“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Dear Friends:
What an excellent quote from Abe! I “sharpen my axe†by attending conferences, lectures and seminars that upgrade my skill sets and open me up to progressive ways of thinking. I just must get away and get some real life experience from expert teachers.
Recently I attended a lecture by Juan Tamariz. It was not just the magic effects that I found so mind expanding, it was more just being “in his company.” I felt like a dry plant being watered; I felt rejuvenated. I also get this extraordinary feeling when I host our classes here in Las Vegas. Eugene, and all of the teachers here at the school, continue to “upgrade” my creativity and my life skills.
If you want to join us for a class, please consider the March or summer classes.
If you can’t fly to Las Vegas, then take a look at our online school offerings for this season.
Jeff pushes his technique to the limits in his card manipulation routine.
All photos by Seryl Aguilar
“Thanks for the gift and thanks for the Master Class experience. It was really something different, something that felt meaningful and a memory for life. It was way better than my expectations. It was more than magic effects, it was a totally different kind of life.”
— Jompa Anderson, Master Class student
Are you Old School, or New School?
Do you prefer a Kindle book over a hard back book?
Do you “pop in a cd†or play mp3s on your iPod?
Do you write quick notes by hand or do you send a text on your iPhone?
Do you work with Bicycle playing cards or those new “fancy-schmancy” decks?
Yes my friends, we are living at a time where technologies are obsolete before they even hit your home! We have been “bridging the gap,†as it were. Our Online School is a perfect example of a solution to the “old school/new school†division.
“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.â€
— Anonymous
Jeff McBride and THE WONDERGROUND PLAYERS in a recent stage extravaganza!
Meet my Freaky Friends!
I love stretching my limits, and so every month we host the greatest magic party in Las Vegas! Each month we create A NEW SHOW! Join us this Thursday, Feb. 21st at 8pm for the latest edition. For full line up and information go to: http://www.vegaswonderground.com
YOU WILL LOVE THIS AMAZING LINE UP OF RARE TALENT!
This month at WONDERGROUND we are featuring ZAMORA THE TORTURE KING!
ZAMORA: is just back from Europe, and makes a rare appearance.
JASON ANDREWS: 1st place winner at the IBM stage competition.
DAVID GROVES: the author of “STREET MAGICâ€Â weaves his wonders
LES CONTORTIONETTES-:fantasic blend of puppetry and contortion
BIZZARO!:One of the most creative minds in modern magic!
BIJAN & DAVID GABBAY From Hollywood, rising stars in comedy magic.
Take a look at some great images by Sheryl Aguilar, from last month’s event
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9lpcqbioykpufn6/1lkj48I7ac?m
If you like, you can watch our show for free, ONLINE at 10 pm on WWW.MCBRIDEMAGIC.TV
“New Rave” magician, Kyle Raven from Singapore lights up the stage at WONDERGROUND!
McBride World Tour: China & Thailand
I am on my way back to China again for a super stage show. Jordan Wright will join me on this trip and my next one to Thailand. Hey, I might even be coming YOUR way soon, so please look at my tour dates. http://www.mcbridemagic.com/pages/calendar.php
See you at the shows, on tour, or online at the “virtual magic school!â€
Jeff
P. S.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.â€
— Plutarch
Join us & set your mind on fire at our annual MYSTERIUM gathering.
From Tobias:
We have several weekends in May currently unbooked. If you’ve considered sponsoring one of Jeff’s “McBride Magic Experience†mini-conventions in your city, now is the time to think about doing it. You can learn more about how the whole process works at: http://www.mcbridemagic.com/pages/venues/mcbride-magic-for-magicians/the-jeff-mcbride-experience.php
Jeff loves coming out to share his show and teaching across the country, and we’ve developed a “minimum risk†way for you to sponsor him – in many cases you can sponsor the whole show, lecture and workshop with a lower overhead that it would take to sponsor a lesser known magician just for a lecture. Click the link above to learn more, and then get in touch with me and make arrangements!
Best wishes.
Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com
Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.
— Unknown
Dear Friends:
Today we have a special message from Dr. Larry Hass, our Associate Dean. If you’re reading this, and don’t already know Dr. Hass, I can assure you he knows what he is writing about as he writes about having heart. Larry contributes so much to our magical community – not just as an excellent performer, or as part of our Magic & Mystery School, but through his work running his Theory and Art of Magic Press, and through the programs he has created to bring the serious study of magic to traditional college curriculums, first at Muhlenberg College and now at Austin College. If you get to see him perform or lecture, you’re in for a treat – and can be sure he will touch your hearts and inspire you with his own passion. We count ourselves extremely fortunate to have him as a part of our team.
