Dear Reader -

I’m working on a little pamphlet to publish soon. It’s called the “Lil Book of Magic Hacks” and it’s going to be super cute. They’re all just small snippets of ideas I’ve encountered in magic research that parlay quite nicely into other situations. I figured I’d share with you one of the hacks in advance:

Hack #7
Counting Cards
Counting cards (w/ a Hi-Lo count) in BlackJack is predicated on Aces, Faces and Tens counting as High Cards, Twos thru Sixes as Low Cards, and Sevens thru Nines as null cards. If you’re able to track the cards that have come out of the deck, you’re more likely to predict the upcoming cards. This kind of pattern isn’t only present in card games, it’s present in any defined set of values. If you’re paying attention to what’s come before, you may be more likely to predict what shall come to be. Always be counting.

— J.R.

There’s some future of magic stuff going on here, I can feel it.

Maybe we’ll do a review of what we found throughout the process. I think it was interesting to field these responses and compile them in a manner best fit for the material and type. Go back on through to Part I and see if it all makes sense to you.

If it doesn’t, I welcome your response as well: What does magic look like to you? Go on, don’t be shy.

— J.R.

Watch them below, and make sure to subscribe to the Four Suits YouTube for the freshest magic content on the planet.

— J.R.

Hello fine friends of Four Suits —

We had quite the ride for 2019, with members of our collective sharing our distinct brand of magic all the way from Los Angeles to New York City: DEFCON, the Houdini Estate, Spyscape, Black Rabbit Rose, and more.

In 2020 we aim to reprise and embiggen (just made that one up) all of our recurring events from 2019, choosing to primarily build on our projects and partnerships in place of beginning new ones. Of course, there will probably be a number of new projects that come our way, which we’ll deal with in turn.

Right now we’re thinking about Spectokular, our cannabis magic extravaganza, and we’ve got a couple venues on the line, but nothing set in stone quite yet. Adding some bits to the formula of the experience to spice it up. Cannabis has had a wild roller coaster of a time in LA lately, with Lowell Cafe being the first consumption cafe in the United States, and then the parent company suddenly shutting down and selling the license. But, you bet when the industry gets more situated and stabilized, we’ll be the first ones in that space doing our work.

We’re also thinking about DEFCON 28. Arguably a lot more work logistically and planning-wise than the above. We’re making some big asks that we’ve been wanting to make for a while, and making things we’ve wanted to do that haven’t reached maturity until this year. I still don’t quite understand the people who don’t understand the connection between magic and security, Steve Forte literally wrote a book on this years ago, if anything this sector should be more exploded by this point. We’ll carve out that space for everyone else then. Maybe we’ll do a Q&A to get the answers out there.

Just a ramble as we prepare. Stay tuned…

— J.R.

So, as I thought about what to write today, a memory flashed through my mind that really only a handful of people “in the know” as it were would even have the chance of appreciating. For efficiency purposes, I’ll just talk about it here and in classic FS manner, will not be mentioning any particular names, it’s the takeaway that’s the most important anyways, regardless of who we’re talking about. 

“Trust me, I’m an expert.”

Recently, the team and I were doing a lecture of sorts, with one of our associated specialists talking about one subject in particular, somewhat tangential to magic. In the crowd were a few “known magic names” people we’d all probably recognize and listen to, but probably not very well known outside of the magic community. They always come across as knowledgeable, and they’re all the type of people who would have the ability to “hold court” at any sort of gathering of magi-folk. You get the point. Gravitas, knowledge, etc. Anyways, in this particular subject area that our specialist was talking about, one of these “known names” decided to speak up and command the floor. If our specialist friend was a magician, and this more “well-known” name decided to speak up, we might bow to the known name, and think to ourselves how we were just illuminated by their grand wisdom…

HOWEVER, this area was not in magic, everyone was a bit confused as to why this person stood up and started speaking their mind given that this lecture wasn’t about them at all, and only the magicians in the crowd witnessed this insight into this particular persons mentality. They’ve been so used to being the crown of the court, that they just have to chime in on things that they may not even have an expertise in. In other words, they’re just used to being the person that people listen to, regardless of expertise. Here’s why that’s a problem: they sound like they have an expertise in everything, which is physically impossible. (Further review into the statements they made only proved this. They simply didn’t know everything they claimed to know.) 

