Updates Thursdays...
Well well well!
It’s alive, folks! DEFCON 28 (Safe Mode) is officially live and online!
Are you following our village on twitter? @RoguesVillage to interact with us there, we’ll be going a bit radio silent here, but we invite you all to join in on the fun to be had this weekend!
It’s going to be a really, really good time. http://www.foursuits.co/roguesvillage to check out what we’re up to, and yes, it even answers the question of: What is DEFCON?
Dear Reader —
We’re BACK again! For the first time ever, for the second time in a row.
Is anyone here ready for ZY’s labor of love, the #roguesadventure? Check out the game (going live when DEFCON goes live) here: http://www.foursuits.co/game
If you want to see how we magically interweave the areas of tech and, uh, magic, give us a look: https://defcon.org/html/defcon-safemode/dc-safemode-villages.html
We’ll be live on Discord, here’s our schedule: http://www.foursuits.co/roguesvillage
— Four Suits
Dear Reader -
Pretty lofty title, huh? Fortunately, changing the world is inevitable. I promise, that by the end of your life, you will have changed the world. That’s the thing. In the most general terms: every person, with every action, changes the world in one small way every single day, right? Now, by the end of your life, those moments have built up some mighty influence over one’s surroundings. Victory, you’ve changed the world. Whether it be in an intimate way, or a grandiose way, you’ve done something.
Now that we’ve agreed on that, suddenly it might feel like a lot of responsibility to handle. However, no need for despair, all it takes is a little step forward every day. But you must take a step. It reminds me of an old idea: Indecision is a decision. Standing still is a choice against moving forward. And the decision or choice you make when you decide to stand still is: “I agree with the status quo.” Which is great sometimes, honestly. Don’t know where you want to eat? Let your friends decide. Don’t care what movie you watch? Have someone else pick one.
But, what if you don’t know where to step? What if you don’t know which way is forward? Honestly, with the information overload of this modern age, we’re being put into harder and harder decisions to make. Which makes the decisions that more meaningful. Which, if taken the wrong way, can be an anxiety-inducing thought. However, the opposite is true. Most of us want the best for humankind and one’s fellow spirit. The key decider is how we capture and parse information.
In the spirit of this, I urge you to seek dissenting opinions. Seek new information. Seek completely whole new realms you never once accessed. Because, just like you’re changing the world day by day, so are others. And imagine how sorrowful it would be to not know how they are changing it?
— J.R.
One of the things I love about magic is that it is always encouraging me to see the world in fantastical ways. I am constantly looking for what the most incredible, or eerie, or breathtaking occurrence would be in any given situation, and I love the strange improbabilities it draws me to. Recently, however, I have ben getting deep into the world of poker, and I can’t help but marvel at the differences in personal world-creation I’m experiencing as I adopt the probabilistic, analytical view it necessitates.
Now, obviously magic has an analytical side in that even the most fantastical effect needs a concrete method. But the purpose, and central goal, is the impossible experience, and the method simple enables it. Similarly, poker does have a human, emotional side, from bluff-reading to superstitious hands (who hasn’t taken the occasional stab with the Doyle Brunson hand just because?). But for any serious player those inclinations are only ever there to inform the numbers, almost never do they supersede them.
Both views are clearly useful, each represents a very real world we can choose to see. Magic reminds us to be open to the impossible and to image and dream beyond any boundary, and poker helps us be realistic about likelihoods and the natural variances that come with any risk, big or small. But too frequently I get locked into one or the other and have to step back, because the most important choice we can make in any situation is deciding what is worth calculating and what worth cannot be calculated.
—Z.Y.
Dear Reader,
It has been clearly shown that the fabric of society is woven a bit thinner than we presumed. The truth is, the texture hasn’t been truly tested yet. While it may seem easy to allow despair into your life based on the unraveling of a societal safety net, it is important, now more than ever, to identify the driving-force inside of you and activate it to accomplish the change you seek. For this, I have a ritual.
Tomorrow, I’ll be centering myself around what I seek to change within the next month. I will break it down into small steps, and plot it out on a calendar. I find that by visualizing these events, and placing them on a timeline, I begin to set my intentions and implement the framework to achieve these goals. I ask you to do the same for yourself.
It is important to know that this incentivizes you to think of positive change. Meaning, nothing can ever be accomplished if you only think of what you don’t like, accomplishments are only made when you think of what you want. The guiding light of your subconscious can be more easily carried out when it has a destination. A destination being something that you can do. If you seek nothing, you also find nothing. Keep in mind the old adage from Nietzsche: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” If we are to achieve a beautiful world, we must first imagine what this beautiful world looks like. If we dwell on a world filled with monsters, we may generate one filled with the monsters of ourselves. Focus on the positives and you’ll be surprised by how you are moved to achieve them.
