Dear Friends:
Braden Daniels is a leadership development expert, as well as a professional performing magician. This month he shares insights on how to declutter our magic collections, our lives, and our minds.
“Our aim…is not so much to have a large repertoire, as it is to have a repertoire
in which every item can be counted upon to produce real impact.”
– Eugene Burger, Mastering The Art of Magic
Like many of you, I want my magic to get better this year. How do we do that? One approach I have taken is to reduce the clutter in my sacred magic space. I have far too much “magical junk,” and not enough magic! I have come to the realization that there is a correlation between my physical magical clutter, and my mental magical clutter.
Since decluttering my magic space, I have felt more creative freedom, and a greater quality of focus to polish my performance pieces, and to develop new routines. Once committed to the idea of reducing our magic clutter, the practical question of “How do I get started?” emerges. Here are three steps that you can take to achieve clutter-free creativity.
1. Create a staging and processing area
Find a table and place it outside of your magical space. A folding table, your kitchen table, it doesn’t really matter what kind of table or how big. The table is what is important, as you will be systematically removing items from your magic space, and placing them on this table to process. It is important that the table is outside of the space you are decluttering. It doesn’t have to be far – in a hallway is fine, but it must be outside. This will help reduce some of the attachment that our magic props have with the space they occupy.
The area to the immediate left of the table is the ‘staging’ area. You will bring out items and place them here as they await processing. The table top will be the ‘processing’ area. You will place items on the table and decide whether you will keep, donate, or discard. The area to the immediate right of the table is the ‘processed’ area divided into keep, donate, or discard piles.
You may also make other piles here that are helpful, for instance you might have a pile for things that need to be relocated to other rooms.
2. Start at the bottom, and work your way up and behind
The best way to gain momentum in this process is to see the results happen quickly. Start by picking up items that are laying on the floor of the room you are decluttering. This can be sound equipment, leaning illusions, magic tables, or random piles of magical junk. Use this opportunity to take any movable furniture out of the space. Seeing the floor clear and clean is a very powerful way to gain momentum.
As you bring a group of items out of your magic space, set them in the staging area to the left of the table. One by one, pick up the objects, place them on the table, and spread them out liberally across the table top. Once enough items to cover your table top have been placed on the table, you will begin processing the items.
Carefully review each item and decide if you really need this item. When was the last time you used it? Will you really use it in the future? Don’t kid yourself! Do yourself a favor and be aggressive with your decluttering. You know what you like and use, and you know what you haven’t touched in over a year.
If you aren’t actively using the item, consider donating it first. Never keep something based solely on how much you paid for it. That is what Seth Godin explains in his book The Practice identifies as a Sunk Cost. “It’s fine to experience regret when we abandon a sunk cost. It’s a mistake to stick with one simply because we can’t bear the regret.”
The more empty space you can create the more inspiration and flow you will experience later on in the space. Once you have made a decision, place the item in the appropriate pile in the “processed” area to the right of the table. Repeat this process for all items in the staging area.
Once you have processed all items on the floor you will work your way up to surfaces, tables, counters, and shelves. Bring your books to the staging area, then place them on the table and process them. Which books have you read? Which will you never read? Remember these are sunk costs too, so be aggressive.
After you have worked your way up to the top of shelves, now you will repeat the process for all items that are hidden behind cabinet doors and in drawers. Start at the bottom and work your way up.
3. Avoid further consumption
Congratulations! You have taken a major step toward a more mindful approach to owning magical things.
However, as Jeff McBride and Larry Hass kindly point out in The Show Doctor, you have only treated the symptom. The root cause is really Consumption. “Consumption is the lavish or wasteful spending assumed to have social prestige, but which actually squanders time, money, and resources.”
Symptoms include:
Causes include:
Follow the three steps above and you will have a clutter free space to practice and improve your magic. You will be able to focus on your performance pieces and feel greater satisfaction with your repertoire. Do not let clutter and consumption ruin your magical progress this year!
Dear Friends:
Experience is often the best teacher, but the lessons learned often don’t come cheap. Read what Magic & Mystery Schoolfounder Jeff McBride had to learn – the hard way!
Have you ever asked yourself “How does good magic go bad?”
It was New Years Eve, and my biggest gig of the year 1977. I was just out of high school, and already a full time magician. I had a rock and roll magic show, and I had a live rock band playing behind me. All was going well, when suddenly the dance floor burst into flames! Right then I knew it was not going to be an easy show!
What could go wrong?
I rehearsed this fire act in my mind over and over again!