Do they have skills in certain areas? Yes, certainly. Do they have as many skills in as many areas as they claim to? No. It doesn’t matter who this person is, but the fact that I KNOW so many of you reading this would know their name is the point here: you need to practice discretion when you learn from people, especially people who are recognized. Question everyone. When the people you think demonstrate that “social proof” of being labelled an expert somewhere, and your own knowledge and experience start to weigh the same on the scale, you’ll know you’re getting somewhere. Independent from what someone tells you regarding their experience, develop your own basis of knowledge, do your own research. 

— J.R.

Catchy title, don’t you think?

Recently I went to a screening for a particular magic series that’s all over the web right now. I took a friend of mine who works in a post-production house. I actually had a great time watching the show. Overall, the performer/host was extremely entertaining, the magic effects all looked pretty solid, and it had a good visual look to it. So, to my surprise, when we were offering feedback, my friend wasn’t too jazzed about it. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something along the lines of:

“To me, that isn’t magic. Maybe it’s because I work in film, but to me it’s obvious that it’s all been editorialized.”

“It’s obvious they cut around the magic.” he said, which is an observation that magic as entertainment somewhat sidesteps. When we see magic on television or on digital media, the “magic moment” has to withstand repeat viewings, slow-motion playback, etc. No producer or performer is going to want a “trick” to be exposed even for a brief second on camera. Which makes complete sense. However, the result is something that looks so devoid of “magic” that you start to wonder what this performer is. If they cut around everything technical anyways, or accomplish the secret to the effect before they even begin filming, then what are we watching? Are we watching a magic special? Or are we watching an actor/storyteller?

Now, if you’ve followed this site long enough, you’d know that we’re all about creating the story or atmosphere around a trick. “A series of effects is not a show” after all. So then, why am I criticizing the story element being so far forward in this series? I suppose it’s only because my non-magician friend of mine thought the magic was non-existent. This honestly wouldn’t have even crossed my mind if he didn’t say it. Mostly because whenever I watch an effect, I don’t even consider the “method” or how it’s being accomplished. I’ve intentionally blocked it out to focus more on the performance or the presentation, because that is how I felt people actually received the feeling they’d eventually walk away with. However, and maybe this is just the case for video magic, there still needs to be something to chase.

Part of the fun of magic is that people can chase something, and the magician has to run away, keeping a distance between the effect and the method just outside of reach creates a fun dynamic that people have come to expect when watching a magic show. If there’s nothing to find, or if what they’re looking for is so far out of reach they can’t see it, then it ceases to become magic, and starts to become something else. But if the producers don’t seem to think so, and this form of storytelling can indeed be called magic, do we live in a post-magic world?

— J.R.

I came here to do exactly what I’m doing.

When people ask me, “What’s your biggest dream in magic? What is it that you really want to do?” the answer usually is “To continue what I’m doing.” Even the biggest dream that I have is still achieved by something that I’m doing today. Even writing this here is something that’s been a dream of mine, to be able to contribute back to some of the people who have inspired me in the past.

I think, for a while, I was a bit lost in magic, in life in general. I chased fleeting ideas, goals, circumstances. I achieved a lot of them. Unfortunately, anything that can be achieved in such a short term also must be moved on from and must be course-corrected from. It was a period full of empty accomplishment, if that makes any sense. It isn’t fulfilling to chase accomplishment itself, however it is extremely fulfilling to chase purposeful accomplishments, things which complete the bigger picture of ones own life.

It’s human nature to look at something else and think that surely it must be better than what one is currently doing now. That’s because we only see the things that make it better, as it is only an idea. In reality, work is work. Everything exists day after day. The only choice I have is my attitude and approach to this daily existence. I think a lot of people who are hard-working individuals, imagine a life where they can sit back and coast on their savings, or their extremely high-earning wages, and then just travel or relax. In reality, if you’re the type of person to get to that position, your brain and desire for challenge and work won’t stop when you’re “done”. You’re never truly “done” with anything, after all. You’ll still continue to live, to wake-up, and continue to have things to do. And personally, if it were me, I’d choose to continue to do exactly what I’m doing now. Because that’s exactly what I live for.

— J.R.

No, seriously, what does it take? You can send me your luminary answers if you have them, you little oracle you, directly to my inbox, because I want to know. I’ve written about FISM before, but it’s been especially on my mind as I search for rooming in Quebec City for FISM 2021.

