Greetings my friends,
I really think the teaching in the quote above is profound. However, there is a missing piece that makes it incomplete. To really get the full meaning of this quote, we must investigate a bit. So, let’s track down the source.
The inspirational quote above has been attributed to William Shakespeare, Pablo Picasso — and like many quotes on the internet today, Bruce Lee!
I searched for the origin of this quote, and was surprised that there is a missing piece of wisdom that completes the thought. Research shows that in 1993, the volume Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations by David Viscott was published. The author was a psychiatrist who hosted a pioneering radio talk show in the 1980s and 1990s, during which he provided counseling to callers. Viscott’s statement was composed of three parts instead of two. Here is the full quote:
The missing part was “the work of life.†This is a very important step to keep in mind. The discovery and giving away of the gift can take moments – but “the work†takes a lifetime!
I really feel that my life path is to help my magic students discover their gifts and help them work to develop them. I so love to see our students light up when they “get it,†and the light goes on — that is pure Illumination!
When you need help developing your magic, I’m here for you. Just email me to set a time to meet on Zoom, or live here at the school in Las Vegas.
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/p/stage-magic-manipulation/skype-mentoring-package
Jeff McBride Presents
Magic Masks & Monsters — Twisted Mysteries & Bizarre Storytelling
All New Show — All New Magic!
One Night Only! — And yes…there will be Monsters!
https://mcbride.wellattended.com/events/jeff-mcbride-magic-masks-monsters
Jeff McBride, Master of Masks & Mystery, invites you to his House of Mystery for our first-ever interactive Halloween show, directed by Tobias Beckwith, with special guests including “Media- Mage†Scott Steelfyre — and more surprise guests!
“One of the greatest teachers in the history of magic.
He’ll share an important story – his own.”
– David Copperfield
October is World Magic Month, and your spirit guide for Magic, Masks & Monsters will be Jeff McBride, whose passion for masks, monsters, and magic, his live Las Vegas shows, and his recent MagicQuest virtual show helped him gain critical acclaim.
Jeff has created an all-new experience, using the brilliant interactive tools developed to create MagicQuest — this time with a very different set of dark stories, and very twisted magic!
Once again, there will be A Special VIP afterparty, in which we will share some of the more frightening and bizarre aspects of Jeff’s extensive Curiosity and Oddity collection.
There will also be a unique new online Halloween magic show & after party at Jeff’s home
ONE NIGHT ONLY! * Last month we SOLD OUTÂ ALL tickets!
Don’t miss out — ORDER NOW!
If you ever wondered what it is like to be in the McBride House of Mystery on Halloween… this is your chance! Join us for a night of spooky fun and magic!
See you online.
Jeff & Abigail and all your friends at Mystery School
FINAL THOUGHT
So, when you get inspired by a thought, try to track that inspiration to its source. Or, remember the words of Honest Abe…
Dear Friends:
It’s September! Back-to-School time. We’re excited here at the Magic & Mystery School about all our fall events, some of which will actually take place live and in person – for the first time since the beginning of 2020! Check the calendar at the bottom of this Museletter to see everything coming before the end of the year.
Our guest columnist this month is our good friend, and Executive Assistant to the school, Katherine (Kat) Rettke. If you haven’t been helped by Kat, you probably haven’t attended our events. I think you’re going to love the article!
Vaudeville and Magic
By Kat Rettke (with assistance from W.M.L.R.)
It was in the setting of Vaudeville theater that many great magicians developed their acts. According to the website Magicpedia, more than four thousand magicians appeared on vaudeville bills around the world, including Harry Houdini, Ching Ling Foo, Chung Ling Soo, Thomas Nelson Downs, and Harry Blackstone. Context is important. If you want to more fully understand any of the great magicians who were performing during the years vaudeville was popular, it is worth learning more about the history of vaudeville, and a little bit about what it meant to be employed as a vaudeville performer.
Vaudeville was a type of live performance popular from the late 1800s until the 1920s. A typical North American vaudeville performance was a variety show of unrelated performances, which included performances by magicians. According to Wikipedia, “at any given time, Vaudeville was employing over twelve thousand different people throughout its entire industry. Each entertainer would be on the road 42 weeks at a time while working a particular ‘circuit’- or in an individual theatre chain of a major companyâ€. Â
One thing that made vaudeville unique, however, was the intention to create a family-friendly entertainment, unlike earlier popular variety shows. According to the article Vaudeville (Wikipedia) one man who can be credited with this type of show was Tony Pastor, who became a variety theater performer and manager, who began to feature “polite†variety programs in his New York City theatres.
