A WICKED PACK OF CARDS

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Old Gods, venture capitalists, business process outsourcers, keynote speakers, a business magician and A Wicked Pack Of Cards come together in this genre-defining long-form poem.

ABOUT A WICKED PACK OF CARDS

A Wicked Pack Of Cards: an unusual book of business spells

A Wicked Pack Of Cards is a poem with a kaleidoscope of different voices. It is a place where a keynote speaker chatters with a green knight; an old God teases a lost businessman with the prospect of a career-changing riddle; and where Europe’s most famous business magician offers salvation to all those who believe in his wicked pack of cards.

Set in no particular time, A Wicked Pack Of Cards asks what might happen in a world after our version of reality ceases to exist.
It feels post-apocalyptic.

It mixes old stories, traditions and superstitions with the digital fantasies, Venn diagrams and strategies of the commercial world. What would happen if the great business consultants of our time discovered paganism and sorcery?
This. This would happen.

The poem is made up of thirteen-cards and a riddle.
Each one is a spell – a business spell. It will take you down the dark back-alleyways of burnout, depression and imposter syndrome. Yes, this is a dark little poem; but read it carefully, and it will eventually deliver you into the light of optimism and the most powerful spell of all: true love.

It is a homage to The Waste Land and to The Hunting Of The Snark too. You may spot other references from the world of business, The Prose Edda and even old English song. It is a poem and a book of spells for business.

This is The Waste Land for a post-truth-hustle generation.
It’s an evil nonsense full of secrets and riddles.

Don’t read it under The Procurement Moon.

A Wicked Pack of Characters

A Wicked Pack Of Cards is a poem with a kaleidoscope of different voices. It is a place where a keynote speaker chatters with a green knight; an old God teases a lost businessman with the prospect of a career-changing riddle; and where Europe’s most famous business magician offers salvation to all those who believe in his wicked pack of cards. It has, if you will, a cast:

The Old God
The Two Crows
The General
The White-nosed Idiots
The Ripper Tourists
The Business Process Outsourcer
The Three Daughters
The Keynote Speaker
The Green Knight
The Bookkeeper
The Director of Human Resources
The Venture Capitalist
The Stammtisch
The Visitor From Another Poem
The Notorious Investor
The One Algorithm to Rule Us All
Gary
The Old School Friend
The Business Journalist on the Business Channel
The Morris Men
April Cruel
&The Business Magician and his Wicked Pack of Cards.

About Marcus John Henry Brown

Marcus John Henry Brown is a performance artist based in Munich. Born the son of lorry-driving Scotsman, Marcus moved to Germany in 1993 having studied Art & Social context at Dartington College of Arts. He has over 25 years of professional communications experience and splits his time between mentoring young creatives, answering questions about the future for brands and creating performance art that hacks business contexts.

He has created a series of critically acclaimed performances that look at the relationships between and impact of technology,
culture and commerce on society.

FULL LIST OF PERFORMANCES

The Snowdon Pitch (2014) Berlin.

Purpose of Entry (Berlin, 2015) Berlin.

The Parallel (Berlin, 2015) Berlin.

Love, The Machine, and The Ghost (2017) Berlin.

Zombie Apocalypse and other peak pixel fantasies (2017) Bournemouth.

The Passing Trilogy

The Passing (2017)
Frankfurt, Berlin, Prague, Bournemouth, Munich, London, Hamburg.

The Sensorium Process (2018)
Munich, Graz, London.

FLEX (2019) Berlin.

Works Of Antagonism Series

Part 1: CHEMISTRY (2019) Munich

Part 2: CONTROL (2019) Zürich.

A Wicked Pack Of Cards (Premieres in Berlin 2020).

A performance inspired by T.S. Eliot’s epic poem The Waste Land. It features film, live performance, deep fakery,  music and a wicked deck of cards. It is an exercise in urgency. The performance is a ritual, a modern-day liturgy for the techno-heathens. It is based on this poem.