“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
—- Socrates
Greetings All…
Jeff and Abbi here, in Las Vegas. We are wondering what to do about the dilemma that faces us every year at this time! We need to make a wise choice!
Jeff’s big dilemma!
Which mask to wear on Halloween? With the hundreds of masks in Jeff’s collection, when Halloween and the Las Vegas Witches and Wizard’s Ball rolls around, it’s often challenging to pick “the one mask” for the big night. When you visit The McBride House of Mystery , we can give you a tour of the many exotic masks Jeff has collected from his travels around the world. In a recent interview Jeff said, “I remember my very first mask. It was a paper mache devil mask, from Mexico. I got it when I was six years old, and it’s still hanging on the wall of the House of Mystery. I was thinking about the symbolism behind my little devil mask. I guess I kind of was a little devil when I was six, and maybe I still am now!” If you look at many of the old- time magic posters from the Golden Age of Magic, you will almost always see imps, demons and little devil motifs woven into the artwork. Apparently, magicians thought these images evoked a deeper sense of magic and perhaps, made people think that a source of their power was tied to the unseen realms of mystery and dark forces.
While we are speaking of masters of the “dark arts .
The wisest wizard of them all!
Next week, our teacher and our friend, Eugene Burger, Dean of the Magic and Mystery School, will arrive to spend three weeks with us, and the festivities will begin! Of course, you all are invited!! Eugene has spent the past little while performing his new show “SPIRITS: a lecture and demonstration of mystery and magic”. He will be presenting a small segment of his “SPIRITS” theater show at our upcoming Las Vegas Witches and Wizard’s Masquerade Ball. We will also be offering some new magic and a few surprises, too.
Go take a look at what we’ve got planned for the weekend before Halloween, including our all night desert fire circle ritual, BONEDANCE, by visiting us as our Vegas Vortex site.
Jeff at Vegoose!
One of the biggest concerts of the year in Las Vegas is called Vegoose. 
This year, on the 29th of October, at 11:30pm, Jeff, Abbi and the Vegas Vortex Drummers and Dancers will be appearing at the Orleans Arena. (Yes, the *really* big arena) We will be presenting a magical ritual theater experience as the mid-point of the String Cheese Incident’s set. Jeff and Abbi have been working or magic and big rock and roll concert venues for SCI for many years now, under the direction of Johnny Dwork from Peak Experience Productions. Johnny and our friend Dr. Dan also co-created our Sacred Fire Circle installation at this year’s Burning Man Art festival.
For more information about this concert, go to http://www.vegoose.com/nighttix/
The String Cheese Incident is becoming one of the most famous jam bands on the planet, and are legendary for creating a multi-sensory, audience-immersive experience.
Hot news!
In case you haven’t already heard, we will be doing a run of thirty shows at The Edgewater Hotel and Casino, for the month of November. This is a new show for us, we will have special guest magicians Jordan Wright and Jayson Morrison assisting. If you get to the show early, you’ll see some of our new close-up and mentalism that Abbi and I have been working on. We will do this as a special “pre- show’ addition to our full show!
http://www.edgewater-casino.com/offers/offers.aspx
Also Students attending our upcoming MASTER CLASS FOR MENTALISTS, will get comp tickets to all of our shows! We have mentalists from all over the world coming in for this special seminar…I can read your mind…you’d like to be here in Vegas with us, yes?
ZOOM, BOUNCE &FLY.
Thank you for all the comments on my new DVD! Tobias just cut a short trailer that you can see on our NEW Products Page We’ve just re-ordered and restocked and you can now get them on our website and Bryce Kuhlman our webmaster will make sure to get you one almost as fast as you can say ZOOM!. There was a great article this month in MUM, John Moehring did a series of articles featuring our “Magic for Medical Professionals.” Tobias will have a copy available on our site for you to look at soon.
