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“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But, when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
— Attributed to Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American Humorist
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MY DAD THE COWBOY
My father, Jack, taught me a lot of things. One of them was how to ride a horse. My dad met my mom at a horse show. He rode Western. She rode “proper English” style. This was the beginning of a long relationship, where both of them learned to respect each other’s differing styles. Many of my weekends growing up were spent at horse shows, and as soon as I could handle a horse, I was competing. My competitions included barrel racing and “keyhole,” a short distance race against the clock, where you gallop down the field, turn on a dime, and race back to the finish line.Â
I guess I didn’t practice as much as the other kids who consistently won the competitions. Oh yes, I did win the occasional first prize, but, more often, I walked away having learned a lesson in humility. It taught me how to lose gracefully, and not to give up, and to practice for the sheer pleasure of practicing. I really value the lessons I’ve learned from my father, and from my time riding horses. I often remind our students who are entering competitions that the real test of a competition is to be aware that it is not the goal or the gold, but the continuing process of mastery. The path of mastery takes hard work and commitment.
“Work banishes those three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty.”
— Voltaire, 1694-1778
MAGIC AND MEANING
Once a year, some of the brightest magicians and philosophers in the world gather together for our Magic and Meaning Conference. You can see inspirational videos of some of the highlights here at our PEP talks. PEP stands for Performance, Entertainment, Philosophy. You can watch some of the talks from last year on our website:Â
http://wwww.magicalwisdom.com/infopages/view/mm_talks
This year, we are also celebrating the release of the new edition of Eugene Burger and Robert Neale’s inspirational work MAGIC AND MEANING. This great book has been out of print for awhile, but is available again now, with 17% new material added. You can get it by going visiting our online catalog:
http://shop.yourmagic.com
TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL MASTER OF CEREMONIES
Bryce has done an amazing job on our new SECRET ART JOURNAL. This month, our featured writer is Jeff Civillico, who offers practical advice on being a Master of Ceremonies, or the host of a show. You can see his “Tips from a professional Master of Ceremonies” at
http://www.secretartjournal.com
LAST CALL FOR MAYFIRE!
If you’ve ever wanted to experience the deeper magical mysteries, the time is now. It happens only once a year, and this year it’s happening May 10- 15.Â
http://www.vegasvortex.com
FROM TOBIAS:
For those of you on the East Coast, we’re just firming up plans for Jeff to be in New York City on June 12 & 13 at the Fantasma Magic Shop. Go to http://www.fantasmamagic.com for details of how to sign up.Â
Later in June we’ll be holding another Extended Master Class, and there are still a few slots open. Check that and our other upcoming classes out at http://www.magicalwisdom.com. Register now, while spaces are available!Â
Also: Our friend Wayne Kawamoto publishes one of the better magic newsletters on the web, and he has just named Jeff among the top 10 magicians of our time. Read all about it at:Â
http://magic.about.com/od/biosonfamousmagicians/a/topten.htm
Best to all!Â
Tobias
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“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” — Miriam Beardh
Greetings Friends!
Abbi and I are back from Israel, where Dahlia Peled took many of the star performers on a Segway tour of Jerusalem. This is a great way to tour! Dahlia is the president of the Israeli Magicians Society and hosted a fantastic international event that garnered much press. Here is our crew on the Segways:
Here is Abbi, exploring the marketplace in the Old City of Jerusalem. To be in a place where people have been buying and selling, haggling over prices and negotiating with each other for centuries has a certain magic of its own. We had a wonderful afternoon, wandering through the maze that is the Old City, with Dahlia and the other magi, seeing the ancient sites, and exploring the various stalls. “My friend, my friend, come in, come in, for you I will make a special bargain, what you like…?”
This week at the House of Mystery, a film crew is here, making a documentary called MISDIRECTION. This film is about inner-city kids who find magic as a way out of the ‘hood. I’ve been involved with the project for several months now, and you can see a trailer here:Â http://www.priorlogicproductions.com/
This week, students in the Master Class, with Eugene Burger, will be taping part of the documentary backstage at the Lance Burton Show and around Las Vegas. Wow! This is our third major documentary in three years.Â
If you haven’t visited the new web sites, here are a few highlights we think you’ll enjoy:Â
If you love magical philosophy and the psychology of illusion, you will love our gifts of wonder that await you, free of charge, at http://www.secretartjournal.com/
We also have inspiring videos from last year’s Magic and Meaning Conference. The PEP Talks were recorded and edited by Jordan Wright, and are sure to provoke your creativity. You can check them out here:Â
http://www.magicalwisdom.com/infopages/view/mm_talks
Many of our friends have asked how they can to re-visit some of the stories, quotes and travelogues from previous Museletters. You can find them here:Â
https://blog.mcbridemagic.com/
Next week, I’ll be at the Magi-Whirl convention just outside Washington, D.C. I’ll be doing the full 2nd half of their gala show, and offering a separate Secret Session workshop. If you’ve always wanted to try out a Master Class, this is a great way to do it! Learn more at http://magiwhirl.homestead.com/. I hope I’ll see some of you there.
