When you pass beyond this human form,,
no doubt you will become an angel
and soar through the heavens!
But don’t stop there.
Even heavenly bodies grow old.
Pass again from the heavenly realm
and plunge into the ocean of Consciousness.
Let the drop of water that is you
become a hundred mighty seas.
But do not think that the drop alone
becomes the Ocean —
the Ocean, too, becomes the drop!
— Jelaluddin Rumi
Hello friends,
Abbi here, in the House of Mystery, sipping a cup of tea, and thinking about all of you….
Sometimes, the real magic is right in front of our eyes; all we have to do is slow down enough to notice it. I think about the magic of water, which comprises a large percentage of our bodies and our planet… descending from the sky as a gift from above in the rain, moving through us, keeping us hydrated, enabling us to see, pulsing with the blood in our veins, cleansing and purifying, nourishing all life, flowing toward the ocean in mighty rivers and small streamlets, and rising again to the sky.
How often we take this precious resource for granted. When I moved to Las Vegas, nearly sixteen years ago to be with Jeff, my entire relationship to water changed. I try to make my connection to water a conscious part of “the flow.â€Â I make it a point to stay hydrated, and each time I drink, I think about my part in this great tide, and I strive to be mindful in my use of water.
One of my favorite magic memories is of seeing Just Alan perform the “Sands of the Desert,†with a slideshow accompaniment of a journey to India. You probably already know Jeff’s “Rainmaker†water-bowl routine is my favorite piece of magic that he performs, and one of my regular pieces that I love to perform is a version of “In the News.â€
Our friend, Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil, has started a foundation called One Drop, dedicated to ensuring that water is accessible to all, today and forever. It is heartening to see someone working so hard for such a good cause. Check out what they’re up to:
http://www.onedrop.org/en.aspx
So, as the springtime rains bring out the daffodils in the front yard, and the blossoms appear on the apricot tree, I am offering an opportunity to each of you, to drink deeply of the beauty inherent in each moment, and to savor each sip of life. May you never thirst!
Abbi
From Tobias:
If you have visited Abbi and Jeff in their “house of mystery,” you will know they live surrounded by magic every day – and not just the kind that involves decks of playing cards and Kabuki masks. Poetry, music, literature, graphic arts – their home is filled with things that evoke magic and wonder. And of course, one can always sense the magic and artistry in Abbi’s writing.
I’m fortunate to be heading off to Vegas in just another week or so for our two classes in March. First is Magic for Speakers and Presenters – which is completely sold out already, in just the first time we’re offering it. Just after that we have our first full Master Class of the year, from March 18-24, and as I write this, there are still several slots open for that one. We usually see several students at our March class gearing up for competitions at the summer conventions, and I’ve noticed we have at least one of those signed up this year. If you’re looking for a way to assure you make the leaps forward in your performance you need to compete effectively, this is your best chance. Sign up now at www.magicalwisdom.com.
Immediately following the March classes, Jeff and Jordan will be heading off to Asia again – this time to Bangkok – to share magic at a festival there hosted by our new friend Mamada. If you’ll be in Thailand between March 26-29, be sure and see them! That will give Jeff just a few days home before he takes off on two weeks of cruising the Pacific for Holland America…and that takes us nearly to the end of May.
For May, I’m looking for a few good “sponsors†for the McBride Magic Experience. This is Jeff’s signature one-man-magic convention, as only Jeff can provide. Combining show, lecture and workshop in an amazing two-day event not only provides a special treat for the local magicians and magic – but it winds up serving as a master-class in promotion and production for the sponsors. We’ve developed the methods for working with venues, handling press and overall production that, once you’ve learned them with us ‘holding your hand,’ can be applied to events you’ll want to promote for the rest of your lives. A true win-win for all involved, and designed so it actually carries less financial risk for the sponsor that just having another magician come and lecture would. I hope I will hear from several of you in the coming week or two, as now is the time to start promoting for May!
That’s all from me for this week. By the time this Museletter comes out again, we’ll all be sharing time in Las Vegas for the Master Class. Maybe one or two of you reading this will be sharing time with us there, too!
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Dear Friends:
What an excellent quote from Abe! I “sharpen my axe†by attending conferences, lectures and seminars that upgrade my skill sets and open me up to progressive ways of thinking. I just must get away and get some real life experience from expert teachers.
Recently I attended a lecture by Juan Tamariz. It was not just the magic effects that I found so mind expanding, it was more just being “in his company.” I felt like a dry plant being watered; I felt rejuvenated. I also get this extraordinary feeling when I host our classes here in Las Vegas. Eugene, and all of the teachers here at the school, continue to “upgrade” my creativity and my life skills.