Upcoming Classes & Private Sessions
October has been full of students coming in from around the world and it is a great pleasure to be able to assist our magic friends. Abbi has been getting many calls to arrange private sessions. If you’re going to be in Las Vegas and would like to have Jeff work one-on-one with you, please call 702-450-0021 to set up your private session. We will be starting again with our full class schedule in mid-January, kicking off our full calendar of events for 2007. We’ll see you when you visit Las Vegas; make sure to weave us into your schedule for your class, seminar or private magic session….. It is a joy and a blessing to be in this profession of magic. Here, we are able to open the eyes of wonder in all those we encounter, whether we’re on tour or at home in Las Vegas at our House of Mystery. 
Your friends in mystery,
Jeff & Abbi
Greetings Friends…
Abbi and I have just given birth… To our new project: Zoom, Bounce & Fly! Well, it really did feel like I imagine giving birth does, but it took longer than nine months…. It took nearly twenty years to birth this
project! This new DVD contains many of my closely guarded pet secrets from my full evening show. If you love card magic, I know you will enjoy seeing the magic and learning the techniques. On Zoom, Bounce and Fly, I have offered my very best to you, my friends.
Here is what one reviewer says:
Zoom, Bounce & Fly! by Jeff McBride
“I just finished watching this DVD and I can truly say that this is the end all work on this subject. This has always been one of the most exciting parts of Jeff’s card act and now you can learn all the secret techniques as well as receiving the secret little gimmick that makes it so much more accurate. I highly recommend this DVD as I do all of Jeff’s teaching DVDs. He is one of the most informative teachers of magic and we are fortunate that he gives so much to our magic world today.
Learn the inside secrets of extreme card spinning, floor bouncing, and spinning productions.
McBride’s famous floor bouncing, extreme card spin productions, flourishes, card juggling, and much, much more! Taught to you by one of the world’s greatest teachers of magic!”
Includes the Special McGrip-Tip Super Card Shooter
DVD Contents:
The Thurston Throwing Card
Special Preparation of Cards
Bobby Baxter at the Richiardi Show
The Walsh Tarbell Spin
Walk-On Jumbo Card Sequence
Thumb Flick Spin
Del Rosso Flick Flourish
Fan Catch and Spin
Backhand Catch
The “Dropping a Card†Out
Hacky Sack Kick + Devil Stick Flick
Perfect Spinner
Two Hand Spinner
Card Spinning
The McBride Grip
Safety
Loading Gimmicks
Arcing
McBride’s Famous Floor Bouncing
Bonus Footage: McBride On Stage Archive Footage
So, come fly with us, friends… And have your cards take to the sky with Zoom, Bounce and Fly!
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.â€
– Leonardo da Vinci
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MCBRIDE MAGIC AT THE EDGE!
We are also very excited to be presenting our full evening show at the EdgeWater Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nevada, November 3rd through the 22nd. I will be home for most of October, doing private sessions with students from around the world. Abbi and I are also preparing for the Magic and Meaning Conference, October 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th. Abbi and I will also make a special guest appearance at this year’s VEGOOSE concert, a huge rock & roll event at the Orleans Arena here in Las Vegas, Sunday night, Oct. 29th. We will be presenting a number of illusions during the String Cheese Incident’s late night set.
We appreciate the emails and letters we get from all of our friends, letting us know how much you enjoy our Museletter and staying connected to our web of community and friends. We look forward to seeing you on the road, or when you visit Las Vegas.
We’ll see you soon!
Magically yours,
Jeff
NOTE FROM TOBIAS:
We currently have “Zoom, Bounce & Fly” in stock at Yourmagic.com, shipping withint 24 hours of your order on line. We also have a special, limited time deal combining “Zoom, Bounce & Fly” with a set of Jeff’s special manipulation cards, the entire package available for just $45.00. We have a large stock, but expect demand to be high for this product between now and the holidays, so we advise you to order early! Just come to shop.yourmagic.com!
