“A grateful mind is a great mind that eventually attracts to it great things.”
— Plato
Dear Friends:
There’s a popular restaurant group here in the Bay Area called “Café Gratitude.” Their mantra is “I am Grateful.” Their menu is a delightful listing of things you can be grateful for: “I am Creative,” “I am Committed” and “I am Worthy,” are just a few. I love going there — the food is delicious, the service great and I always leave feeling better than when I entered… and always feeling grateful. As I sit down to write this, I find myself asking what I’m grateful for this year, and one of the biggest things I’m feeling gratitude for is the incredible community of magicians I am fortunate to be a part of.
At the Magic & Mystery School, we’re always grateful for the wonderful, talented students who come to spend time with us. We’re grateful for all our special guests, starting with Eugene (who is really more family than guest, of course). Our friends Bob Neale, Ross Johnson, Larry Hass, Randy Wolf and so many more that help us with the school always inspire us and make us feel lucky to be associated with them.
And so we thought we’d send this one last Muse Letter of 2009 to tell you, our readers, how grateful we are for you. This past year has seen readership of the Museletter grow beyond the 10,000 mark. That leaves us both grateful and a bit humbled. To think there are 10,000 of you out there who want to read what we have to tell you — well, we’ll continue to do our best to be worthy.
This brings me to a question for all of you. This is something we often ask the students in our classes — but obviously not all of you reading this have been to one of our classes yet. The question is this: “If we could provide one thing, through our classes and events, just for you, what would that thing be?” Let your imagination run wild for a moment. Imagine a million dollar budget, six months to prepare — and all the resources of our magic school and events completely at your disposal. What would you ask for? And please let us know (tobias@yourmagic.com)! I’m sure we’ll get a lot of ideas we can’t do — but you may be surprised at the things we CAN.
Take The Wonderground, for example. Jeff and an amazing crew of artists, magicians, dancers and more revived The Wonderground this past week, putting on an incredible evening of theater, party, dance and fun for an SRO crowd. The evening was described by one attendee as “The best show I’ve ever seen in Las Vegas!” And it was done on a budget of about $500! The photos in this Museletter were all shot last Thursday night at the Wonderground, in case you were wondering. We’ll be doing it again every month on the third Thursday. You can learn more at www.vegaswonderground.com.
That’s just one of the “impossible” things we’ve been able to achieve with the incredible help from our amazing friends. So tell us YOUR dreams, and let’s see if we can make them come true.
Before I wind up, let me leave you with a “New Year’s” thought. Have you made your resolutions? The coming year promises to be an exciting one. The economy is just now beginning to turn. Lots of new green initiatives in the business and technology words are poised to start coming on line. It’s a time for new beginnings. Time to look at your life and ask “Who do I really want to be? What adventures to I want to have? As a magician, what are my highest goals?” We’re all about helping you reach those goals. We love seeing our students make quantum leaps in developing their own creativity, performing skills and businesses. We love seeing you take big chances, unafraid of falling flat on your faces a few times before you soar to the big successes you deserve.
We have a few spots still available for our extended class in January. Perhaps now is the time for YOU to say, “I am committed,” and sign up. Then next year at this time, you can have one more thing to be grateful for — and we’ll have another friend to be grateful for, too!
If that’s not enough incentive, consider this: You’ll be here for the next Wonderground event — which will feature our new friends ArcheDream for Humankind. Click the link (http://www.vimeo.com/7239361) to see them on video — and come to Vegas in January to see them live!
Jeff, Abbi, Bryce, Eugene… we all send you our best wishes for a magical New Year!
Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com