If you want to join us for a class, please consider the March or summer classes.
If you can’t fly to Las Vegas, then take a look at our online school offerings for this season.
Jeff pushes his technique to the limits in his card manipulation routine.
All photos by Seryl Aguilar
“Thanks for the gift and thanks for the Master Class experience. It was really something different, something that felt meaningful and a memory for life. It was way better than my expectations. It was more than magic effects, it was a totally different kind of life.”
— Jompa Anderson, Master Class student
Are you Old School, or New School?
Do you prefer a Kindle book over a hard back book?
Do you “pop in a cd†or play mp3s on your iPod?
Do you write quick notes by hand or do you send a text on your iPhone?
Do you work with Bicycle playing cards or those new “fancy-schmancy” decks?
Yes my friends, we are living at a time where technologies are obsolete before they even hit your home! We have been “bridging the gap,†as it were. Our Online School is a perfect example of a solution to the “old school/new school†division.
“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.â€
— Anonymous
Jeff McBride and THE WONDERGROUND PLAYERS in a recent stage extravaganza!
Meet my Freaky Friends!
I love stretching my limits, and so every month we host the greatest magic party in Las Vegas! Each month we create A NEW SHOW! Join us this Thursday, Feb. 21st at 8pm for the latest edition. For full line up and information go to: http://www.vegaswonderground.com
YOU WILL LOVE THIS AMAZING LINE UP OF RARE TALENT!
This month at WONDERGROUND we are featuring ZAMORA THE TORTURE KING!
ZAMORA: is just back from Europe, and makes a rare appearance.
JASON ANDREWS: 1st place winner at the IBM stage competition.
DAVID GROVES: the author of “STREET MAGICâ€Â weaves his wonders
LES CONTORTIONETTES-:fantasic blend of puppetry and contortion
BIZZARO!:One of the most creative minds in modern magic!
BIJAN & DAVID GABBAY From Hollywood, rising stars in comedy magic.
Take a look at some great images by Sheryl Aguilar, from last month’s event
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9lpcqbioykpufn6/1lkj48I7ac?m
If you like, you can watch our show for free, ONLINE at 10 pm on WWW.MCBRIDEMAGIC.TV
“New Rave” magician, Kyle Raven from Singapore lights up the stage at WONDERGROUND!
McBride World Tour: China & Thailand
I am on my way back to China again for a super stage show. Jordan Wright will join me on this trip and my next one to Thailand. Hey, I might even be coming YOUR way soon, so please look at my tour dates. http://www.mcbridemagic.com/pages/calendar.php
See you at the shows, on tour, or online at the “virtual magic school!â€
Jeff
P. S.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.â€
— Plutarch
Join us & set your mind on fire at our annual MYSTERIUM gathering.
From Tobias:
We have several weekends in May currently unbooked. If you’ve considered sponsoring one of Jeff’s “McBride Magic Experience†mini-conventions in your city, now is the time to think about doing it. You can learn more about how the whole process works at: http://www.mcbridemagic.com/pages/venues/mcbride-magic-for-magicians/the-jeff-mcbride-experience.php
Jeff loves coming out to share his show and teaching across the country, and we’ve developed a “minimum risk†way for you to sponsor him – in many cases you can sponsor the whole show, lecture and workshop with a lower overhead that it would take to sponsor a lesser known magician just for a lecture. Click the link above to learn more, and then get in touch with me and make arrangements!
Best wishes.
Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com
Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.
— Unknown
Dear Friends:
Today we have a special message from Dr. Larry Hass, our Associate Dean. If you’re reading this, and don’t already know Dr. Hass, I can assure you he knows what he is writing about as he writes about having heart. Larry contributes so much to our magical community – not just as an excellent performer, or as part of our Magic & Mystery School, but through his work running his Theory and Art of Magic Press, and through the programs he has created to bring the serious study of magic to traditional college curriculums, first at Muhlenberg College and now at Austin College. If you get to see him perform or lecture, you’re in for a treat – and can be sure he will touch your hearts and inspire you with his own passion. We count ourselves extremely fortunate to have him as a part of our team.
February is the month of heart. With Valentine’s Day in the middle of it, it is a time when our thoughts turn and re-turn to love and friendship, to the relationships we make with partners, spouses, children, family, friends, and the communities in which we engage.
