Greetings all,
I am back in Las Vegas after a long tour. Many of my days are spent working with students on Skype. One of my students who has a very interesting story is The Great Lorenzo! He often performs in the secret downstairs rooms at Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle.
Many magicians have a passion for magic early in their lives, but don’t commit fully to the path of mastery until later in life. The first Dean of the Magic & Mystery School, Eugene Burger, did not become a full time professional until his late 30’s.
Some students of magic have dreams of performing for their friends and families, and some even aspire to work at Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle. Our student, Lorenzo, is one of those magicians who came back to magic late in life and is achieving his dreams.  Â
Student of the Month
The Great Lorenzo…in his words…
My passion for magic started in 1982. I trained very hard, but had to let it go because of other life commitments. Nearly 40 years later, I came back!
In August of 2018, eight months after retiring, I attended my first Master Class. I had spent the prior three months selecting, conceptualizing, scripting, constructing, and rehearsing a 10-minute performance piece. I had no idea what to expect from the class. I had hopes, and I had fears. Who was I to take a Master Class? I was so short of mastery of anything magical anymore. However, the Master Class best fit my schedule, and was within my budget, so I enrolled.
That class was a truly inspiring experience. Jeff and Abigail have opened their home and hearts, and, with all the Mystery School staff, they have created an amazing place to learn magic. Most importantly they have created a safe space to try and fail. Negative anticipation of failure is destructive. It is destructive of self, and it is destructive of art. However, constructive failure is essential for growth and learning. The Mystery School’s greatest strength may be that it provides for safe failure.
Don’t get me wrong – the lessons themselves are intense, packed with magical knowledge, both hands-on and theoretical. The instructors are all amazing, knowledgeable professionals, and each lesson is layered with such depth of material that magicians at all levels can come away with valuable new insights into our art and new skills to practice and perfect.
At the end of that class, I was emotionally wrung out. It had caused me to reach inside myself for magic connections beyond expectation. I was exhausted and bulging with magic. It was like a Thanksgiving dinner spent with people you truly enjoyed being with, at which you had eaten all you could, but even so, barely sampled the feast laid out before you.
My strongest feeling coming away from the class was gratitude. You see, I came to the class doubting if I could be a magician again, and left it knowing that I could.
Two years after returning to magic, with Jeff’s guidance, and through the Mystery School experience, I now perform regularly at the Magic Castle. I’ve got a solid 20-minute set, and am working on another to showcase more of my close-up magic. That’s so much more than I could imagine two years ago.
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You can read Lorenzo’s full article in the Secret Arts Journal Â
http://secretartjournal.com/
Wonderground News – Join Us for The Biggest Magic Party In Las Vegas!
February 20, 2020
7:30 Strolling and Close-up Magic
8:00pm Comedy & Variety Show with your host, Tim Wise
Jeff McBride – Always Something New!
Will Bradshaw – Animated Illusions
Charly D’Carlo – Star of The Magic Factor
Dyno Staats – Magic or Science?
David Groves – Direct from Hollywood
TAPEFACE – star of America’s Got Talent
9:00pm Parlor, Close-Up and Bar Magic!
Jeff McBride – King of Cards
Lyra Zoller – Conjuring with Coins
Dyno Staats – Experimental Magic
David Groves – Original Illusions
Charly D’Carlo – The Magic Factor
Tim Wise – At the WonderBar
Plus special guests, TBA.
1000pm Stage Extravaganza with your host, Jeff McBride
Charly D’Carlo & Co. – Grand Illusions
Lyra Zoller – Scintillating Sorcery
Dyno Staats – Magic or Science?
Will Bradshaw – Valentine’s Magic
TAPEFACE – Star of the Las Vegas Strip
ALL THE ABOVE PLUS:
Photography by Sheryl Garrett, Bar Magic-Brian Apollo, Scott Steelfyre & Maggie, Corey Rubino, New World Rythmatism Belly Dancers, Psychic Sideshow with tarot reading, and many more surprises and special celebrity guests!