Another instrumental founder of vaudeville was B.F. Keith, who built an empire of theaters in both the United States and Canada, and partnered with Edward Albee. They developed a chain of allied vaudeville houses and contracted acts for regional and national tours through what was called the Keith-Albee Circuit, which later merged with the Orpheum Circuit and went on to be called the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Circuit.
According to Wikipedia, “by the late 1890s, vaudeville had large circuits, and small and large houses in almost every sizable location, standardized booking, broad pools of skilled acts, and a loyal national following.â€Â Vaudeville performers were hired by talent bookers to tour different regions on what was called the vaudeville circuit.
It was the development of cinema that led to the decline of vaudeville. Theatres used for vaudeville were updated to show movies. On an interesting side note, the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Circut merged with Radio Pictures to become Radio Keith Orpheum… RKO Pictures. This is just one example of how the motion picture industry can trace back its own history to vaudeville roots.
An important aspect of learning more about the history of vaudeville is developing an appreciation of the theaters where these shows took place.  Many of the theaters built for, or used for vaudeville circuits have been torn down over the years. Some of these theaters survive and thrive, while others are in disrepair, lacking funds, or at risk of being torn down.
The Theatre Historical Society of America and The National Trust for Historic Preservation are two historical preservation societies fighting to keep these theaters available for future generations. So many magicians have contributed over the years to efforts to save historic theaters. I can think of two wonderful examples of magicians contributing to the preservation of historic theaters: Magicians Danny Archer and Mark Zacharia, who with the Smoke & Mirrors Magic Theater hosted a magic show in January 2021 to benefit the historic Newton Theatre in Newtown, PA. Another magician, Paul Draper, makes it a point to book shows in historic theaters across the country as a way to help these theaters benefit financially.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the great magicians who developed their craft through vaudeville. So much was learned in the vaudeville setting about technique and interacting with an audience, and this knowledge was passed down to following generations of magicians.
The most dangerous killers in our world today are invisible to the naked eye… and the truth is that masks are really saving lives all over the world!Â
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Wearing a mask certainly transformed my life… but in a very different way! By creating my Mask & Magic act, I avoided the plague of becoming a run-of-the-mill magician. Â
The “magic behind the mask†became my brand and signature effect, and a powerful symbol for me in the world of magic. In today’s pandemic world, the power and symbolism behind wearing a mask takes on new meaning.
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Wearing a mask is now an everyday event.Â
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I have been reflecting on my relationship to the mask. This little video will give you a smile. It is my public service announcement.
MAGIC NEWS – Student Spotlight
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The Mystery School was well represented at the recent Abbott’s convention. Daryl Rogers, James Ember, and Elliott Hunter all performed on the big stage.
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Congratulations to Elliott Hunter for bringing back the first-place gold medal in stage magic!
We predict many good things ahead for you Elliot! Elliott will be in Las Vegas this week studying with me, one-on-one, here at the Magic and Mystery School.
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We re-open our doors in September for live, in-person experiences here in Las Vegas with a special class on card magic for close-up and parlor.Â
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When you come to Vegas, plan to stop in and take a class, we can arrange a special one-on-one session for you here:
https://www.magicalwisdom.com/about/private_sessions.
WARNING!!
He is a dangerously clever man.
He is a master of the art of deception.
He is a trickster, an iconoclast and one of the most brilliant minds in magic! Now he is our very special guest at our Magic & Mystery School fall semester.
Dan Harlan is one of the great inventors of our time. He also happens to be one of the nicest people, and one of the most giving and sharing of any magicians I’ve ever met. Dan was with us at the very early Mystery Schools and brought a delightful dimension of mischievousness to our Mystery School community.
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The tradition continues at The Magic & Meaning Conference and our Weekend of Wisdom.
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Dan Harlan will attend both events and present two completely different programs! He will also be here with us live to share magic in small groups… Not only teaching his wonderful magic but helping you with yours.
