Damn It Feels Good to Be Back
by Chris Hestnes
Some 2,500 years ago, Confucius said, “if you want to define the future, you have to study the past”. So, before looking forward, let’s take a step back to see where and what we’ve come from. This should be a fitting theme for the opening article of this blog. My humble goal in writing this is to grant you some insight into how this art of ours has evolved since I last was involved in the scene. My hope is that this will inspire us to propel the art even further. – Chris
After five years of intense studies and a couple of internships in a few of the “big law” companies in Norway, I found myself facing a four-month vacation. Poor me, what was I supposed to do with all that spare time?
Feeling I had reached my big goal in Cardistry (or card flourishing, as we used to call it) with the production of Papercuts in 2010, my interest for the art slowly faded to nothing. Sure, I would bust out the casual Bullet Time, Pandora or Molecule 2 every now and then. I also lurked about and viewed a few of the more popular Cardistry videos to spawn during this period, but the spark was gone. I would pick up a deck and sit with it for five minutes until it bored me or life got in the way. I would also meet up with my good friend Allan Hagen every now and again, and we would film a short performance video – but the creativity and inspiration was long gone. I couldn’t come up with something new and interesting even if my life depended on it. Somewhere along the road I figured “this is it, I’m done…”
Right up until about two months ago. I just sat down one day and started to watch all the Cardistry-Con videos that were being posted, and from there I started watching other popular and recent Cardistry videos. What I saw really took me by surprise.
“WOW! Such smooth… Many amaze… Just… wow! NO?! WHAT??? HNNNNNGNGHHH!!! F*CK! “
…this is just an excerpt of my internal dialogue while watching all this and trying to take in how far the art has expanded in the five years I’ve been absent. Cardistry has grown from being a pubertal, insecure and socially-weird teenager to becoming a grown, self-confident sexy young adult. And to think I left before all the good stuff went down.
All weird and uncomfortable metaphors aside, things really have changed. Mostly for the better. A lot better. The quality of both moves and cinematography have skyrocketed. These days it seems like everyone has something interesting to show, compared to back in the day where almost every video was just recycling cuts from The System, and then later the Trilogy. Looking back 7 to 10 years, it seems like 90 % of everyone’s material consisted of Dan and Dave’s cuts. I re-watched a few of the most popular videos from that period (The Jerry-sic period. Heh), and it’s hard to see how they could have amazed me the way they did. Some of them have survived the test of time and par up to the standards we see today, sure, but the overall quality of today’s Cardistry is just beyond what it was then. The moves are way better and the production quality of most videos have skyrocketed. Let’s compare what was considered a superb video back in the day, to what is considered a top one today
vs:
I’ve got to throw in that Scott and Sean Watters were at the extreme forefront of early Cardistry. I mean, just look at the performances in their video: they really were ahead of their time. My point is that the originality and production value of most of today’s videos are infinitely better. Take Pacemaker. Tobias doesn’t perform one single cut from the System. Hell, as far as I can see, he mostly performs his own material. To me that shows how far we’ve come in terms of personal originality. And my guess is that it’ll keep getting better. Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with performing old material — because it still looks good — but it’s really refreshing to see all these new styles and flourishes being put out at the rate they are today. The art is progressing faster and faster, and I don’t want to miss out on being a part of this art and community in the time to come. Since watching the videos from the Con, I’ve been handling a deck of cards for several hours each and every day.
Having been absent these years and then coming back has gifted me with a new and fresh perspective on the art. It’s like I’ve travelled five years into the future. I can enjoy five years worth of videos and moves right now, it’s really awesome! Also, seven years ago, weeks – even months – would pass between each interesting video. But with the growth of social media, especially Instagram, I can now enjoy new content each and every day. Being able to instantly share new creations, cover performances, or awesome photographs of cards and cuts really helps push the art forward.
But the expanded use of this medium has brought with it an exclusion of something I really miss: a main hub.
