A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Dear Friends,

Our guest author this month is Simone Marron, listed on our site as: 

Simone Marron – Social Coordinator, performer, eternal student, and best friend to magicians the world over.

I can’t think of a truer description for her. She has some true words of wisdom for us.

As the light gets increasingly brighter at the end of the tunnel of solitude, what have we learned?

• Procrastination is not caused by lack of available time.
• We were able to spend more time alone than we previously ever thought possible.
• You can count on some friends more than others.
• The magic community is there for us.
• Zoom has helped most of us through.

The McBride Magic & Mystery School has been teaching online for more than ten years. The phrase “Monday is a school night,” has been a frequently heard phrase throughout our homes during that time. So, it is no surprise that the early adopters of online classes specifically for those wandering through the “tunnel,” would be the creation of the Mystery School.

Without doubt, this quote written decades ago did not refer to the Zoom that we have become so familiar with. Almost certainly, it is coincidental that the word Zoom was used when talking about Elvis in the context of innovation. However, what have we learned about this medium, and the advantages of its use for teaching in relation to magic—especially as it relates to Mystery School?

• Lessons can be learned without leaving home.
• Classes are less expensive.
• There are no travelling expenses.
• Participation worldwide is possible.
• Easy access to some of the greatest minds in magic.
• Recordings and digital documents are available for reference later.
• Social interaction, although different, is possible with breakout rooms.
• Magic that looks miraculous can be performed close-up in the camera frame.

The learning curve has differed between performers in our art, but for many, it has opened a new window—a new way of achieving their career goals. It is a personal decision to either make the transition to walk through this newly opened door, or to stay in the comfort zone, and to wait until they can return to normal life.

Live in-person performance will return soon, as will in-person classes. However, it does not look like online entertainment is going away. The future will likely be a hybrid of live and online, enabling endless possibilities of international visibility with much wider audiences.
 
The price of Zoom stock at the beginning of 2020 was $68.28. At the time of writing, the value is $427.10 per share, with a high of $568.34 reached in October 2020. Frequent software updates are released with groundbreaking options—always improving the experience. One year ago, we could not have conceived how much would have been possible in Zoom advancements in such a short space of time. The endless possibilities keep building…
 
Of course, Zoom is not the only pony in the race. There are also Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and countless other candidates. However, Zoom seems to be the most user-friendly, flexible option available to entertainers at the current time.
 
In the meantime, if you want to catch one of the Magic & Mystery School’s online offerings, you can see a list of upcoming classes here: https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/events.
 
Remember, things are usually better than you sometimes think. The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion…the tunnel is.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the other end of the “tunnel.”
 
Simone Marron
simone@marrons.us

Magic for Speakers

Greetings my friends,

You may not know this, but it is true! For over 25 years I never spoke onstage. I was scared to death to speak in front of audiencesa—a  mime trapped behind a mask!

Here is a photo of me at 20 years old.

Breaking the Sound Barrier
It was not until I met great acting coaches like Bob Fitch that I learned the secrets of successful speaking. Since then, I’ve been seeking out the best speakers in the business to teach me—and now they can pass their professional secrets on to you in our upcoming class Magic for Speakers & Presenters.

One of Those Secrets is Attention
In order to survive, companies need to get people’s attention for their products and services. Who are the masters of attention? Magicians are masters of the art of attention!

Words are Magic
The power of magic words can move your audiences. This is why corporations hire magicians for keynote talks and speeches at their online and live conferences. You could be working in this industry; we are hosting an event just for you!

Magic For Speakers and Presenters

Who is This Event For?

• Magicians who want to learn the art of public speaking.
• Keynote speakers who want to add magic to their presentations.

Powerful speakers and presenters can move people’s hearts and minds, and make positive change in this world. Now you can learn magicians’ secrets for effective communication—and even add a touch of magic to your presentations.

Adding Magic to Your Message
The ability to surprise with magic, and to link that surprise to your message as a speaker, can provide that special touch to give your talks the edge you need in today’s competitive marketplace. Our program is designed for both magicians who wish to add professional level speaking abilities to their repertoire, and for speakers who want to add something amazing to their presentations. 

In this workshop you will:

• Learn fool-proof methods to connect with your audiences using magic.
• Discover the power of metaphor and magic to engrave your message on your audiences’ minds.
• Find the perfect story and trick to demonstrate any message.
• Learn new techniques for building stronger visual support for your magic & stories.
• Develop and practice your vocal abilities and build vocal strength.
• Learn the secret mental mechanisms you can trigger in your audiences to remember and act on your presentations.

Register now!
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/events

MagicQuest News:
Only 8 performances May 7-16. Tickets are now on sale for the VIP party and show. Here’s a taste!

We have limited shows, so please get your tickets today.

https://mcbride.wellattended.com/events/jeff-mcbride-magicquest

Yours in magic.

Jeff 

Jeff McBride’s World Premiere Show on ZOOM

Greetings Magical Friends,

Tobias Beckwith, Scott Steelfyre and I have been working hard for the past couple of months on a new project. We have been getting everything ready for you — and now, for the first time, I am happy to invite you into the home I share with my wife Abigail, for a brand new, unique experience. 