The band behind me started stomping out the flames, while never missing a note to Herbie Hancock’s tune “Chameleon.” The flames eventually died down, the screaming stopped, and miraculously the magic show continued. All the time I had to step over the burned mess in the center of the dance floor–not such a good way to start 1977!
Why did this show go so wrong?
I rehearsed this fire act in my mind over and over again – and that was the problem. I rehearsed in my mind, not with the actual props and lighter fluid, and now it was too late! Lighter fluid and paper flowers are on a collision course to pyrotechnics – and I was learning this lesson the hard way.
I learned the hard way, but it didn’t have to be like this. If I had a mentor I would have learned the lessons before the accident, and how to avoid it!
So how can you avoid making costly or dangerous mistakes, and cut years off your learning curve? Get a mentor!
I was blessed to have many mentors in my life, and now I am sharing their teachings with my mentees. You see, having a mentor can help with more than just avoiding expensive dance floor repairs; a mentor is a friend and guide to help you, even when things do not go so well. We can all use that kind of support, can’t we?
We all need a guiding hand through the often confusing world of magic and entertainment. If you are interested in learning many of the most important teachings that are handed down to me by my master mentors, then go take a look at this:
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/masters-mentors-in-magic
Also,If you are interested in private coaching, I can work with you on Zoom. I teach magic at all levels, from beginner to pro! Learning magic and working on your career moves can be fun and easy – just take a look!
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/p/stage-magic-manipulation/skype-mentoring-package
The circle of mentorship and magic continues as we expand and develop our programs here at the McBride Magic & Mystery School. We will see you live on Monday nights at www.mcbridemagic.tv, or see you for “in person” classes here at The Mystery School in Vegas!
Jeff & Abigail and all your friends
Our guest contributor for this first Museletter of the new year is none other than our Dean – a multi-talented performer, teacher, author, and philosopher of magic—Dr. Larry Hass.
Happy New Year to everyone! The year 2021 is in the rear-view mirror, and 2022 lies ahead like a beautiful vista with open horizons. It is time to “clink” those champagne flutes and move ahead with a beginner’s mind.
Many of you know this is my favorite time of year, and that I typically carry out a reflective exercise to help me turn the page. That is, I explore, write, and share with my family, my answers to the following questions:
1. What are my best achievements for the previous year?
2. What are some good everyday behaviors I resolve to do?
3. What are my goals for the year ahead?
I have found this practice, this ritual, to be very affirmational and productive. (You can read more about it HERE.)
Yet, as I engaged in the exercise this year, nearly two years into our global pandemic, a supplementary set of ideas kept surfacing in my mind—three special reminders at this world-historical time. I offer them in the hope that they resonate with you, too.
1. Honor the Wins…and Wounds
Everything is more difficult during a pandemic, from needing to wear a mask in public, to limited access to goods and services, to separation from, and worries about friends and family, to uncertainties around planning…among so many other things. This often means that the wins come harder. What might have previously been “a challenge,” can now feel like dragging Frodo and the Ring up the side of Mount Doom.
So, celebrate those wins! They were harder than they used to be, and that’s an important part of the story. The trials and travails need to be sung and spoken, especially this year. They are essential flavor notes for the 2021 vintage.
And there are also wounds. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t lost something or someone because of this crazy thing. When difficult memories surge up, I try to put my hand on my heart, take a deep breath, and honor the moment. I have found this to be more helpful and healthful than just forging ahead or telling myself everything’s fine.
2. Re-align Our Goals
Human beings are the forward-looking animal; we can’t help but look ahead, make plans, and try our best to fulfill them. Yet, if the pandemic has taught us anything it’s that the need to revise our goals is built into the fabric of things. And you know what? These past two years, we have met that need time and again, and become more resilient through the process.
Indeed, I have come to see that “long-term planning” is a luxury, not a given. And it was a privilege I previously took for granted. This keeps me living a bit “closer to the bone,” and I find it keenly productive to plan that I will need to revise the plan. So, I am definitely setting goals for 2022. But one of those goals is being ready to re-align my goals as needed without stress, regrets, or depression.
3. Cultivate Hope
Some folks say, “Hope is Love,” others call it a desire. Emily Dickinson wrote that it’s “a thing with feathers…that sings the tune…and never stops at all.” I suspect there is truth in each of these, but for this context I take hope to be an elusive human capacity to imaginatively create a forward path or sense of the future, exactly when those things seem foreclosed.
Ordinarily, hope is a reservoir we draw on when needed, but during the pandemic we’ve gone to the well more than usual. Which perhaps means we need to do a bit more to replenish the well.