This February I especially am thinking about the fact that the Magic & Mystery School community has heart. Frankly, I wouldn’t be involved if it didn’t! We are not all about intellect, competition, or achievement. Of course there is room in our community for these things, but what keeps them in balance is what I think of as the School’s heart core.
This heart core is beating away in our educational mission and in many of our projects and initiatives. The truth is, we feel a bit shy about trumpeting them, but because we need your help right now (more on this below), I want to underscore a couple of them.
First, it is my pleasure to announce that over the past two years our Gift Magic book project has generated over $4,700 for Rich Bloch’s Encore Foundation, which assists magicians in times of tragic need. Indeed, our pledge was that every penny of profit from sales of Gift Magic would go to Encore, and we are delighted that the book continues to sell so well.
The second thing to formally announce is the extraordinary success of the School’s 2012 Scholarship Program. Once in a while some wise guy jokes, “Oh you’re a school; do you offer scholarships? Ha, ha.†The answer is: Yes, we most certainly do!
In fact, the School offers two scholarships for qualified students: 1) The Magic & Mystery School Scholarship, and 2) The SARMOTI Legacy Scholarship (founded through the generous support of the Siegfried and Roy North American Fan Club). Both of these scholarships provide need-based financial aid for students to have a magic education experience at one of our classes in Las Vegas. Please go to the Scholarship Program page of the new website to see if you qualify and to download an application.
The wonderful thing is that these scholarships are funded by you. They are funded by people in our extended community who have “heard the call†and made generous donations to our Scholarship Fund. In 2012 we received enough gifts from people in our “heart community†to fund scholarships for three people who needed a “hand up†at this point in their life to get the education they need for greater success. (The recipients are wonderful, talented, highly motivated people and you will read about them in the months ahead.)
This brings me to another part of our heart core: the launch of our new Membership Initiative. We are asking you to become an official member of the Magic & Mystery School.
We are launching this initiative for two reasons. First, we need your help in covering the basic operational costs of our online offerings (for example, the Museletter, the free Monday night show, and the Virtual School in all its shades and content). The fact is, none of it is free and none of it is cheap, and as our viewer hours per month at Livestream are going through the roof (last month well over 100,000 hours), we need your help to make it sustainable.
But more important for us is the fact that, after a portion of your membership fee goes to cover basic costs, all the rest of it goes directly into our Scholarship Fund. And every penny of the Scholarship Fund goes out to talented magic students who need help closing the gap for their magic education.
So please, right now, go to the new Magical Wisdom home page and “Become a Member†of the Magic & Mystery School. When you press the big red button on the home page, you will be taken to a page that shows you the three levels of membership ($25, $50, and $100), and the exclusive benefits that each level brings.
We are proud of these “goodies,†and we think you will enjoy them. But above all, remember that your membership fee is helping us in our educational mission to improve the art of magic one magician at a time.
We make this frank appeal to you because we know you have heart. And we know you are connected to us because we have heart. Thank you for helping us to be the kind of community we aspire to be!
From Tobias:
We’re excited that next week (February 3-10) will be “Magic & Mystery School Week†at the Magic Castle. The whole faculty and staff will be there, and if you’ll be in Southern California, you won’t want to miss this special week when we get to bring our special “Mystery School†brand of magic to one of magic’s great institutions. Learn more at: http://www.magiccastle.com/
After that Jeff and Jordan Wright will be taking off for a week in Shanghai, performing Jeff’s “Magic Behind the Mask†show there on a whirlwind schedule, before returning to Vegas in time for next month’s “Mysterium,†and to our first classes of 2013: “Magic for Speakers and Presenters†and our first Master Class of the new year. There are one or two slots still open for each class, so if you hurry you can still secure one of them. Because of Jeff’s and Eugene’s extremely busy performing schedules, we don’t have additional classes scheduled till July…so I’d urge you to grab these spots while they last!
You’ll be hearing from Jeff directly in a couple of weeks with our mid-month Muse, including stories from the week at the Magic Castle, information about this month’s Wonderground, and more…till then, we wish you a magical February, filled with heart!
Sincerely,
Tobias Beckwith
tobias@yourmagic.com
I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.
—Albert Einstein
Magical Greetings from Jeff and Abbi in Las Vegas!
What will you become this year — and what would you give up to obtain that goal?
Jeff is just home from tour and has a few new stories to tell you…stories of dreams, goals and inspirations.
Inspirations!
Hey! Jeff here in Vegas! My friend, the writer Mike Burke, reminded me of something I had said that inspired him. I’ll share it with you, too.
“Go deep into the source of your inspiration, and get an excellent guide to take you deeper, beyond your limits.”