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Dan is just one of many super talented and brilliant performers that you will be working with at our fall events
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Notice!!Â
You want to attend these events!
GO HERE and Register now
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/…/magic-meaning-2021…
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These are exceptional community events where we create a safe place for serious play. If you want to become a better magician, then you will want to join us.
Abigail and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this month! Thank you everyone for the kindnesses you have shown us over the many years.
We send you our blessings and magic from our cozy home in Vegas.
Final Words
If you are having a party, show, or special event this fall, I’m here to let you know that I am now performing again at both LIVE and VIRTUAL events. Just email me Jeff@mcbridemagic.com, or call Abigail at 702-450-0021.
See you onstage or in Las Vegas!
Jeff and Abigail McBride
From Dr. Larry Hass, Dean of the Mystery School
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As I write this, July is turning to August and I’m looking ahead to the cooler days of September and October. I am also hungry to re-fill my tank after a busy several months.
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As many of you know, Margie and I moved to Washington, D.C. in early June. And when I wasn’t working on both sides of that, I spent every spare minute finalizing Eugene Burger: Final Secrets, which has just gone off to the printer for release on Halloween 2021. That’s right, friends: the wait is nearly over! (It is available to pre-order right now at www.TheoryandArtofMagic.com.
This all has been exciting, but I am definitely ready to recharge. When I was a college professor, my favorite way to do so, was by attending conferences that focused on my areas of interest.
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“Conferences†are different than “conventions,†which are built around serving members and membership. Instead of that, conferences focus on bringing diverse people together to talk, deliberate, and inspire solutions to problems or new ways of thinking. They are about each one bringing their gifts and laying down swords in the service of learning.
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From the very beginning, the Mystery School has been informed by the spirit of Conferre—the medieval Latin word for this pilgrimage on behalf of learning. But in 2006 we made it official by founding the annual Magic and Meaning Conference—where we come together to listen and learn from each other, as we attempt to perform magic that matters and connects to life, rather than getting lost in the echo chamber of tricks and trickery.
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And it is that time once again: the team is preparing for this year’s conference, which will be held online, September 24-26, 2021. (Last year’s online event was a smash hit—the school’s most fully attended program of the year.) As usual, the Magic and Meaning Conference will feature 18 of our famous PEP Talks (the Ted-style Talks of Magic). It will also include magic shows, magic teaching, and breakout groups for meaningful conversation. This year the conference will feature “The Festival of Coins,†in which we will celebrate this fourth archetypal tool of the magician. And I am delighted to announce here that this year’s Guest of Honor is Dan Harlan.
Dan Harlan is known and admired by magicians all over the world. He is the host of Penguin Magic: Live and Penguin Magic: Live Acts, and he is an extremely knowledgeable magician who has been innovating excellent magic for over 30 years, including “Starcle,†“Cardtoon,†and nothing less than the entire Tarbell Course on video! But you might not know that Dan was an early “Mystery Schooler,†and we are delighted to have him back.Â
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So that is our long-standing, well-known conference, but in just a few weeks the school is hosting a new one: the First Inclusivity and Diversity in Magic Conference (August 27-29, 2021.) A few months back, faculty member Paul Draper brought the idea for this conference to our “table,†and we empowered him to transform his vision into a reality.
Paul gathered a first-rate, star-studded leadership team to craft a three-day conference experience that would inspire new thinking about ways to make our art more inclusive. The conference program—panels, performances, lectures—will highlight historical and present-day magicians who are women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, and individuals living with disabilities. The conference is open to anyone interested in learning.
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Learn more about the leadership, presenters, schedule, and register, here:
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/the-first-annual-inclusivity-and-diversity-in-magic-conference-idm-con
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This is going to be a tremendous event, and I can’t wait to experience what Paul and the Team have created for our community. Personally, I want to listen carefully and learn from each individual to expand my understanding of the issues, so I can be a better Dean for our School, and a better colleague for all our friends in magic.
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So… the Fall Semester at the Magic & Mystery School is almost upon us! Please bring your gifts, set aside your swords, and SIGN UP NOW (https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/magic-meaning-2021-live-online) to join us at these upcoming events. If there is anything I can foresee it is this: you will be renewed for the season ahead!