For me, this happens with some intentional quiet time—shutting off the constantly interrupting noise of modern social-media life. It happens over meals with family and dear friends. It happens by reading meaningful things rather than superficial trash. It happens by getting sufficient sleep and going for walks. Your own list will vary.
But I think what’s true for all of us is that magic fills the tank. Every little “miracle” is a human-created reminder that the world is a surprising place, that through art the impossible is possible, and that feels great. So sure, magic is the art of the impossible, but that very phrase also makes it the art of hope.
So please remember as we turn the page—the world needs your magic. It really does! And you need your magic. It is one of the finest things we can do to cultivate and enlarge our capacity to hope.
Here’s to your Magical New Year! “Clink!”
Greetings, magical friends,
Holiday greetings to all!
First, a big thanks to all of you who helped us make Jeff McBride – The Story Master such a success! We’ve been receiving lots of wonderful responses, and are already planning the next show for one weekend in February.
Abigail and I have been spending nearly every night curled up in our reading chairs, sitting next to a crackling fire, drinking tea and reading magical stories to each other. We’ve been reflecting on our dearly missed Master and Mentor, Eugene Burger.
He was the “real Santa,” who gave us the gift of his friendship and guidance, and also helped me learn a deeper way to experience and learn the art of magic. One of Eugene’s favorite wisdom sayings was: “The real secrets of magic are not found in books or DVDs; they are passed down from master to student… in whispers.”
How do you learn magic?
Many of our students want to dive deeper this year, so we’ve created some brand-new classes!
MASTERS & MENTORS IN MAGIC– with Jeff McBride & Dr. Larry Hass
January 13th–27th, 2022
MASTERS & MENTORS IN MAGIC is an exciting new series where you get a front row seat to learn the “Secrets of the Masters!”
Jeff McBride and Larry Hass are privileged to have studied with many great masters of magic, live and in person. Now, Jeff and Larry pass down the essential lessons they’ve learned to you! They will share great secrets they have gathered from their teachers and their own deep studies into the presentation and philosophy of magic.
Become part of magic history!
Jeff and Larry spent years in the company of these true masters, and they’re excited to share their most treasured memories, insights, and magic routines from these encounters with you!
Eugene Burger, Juan Tamariz, Tommy Wonder, Bob Fitch, Lance Burton, Channing Pollock, Jeff Sheridan, Frank Garcia, Dai Vernon, Slydini — and many, many more!
Takeaways:
—You will learn new & effective routines that illustrate the lessons of the masters.
—You will enjoy a guided tour through the recent history of magic with modern masters who made this art great.
—You will see how Jeff and Larry incorporate these teachings into their own work, and thereby create strong magic that remains their own.
—You will have access to these files for one year to deepen your studies.
—You’ll be part of a community of like-minded Magicians.
MASTERS & MENTORS IN MAGIC
REGISTER NOW! https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/events
* * *
SHOW & BUSINESS – THE PRO CLASS
Jan 14th–Mar 8th, 2022
Taught by Tobias Beckwith & Jeff McBride
Level up this year – join this class!
This will be a student-directed course in how to build an integrated business and career around your magical passion.
Congratulations! You’ve become a good magician and performer – but now you want more. You’re thinking of making this into a career, or maybe a fun side-hustle. That’s a big step! Or maybe you’ve already taken that step, and it’s time to change direction or shift that business into a higher gear.
The class is limited to 18 students so that we will have time to focus on each of you and your needs. In some ways, it will function as much as a mastermind group, as it will as a seminar, which means sometimes some of you will contribute more than Jeff or Tobias does, because you have more experience in a particular area. Sometimes we will invite others we know to come in and address a particular subject if neither of us is the most expert of anyone we know in a particular area. It is our hope that the students will continue to assist one another to become the new leaders and innovators in our art.
Learn the professional secrets to answer these questions and more!
Register now at https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/show-business-the-pro-class
The best way to learn magic?
Online personal mentoring is now available.
Private online magic lessons with Jeff McBride are being arranged for the new year.
What goes on at these one-on-one classes? Find out here!
https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/p/stage-magic-manipulation/skype-mentoring-package
Invite Jeff McBride to your next event or party!
We are now booking live and online events for 2022.
Jeff McBride’s Online Virtual Magic Shows.
Take a look!
Now for the 1st time you can have a custom-made virtual magic show for your friends and family, club, church or business, performed by one of the true masters of art.
Jeff’s magic works GREAT on zoom. How can you get it?
All you need to do is call Abigail to arrange a time and date! (702) 450-0021.
Have a most magical new year and we will see you LIVE in Las Vegas or online in our virtual classroom!
Jeff and Abigail