I find guides in some of the strangest places! I meet them on airplanes, cruise ships, waiting for a taxi, and even surfing the internet blogs! I want to share an interesting list of “resolutions” that came my way… it comes from film producer Peter Guber.
10 New Year’s Resolutions You Must Make For Your Greatest Business Success
Join Me in the Locked Room!
Yes I know it sounds ominous, but let me explain…our school does not “expose” magic on our Web TV channel, so we created a safe place, a ‘virtual classroom’ behind closed doors, to share our magic techniques with our students. We call it “The Locked Room.â€
I have 2 Locked Room training sessions coming up:
Fire Magic – I will teach some of the most impressive fire magic ever seen. Audiences LOVE fire magic! How to best travel with fire props, the best fire magic effects and why!
Silk Magic – I’ve toured the world using silk magic in my show. Now, for the very first time, I have created a special 90 minute training session where I will teach you all I know, as well as anything you might ask about, and you can learn my favorite silk magic effects.
Larry George, Bryce and Tobias are all teaching classes in “The Locked Room,” too, so come see what we are building for you!
Real Magicians Help Others’ Dreams Come True
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us.
And the world will live as one.
— John Lennon
New things are happening with our online Magic School. Â Our business is helping make our students dreams come true… and here is how we do it. IÂ sincerely hope you will consider joining us to become a member of the VIRTUAL Magic & Mystery School. Â Not only will you receive special benefits at each level of membership, but you will also help the School fulfill its mission of improving the art of magic one magician at a time! Learn more.
Passion and Commitment
One of our passions is helping to create a thriving community for magicians. Recently our Mystery School Monday show featured an episode on Magical Community. You can watch it online.
Jeff McBride’s WONDERGROUND
WONDERGROUND is the center of the Las Vegas Magic community.
— Paul Vigil, Las Vegas Close-up Magic Artist
Photo Credit: Flash Adams
I love hosting my friends at my nightclub experience here in Vegas. We are now in our 4th year!  This kind of long run is unheard of for a non-casino show in Las Vegas!
International Magic Festival Night at Wonderground!
One night only, Thursday January 17th, 7:30-Midnight! This month we will feature a global line-up of new acts never before seen in Las Vegas!
From Brazil: International award winner Henry Vargas
From Singapore: the new Asian star of Magic, Kyle Ravin
From the UK: Matt Black comedy magic
Las Vegas Street Magic by Michael Whitson
“The Shocker” returns with new magic and mayhem!
Mythic Dance by Jenevieve the Serpentine Sorceress
Christian Diamond will be the elegant host the Close-Up Theater
Tim Wise will host the 8pm Variety, Magic & Comedy show
MC Leo Diaz will mix master the sonic landscapes
THE NWR Dancers will perform 2 NEW sets of sensual belly dance
ART INSTALLATIONS by Areeya, Suzanne Lugano, Cameron Grant & local artists
TAROT & DIVINATION by Morganne & Stephanie.
To top it all off, Jeff McBride will perform a new “World Premiere” set of magic.
For complete info go to www.vegaswonderground.com
Ludlow, KY – McBride Magic Experience
The day after WONDERGROUND, I will jet to Kentucky, for one of my 2-day mini-conventions, featuring my full evening 1-Man show, my NEW Show Doctor Lecture and a full day SUPER SESSION workshop!
My full tour schedule is here:
http://www.mcbridemagic.com/pages/calendar.php
Mystery School Goes Hollywood – February 4th through 10th
Yes friends, I know you have been waiting for two years for us to return! The faculty of the MAGIC AND MYSTERY SCHOOL will take over the ENTIRE Magic Castle! Every theater and showroom will feature one of Mystery School teachers! We will also offer a Sunday afternoon lecture, for Magic Castle members only.
Abbi and look forward to our time with our friends in Hollywood! We will see YOU online at www.mcbridemagic.tv. You can tune in 24 hours a day to catch the streaming magic!
We LOVE the muse letter and it is our way of staying connected with YOU! Hey, you can always press “reply” to these Muse letters and Jeff and I will shoot you a hello right back!
Yours in magic community,
Jeff and Abbi
From Tobias:
Dear Friends – Happy New Year!
After this very long Museletter, I just wanted to chime in to let you know we still have 2 spaces left in the “Magic for Speakers and Presenters†master class from March 15-17, and 4 spots left for the Master Class that follows it, from March 18-24. Grab those spots now…they’ll go fast!
https://www.magicalwisdom.com/events
Best to all.
Sincerely,
Tobias Beckwith