No flourishes today

I was looking at playing card flourishes on sites like Decknique and thought "Man I'm old" because they all look like kids (well, kids & teenagers) just showing off and being hyper. I started to realize that flourishes like those extreme crazy ones shouldn't mesh with magic in a magic trick performance.
They I realized I'm just taking the mature, theatrical stance. In my mind I hate doing 95% of the magic tricks I'm exposed to or even know. I don't ever want to say that cards have personalities, or that you can spell the name of a card to locate it after a deck is shuffled, or that red & black cards are like oil & water and will automatically separate, or that a coin might go up my sleeve - across my chest - and down the other sleeve to get from one hand to another 'secretly'... no no no: I hate that superfluous trite!
Entertaining? Sure.
Looks good? Maybe.
Closest as theatrically possible to real magic? No.

That's why the past couple of years I've been leaning toward straight-forward effects. Effects, not tricks. The presentations I've been developing have been more about perception, imagination becoming reality, and illusion. The fewer "props" that need to be used, the better.
And so whenever I start thinking this way, all of my paths start leading toward Mentalism.
I like the slower-paced style; taking time to build an effect and engage someone's mind. Then make it explode.


BTW, I can do a lot of fancy card flourishes and multi-packet cuts that you see on those flourish sites. That's just a side-interest, something to do with a deck of cards in my hands. Not something I incorporate into a performance.