- Ugh.
I really didn't feel like making this video today.
I'm very reluctant in doing so
but I just wanted to sort of set the record straight
with what's going on with this
whole Memento Mori story.
First and foremost
I'll give you the back story.
This is what we're talking about today.
These cards here.
So, to take you back.
I was hired by Murphy's Magic a few years ago
because they saw me on social media.
They saw I was doing well
and they sort of believed that I would
be able to help the company out
with their social media and product development.
It was my first time working for a magic company
and so I'm still to this day
super thankful I got to work with them
and some of the great people
that work at Murphy's, or worked.
Now after a year of working there
put out Red Pill which was a big hit
which was a nice success and a really, you know
a meaningful project to myself.
I started asking myself
what would be the next step for me
as an individual, as a brand?
That came naturally that I would create a deck of cards.
And so I talked to the people at Murphy's
and I said I would love to create a deck of cards
for the company with my brand attached to it.
They agreed and paid my salary
and basically the contracts are with magic companies
no matter what you create, this is for the most part
no matter what you create
they keep 100%.
It's all theirs, their idea.
They own the rights to it right?
Which is super cool with me.
I understand that, I mean super cool.
I mean, I wouldn't do it again
but for where I was at the time
I completely understood it
and I agreed with it.
So that's cool, no issue there.
So I approached them and said I want to design
a deck of cards around my brand, around my vision
and sort of my artistic direction
and have something that represented me
that I could be really proud of
that I would work really hard on creating.
And they gave me the leverage.
They gave me the open door.
So I met a designer by the name of Adrian Vansuella.
Adrian, who's designed a few decks in the past.
Adrian came to me with an idea
for a design, a very small idea
that he had for, all he had shown me
was like this fractal sort of low poly design.
I immediately loved it
because that was sort of the direction
I wanted to go towards.
So I said, "Yes, let's please work together."
So over the course of, I would say three to six months
Adrian and myself went back and forth
excluding everybody at Murphy's.
This is just Adrian and myself.
I'm no good with Illustrator
or any of those programs really.
So I needed somebody who could take my vision
and put it in digital form.
So I told him I wanted to have a deck
that was called Memento Mori
because I really loved the concept
of the idea behind Memento Mori.
So I said I wanted a skull.
The skull is actually my skull.
It's actually my face.
So he took my face, took a picture of it
broke it down into low poly
and made a skull out of it alright first of all.
Which I was super impressed with.
We went back and forth on how many polygons
were in this thing
and we got it to the perfect amount
where it didn't look too cluttered
and it wasn't too simple.
Next came the colors.
Started playing around with colors.
Probably went back and forth about on 12 different designs
where the colors would finally be
where we wanted them to be.
Which is a perfect gradient of that like, yellow to blue
to green to pink to purple.
We went back and forth on each quadrant.
So you know, this one needs to be this color.
This one needs to be.
And the size of it, and the shape of it and everything.
Once we were happy with that
we knew that we had some back bone for the design.
I told him I wanted it to wrap around
the tuck case and be embossed
and nothing else on that tuck case.
This is just really beautiful picture in my mind
and he ended up creating that
which I was super happy with.
So now we had the tuck design.
We didn't even have the back design yet
or the faces
or the pips or the anything.
We then started looking at back design.
This is probably the hardest thing to do
because we went back, ugh.
So many times to the drawing board
like, we had the whole back design in fractals
with two skulls.
We had a big skull, one big skull
that could be flipped upside down.
So many different designs
until I told him, well it would be interesting
if we just had them kind of, because I wanted.
Inspiration came from that tuck case.
I really liked the tuck case
and I said, how can we make the cards look as good
as the tuck case?
That was my biggest problem.
And I didn't want people, because I loved the tuck case.
I didn't want people to open it and be like
oh, well you know.
Finding that perfect balance, was believe it or not
really difficult and tedious.
And I ended up putting on a drawing
the two skulls there
and I said, "Can you do this?"
And he did it and we went back and forth on the sizes
and the orientation.
And then I said, you know
could we fade out the borders?
So the borders went like, they faded into nothing
which has never been done before
which gave it a really nice look.
After that, we hit the face cards, the court cards.
We went back and forth on each court card.
I must have sent back to Illustrator
you know, at least two or three times for each court card.
I'd be like no, there's too many
or it's too busy, his face looks weird.
Then we went on the colors.
Then we did the ace, which was dope.
And then we did the jokers
which are actually my logo
in a low poly design.
And then after that, we did...
I did an ad card which I wrote
and it basically explains my inspiration
for this desk on that ad card.
And at the end, it goes into
"This deck is my Memento Mori, Chris Ramsay."
I put a lot into this deck
and I don't care what Murphy's says.
If they deny that, they can do whatever they want.
