This time of year we often have visiting teachers and magical friends stay with us when they are performing in Las Vegas or teaching at the Magic School. Yesterday, Max Maven was here at our home. Max took us to see Michael Close and Vinny Favorito in a new comedy show at Binion’s Horseshoe… a very funny show! Having Max in the home is great fun, I can easily learn more in an evening of conversation with Max than a month of reading books on mentalism and magic! As the evening progressed Max moved through all types of intellectual terrain, covering diverse subjects from gospel music to wrestling to kabuki theater, underground comics to physics, and always bring the main point back to the performance of fine magic.
Hope you’ve had a magical Halloween. It’s actually one of my favorite holidays, being the mask man I am. One of my favorite memories was when I was eight years old, dressing up like my childhood hero, Lon Chaney in The Wolfman, complete with an “over the head”, Don Post official wolfman mask, and gardener’s gloves that I had glued fur and fingernails onto. I would prowl the neighborhood in the pre- and post-Halloween season, gearing up my wolfman-ness (actually more like wolfboy-ness). Inside I was a ferocious wolf-dude, lurking in the shadows, often banging on my neighbors windows and striking frightening poses while they watched TV. To my dismay, no one seemed very alarmed when they turned from the tube and saw a pint-sized wolf-boy. I could almost hear them saying “Oh that McBride kid’s at it again; maybe we better start locking the gate.” Anyway, these early escapades very well might have been the early stirring of my career in mask magic that eventually led me to Las Vegas.
A few nights each month, we like to catch some of the new shows that have opened. I’ve heard good things about the new rock musical built around the music of Queen’s Freddie Mercury, which is called “We will Rock You.” It’s playing at the Paris Hotel. A few nights ago we caught the comedy magic show of Levent! I haven’t seen Levent since the 80’s and, wow, he packs dozens of effects – mostly fine manipulation and extraodinary original sight gags – into a power packed hour of side splitting comedy and knuckle busting sleight of hand. If he comes to a comedy club or magic convention near you, make it a point to see him. Siegfried and Roy are in the news here almost every day. While Roy may never perform as he did a year ago, he is alive and is speaking with clarity and hope. He is a living testament to the amazing healing powers of the human body. Just a few months ago he was near death and now he’s talking and working with therapists and moving towards a new life. You can still see their magnificent animals at the “Secret Garden” exhibit at the Mirage. I am fortunate to have seen their show many times and to have worked with them at fundraising events and magic conventions.
“The underlying purpose of magic in its many aspects is to help people approach life and the cosmos in a state of wonder”. — from Art and Magic by Sam Sharpe, published by Miracle Factory After reading Mr. Sharpe’s quote I realized that I am in fact, living in the “state of wonder”: Nevada. There is more art and wonder in Nevada than anywhere I have ever lived. Between creating our magical art at the annual Burning Man Art festival, all the Vegas magic shows, the visiting magicians, and the events we host here at the center, we live in an almost constant state of wonder! I keep many of Sam Sharpe’s books near my desk. I often open one and read a few passages to keep me inspired and deep in thought about my art. Sam thought deeply about the art of magic and his works are wonders, written from his heart. Having a few days at home, Abbi and I are catching up on our reading. If you’ve been to our home you know that we never watch television programming (who wants to be programmed?). In fact, we have no antenna or cable, no satellite either — and our television is only a monitor to watch tapes of students or to review our practice sessions. Although the occasional cool movie like EXISTO or One Giant Leap (find these movies!) or instructional magic performance DVD finds its way if company drops over and just needs a TV fix. At home, we are mostly listening to CDs of our friends’ music, or making live music. Many of our friends are i ncredible musicians who make their own CDs of their music, so we hardly ever buy “pop” music! Abbi has been studying the Kora, an African harp. Her teacher is Toumani Kouyate, from Senegal, and he is one of the stars of Cirque du Soleil’s show “O”. Late at night, Abbi plays her music. Harpstrings fill the air with sound and mix with champa incense (our favorite) and I practice my magic routines and improvise to her sweet melodies….. ah, a few days at home… bliss!