Very few outside our inner circle have ever seen the mysteries housed here. That’s all changing now! 

Our House of Mystery is the setting for Jeff McBride – MagicQuest,” a once-in-a-lifetime, magical experience. During this interactive virtual event, our guests will visit my studio and the secret archives. This is a night of magic and wonder, where we’ll explore everything from the supernatural to sleight-of-hand…and I’ll reveal the stories behind the mysterious secret artifacts I’ve sought out and collected while touring the world. 

I hope you will join us for this adventure unlike anything else you will ever encounter. I’ve been preparing my whole life for this, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

MagicQuest is my brand-new online magic show that will take you on an extraordinary journey all around the world of magic, and will highlight my amazing adventures from New York City to Las Vegas, from Tokyo to Burning Man, and beyond.

You will —

• Enter the Golden Book of Magic Secrets.
• Discover the Kabuki Magic of Japan.
• Encounter the Fire Shaman.
• Experience the Death & Resurrection Show.
• Witness the Award-Winning Magic that fooled Penn & Teller.
• Learn what I consider to be the Secret of Real Magic! 

Jeff McBride — MagicQuest is my combination tour and show, in which I will share my encounters with the magical and the miraculous, in a fully interactive online experience coming to you live from The McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas!

The VIP Tour & After Party
Step behind the secret bookcase and enter a world of wonders. Join me after the show in the Library of Secrets for a personal Q&A session. VIP guests get the rare opportunity of having personal time behind the scenes. See the Exquisite Collection of a lifetime of world adventures in the Cabinet of Curiosities, and hear stories I have never told before! Special VIP magic only for those on the after-party tour. Delightful Deceptions, Magic with Meaning, and much more await….

Join me for a most memorable, magical, and meaning-full evening …. for MAGICQUEST!

ONLY 13 VIP tickets will be sold for each performance.

Your VIP ticket includes THE MCBRIDE MAGIC TREASURE BOX, a virtual vault containing rare archival videos, photos, and mysteries, unlocked only with your personal key!

Seating is limited, so get your tickets now. Currently on sale from May 7-16.
https://mcbride.wellattended.com/events/jeff-mcbride-magicquest

I look forward to seeing you at the show!

Prepare for the adventure!

Jeff

The Art of Fooling People

Dear Friends:

On this first day of April, I find myself thinking about something we hold dear in the practice of performing magic – the art of fooling people.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.
— Richard Feynman

I was thinking of this phrase not long ago when giving directorial notes to a magical friend. “Oh, and by the way, you’re flashing when you do X.” He had been doing this bit for years, and had been certain it was totally fooling his audiences. That happens when you perform a lot and are a strong, engaging performer. They’ll “just go along” with you. But the truth was, he had been flashing just as I saw him do, for years, and the audiences had been seeing it. His audiences were fooling him by telling him, “Oh, that’s great! Amazing.”

I’ll never forget taking my (then) wife to a party at Jeff McBride’s a few years back. Johnny Thompson was there demonstrating a card trick to some young magicians. My wife watched. She had seen hundreds of magicians performing magic with cards over the years, but she told me, “That’s the first time it ever looked like real magic! I mean…I don’t always know exactly what they’re doing, but somehow it always looks like a trick. When he performs…it just looks impossible. Like real magic!”

What was so different about Johnny’s performance? If you knew him, and had the chance to talk magic with him, you realized it had a lot to do with his willingness to go the extra mile, and put in the extra thought—the extra effort to make sure every detail of every performance would look natural, and would lead you to have the experience he wanted to give. If there was anything—anything at all—that might not ring true for an audience, that was a problem to be solved, and solved before you ever showed your magic to anyone.

I suppose that’s why many of magic’s top performers over the years—I’m thinking particularly of Lance Burton and Penn & Teller—made Johnny Thompson their full-time magic consultant. You don’t do that if you don’t care as deeply about the quality of your magic as he did!

It’s hard to perform as Johnny did. It takes deep curiosity, deep knowledge, and endless effort. If I’m honest, I think that may not be the route all performers will wish—or need to take. There may be other reasons for performing as a magician than to give an experience truly indistinguishable from real magic. You might perform magic as the “special effects” in a story you tell. Or, you might perform as a trickster who doesn’t care that the tricks performed look like tricks, as long as the audience is amused. Many of us perform magic because we want to impress our audiences with how clever we are. It doesn’t matter that they can tell we’re just doing tricks, as long as they can’t figure out exactly what the secret of the trick is.

A recent survey that our friend Joshua Jay helped conduct, came up with the startling notion that what most magic fans like most about magical performances is being surprised—and not experiencing something truly magical, at all. I’m sure there are many other possible uses for magic effects within performances.