Jordan Wright will be joining Jeff as his opening act on David Sandy’s Magic Cruise, May 3 – 10th, 2009. If you want to join us for a magic convention at sea, contact David Sandy.
Five days of peace, love, magick and fire! Information, Please READ and SHARE with friends…Â
http://vegasvortex.com/pages/MayFireInformation
The Vegas Vortex welcomes you to four days and nights of incredible magical adventure in the desert. Please read the link above carefully so you can be well informed about the details of this four day Fire Gathering. This is our sixth annual MayFire celebration. This is a special gathering, for initiates, friends and family of fire, only. If you have never attended one of our events before, you must be sponsored in to this one by someone who has attended FireDance, Fire Tribe, Spirit Fire, or Celebrate the Spirit gatherings. Â
The Valley of Fire is Nevada’s oldest State Park. It is located only 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The rough floor and jagged walls of the park contain brilliant formations of eroded sandstone and sand dunes more than 150 million years old. These features, which are the centerpiece of the park’s attractions, often appear to be on fire when reflecting the sun’s rays. There are a limited number of spaces for cars to park, and a limited number of places where we can set up our tents. Â
Your friends in mystery,Â
Jeff, Abbi, Eugene, Tobias, Jordan and Bryce
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Alva Edison
Yes, we all know that Edison was a genius. The very symbol of a bright idea is a light bulb going off over our head. Not all great ideas explode like a ball of flash paper. Some ideas start out as a little spark and need to be fanned into a blaze of creativity. The kind of fire I’m talking about illuminates new horizons; it inspires creativity, and the heat makes you sweat. It took lots of sweat and hard work by a team of great artists to create our new project… a project for you, my friends. Enjoy the fire of our creation!
MAGIC OPENS ITS DOORS IN CYBERSPACE
We’ve been keeping this under wraps for many, many months, and now you are the first to know…. Tobias and Bryce have been working with our team of artists and web designers, including Gabe Marihugh, Duncan Eagleson, Katlyn Breene, Erin Doleshall and Abbi, on new virtual worlds for you to explore. I’ll let Bryce be our concierge to cyberspace.
First of all, I normally devote this entire email to an April Fools theme. Unfortunately, the only thing I have for you this year is the photo of me and my “twin” to be found later in this email.
Many of you have heard me talk at the Magic School or elsewhere on websites and internet marketing. The sad fact was that Jeff’s website wasn’t living up to my own standards. It wasn’t about design (it never is). It just wasn’t serving its purpose (to get Jeff work). I built his first website in 1995, while I was in college. Over the years it has grown. That was the problem.
Jeff is a very complex person with an equally complex career. We started by trying to build one website that would cover all the bases. Now we’re up to six websites.
Those of you who know me, know I tend to go overboard. I certainly didn’t break the trend here. We have completely redesigned Jeff all of Jeff’s magic-related sites and added a new blog site. The only thing that stayed the same was the VegasVortex site, which I no longer manage.
Here’s a brief overview of what happened and why. Visit the sites to see the results.
And now, as promised… my twin.
This is my new friend Max Schneider (I’m the one on the right… not the far right with the beard, obviously). I was hanging out in our room at the World Magic Seminar a few weeks ago and suddenly Jeff screams “It’s the winner of the Bryce Kuhlman look-alike contest!” Max had just entered the room. We got quite a reaction every time we were caught hanging out in the hallways!
Max is a wonderful magician from Germany who’s currently spending some time performing in the US. While in Germany he took classes with Alexander de Cova and eventually became a student of Gaston. Even at his young age, he’s had a lot of experience in magic: competitions, restaurants, theatre, TV and even a command performance for Roy’s birthday followed by a short tour with them to perform for orphans in Romania.
Max has lots of ideas about us working together on stage. A virtual matrix routine? Hmmm…
-Bryce
MUSIC, MAGIC, MYSTERY AND FIRE!
“Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.”
–Robert Fripp
Abbi and I love music, in fact, we met playing drums around a fire… and ever since that first spark was lit, twenty years ago, we’ve been traveling the world, sharing our unique vision of magick and music. We have been joined by friends Dr. Joshua Levin and Michael Wall, in co-creating a new group project… introducing….