Back in the day we had the dananddave.com/forum, the CheatersCheater website, and Decknique. These sites brought together the elements of performance videos, tutorials and discussion boards. Everything was kept in one place. Sure, now we can just browse #cardistry on Instagram – but let’s be honest – it’s a long way from the valuable pieces of discussion or tips for making us better cardists. It’s great for inspiration, but for actually pushing the art further in a scientific spirit, it’s pretty much useless. I hope that will change some time soon. I see a lot of potential in the Cardistry subreddit, but it’s not yet become what the old sites were. Hopefully this blog will fill some of the void that’s been left from these sites.
Also, something I immediately noticed – and which made me kind of sad inside – is the lack of credits given these days. Back in the day one wouldn’t even dare to put an unpublished (published = tutorial) move in a video without written permission and consent from the creator of that move. Doing so without permission was really frowned upon, and was regarded as a dick move. I’m not saying I miss that aspect of it, but I really miss a credit section in a lot of the videos I see. I’m betting not many of us can make a living off of our card flourishes, so crediting the creator of your favourite moves is the least you can do. It helps the creator spark a further interest in the viewer for his/her Cardistry and makes it a lot easier for beginners who can’t yet spot the difference between a Sybil- or a Bad Habit- based move to find the original source and learn the move correctly. But I guess most of you know the origin of the more popular moves anyways.
Let’s talk a bit about custom decks. This is, from my perspective, a really awesome movement in the community. The epic availability of different cards and back designs is something I value highly. I’m almost bipolar when it comes to picking a deck to use from my collection, in the sense that I will love a back design one day, only to hate it the next day. The cards really need to fit my current mood and inspiration, and having such a large array of choices is incredible. I think this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the advent of modern social media. These outlets are really useful for spreading the word around, and I love to see the community chipping in on Kickstarter and Indiegogo to make some of these amazing designs into actual paper cards. In the last few weeks alone, I’ve ordered around a gross of different decks… my mailman hates me now, but the HYPE IS REAL! Gotta catch them all, I guess. Just remember that no deck can make you a better cardist, no matter what the advertiser says. It just comes down to personal preferences and which deck can make it 5 % more fun to do the moves.
There’s one more thing which I think has helped Cardistry in immeasurable ways: the art form has finally been able to break out of the shackles of card magic. The two art forms are no longer intertwined like the way they used to be. I remember a lot of magicians (and there probably still are some conservatives out there) who always had to make comments like “what’s the point of all these different cuts, I only use the double undercut LOL” and “card juggling only makes your magic look like tricks.” Haters. The point is to have fun, isn’t it? The art has finally grown large enough to stand on its own. I mean, back in the day, everyone doing Cardistry was also doing card magic – well, except De’vo (magicians must die, right? Eh…)Now we even have our own convention solely dedicated to Cardistry, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
I guess I want to finish with a big THANK YOU to everyone involved in the scene right now. It’s an amazing time to come back. I remember how I used to think “what more is there to this? Flourishes have reached their potential and it will never get much better than now…” Wow, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Everyone has proved that that was certainly not the case, and are continuing to do so each and every day! Please keep this up. I’ve got a lot to catch up on to get onto your level (to put things in perspective: the last move I learned was Preqel by Dan Buck, and that was released almost 4 years ago), but you all fill me with such inspiration that quitting again will be impossible.
So let’s keep pushing this art form further. Continue coming up with crazy ideas. Keep sharing them on Instagram. Keep inspiring us and being inspired by other people. Keep making Cardistry more available and mainstream. Don’t stop matching your deck to your outfit. Keep your videos coming. Keep being curious and keep helping new cardists. The art has grown exponentially in the last five years, so just imagine where we will be in another five if you keep developing yourself and the art like this.
Oh, and also, keep reading this blog as we’ve got some (more) interesting things to be published in the near future.
Again, my sincerest thanks.
Stay fresh, Cardists!
About the author, Chris Hestnes:
Old school cardist experiencing how it is to be a noob all over again. You might have seen me in such projects as Papercuts and Nidaros. Follow me on Instagram @chrishestnes – I’ll soon be posting some cardistry again and I want to do some giveaways.