February is the month of heart. With Valentine’s Day in the middle of it, it is a time when our thoughts turn and re-turn to love and friendship, to the relationships we make with partners, spouses, children, family, friends, and the communities in which we engage.
This February I especially am thinking about the fact that the Magic & Mystery School community has heart. Frankly, I wouldn’t be involved if it didn’t! We are not all about intellect, competition, or achievement. Of course there is room in our community for these things, but what keeps them in balance is what I think of as the School’s heart core.
This heart core is beating away in our educational mission and in many of our projects and initiatives. The truth is, we feel a bit shy about trumpeting them, but because we need your help right now (more on this below), I want to underscore a couple of them.
First, it is my pleasure to announce that over the past two years our Gift Magic book project has generated over $4,700 for Rich Bloch’s Encore Foundation, which assists magicians in times of tragic need. Indeed, our pledge was that every penny of profit from sales of Gift Magic would go to Encore, and we are delighted that the book continues to sell so well.
The second thing to formally announce is the extraordinary success of the School’s 2012 Scholarship Program. Once in a while some wise guy jokes, “Oh you’re a school; do you offer scholarships? Ha, ha.†The answer is: Yes, we most certainly do!
In fact, the School offers two scholarships for qualified students: 1) The Magic & Mystery School Scholarship, and 2) The SARMOTI Legacy Scholarship (founded through the generous support of the Siegfried and Roy North American Fan Club). Both of these scholarships provide need-based financial aid for students to have a magic education experience at one of our classes in Las Vegas. Please go to the Scholarship Program page of the new website to see if you qualify and to download an application.
The wonderful thing is that these scholarships are funded by you. They are funded by people in our extended community who have “heard the call†and made generous donations to our Scholarship Fund. In 2012 we received enough gifts from people in our “heart community†to fund scholarships for three people who needed a “hand up†at this point in their life to get the education they need for greater success. (The recipients are wonderful, talented, highly motivated people and you will read about them in the months ahead.)
This brings me to another part of our heart core: the launch of our new Membership Initiative. We are asking you to become an official member of the Magic & Mystery School.
We are launching this initiative for two reasons. First, we need your help in covering the basic operational costs of our online offerings (for example, the Museletter, the free Monday night show, and the Virtual School in all its shades and content). The fact is, none of it is free and none of it is cheap, and as our viewer hours per month at Livestream are going through the roof (last month well over 100,000 hours), we need your help to make it sustainable.
But more important for us is the fact that, after a portion of your membership fee goes to cover basic costs, all the rest of it goes directly into our Scholarship Fund. And every penny of the Scholarship Fund goes out to talented magic students who need help closing the gap for their magic education.
So please, right now, go to the new Magical Wisdom home page and “Become a Member†of the Magic & Mystery School. When you press the big red button on the home page, you will be taken to a page that shows you the three levels of membership ($25, $50, and $100), and the exclusive benefits that each level brings.
We are proud of these “goodies,†and we think you will enjoy them. But above all, remember that your membership fee is helping us in our educational mission to improve the art of magic one magician at a time.
We make this frank appeal to you because we know you have heart. And we know you are connected to us because we have heart. Thank you for helping us to be the kind of community we aspire to be!
From Tobias:
We’re excited that next week (February 3-10) will be “Magic & Mystery School Week†at the Magic Castle. The whole faculty and staff will be there, and if you’ll be in Southern California, you won’t want to miss this special week when we get to bring our special “Mystery School†brand of magic to one of magic’s great institutions. Learn more at: http://www.magiccastle.com/
After that Jeff and Jordan Wright will be taking off for a week in Shanghai, performing Jeff’s “Magic Behind the Mask†show there on a whirlwind schedule, before returning to Vegas in time for next month’s “Mysterium,†and to our first classes of 2013: “Magic for Speakers and Presenters†and our first Master Class of the new year. There are one or two slots still open for each class, so if you hurry you can still secure one of them. Because of Jeff’s and Eugene’s extremely busy performing schedules, we don’t have additional classes scheduled till July…so I’d urge you to grab these spots while they last!
You’ll be hearing from Jeff directly in a couple of weeks with our mid-month Muse, including stories from the week at the Magic Castle, information about this month’s Wonderground, and more…till then, we wish you a magical February, filled with heart!
Sincerely,
Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com