illusion and hours of practice. When doing this I like to add a few fancy false cuts and flourishy productions to get people interested. But it really depends on your style of performing.