I, myself, thought about competing (don’t anticipate this, but it’s so far out I can’t rule it out), so I started to research what it takes to make a winning act. A quick google search led me to some magic cafe pages (do I even need to link these?) which were… interesting… I then stumbled upon some random entries by Stuart MacDonald who has a pretty interesting article on his journey (later finding out he created a Go Fund Me to go compete. Which, I mean, I guess? Anyways.) His act is pretty awesomely good. Check it out on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us. Very magical. And pretty fooling for a live audience (I’m kicking myself because I actually just noticed the iron clad moment on this watch through). You can also check out Miguel Munoz’ act, chopped (available uncut without the final FISM presentation elsewhere).

Pretty stunning stuff. Combining this info with some of the videos my friends showed me from Busan last year, there has to be a technical component to your act that no one else is doing. Mirror duplication of large objects? Yeah, no one else is doing that. Production of contact juggling balls? You bet your local magic stage acts aren’t doing this. There was some contestant ( I actually can’t remember their name, if a reader knows, write me) who completed their Rubiks cube routine by having the cube assemble itself from a bunch of broken pieces. Talk about a cool visual even just reading that.

Point is, there’s some huge technological gaps that must be bridged to be a competitive act in this competition. You have to be doing some brand new move/sleight/setup/method that no one in the audience has ever seen before. Furthermore, each of these acts linked above have some sort of beauty to them. Taking Eric Chien’s ribbon premise, it’s intrinsically visually interesting. The technology for his act has been around for a while, but he took it to a completely new degree, thus refreshing the idea of it again and making it new. Because it is so purely visual, it has a beautiful simplicity to it as well. There’s a level of professionalism to the props/set pieces in each act as well, but I’m starting to digress.

How does one create/unearth unseen/new technology and perfect it in the modern age? That’s a question one has to ask if one hopes to take FISM 2021.

— J.R.

Technology, within the realm of magic, generally serves to generate experiences, subserviently living in the background until you call upon it to enact your physical feats. Think: Pepper’s Ghost, Legerdemain, Invisible Wires. However, throughout magic history, one field has successfully merged the two fields of technology and magic to both be presented within the spotlight: Automaton. Here is where technology occupies the stage, and it is the magician who works backstage. The automaton fulfills our fascination that the mechanical turk may somehow have a soul, and that is where the magic is created. We ask questions: Do we really have this power? Can we generate a machine that can act as a human? In the explorations we’ll have within illuminating the technical elements of magic, it is important to understand how it has functioned within the past so that we may understand how we may introduce it again now.

Magic is inherently a cognitive, and therefore, mostly intellectual human pursuit. Without the perceptive flaws of a cognitive mind, magic would cease to function. To an omnipresent eye, magic is the exact series of both public and secret actions that comprise an effect. To the human eye, however, magic is a series of public action made possible by secrets. Just as a card trick has a human side to it as well as a technical side, it is interesting then, how in the automaton, the technical and human are one and the same. The mechanical face is made to resemble a human, and it’s actions are made to represent a magician or other performer. This experience in itself, while someone magical, can’t be strictly described as magic. However, what happens when this machine does something only a human can do? Such as improvise, or react to stimuli. How can a series of metal gears react to your every chess move? How can metal fingers locate your card within the deck? How can machine be transmuted into flesh?

— J.R.

Been doing a bit more proscenium style stage work recently, which has led me to draft a few scripts of my performances so that I can nail down the story line. I find that beginning the official scripting process is best once I’ve already established a basic routine and am able to work with a given structure of the effect. Working on some material for a couple upcoming Halloween engagements has me thinking about extremely farfetched magical effects coupled with some compelling storylines. With this great storyline supported by effects I have no clue how to accomplish, what’s the possibility that I will actually be able to construct and create the effects, even with double the time and budget? Next to 0%.

Which made me consider “What is the optimal methodology to creating a magic script?” Because magicians are almost always working with a prop of some nature, I think immediately creating an emotional/dramatic plotline which one must create 100% unique and new props for the plotline… yeah, that’s possible I suppose, once you got MGM showroom money. I suppose almost anything is possible then. But DC isn’t reading this site, so this advice isn’t for them.