I don't give a crap at this point.
I know how much, how many nights I stayed up with Adrian
working on this
and I'm a perfectionist.
You can't tell by a lot of the content I put out
or anything I do, I really want it to be
at the peak of my vision.
I want it to be perfect
and so I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
And sometimes that makes me a bit annoying to work with
because I really want something to come out.
So that being said, I was really proud of that
am still am today actually.
Still very proud of this deck.
And I fully support anything with my name attached to it
or brand attached to it.
I fully support it.
However, now the Blue Memento Mori came out.
And here's the thing.
Some people asked me, well it's their right.
They can make it like blue monarchs
and red monarchs and blue rounders
and red rounders.
The deck that I created for Murphy's and myself
was not a deck, was not like the purple edition.
It was a multitude of different colors
put together to create this beautiful design.
So if I had made a red Memento Mori deck
by all means, make a blue one or a green one.
But you guys completely missed the ball on that one.
And that's kinda what pisses me off.
Is that all you're really thinking about
is well, let's sell some more decks
and just change the color.
Everybody else does it, why can't we do it?
You guys know, do you guys remember Daniel Madison
when he put out The Players with Theory 11?
Really cool deck.
And then he left Theory 11 and went to Ellusionist.
How weird would it be if Theory 11
two years later put out The Blue Players?
That's kind of a weird situation
to put someone in.
And it kinda feels like you're riding
off their success.
Now, I'm not here to inflate my ego
but let's be honest, I bought The Players
because they were associated with Daniel Madison.
Much like many people bought Memento Mori
because they were associated with my brand
and my vision.
Not gonna say all of them did
but a big part of it did.
I teased that deck for one full year
before releasing it.
And then, I created a trailer
and I'm not gonna play the trailer right now.
If you want to see it, I'll leave the link below.
But basically they copied the trailer.
Tried to copy the trailer shot for shot
which also bugs me
because I wrote that trailer.
I story-boarded every single shot.
I rented the studio, everything.
Obviously Murphy's paid for all of this okay.
Which is super cool but the idea
and the vision of it and the script
and every single shot
I knew going into that, exact.
I had it all written down on a piece of paper.
This is what we're gonna shoot today.
Here's how we're gonna shoot it.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, got all the shots.
It was perfect.
Editing, the sound, the music.
Everything we used was exactly what I wanted it to be.
Including the teasers and everything.
And then they go and make a mock trailer.
A trailer that sort of looks like mine
but not really
and didn't put any thought into it.
It's literally, let's copy what Chris did
because he did a good thing.
And let's just take his name off it
and do the same thing.
And again, you're legally entitled to do that.
And that's not my problem, I don't care about that.
I'm not sour about money alright?
I'm not sour about taking my name off the cards
or any of that, I don't care.
There are people who support me in this community
and they buy the things that I put out to support me
thinking it supports me.
And I'm gonna tell you right now.
All the decks that I've created with these companies
I don't get paid for.
I got paid while I worked there as a salary
but that was sort of my contribution
to sort of justify the salary
that they were paying me.
Which is super cool.
Creating this other version
and first of all, this version, this blue version
is complete.
Here's what really, what really grinds my gears.
This version was not thought of.
It wasn't even like, they didn't even think.
There's no originality or creativity in this.
Complete lack of anything intellectual.
Anything artistic.
My friend Fabian put up this quick little video
to show you how easy it would have been
to change the Memento Mori design
into this design.
So check this out.
(Fabian humming and whistling)
- [Fabian] Colorized.
Oh hey.
Oh!
- So that basically is what they did.
Probably exactly what they did
because not only did they do that to the back design
they did it to every face card.
So every card in the deck is the same blue.
There's no, at least the Memento Mori
there was like a pink and purple hue difference.
Everything is the same now.
Like it or not, this deck is associated with my brand
and Murphy's knows that very well.
And they can try to deny it
and be like, "Chris this isn't about you.
"Not everything's about you."
You know, they even went on social media.
Titanus, who works for the company
and called me a whiny magician.
Well funny time we live in when a whiny magician
has more reach than a magic company.
I will constantly push that deck.
Even though it brings me absolutely no financial gain
or anything else
I worked hard on that
and so I'm really proud of it.
So I'm happy to share it and always have.
It pops up in my videos
in my pictures.
And by putting this new deck out, people are confused.
Before they were even released
like when they were talking about releasing them
I got 30 messages.
And then when they were released, I got hundreds of messages
by people saying, "Chris I love your new deck.
"I'm gonna buy it to support you."
You see the problem here?
You're taking advantage of people
and you're lying to them.
Alright so again I'm not, you can sell
two million Memento Mori decks
and I'll be super happy for the company
and I'll be happy.
I'm really sort of grateful that you gave me the opportunity
to do that.