I suppose my point here is this: If you want to provide experiences that feel like real magic, you’re stuck with going Johnny Thompson’s route. Just learning a trick from a book—a “secret method,” and then practicing it a few times in front of your mirror, won’t get you there. Deep study, deep thought, endless practice, endless rehearsal, and after a thousand performances or so, it will, sometimes begin to look and feel like “real magic” to your audience.

But that shouldn’t be too daunting for all of us enthusiasts and hobbyists, or even those who simply use magic within the context of their “big spectacle” shows, comedy routines, or even great storytelling. In these endeavors, audiences can be fully and delightfully entertained by magic that’s not as perfect, and not as completely magical, as Johnny’s was. There are different levels to this “fooling us” thing, and as long as you’re not really “giving away the secret,” I suppose you can call yourself a magician.

For myself, though, I’d like to see more magic like Johnny’s, and fewer magicians out there “just fooling themselves.”

As you know, we’re always changing, and always moving forward here at the McBride Magic & Mystery School. Have a look at some of our upcoming classes and events by clicking the calendar below.

A bit of late breaking news—Dan Harlan has agreed to be our special guest at this year’s live and In person Magic & Meaning Conference at Sunset Station. Dan is one of the most knowledgeable and creative magicians of our time, and has been a friend of the Magic & Mystery School from the beginning. We’re going to have an amazing time at this, our first real “in person” event in over a year. I hope you can join us. CLICK HERE to register!

Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and keep on making magic!

Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com

Variety – The Spice of Life

Greetings Dear Friends!

Welcome to Vegas — a city of variety and magic! So many people want to visit magical Las Vegas, and you will get your chance again soon! But, right now, you deserve a break! A break from reality… and end to the humdrum, mundane, locked-in, fenced-out, feelings you may be experiencing these days. What is the perfect antidote? 

No, not the magazine, my friends…. The real thing! Variety is more than just the spice of life. Variety — it is essential to add this element of surprise, magic, delight, and wonder to our lives every day. You can bring variety to your life in the following ways:  Writer Lori Deschene suggests we… 

1. Start the day with a blank piece of paper and the question: “What if today were my last?” Write down what you’d do differently, and then try to do at least five of those things.
2. Wear something much bolder than you usually do. This gives people the opportunity to see you in a new light, which means they may interact with you differently. 
3. Change your workspace. Bring new pictures and candles, or move your desk if you’re able. Rearranging furniture always makes my space more exciting.
4. Commit to complimenting everyone you encounter on something. Sometimes it will be easy, and sometimes it will be challenging. Every time it will brighten someone’s day, and fill you with joy.
5. Commit random acts of kindness. (Eugene Burger’s Favorite!) You’ll get a warm fuzzy feeling, and you’ll create some good karma for yourself. You never know when that kindness will come back to you and open up your world.

Read more of Lori’s suggestions here:
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/25-little-changes-to-make-the-day-more-exciting/

How much VARIETY do you have in YOUR life?
I can help you add a bit more! Great Masters of the Art often add a splash of the unusual to their presentations. In this exciting class, you will have the opportunity to meet masters of the variety arts, and learn their secrets of success. Many of these arts are nearly lost or forgotten. That is what makes them so exciting, novel, and fresh to modern day audiences!

VARIETY SKILLS AND ALLIED ARTS
New online class. April 11th–25th, 2021. Three great classes on three consecutive Sundays, Noon – 2 pm (Pacific). With Jeff McBride and special guests: Charlie Frye, Rafael, Lee Alex, and more to be announced! We will talk live with each of these modern masters, watch great acts in history, and learn so much about the “allied arts.”

Special guest artists will be live in the classroom to give you personal instruction. 

• Charlie Frye – Eccentric juggling, magic and showmanship.
• Rafael – One of Europe’s most talented magical variety showmen.
• Lee Alex – Quick change artist & magician.

Topics will include demonstrations, and how to access resources and study materials about ventriloquism, puppetry, tamasudare, dice stacking, origami, plate-spinning, shadowgraphy, chapaugraphy, troublewit, balloon sculpting, sand painting, rag pictures, chalk talk, smoke painting, sword swallowing, fire and flow art, and even the old-time flea circus! 

Many other subjects that are obscure or forgotten will also pop up during our lively interactive session.

Register now:
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/variety-skills-allied-arts

Three Great Variety Performers You Must See!
Just look at their videos below. Charlie Frye - His YouTube videos are so inspiring. He is known around the world as modern master of variety skills.

A Gift for You, & Our Magic Community
April brings new changes. Beginning April 5^th, we will host one Monday night show FREE every month! That is correct. “MYSTERY SCHOOL – OPEN HOUSE” will be the first Monday of every month!

Join your favorite magicians and magic teachers from around the world for an exciting and informative evening of magical wisdom. We go live at 7pm PST. WWW.MCBRIDEMAGIC.TV.

We are posting these shows at our Magical Wisdom site, so if you did not get a chance to join us, here is a link to Mystery School Monday free shows and all back episodes:
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/i/mystery-school-monday-ep-list

I’ll see you on the first Monday of EVERY month my friends, or see you at one of our exciting new online classes.

Be inspired!
Jeff