What if you took a routine you’ve played with in a physical/effect manner and layered onto it whatever magic script could work with it? Then it would have all the freedom of a creative exploration, with the grounding of actually having workable effects/tricks within the story. Too often have I found myself in the creation zone and without a viable end product too close to a show. “Working from what you know” is a philosophy that will always leave your audience satisfied with magical moments, and while we may always want to create a lovely storyline, it must be supported by those moments of magic. Flex that creativity on the story, not the effects. Your magic-show-going audience will appreciate it.

-- J.R.

Thank you to all the guests we had in Rogues Village at DEFCON this year. It was amazing to see so many new friends and familiar faces at the con. Another huge shoutout to everyone who made it possible; the leads at DEFCON who helped us throughout the way, Zant, Nikita, and F4UX; the folks at Modern Rogue, Brian, Jason, and David; everyone on the Four Suits team & associates, JR ZY HA BM AE, and all the new friends we made at the village!

If you’re reading this after meeting us in Vegas, this is where we share some of our thoughts on some of the experimental fields of magic that we inhabit. Hackers may find this post interesting: Security & Magic

We’ll be back to our regular programming beginning next week,

-- J.R.

Your favorite people (us) will be presenting at DEFCON this year, one of the largest hacking conferences in the world. Come find us in Vegas this August, chat with Feds, get sketched out by the state of technology, and inspired by what we can do with it.

Check out our page for more info.

— J.R.

Many of these thoughts can find their genesis in my previous post, being a steward for good magic.

Recently I was coaxed into the snafu of teaching a magic class for a couple weeks this summer. Or at least, that was the opinion of a previous magic teacher from the class. This teacher chose not to continue with the class this summer, as there were too many roadblocks and pitfalls along the way, mostly dealing with classroom management or dealing with children with disruptive behaviors. On the flip side, they also told me about how they ended up inspiring and guiding a number of students throughout their years teaching the class by having some really caring students. Seems like an easy equation to me.

Teaching a classic palm like.

If it were you, and you spent a significant time practicing/performing magic yourself, knowing the potential downfalls and upticks in teaching a class in magic to some young teens/kids, would you teach it?

Regardless of any sort of payment or monetary compensation, I find that sharing the way that I approach magic is just one of the ways to have direct impact upon the future of something that I really care about. If there was a way to formalize the class process (to establish regular sessions) with zero compensation to myself, I’d do it. Teaching is the purest way of directly democratizing magic culture that I can see. Honestly, I think that benefit is worth any sort of minor inconvenience to my day, or series of days throughout a single season. Check back in with me after a kid pees in their seat or cuts themselves on an expanding cane. JK, I won’t be teaching an expanding cane.

— J.R.

I’ll be honest, folks. I’ve been staying pretty occupied setting up for Spectokular amongst all the weekly/daily magic shenanigans that by the time Thursday rolled around, I was unprepared with a blog post… However, J.R. of years gone by had no shortage of meta-magic-blog-posts, so today I present you with a meditation (and challenge) on Magic, written from a Magic Convention, years ago. It’s left with a big blank at the end, all up for you to decide how to resolve it.

— J.R.

August 2014

E N T E R T A I N M E

As I sat in the audience at a magic convention, I heard the lecturer state that magic should come second, and the entertainment is always first. I looked at my tag, and it did indeed say I was at a magic convention, not an entertainment convention.

I've become so internally conflicted lately, in regards to magic. What should it be? What do people expect? Do I care what people expect? Is the best always going to follow what preceded in a nice line of one thing leading to another? What is "success"?

Is magic supposed to be a display of sleight of hand? Is it supposed to be heavy handed? Light hearted? Is it supposed to leave with something more than just a good time? What is the most important part of magic, the show or the show after the show? Is a successful performer one who is decorated amongst their peers, or their audience, or their critics, or their pocketbooks? What is success in magic? How is success determined in entertainment in general? Where does magic fall in the scope of entertainment?

Here's a new act for you then. Here's an act that pleases everyone. It is entertaining for those who think of magic lightly. It is easy to understand for those who prefer simplicity. It is complex enough to wow the knucklebusters in the audience. And it leaves you with that magical moment, something special and different…

IT’S HAPPENING. Tickets are available here. Faithful readers of this blog can capture a discount, just hit us up on the contact form with your most obscure trivia from the Four Suits blog, and I’ll send you a code.

