Introducing “Miscellanea” a multi-part series in my obscure link curation for your viewing/reading pleasure!
Read:
Detecting Deception with Gait and Gesture.
When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon.
Watch:
For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, go check out Steve Forte’s new book, “Gambling Sleight of Hand”. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this is one of the most comprehensively considered volumes on card handling ever written. His Gambling Protection Series was foundational and I think this will end up right next to it. Magicians talk a lot about learning from card cheats and people like that, but Steve Forte is one of the few to have actually done that work, and man does it show.
In related news, we at Four Suits have a special poker-oriented project in the works, so anyone interested in that sort of thing should keep an eye out. (I don’t want to be negative, but the prospects look good, if you know what I mean…)
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.
Four Suits is all about using magic as a tool in theater, but there is a question that keeps coming up in our work and discussions, which is this: when combining magic and theater does one necessarily have to be placed first, and the other (at times) compromised? Can you have great magic and great theater, or must you content yourself with great magic and good theater, or vice versa? Honestly, I go back and forth on this. Structurally and theoretically there certainly are conflicts, and while sometimes they seem like they can reasonably be solved with better writing or effect selection, sometimes they can feel intractable. Things like: making sure that the inclusion of an effect doesn’t break the tension of flow of the story, making sure the effect fits the character and the world, making any necessary “proving actions” (showing the box really is empty, etc) or other procedure feel natural, ensuring the patter or dialogue for an effect doesn’t force actors out of character an into magic narrator mode.
Then there are examples to be looked to. On the magic side someone could look at Derek DelGaudio’s show and wonder if the emotion or the magic would have been stronger without the inclusions (or emphasis on) the other side. Or at a production like the one of The Tempest that Teller worked on, and wonder where the line between stage illusion and simple production effect (like flying wires in Peter Pan) lies.
Then there is the question of, if a compromise must be made, which side do you prioritize, the magic or the theater? And again, there is no universal answer, but I think this question more so than any other helps magicians learn what it is they are really trying to get at when they perform. People who make these trade-offs need to know what their shows can and can’t be, and what they are and aren’t going to be, given those limitations.
Anyway, when I find the magic formula for combining the two I’ll let you know. Until then, drop us a line if you find a fusion of theater and magic that you particularly like, or that you think falls short.
-Z.Y.
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.
Now is the time we make lists. First we make lists of what we achieved this past year. Review, compile, accumulate, and recognize what you created and what you did. Chances are there’s more there than you realize. Then we make lists for the new year. What are we going to create? What are we going to focus on? Who are we going to work with? What new experiences of magic are we going to bring into the world? Start planning now. Name these goals, as the saying goes, and speak them into being.
A few of my personal favorites from our list of 2019:
-performed dozens of public shows at places like Diehl Marcus & Co. and Black Rabbit Rose in Hollywood, and consulted on many more
-were parts of events put on by the Drunken Devil, TAME, and SPYSCAPE in New York
-created ground-breaking new magic methods, some (soon) for public sale and some for personal use
-held the second annual Spec(toke)ular
-brought magic to DEFCON and founded the Rogues Village
What will we do in 2020? Guess you’ll have to stick around to find out!
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.
Eat good food. Hug your family. Experience a different kind of magic.
At Four Suits we are always looking for interesting, new, and eye-opening approaches to all sides of magic, and a friend of the site recently produced this, which we wanted to share. Enjoy!
A good friend of the site has been getting into mentalism, and it’s been interesting seeing a seasoned card mind make the transition and work through the psychological, presentational, and philosophical differences. Out of that conversation came this nugget that I think really speaks to what is at the heart of all (good) mentalist performances:
“Mentalism makes you feel seen and understood yet also uncomfortably exposed — in the best of ways.”
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.
Magic methods have far outstripped its dramaturgy. Here are a few of the key moments (in my eyes) where leaps were taken in that arena.*
Penn and Teller
Rejection of the premise of magic: that is must fool the audience. They showed that even in the act of exposure a magic moment can be created, and they and their audiences often take as much pleasure from “exposure” as from the “performance”. (This could instead be considered the peak of Modern magic, in that it is the ultimate centering of the Modernist ideas of logic and rationality in an inherently illogical or irrational art. But that’s part of a larger conversation/argument/discussion for another time that I would love to have with anyone interested.)
David Blaine
Rejection of the frame of magic: that it must be focused on the performer. By turning the camera on the audience, he made them and their experience of the magic the central act, not the effect itself.
Derren Brown
Rejection of the role of magic: that magic must have itself as an end. Here the audience’s experience continues to be central, but it need not even be recognizable as an experience of magic. (This is most visible not in his stage shows, which are often relatively traditional, but in many of his TV specials.)
Derek DelGaudio
Rejection of the classifications of magic: that magic is defined by props, venues, or plots the magician uses. By popularizing the idea of Postmodern Magic he created a divide and challenged all other magicians to decide on which side they stood.
*Please let me know if you know of precursors to these moments, other people who enacted serious shifts not listed, or if you have different classifications for these shifts. This list is not the result of dedicated study so much as the things I have found that stuck in my head as watersheds. As mentioned above I would love to discuss this deeper with anyone interested.
—Z.Y.
Hey all, pretty card-magician-centric post here…
But y’all, I think I’ve achieved mastery level on the top change. My methodology is a bit different on it than the norm, but I think I’m there. Now, the exact methodology is kind of irrelevant here, because what I’m interested in is HOW I got to this point. The idea being that mastery level is possible with any set of skills, but it’s the pathway there that sometimes leads one astray.