“[The artist] speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation–and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear…which binds together all humanity–the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.”–Joseph Conrad
Greetings Friends!
We’ve recently returned home from Burning Man, in Northwest Nevada. We had a wonderful time there, along with forty thousand others.
Some of the highlights include, watching the gradual construction of the mammoth artwork called “Uchronia,” also known as “A Message Out of the Future,” or “The Belgian Waffle,” created by a team of 60 artists from Belgium. This piece was made
out of 2X3 planks of wood, practically 5,000 feet of lumber, nailed together into an arching structure that was more than 50 feet tall, with a floor span of nearly 200 feet. Yes, on the last night, they burned it, and it was, by far, the biggest and brightest fire we’ve ever seen.
Another particularly interesting piece was the Serpent Mother. This astounding piece of art was created by the Flaming Lotus Girls, and according the Girls, “is a highly kinetic participant controlled installation.” The space that is created by the Serpent around her egg encourages participants to connect and interact with one another, turn inward for reflection or activate her fiery spirit. One can chose to make the serpent’s head and neck move or make the jaws open and close. An individual can initiate 10
different sequenced patterns for the 31 poofers, activate each poofer via buttons or proximity sensors, or operate buttons, which activate the liquid fuel bursts of the egg. The LEDs illuminating the body are also be interactive changing based on a participant’s heartbeat. The freestanding ribs of the serpent can be moved by the participants’ interaction with them.”
Being able to control the fire shooting out of the serpent’s spine was absolutely incredible. The fireworks display on Friday night, which happened all around and above the sculpture was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
There was so much to see, and so much to do. It’s hard to put it all into words and images…. We spent several hours each day working with a film crew on Jeff’s newest project, “McBride’s Magic and Mystery Tour.” We got to film our special blend of magic all over the festival, from making cigarettes disappear at the Death Guild, to levitating in the middle of the playa, to my personal favorite, escaping from a straitjacket in the middle of Center Camp. Jeff will be going to finish up the new project with Louis at L&L Publishing. Look for it soon!
One of the highlights was performing as part of the Fire
Conclave. This involved 500+ of the most talented fire artists in the world all working together as part of the main event! If you want to see great footage of the Burning Man event, click on the following link. When you get to the web page, click on the 9.02 screen (this is the night of the burn). About two minutes into the footage, the scrolling
screen credits at the bottom will say “dance dance immolation.” At that frame, you will see Jeff shooting the biggest fire balls of the night up into the sky, flanked by our friends Johnny D and Lieve, inside the spinning fire cube costumes. Amazing!
http://currenttv.com/burningman/
In the meantime, the day after we got home, Jeff took off for Magic in the Rockies, where he did a fast and furious round of teaching, lecturing, and performing. He got home on Monday, ready to work with several private students here at the House of Magic and Mystery, and then we’re gearing up for more magic in the fall!
Until we see you again, we send you magical inspiration and excitement!
Abbi & Jeff
A quick note from Tobias:
Registrations are going well for both “Magic for Medical Professionals” and the “Master Class for Mentalists – but we still have a few spots available.
Also: Jeff and Abbi will be performing their newest show, “Magic at the Edge” at the Edgewater Resort in Laughlin, NV from November 3-22nd. Let us know if you’ll be there, so we can make a point of seeing you after the show!
“Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.â€
– Bill Moyers
Dear Friends:
Jeff and Abbi are safely arrived in Stockholm for FISM, the
international championships of magic and probably the world’s largest magic convention. They are in for a very busy week, teaching 3 seminars, 2 lectures, and appearing on two gala shows. I understand a large portion of the convention is being video-taped for release in various markets around the world, so you may have a chance to see them, along with some of the other 2,500 magicians
participating.