You have your intentions set, now it is time for some reflection, which strengthens these intentions and often provides the psychological toolset and vigor needed to achieve them. I recommend any sort of meditative ritual executed by yourself and yourself only. My go to is the I Ching, however you may also read tarot to yourself, practice breathwork or other physical meditations, work with a pendulum, the choice is yours. No matter what you choose, you are attempting to free yourself of your own individual perspective, and gain the perspective of something else, often times the inner self, allowing further connection with your desires and the methods by which to accomplish them.
This is my ritual for you. Know that if you do this, I will be joining you as well, in positive intent and action.
— J.R.
Magicians have been thinking a LOT about how magic translates to this quarantine moment. Pre-recorded videos, live broadcasts, packages or instructions we mail or email to people. But we are not the only ones thinking about how to translate and transport unique experiences. Many fine dining restaurants have started doing take out service, where you bring home box after box of meticulously crafted courses, sides, and instructions. As has become the vogue recently, restaurants are as much about the experience of eating as they are about the food itself, so when I had the chance to try one of these services (Vespertine’s presentation of The French Laundry’s tasting menu) I was interested to know how they attempted to bundle that up for my later consumption. Four Suits had planned on collaborating with a close friend and professional chef M.S. to create some unique magic/food fusion events this year, but then reality set in, so here we are. What follows is not a review, but a collection of observations that stood out to me.
First was the pick-up process. A reservation was required, so when I pulled into the parking lot an attendant (hostess?) checked my name and indicated a parking spot I could wait in (they offered contactless pickup). After a few minutes, another attendant brought two large bags to my car. The whole sequence had a strange tension of personal and impersonal: no human contact, and yet they literally touched the food I would be eating; each customer waited anonymously in their cars, and yet the bags had my name on them, that food was specifically mine, even if it was otherwise identical to the food in the other bags (it was a fixed menu).
When I arrived home and began unpacking, I found a small envelope. The first card listed the sequence the courses were to be eaten in, and after were a series that on one side described the courses with a short quote from the chef and on the other listed instructions for saving or reheating the food. The cards were helpful, and the quotes were a nice addition. Since the chef had worked for Thomas Keller himself, they were mostly anecdotes from his kitchen and memories or learning these recipes. None of the dishes required “assembly” beyond pouring soup over its accompanying mousse, and despite my own affinity for cooking, I was surprisingly glad for that. Maybe it was that I was hungry and ready to eat, or that at that price I was glad they had done the hard work, or the fear of ruining a dollop of caviar with an imprecise hand. Not sure.
The production value of the packaging and cards was neat and professional, though not particularly fancy or unique. One could say that it helped keep the focus on the food, but honestly I would have appreciated a little flair here. As secondary as this may be, it is interesting to think about where and how we are able to provide extra and unique value.
The food was, unsurprisingly, fantastic. We can discuss how to transport and translate experiences across mediums and distances all we want, but if the underlying mechanics, if the (literal) meat and potatoes, aren’t there, then it won’t matter how well you moderate your Zoom performance or how seamlessly it cuts from one camera angle to another.
Overall, I was amazed how well the whole thing went off. The instructions for what to hold in the oven versus keep in the fridge could have been clearer, which was what prompted me to write this (written instructions for detailed magic tricks is something that has resonated *cough cough* with me a lot lately), but otherwise it was a relatively seamless and enjoyable experience.
—Z.Y.
So, like, just a reminder that Houdini spent a lot of his life “exposing” mediums. Which really kind of reminds me that Houdini really just wanted to be in the newspapers a lot. If you think about what sort of magic he did, there’s a lot of evidence to support that he wasn’t all that good at what he did (comparatively to other magicians of the era) but that he was an extremely good marketer and knew how to gather publicity for these frequent stunts he performed, and always take pictures.
I’m telling you, Houdini took pictures from almost any event he was doing, and he took a LOT of promotional photos. Like, a lot. Houdini would be that guy at the party instagramming everything in selfie mode with his face in it. I’m serious here.
Caption: Beach Ready
Go ahead and google “Houdini'“ and then the name of ANY other contemporary magician eg: Kellar, Alexander aka The Man Who Knows, Thurston, etc. and you’ll find some really cool posters that survived the years. But no faces such as Houdini’s. Also helps that Houdini was in movies.
Which brings me to my last point here: if Houdini were alive today, would he be the guy on TikTok, taking selfies (or asking people to take his photo flexing, see Exhibit B on the right), and constantly putting his face out there by saying “Look! Watch the ____” while yelling at you in some sort of vertical video format, maybe even with a clickbait thumbnail? High chances.
— J.R.