Years ago, I had a shit top change. Goes without saying, when you first start playing with the move, it’s tough. It’s not quite as easy to mask as a DL, not quite as challenging as a palm, but it’s almost somewhere in between. If there’s HEAT, and they’re burning you, you’ve gotta find a way around it. I finally came up with a satisfactory system.
I don’t think if I spent a thousand hours on it in my room I would’ve achieved this level. I also don’t think if I performed this a thousand hours without being conscientious on manners to improve it, that I would be successful. What I did was incorporate it into as many routines as possible within my regular set, so that every routine had a piece of top change structure within it. Then I would combine those results into a perfected top change structure. It had to be live tested to end up where it is today.
This might boil down to practice = better, but there’s more to it than that. It’s the knowing inclusion of the nature of the sleight into every routine possible to gather as much information as possible to speed up the results.
I’ve been scared shitless of palms ever since I’ve started. I guess it’s time to apply this strategy to those now.
— 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.
Every magician, amateur or pro, has to figure out what to do when someone says, “Oh show me a trick!” I’m at the point where if they are a stranger or I am busy I just politely decline, and my friends have seen enough of my magic to know when is and isn’t a good moment to ask, but for friends of friends or at times where I want to share something but didn’t bring anything serious I am always looking for quick little things that are fun, point towards some deeper or bigger magical world, and don’t lead to the inevitable “oh can I see it again”/”show me another one”/”wait now show my friend!” What I have found are a couple of “Non-Effects” that I use or add onto normal magic, depending on what mood I’m in, what I have around me, and who they are for. I figured I’d share one with you all in the hopes that you find it entertaining and maybe useful.
So the situation is a casual social gathering and assumes I have access to a deck of cards. They ask to see something, I say sure, casually set my phone down in a visible but isolated spot, and then gather as many people around as want to see a quick card trick. Before I start the trick my phone buzzes but I and everyone else ignore it. I then do any short single card effect I feel like. Can be an ambitious, card to pocket, etc, as long as they freely picked a card. As the effect is ending (after I give them a moment for their reactions) I say “Oh shoot let me so who texted me real quick and then maybe I’ll show you something else,” and pick up my phone, keeping it in view. The sender name is a string of mysterious arcane symbols and the text (which arrived before they selected their card) reads something like ‘Warning! Our Pre-Cognitive Detection Team received word that on [date] at [a minute or so before they picked the card] you would perform a card trick. DO NOT let them pick [whatever card they picked]. Lives are at stake; we trust you will do what is necessary.” I read the message, suddenly go white, hand the phone to one of them and then book it out of the room at a dead run (and out of the building if I can). Minutes later I’ll come back and try and pretend like nothing happened, getting nervous if anybody tries to ask about it. It’s a fun way to add an impossible prediction element to any card trick, and it hints at something bigger and weirder. I make the message more or less silly and over the top depending on who I am going to be hanging out with, and it always succeeds in re-framing even the simple card trick into something bigger. It never fails to get a laugh and sometimes spurs an interesting conversation about the Magic Police and their different divisions. Method-wise there are easy ways with a confederate and slightly more technical ways to do it solo. If you are interested in mine or find your own neat methods and want to share feel free to email us or reach out on twitter.
Anyway, hopefully this sparks some ideas for silly ways to spice up your magic and play with expanding the magical world you live in!
—Z.Y.
Hey all, thanks for staying patient in the interim. We’ve got some big plans going on for Halloween and the Winter season thereafter… by the way, have you ever heard of Diehl Marcus & Co? What about Drunken Devil events? You never know what you might find, or whom you might encounter at their events this Halloween season… 🎃
Polygraph, the most recent event we worked on, was a big hit at the Sofitel in Beverly Hills, and TAME at The Montalban theatre in Hollywood was quite the show prior.
We’re currently in the works on some very fun new projects as well (congrats to ZY and MS for their debut experience last night, relatedly) which all should be coming to fruition very soon, so we appreciate you holding your breath with us as we dive deeper into the work.
Cheers,
— J.R.
The next two months are going to be busy ones here a the Four Suits shop, so we wanted to take a second and shout out two awesome upcoming events, and hint about some more in the works:
Also, keep an eye out for a new, exclusive horror seance experience coming this October…
Mentalism as the Ability to Have a Relate-able Super Power
I’ve been playing with some mentalism lately (eg thought-reading) and experimenting with various structures/methods for presenting the work. One thing I’ve been thinking about lately (besides how greatly different it is from any sort of sleight of hand work I’ve done in the past) is how to create moments of a relate-able super power.
I think with mentalism, more so than many other types of magic (save for certain illusions) make room for the audience/participants to insert themselves into the performer’s shoes and imagine what it would be like to have the ability to read minds. It’s a naturally common idea, the idea to read someone else’s thoughts, versus the bizarrely unique skill of the classic sleight of hand trope of finding someone’s selected card in a shuffled deck.
It’s why People Stopped Looking (<— that’s a previous blog post on speaking with a mentalist) and it’s also why people want to see that process of the thought-reading. One thing I’ve been seeing more and more is how much my audiences love seeing that moment where I finally get the thought they’re thinking of, and, equally importantly, how I arrived at this conclusion.
Mentalism is inherently more about verbal storytelling than many other forms of magic and art. How do we let the audience take a ride along with us and feel like they, too, can read minds -- even if just for that very moment? It’s a special gift to give.
— J.R.