THE PYROMANTICS
The Pyromantics are a fellowship of four friends drawn together by a shared vision of loving creative harmony. Abigail, Michael, Jeff, and Joshua have devoted more than a decade to exploring techniques for creating semi-improvisational experiences that empower large groups of people to inspire, nurture, and discover each other in the moment. Drawing upon a wealth of experience in diverse fields, the Pyromantics have applied their gifts to the creation and refinement of the Alchemifire Ritual. The result is a unique, cutting edge contribution to the field of human growth and potential. Grounded in cross-cultural archetypes of ceremony, and built around the inclusive, non-denominational metaphor of alchemical transformation, their work awakens, joins, strengthens, and refines, in a festive ordeal of music, poetry, dance, and art. Offering these experiences around the country for no more than the cost of production, the Pyromantics are true to their name – lovers of the fire that dwells within and without, illuminating our way from the sun to the soul and beyond.
LET’S BREAK IT DOWN TO THE BASIC BLOCKS:
PYR=FIRE
“OM” =THE UNIVERSAL SOUND THAT CONTAINS ALL SOUND, WORDS, LANGUAGE AND MANTRAS
ROMANTIC= EMBRACING THE EXOTIC, UNFAMILIAR AND HARNESSING THE POWER OF LOVE AND THE IMAGINATION TO ENVISION AND TO TRANSFORM
ANTICS= WHAT WE ARE INSPIRED TO DO AS WE DANCE THE FIRE FROM DUSK TIL DAWN!
Join the Pyromantics for a series of Alchemifire events this summer!
MayFire, May 10-15, at the Valley of Fire State Park, just north of Las Vegas. One of the places we find inspiration is at our Alchemifire events. We are hosting one here in May, and if you are called to join us, here is the link to explore http://www.vegasvortex.com
We will be hosting another in June, in Ohio, called the Wisteria Summer Solstice Gathering, June 14 – 21, 2009
http://www.wisteria.org/wisteria-summer-solstice.htm
“The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay
I want to thank, again, all of our Magic and Mystery School team for pouring their efforts into our new projects.
It is our hope that these Museletters will continue to inspire you and all of our friends on our magical quests.
Abbi and I love the time we share writing these, and we take great pleasure in knowing that you read our words, and enjoy them.
Love and magic to all,
Jeff & Abbi
“Sometimes our light goes out, but it is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”
–Albert Schweitzer
“Teaching is not filling a bucket; it is lighting a fire.”
The above is an inspirational thought that I worked into my acceptance speech at the AMA awards last week. I was presented with the Lecturer of the Year award, which is the highest honor a teacher of magic can receive. I want to thank all of my teachers for keeping the fire of magic burning brightly: Eugene, Abbi, Tobias, Bryce and Jordan and all of the other teachers and facilitators here at the School.
The Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle) held its 41st annual awards show at the Avalon Hollywood Theater. …And the winners are:Â
Jeff McBride, Lecturer of the YearÂ
Guy Hollingworth, Magician of the YearÂ
Bob Fitch, Lifetime AchievementÂ
Celeste Evans, Performing FellowshipÂ
Howie Schwarzman, Performing FellowshipÂ
Louis Falanga, Literary FellowshipÂ
Doc Eason, Close-up Magician of the YearÂ
Kevin James, Stage Magician of the YearÂ
Shoot Ogawa, Parlour Magician of the YearÂ
It was really quite amazing that I have deep and lasting friendships with so many of the winners. Bob Fitch was my first director, and responsible for helping me choreograph one of my favorite routines, “THE MAGIC WATER BOWLS” that you may have seen recently on Masters of Illusion. Louis Falanga is the publisher of many of my teaching DVDs, and the new MAGIC AT THE EDGE 3 volume set. I often tour with Doc Eason, Kevin James and Shoot Ogawa, all fine magicians. All of these guys visit Las Vegas on a regular basis. Celeste Evans is one of the great ladies of magic; I hope that she can attend the upcoming Sisters of Mystery conference for women in magic later this fall.
“Without inspiration, the best powers of the mind remain dormant; there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.”