Dear Friends:
I think you’re going to enjoy this, from one of our more recent additions to the McBride Magic family—Michael Tetro, better known just as Tetro. If you don’t know his work already, you will soon, as he is a real rising star in the magic world. https://tetromagic.com/
Social media is changing the art of magic whether we like it or not.
I’ve loved magic since I was a teenager. However, before I became a full-time performing magician in recent years, I co-founded a tech company that provided social media services to large entertainment brands like Hulu and CBS. I lived and breathed social for years, which gave me a unique perspective on the role it’s played on various industries, particularly how it’s changed the landscape of performance art disciplines like magic – for better and for worse.
When I started learning magic, there was no social media. I learned from books and DVDs, hunting in the library and magic shops for the best information. Now, social media is used as an educational resource for magicians across varying skill levels. An abundance of content, teachers, tutorials, performances, and new ideas are available at the touch of a button, making it easy for magicians to learn and share. This has certainly helped speed up the evolution of the art, as it’s lowered the bar for entry, and broken down barriers for people to connect with magic.
Social media is playing an important role, not only in people’s personal lives, but also in how their businesses grow and succeed – artists non-exempt. It’s how many brands and companies express themselves, and where many consumers discover and interact with content.
As a magician, social media has allowed me to share my art with a lot of people who might otherwise not have access to it, and spread awareness of what I do with minimal cost. I use it to share my journey going full time, and pursuing my passion, sharing videos of me performing, as well as more personal content. It is an online portfolio of my accomplishments which allows me to highlight and celebrate the progress of my career, and build meaningful and lasting relationships with my fans. Further, it has allowed me to connect, work, and collaborate with other artists and potential clients. Once you post something, you never know where it might end up – one day the queen herself might be watching your videos while sipping her tea in Buckingham Palace.
It’s important to recognize the responsibility of this opportunity and be cautious of what you put out there.Â
What gives, can also take away
Unfortunately, abuse of this power has already caused problems for the magic community. We know and have suffered from too many magic reveals and exposures. By this I mean content that is not created with the intention of education or art, but rather for the exploitation of people’s curiosity, to maximize views and likes. Want to see a magic performance on YouTube? Due to the way the platforms’ algorithms operate, you’re likely to be shown how the trick works in the thumbnail image of a suggested video right next to the one you’re watching – regardless of whether you wanted to know the method or not. What’s even worse, these “reveals†or “magic exposed†videos are often cashing in on someone else’s intellectual property, which isn’t fair to the brilliant minds that invent the effects, the magicians who spend countless hours and dollars to learn them, or the audience members who revel in the mystery of it all. Abuse of other people’s intellectual property isn’t tolerated in other industries, and it shouldn’t be tolerated here, yet the systems, for the most part, are not advanced enough yet to protect against this.
What can we do? Well, for those beginning in magic, be cautious about what content you consume and what you post. You guide the algorithms not only for yourself, but for others as well. Seek out quality teachers, regardless of the platform. Start with an established educational source, like well-reviewed books. Arriving now are also dedicated streaming services made by magicians for magicians, like MagicFlix. Even better, find a magic school like the Magic and Mystery School to get a thorough education from trusted experts, who will help you establish a great foundation and good habits. There is no substitute for in-person real-time feedback. From there, you can further and supplement your education with social media.Â
While it may be tempting to jump on the social media trends right away, remember to stay focused on your ultimate goals. Ask yourself, do you want to be a great magician that plays to people, or a magic-themed content creator that plays to the camera? Mix of both? While the algorithms encourage frequency (posting frequently), focusing on quality will always be better in the long run. There is a big difference between playing to a screen, and playing to a living, breathing audience. The greatest illusions are built upon the deepest truths, which can only be learned through studying the highest quality material, and learning from the best. If you spend the majority of your time training to astonish real people, you’ll be closer to making real magic.
Social media can hurt or help our magic depending on how it’s used. It needs to be used consciously if it’s going to develop our art form, instead of exploiting it. It may be guiding our art in a new direction, one where secrets are harder to keep, but truth is harder to find. It is up to us to keep our magic strong.
@tetromagic