“Bro, bro, you got a problem bro?” — Houdini (probably)
While I lived in NYC I encountered a modern day wizard. What does this mean? Well, from Devin’s website:
Wizards are helpful guides who bring magic, mystery, wisdom, and hope to the societies in which they serve. As a modern wizard, my life’s work is to help you—yes, specifically you!—create a slightly better reality.
Pretty interesting stuff. We jammed a number of times in the city, working on sleight-of-hand techniques and other elements that accompanies being a 21st century wizard. After following his work for years now, I can tell he is the real deal.
One thing I’ve been particularly fond of is his recent publication: Mystic Tokes. In this mini book, he offers guidance on ritualizing cannabis consumption for reaping some of the benefits of being in that altered state. While directly referencing cannabis, his concepts can apply many other places.
I highly recommend it, it was quite a fun read and I think some of the readers here would definitely get a kick out of it as well.
Four Suits doesn’t have an official scoring or anything, but if I were to score this, I’d give it 3 wizard hats.
— J.R.
I want to clarify something before we get going: I know this is present moment is a time of great discomfort for a lot of people. Pain and tragedy, even. That is not the kind of discomfort I want to talk about. That discomfort is neither necessary nor immutable, and we should all be doing what we can to alleviate it. Please find your local mutual aid organization and get involved however you feel you can. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
One of the ways I have been spending my quarantine is by catching up on all the old recommendations people have given me, and one of those was a Podcast called Imaginary Worlds. I’ve enjoyed a lot of episodes from this series, and love the concept of exploring the types of imaginary worlds we create, seeing how they reflect us (an anthropology of the self, if you will). But one I listened to this past week really stuck with me, an episode dedicated to Octavia Butler and her works. One of the recurring themes that the podcast’s host brought up was the intense sense of discomfort almost all of her works elicited, and how it was because of, not in spite of, this discomfort that her work had such staying power and appeal. We need discomfort, sometimes. We need to be put outside our place, not as an escape but to feel ourselves as the Other, to have our own dominion, over ourselves, our realities, our faculties, and our understandings, challenged.
Obviously the methods don’t translate directly between literature and magic, given the differences in agency and control (audiences know they can set the book down at any time, but can feel trapped in a magic effect), but the ends can be the same. Traditionally, in fact, they always have been. The Jester, the Fool, the Wise Man, (and even the Madman); all magician archetypes whose roles were to break the social norm and cause some discomfort where no one else could. But ultimately that role was, and is, about empathy. Helping people empathize with perspectives they had never imagined possible, or people they had never truly considered, including, sometimes, themselves.
When asked what Butler’s technique was that made her writing so powerful, one of the guests answered, “she doesn’t flinch. Her specialty was to think about the things that people would rather not think about.” We do this not because of the discomfort it brings, but the empathy it demands.
So that is my exhortation to us all, magician or not, especially in these challenging moments.
Four Suits invites you to our first annual Digital Jam!
On Sunday May 3, 2020, magicians from around the world will come together electronically to jam on new effects and presentations, clever methods and moves, and ways to adapt our magic to the unique moment we are in.
Everyone is invited to take part in a Works in Progress showcase where they can receive advice and comments on their latest pieces, then break out into smaller groups to discuss more specific topics of their choice!
More impressive than a supermarket with toilet paper in stock, more breathtaking than a jogger without a face mask, and more impressive than a home cook who nailed bread on their very first try. That’s right, it’s the first annual Four Suits Digital Jam!
Date: Sunday May 3, 2020
Time: 3:00pm Pacific Time (GMT-7)
Duration: 1 Hour (?)
Zoom.us Meeting ID: 974-2956-8010
Zoom.us Meeting Password: 993779
We are proud to announce that Rogues Village will be making a return to DEFCON this year!…or rather, it might if COVID-19 doesn’t cancel the whole shindig. While those details are still all in the air, we wanted to say thank you again to everyone who attended last year’s village and to everyone who has already started to put so much work into this years village. We have already had a couple great speakers confirm, and are putting together some great workshops, so regardless of what happens with the current situation we will find a a way, digital or otherwise, to bring everyone together again!
— Z.Y.
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.
Maybe a few days ago I played through a one-shot campaign organized by ZY. It was a beautiful little campaign with a fun storyline. One of the biggest elements of D&D that surprised me with it’s complexity was creating my own character. A large element of creating a character consisted of choosing their strengths and skills. I wanted my character to be a deception artist, so I maxed out their Charisma score and correlated abilities. Here’s what surprised me.
