Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood…. Make big plans; aim high….
–Daniel Hudson Burnham
LATE BREAKING NEWS — Congratulations to master class alumni Sterling Dietz, Krystyn Lambert & Shayna Reed, all competition winners at this year’s annual International Brotherhood of Magicians Convention in Reno, Nevada! Sterling took 1st in the youth stage competition and Krystyn 2nd. Shayna won special honors in the adult stage competition. Bravo Sterling, Krystyn and Shayna! We are all very proud of you!
Greetings Friends,
Jeff and Abbi here, just back from our travels to Death Valley. On our way to the lowest valley in the western hemisphere, we stopped to visit Methuselah, the oldest living being on the planet. This is a 4,700 year old bristlecone pine tree. Imagine being in the presence of this ancient witness to humanity. This tree was a sapling when King Tut was ruler in Egypt! What we learned from these trees is that one of the reasons for their survival is that they can exist peacefully in the most stressful and harsh environment, a good lesson for all of us, who spend our time in cities….
Ghost Town
On the way home, we stopped at Rhyolite, a ghost town near Las Vegas. Jeff is considering doing a wild west magic DVD here one day. At one time, there were ten thousand people living, working and playing here…. Now, there is only the bones of buildings, and the occasional curious tourist. There is a small collection of strange art scattered about the town, which is definitely worth seeing if you’re in the area.
Vegas and Oz
This week, Jeff is teaching private students, and helping Hans Klok with a few new routines for his stage show and television. Next week, Jeff is off to Australia for the Australian national magic convention in Melbourne. He’ll be performing and teaching a Master Class, and he’s excited to be going, for his first time, to the land “down under!” Pass the vegemite, please!
Magic at the Edge!
We will see all of our friends on the East Coast during the month of August! We will be performing from August 3rd to Sept. 3rd at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City! Tickets can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-736-1420 or on-line at www.ticketmaster.com. For more information, call the Trump Marina box office at 1-800-777-8477.
This is our full evening show, and we will be presenting lots of new material for all of our friends and fans.
Special Atlantic City Master Class
We have moved the August Master Class to Atlantic City, NJ! Yes, Eugene will be with us, and other East Coast special guests to be announced. Students will share seven exciting days with us, and get special backstage tours and workshops on the “real inside work” of our full evening show! Of course, we will include show tickets for students and their guests as well as special lectures, workshops and parties.
If you’re looking for a summer vacation with a magical touch, you are invited…. Go to our website for the rest of the details.
Wishing you all a magical summer!
Jeff & Abbi McBride
All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising. — Joseph Conrad
Dear Magical Friends,
Tobias, here, writing again in Jeff and Abbi’s absence.
Lots of news this time!
Jeff and Abbi have just arrived in New York City after an SRO series of events at Denny & Lee’s Magic in Baltimore. Show, lecture and workshop were all overflowing, and already receiving
rave reviews from the attendees.
The good news for those of you in the New York City area are that Jeff is repeating it all at the Fantasma store this weekend – with lots of new material since last year’s appearance there — and there are still some tickets left. He is doing both show and lecture on both tonight and Saturday evenings, and a full workshop on Sunday afternoon for a select few really serious students. This is a great way to experience the workshop / master class experience without having to travel all the way to Las Vegas. You can read more and purchase tickets online by clicking here!
Which reminds me – this will be a great summer for McBride fans on the East Coast, because we’ve just signed for Jeff and Abbi to perform their latest show, “Magic at the Edge†at the Trump Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City from August 2 – September 2nd. See all of Jeff’s greatest hits with masks, cards, coins, etc. – joined by lots of newer material you’ve never seen before – all in an intimate 500 seat showroom. We’ll have the links to the box office site up on Jeff’s calendar within the next week or two…be sure and check it out.
More great news for magicians on the East Coast: Because of the show at the Trump Marina, we’ve moved the August extended Master Class back one week, so it will now take place August 8-14, and, instead of being in Las Vegas, we’ll be in the showroom at the Trump Marina in Atlantic City. For those of you in driving distance from Atlantic City, this will be a great chance to participate in the first ever East Coast Extended Master Class, and to witness the workings of a big casino magic show from all angles.
As a final bit of news, before getting on this week’s special “Muse†piece, you should be aware we still have some spots available for this year’s Magic & Meaning conference, with special guests Robert E. Neale and Dr. Lawrence Hass. We’ve just confirmed our space at the Courtyard Marriott on Green Valley Parkway in Henderson, NV,and we have a special deal with the hotel for those who attend the workshop. Just call 1 (800) 583-0079 and tell them you have registered for “Magic and Meaning†and want to reserve your room at the “McBride Magic group rate.†I believe the rate is $125 a night, which is about a 10% reduction from their regular rates. We’ll be sending this specific information to everyone who has registered as a direct e-mail, as well, so don’t worry if you lose this Museletter.
Okay – today’s Muse piece is a quick optical illusion / magic trick I like to perform when I’m having lunch with a new potential client. Because I’m in the business of providing people with magical experiences, I’ve always felt that my approach to selling should also be magical, and this is just one example:
All you need is two coins. I like to borrow one and use one of my
own, for reason’s you’ll soon see. The two coins should be similar in size. Two quarters work just fine – if you can find someone with a Susan B. Anthony dollar and you have one, that’s even better. You hold the two coins between your thumb and finger, as shown in the image at the right. You can even have your new friend do this for themselves – it’s always more effective when the magic happens in their own hands. Just have them rub the two coins together, while observing them from the edges (their eye should be in the position the camera was to take the photo at the right). As they rub the two coins together, their minds will create the image of a third coin in between these two. It’s only an illusion – until you reach over and produce the third coin (using your favorite sleight-of-hand method – I just push the coin out from a finger-palmed position) right from the tops of the two moving coins.
“See what can happen when we pool our resources?†I say. A minute ago, we barely had two coins to rub together between us – now we’ve already made a profit!†And I give them the coin I produced, along with the one I borrowed from them. “Magic is a lot of fun, and it can really bring about some amazing transformation. I hope we’ll have a chance to make a lot of magic happen together.â€
I hope you all enjoyed this newsletter. We’ll have another one with photos from Jeff and Abbi’s current trip East out in another couple of weeks.
Wishing you a magical summer!
Sincerely,
Tobias Beckwith