Among other things, Jeff is introducing his new Zoom, Bounce & Fly DVD at FISM. This is his long awaited DVD teaching the special techniques he uses to spin cards in the air, bounce them off the stage, and send them sailing into the balconies of so many theatres. The DVD includes a special tool, “The McGrip Tip,†which has been amongst the most closely guarded secrets in
magic until now. It will be available exclusively from Jeff at lectures and other speaking events, and on our web site for the next several months (Oh…and, through a special arrangement, at the Fantasma Magic Store in New York City!).
Our big news this week is that we’ve just posted our schedule for classes here in Las Vegas through October of 2007. Many favorites are back, including the two extended summer master classes, which have proved to be among the favorites of both the students and Jeff and Eugene. Please visit www.magicalwisdom.com to see what’s coming, and register early for your next class!
Which reminds me: we STILL have one slot left for the August
class. This is the extended class that includes visits to Mac King’s show and Lance Burton’s show, with question and answer sessions with both Lance & Mac afterwards. We’ve all developed new things for our various workshops (I’ve shifted to “Theatre Games & Magical Creativity,†myself). The extended class may not be offered again until next summer, so if you think you want to take one, now is the time to register and get your deposit in! Our July class was certainly among our most exciting and successful yet! All the photos with today’s Muse Letter were taken at that class.
I’ve been fairly busy myself, writing articles for Magic Magazine
(the first one appeared in the August issue, just out!), outlining a book on the creative process for magicians that uses techniques I’ve discovered since I began studying the art of performance over 35 years ago, and trying to keep up with all of Jeff’s varied projects. In addition, I’ll be holding my second “Get your Career in Gear†intensive later this month, from August 25-27th, here in Las Vegas. Attendance will be limited to 5 people (or acts). We’re including a photo session with Richard Faverty, who shoots so many of the Magic Magazine covers, and our students will be spending most of the month preparing themselves for the weekend by reading short articles, then filling in questionnaires for my comment, in order to develop their sense of just what they really have to sell. The idea is that you’ll leave the workshop with the knowledge and materials you need to market and run your own successful business as a magician. You can read more (and register) at: www.yourmagic.com/catalog. Also, check in at the catalog in another week or two to get your own copy of “Zoom, Bounce & Fly.â€
I’d like to wind this up by sharing a single technique you can use to help jump start your own creativity – whether it is in developing a new piece of magic, or in any other aspect of your life. I call it “The Contrarian’s Way.†Here’s how it works. Many magic presentations, or other things we need to be creative about, can be broken out into a series of processes. Imagine yourself doing whatever each process in the sequence just exactly as you have learned it. Then stop yourself and ask “How could I accomplish this in a way that seems the opposite of THIS way?†For example, suppose you have learned a new card trick – one which begins with you asking someone to “please select a card.†Can you think of at least two “contrary†ways to achieve what is needed here? Think about it for a moment before reading on.
Okay…here are a couple of ways I thought of: You could hand the deck to someone else, ask them to fan it, and YOU could select the card, without looking at it. Another alternative: “I’d like you to take away half the cards. Okay…now another half…take some more†and so on, until you are left with just one. Both of these are different and contrary to the normal, but I’d like to create a trick that is really VASTLY different. Perhaps I could ask someone to take the deck, fan it, and throw the fan high into the air. I would reach into the flurry of falling cards and grab any card out of the air as they fall to the floor. That should create a bit more exciting effect! How many more can you come up with? Imagine you take every moment in developing your new card trick (or whatever you are working on) and create a new, contrary, way of accomplishing the things you need to? Can you think of how this might be effective in other areas of your life? Maybe at work, or in a social situation? One of the jobs we undertake when we become magicians is that of showing people new and different ways of looking at life – so being creative in how we approach things other than our magic tricks might be just as much part of being a magician as learning a new card trick!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Muse letter. We’ll have another one for you later in the month, with a full report on the happenings at FISM, the upcoming extended Master Class, and Jeff and Abbi’s trips to the various festivals, including Burning Man at the end of the month.
Till then, may all your journeys be magical!
Sincerely,
Tobias Beckwith