— Johann Gottfried von Herder
Vegas. One of the places we find inspiration is at our Alchemifire events. We are hosting one here in May, and if you are called to join us, here is the link to explore:Â
We will be hosting another in June, in Ohio,Â
http://www.wisteria.org/wisteria-summer-solstice.htm
Yes friends, the big blue bird of happiness will greet you if he stays around our neighborhood, though I must say, the lawn guys gave him quite a scare yesterday with their leaf blowers… He gave them a scare, too. His tail feathers span over eight feet when he’s got them extended, which he displayed for us the other day. So, just be cautious as you approach the door to our House of Mystery. His nest is just to the left of our gate….Â
As you read this, I will be on tour in Israel and Spain, getting home just in time for our April Master Class, and then to the MAGIC-WHIRL event in Washington, DC.Â
Your friend in mystery,
Jeff
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“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”
— Carl Jung
I feel that that’s what magicians do. We light fires in people’s imaginations. These fires burn away impossibilities, limitations and restrictions. They clear the fields of the dead wood of predictability. The ashes of these fires nurture new seeds of hope.Â
When I travel, I often meet magicians who I consider to be sages. In this Museletter, my friends, you will meet a few of them. I’ve just returned home from touring Peru and England. Magic is alive and well in Peru. Here is a photo of my magic friends after a six hour Master Class that was part of the convention.
Juan Tamariz
… is one of the most enthusiastic performers of our time. I have had the good fortune of sharing time with him over the years, but in this last visit to Peru I got to attend some of his seminars and lectures, and was thoroughly impressed, all over again.Â
During the Flasoma Convention 2009 in Peru, Tamariz explained his reasons for thinking that the S. W. Erdnase material was actually written by L’Homme Masque. L’Homme Masque was a Peruvian magician who lived at the same time as Erdnase. Dai Vernon considered him to be one of his idols. Gaetan Bloom shares Juan’s assumption. Juan and Gaetan held a lecture and discussion speculating that there is enough evidence pointing in the direction of L’Homme Masque as the author. I am sure that Juan will share further research at upcoming events.Â
I spoke at length with Juan Tamariz at his late-night philosophy lectures. He is truly a brilliant thinker. Juan is a big fan of Bob Neale, and I am presently conspiring to bring them together at one of our events in the near future. It was worth the many days it took to travel to Peru to sit in this sage’s company and drink from his fountain of wisdom.
Amazing Blackpool
Over 3,500 magicians converged on the northern seaside city of Blackpool, England, for the 57th annual convention. Some of the highlights for me included teaching a three day Master Class at the Blackpool magician’s club, seeing friends and Master Class alumni like Jon Randall, Romany, Rafael, George Parker and Kenny & Angie from Kernow Magic. Eugene gave a standing room only lecture, and twelve close-up shows… and people think I have stamina!Â
I suggest that you make Blackpool one of your magic vacation destinations. This seaside city is filled with variety shows, circuses, and enchanting old-world attractions. Even during the cold winter months, the town is a hot spot. Hats off to Derek Lever and the Blackpool magicians’ club for hosting one of the greatest magic events the world has ever seen!Â
I had the pleasure of meeting the legendary comic Ken Dodd. He’s in his mid-80s and still does four shows a week. He’s kind of like England’s Bob Hope. He said that the key to performing is enthusiasm, and when I asked him what the secret of a good life is, he said “plant something…. Plant a seed, and watch it grow. Not only real seeds, but ideas, dreams, and possibilities.”Â
Eugene and I had a delightful conversation over breakfast with The Amazing Randi. We discussed all things skeptical and meta-magical. He’s a charming conversationalist, and his mentalism show and lectures were phenomenal. When we left the breakfast table, there were many bent spoons left behind. Here is a photo of us with Mr. Randi.
March will bring me down to Daytona & Orlando, Florida. After a private corporate date in Daytona on the 17th, I will be doing a show & lecture at the Sleuth’s Dinner Theater at 8267 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819, http://www.sleuths.com, on the 18th and a special Secret Session workshop on March 19th at Magical Arts and Design East Coast Studio: 1039 Pine Street, Orlando, 32824 ( www.MagicalArtsandDesign.com ). The contact number for all Orlando appearance information is: MAD Hotline 866-905-9858, 407-858-9858 local.Â
Then Abbi and I will be going to visit Israel from the 22nd- 30th of March. Learn more about it here:http://www.magic.org.il (probably only useful if you read Hebrew). On the way back, I’ll be visiting with my friend Juan Mayoral for his magic festival in Almusafes, Spain, where I’ll both lecture and perform.Â
Oh, by the way, our friends, “Lord Peacock” is roosting in the front yard, so if you drop over for a class or private session, I’ll be happy to introduce you! He seems to be especially fond of sunflower seeds, so be sure to bring some along if you want to feed him.Â
The trees are beginning to bloom here, and the new seeds have been planted in Abbi’s garden. What “seeds” of magic are you planting?Â
Your friend in magic,Â
Jeff