— J.R.

Dear Reader,

Today I thought I’d give a shoutout to another publication with some pretty enlightening thoughts on modern magic performance, lots of idea gold here…

There’s a publication called the Journal of Performance Magic, which Z.Y. hipped me up to. It’s all free as part of University publications.

Z.Y. hit me up with this particular article: The End of Mind Reading which is pretty informative and, while I don’t necessarily agree with everything in it, Eddie makes some pretty unique discoveries and shares a unique perspective. Nice work, man.

Best,

J.R.

Dear Reader --

Epiphany time: “It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you keep going.” -- J.R.

I’m happy that with all my nonsense quotes from last week’s post, I’ve made one up for myself. I Duck Duck Go’d it, and the first thing that came up was something about couples therapy, with a loose usage of the quoted words above, and then I Google’d it, and some shit about climbing mountains came up, so I’m pretty happy to say I’ve produced some minorly unique thought here.

Anyways, I get asked the question a lot: “How did you get started in magic?” and I’d always give people what I THOUGHT they wanted to hear, some vague explanation of when I started and what circumstances I started with. However, they don’t really GAF about how I got started, because it’s ALWAYS some variant of: “I saw someone do magic, then I wanted to do it.” like I contracted it like a bad STI (if you have a story any different, please write in, and then I’ll tell you why you’re lying).

Point is, they don’t really care about that. Almost everyone does a magic trick once in their life, just like almost everyone tries homosexuality at some point in their life (or should). Or how everyone slips into their mother’s undergarments and dances to Blondie in their attic (or definitely should). ANYWAYS, they don’t care about that first experimental time, everyone has that time. What they CARE about (and what actually matters here) is how/why you stuck with magic. After you got past that initial surge of instant rapport with strangers and impressing people with a couple days worth of practice on something, why did you stick with this weird art when most people just give up after that immediate gratification of knowing a secret or performing it at a party?

Think about that. I don’t know if I found out entirely why myself yet, but I’m getting close to it.

Happy Holidays,

-- J.R.

All credit to Derek DelGaudio.

It’s been a wild ride for me, and for Four Suits in general, this year. More on that (officially) in the End of Year Report for 2018. But right now I myself preemptively reflect on the year as a whole and, while it’s been great as a whole, I can’t help but lament at some occurrences in the past few months. I can’t stress how much great things have happened this year, and these things are still happening, yet I also can’t help but feel some sort of loss for the relationships, not even necessarily with myself, (but more so in my working groups) that haven’t worked out so much this year.

It’s a funny thing, when you first jump into a group of friends, which is how I end up treating many of my co-workers and collaborators (magic being a very loose profession where social and professional boundaries are often blurred), you’re extremely hopeful for all the things you can potentially do together. Often, here is where our reach exceeds our grasp and we end up falling short of those expectations with some, and going beyond those expectations with others. We grow our influence in some areas, and shrink it in others.

I suppose I’m just coming to peace with this expand/contract cycle in professional entertainment. We’re always so wrapped up in our dreams and amazing visions that sometimes, when we get dropped back into reality, we find it lamentable, when in actuality we should’ve felt blessed to dream such big dreams together in the first place. I think about changing reality and living in a fantasy so often that, sometimes, reality is a very necessary thing to remind me how everything can’t always be fantastic. Not everyone will get along, not every dream will come true.

Yet... still I dream. And I’m grateful for every person in my life, professional, friend, or somewhere in between, that allows me the faculties to realize these dreams. ...And for those of you who I haven’t been in touch with in a while: I look forward to the next time we dream big dreams together.

— J.R.

This year I/we’ve been truly blessed to recognize a wide variety of influential people, magical or otherwise.

This year, I’m thankful for these peoples in the world for what they’re doing in magic:

http://www.thejerx.com
https://www.magicalthinkingpodcast.com
https://lacollusion.com
https://www.pureimaginationprojects.com
http://houstonhospitalityla.com
http://www.magiccastle.com
https://davidblaine.com

I’m thankful for all of you out there giving it everything you’ve got, and working on raising the standard of your passions one level higher. Thankful for those seeking to better their community.

This year is almost coming to a close, and you can look forward to a year-end wrap-up just like last years, we had tons of fun this year, and took on some daring adventures.

Thank you for being here with us through it all.

— J.R.