But this is a different thing.
This is like taking someone's vision
bastardizing it, banalizing it
and putting it into something super ugly
and unattractive.
And completely negating all the work I put into that.
All the work I put in while I was working for you.
So they're trying to sell and I get that.
It's a business, you gotta keep the lights on.
I understand.
All that I would have wanted
is like, "Hey Chris.
"We're thinking of putting out a V2 Memento Mori.
"We know that the first one has your name on it.
"We're gonna take your name off it.
"We're gonna change the design around a little bit.
"I hope you're okay with that."
Right? Because we were always on good terms.
Why wouldn't they do that?
And I'm sure the conversation came up
when they were like, should we ask Chris?
And then they ignored it
and that's kind of a shit head move.
Because I, knowing me and I've worked with them
I would have 100% been like
"Yeah, totally. Not a problem at all."
You know, let me let people know
and if you would, I would love to help it
because it does kind of, it is attached to my brand.
So I would love to maybe steer it in the right direction
to where it doesn't make my brand
look like a piece of shit.
But I didn't get that courtesy call.
Again legally, they're allowed
to do anything they want.
But ethically and morally
and there's just no business acumen there.
There's no strategy.
There's no nothing.
All they did was womp, drag it to blue.
Let's sell a bunch because the other ones
are selling really well.
Chris won't mind or if he does, who cares.
We're legally allowed to.
You know what I mean?
I'm disappointed in the company
that I worked for.
That I feel I gave a lot to
and just the courtesy of
"Hey Chris, do you want to work on this with us?"
You know, I would have done it all for free.
I would have helped you guys out for free, 100%.
I don't even care about the money.
I don't care about the money.
I think you guys get it.
I mean, I'm not here
just to diss Murphy's Magic.
They're a fine company, whatever.
They're doing their thing.
I don't care.
I don't care about other magic companies.
I don't care.
I got my own things to worry about.
My own life to worry about.
My own projects to worry about.
But what I do care is when you involve
something that I've worked on, my brand
if you take that and change it
to something terrible.
You put this trailer out
and you're seeing a lot of the negative reactions.
You're seeing a lot of the people
who are like, "What the hell is this?"
And I'm getting messages from people
saying, "Chris really? Did you do this?
"These are ugly."
So I don't care.
Buy Memento Mori first edition.
Buy The Knights.
But the Blue Memento Mori.
You guys can buy whatever you like
and please do.
If you like the deck, buy it by all means.
But don't buy it thinking it supports me.
I don't want to lie to you.
Like, don't buy that.
If you want to support me, watch this video.
You know, watch the videos I put up.
That's supporting me, that's good enough.
Thank you so much for that.
Obviously you guys are riding off of
the success of the first deck to print the second one.
Obviously.
And obviously the first desk is attached to my name.
I'm over it.
Like after this video
this is the last I'll speak of it.
I don't want to send out bad vibes
into the magic community.
I don't want people to think I'm super angry at this
because I'm, after this video is uploaded
I'll be over it.
I just wanted to kinda put in my two cents
and let you guys know
what the full story was.
How much I worked on the first edition.
How much I still support it today
and I still support everything in the magic community
that has my name on it.
If you're gonna take something that has my name on it
change it around, and pretend I had nothing to do with it
I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna call you out.
And I'm gonna call you a dick.
Alright.
So dick move Murphy's.
But other than that, life is good.
So guys, that's all I'm gonna say today.
Thanks so much for watching.
Sorry for sounding so complainy.
Oh and one last thing.
My first desk of playing cards.
My very first proper deck of playing cards.
The deck that I have full control over
that I have the rights to
that I've cultivated into what it is
will be available shortly.
I'm very, very proud of this.
I'm proud of all my decks honestly
but this one because
sort of I've left everything to do this Youtube thing.
And to be a full time magician and all that.
Kind of like, you know symbolically
it is my emancipation
and the proof of hey
I did it, I made it, this is me.
This is all me.
I'm very happy about that.
When that drops, if you guys want to buy that
to support me, that will definitely support me.
But most importantly buy it if you think it's nice.
So the design is basically finalized.
It's all finished.
I'm sending it off to get a prototype.
Once I get a prototype
I'm gonna rent a studio, film the trailer.
And do all that.
I'm not gonna go to kick starter with it.
Don't want to deal with kick starter.
I kinda want to keep them out of the loop
and just do it myself with the Youtube fam.
So anyways, these are all things that are up in the air
but the deck design is pretty much finished
and I can't wait to show that to you.
I can't show it to you now
because I like photography
so I'm gonna take a really sick picture of the deck
and put it out there for you guys to see.
And work really hard on the trailer
and yeah.
Stay tuned for the next video
and we'll see you soon.
Alright, peace out.
(mellow music)