I expected to be a pro at anything related to persuading other characters within the storyline to give me information/etc. However, the other large component of the game structure is to roll a 20-sided die to determine whether or not your character succeeds in any particular action. I was sure that with my maxed Charisma, I would succeed in these tactics. I rolled a 1. I failed my strategy. Another instance came up, and even with my maxed out statistics, the roll of the die led me astray. Then came another instance where I had to utilize my very low Sneak stat, but the die rolled favorably for me. Even with a starting disadvantage, or a starting advantage, my result was anything but expected. I had to think quickly and devise another plan.
I’m sure you can see where this is going. I think that these instances often occur in many more ways than we can even perceive in our daily existence.
Sure, our strengths may benefit us over time, but that says very little about our day to day interactions. And it says even less about finishing our campaign of real life. If we are to get where we need to go, we need to embrace chance, and embrace the unexpected. The only thing that matters is that we continue to move forward. Let the die roll.
— J.R.
Title really says it all. I’m tired of people telling me what these cards or coins or sponge bunnies represent.
— Z.Y.
Dear Reader —
Things I’ve done during the quarantine:
I’ve improved my DPS.
De-scaled our espresso machine.
Completed every level on Super Mario SNES.
Organized my desk.
Developed routines for “no-touch” close-up magic (way more successful than I thought).
“Picking cards” becomes a dribble and a stop.
Slip-forces.
Bill-changes.
Coin routines ala 3-fly.
Maintenance on my car.
Preparing to file my taxes.
Remember, Isaac Newton allegedly came up with some of his grand theories during the quarantine for the bubonic plague, so, stay vigilant my friends, and I’ll see you on the other side (whenever that is).
— J.R.
Yes friends, it’s almost that time of year again, the third annual Spec(toke)ular is just around the bend! We are in the final planning stages and will be posting the fist ticket links here in the next week or so, so be sure to keep out, ticket go fast.
— Z.Y.
Which of these two things do you think wold be more likely to get a kid interested in magic:
1) a magician with really powerful and positive stage presence, well crafted script with dramatic and emotional meaning, and a real knack for building up tension and mystery in his effects, even if the effects themselves are rudimentary, flash, or don’t work consistently (ie the kid thinks they know how it’s done).
2) a magician with no good patter, no real drama or tension, and no emotion but technically successful effects which fool the child completely.
We were having this debate a dew days ago and I’m interested to know what you guys think.
— Z.Y.
Hey Friends,
Introducing SOC posts, starting with a question to myself, and finding out the answer as I write it.
This week’s question: Why have I stopped working while I eat?
Currently eating some eggs and toast, flipping between browser windows and workspaces. Reason? We’ve been hard at work, doing some slow-motion multitasking at Four Suits. DEFCON is coming up this year, we’re getting geared up for that; Spec(toke)ular is almost in the bag (even though it’s a few months away); we’ve been creating material and rehearsing for a new Four Suits branded show, in pre-production for a new magic series… You get the point.
Other point is, get to work. I was thinking about this the other day, how much time I spend noodling around on the internet. I heard Jeremy Griffith once refer to social media as “candy” and I think about that very frequently. Our brains love candy, but it provides zero nutritional value. Enjoying something is also happiness, and that’s important too. However, I have found myself leaning a bit too much into the instant gratifications that the internet can afford.
It’s crazy, I started learning the entertainment side of magic properly right around the cusp of youtube and web 2.0. Legitimately, most of my early knowledge came from books or teachers in real life. Now I hear about so many people starting off youtube channels or whatnot. I’m not being old man J.R. here and shaking a stick saying “Learn from books!” what I’m saying is, for me, it’s still hard to shake the concept that so much information is out there, legitimately free, for me to consume, and better myself for it, not just consume it for consumptions sake.
It started with little things, I would gradually slip into watching a fictional show while eating, instead of having it be something that I could learn something from, yet being equally fictitious (currently I’m re-focusing my habits by searching “magic” or “mentalism” on youtube and just watching whatever I come across). It’s equally cringe-worthy and insightful watching some/most of what’s out there, but realizing that this is the year I’m creating a magic special, I can also see what people readily consume as their candy. Damn, am I just making someone else’s candy? BRB, existentialism incoming.
— J.R.
Four Suits is proud to announce that we now produce and sell Negative stripper cards! Negative stripper cards (sometimes called Ns or Negs) have been one of card magic’s most closely guarded secrets, and few use this advanced technique. Originating on the gambling table, Negative strippers are incredibly versatile, allowing a few key cards to be controlled after a thorough spectator shuffle or even a legitimate wash, and the work is so subtle that spectators can freely examine the whole deck as much as they like.
Using top quality USPCC cards, our decks are hand prepared and machine cut for consistency and precision. We offer Bicycle cards and are the only site (to our knowledge) to produce Bee decks as well. We also take custom orders, meaning for the first time you can have your favorite decks precision cut specifically for your use.
These cards are an exclusive and powerful tool for any card mechanic or magician, so pick up yours today.