Street Smarts: On the Road with Jeff McBride

Greetings Magical Friends,
ON THE ROAD… A DAY ON TOUR WITH JEFF MCBRIDE
Jeff here, in Toronto, reporting from out 2010 Canada tour…  Jordan Wright is traveling with me, as my opening act, lighting designer and assistant.  It’s amazing to watch how Jordan can handle every situation that’s thrown at him, especially in some of the more challenging theater venues.  Each day, we get up early, hit the road, get to the theater around 2pm, set the props and lights at 3pm, do a run through with an all new tech crew at 4pm, take a break at 5pm, and get ready to do pre-show walk-around and meet and greet the audience at 7pm.  Showtime is at 8pm, and comes down around 9:30.  We pack up the entire show, visit the VIP after-party, go back to our hotel for a few hours of rest, then up early the next day and do it again, and again, oh, and again!

Jeff McBride, Abbi Spinner and Jordan Wright

We have an amazing tour manager, Jeff Montgomery, who is multi-talented, and has an outstanding gift for communicating with people. On the most challenging day of travel, he was able to get a plane off the runway a half hour early, and later that day, convince another crew to hold a plane a half hour so our props and baggage could make the connection.  It’s a real pleasure to work with highly skilled pros like Jordan and Jeff.

Here is the tour schedule that Jeff Montgomery put together, and hey, every ticket is already sold out!

April 13 Perform in Fort Frances Ontario 500 people
April 14 Perform in Thunder Bay Ontario   1400 people
April 15 Perform in Brandon Manitoba 900 people
April 16 Perform in Manitou Manitoba 500 people
April 20 Perform in Regina Saskatchewan 2200 people
April 21 Perform in Lloydminster Saskatchewan 600 people
April 22 Perform in Saskatoon Saskatchewan 2200 people

STREET SMARTS
Here’s what I’ve learned so far, on this tour.

1) Never play “name that tune” with a professional radio disk jockey.  Our tour manager, Jeff, can instantly name any tune from the 1970’s on.  He always wins.

2) It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.  Tour manager Jeff’s philosophy on dealing with challenging people and situations on the road: he never loses his cool, but always manages to find a win-win situation for everyone.

3) Don’t look in the rearview mirror, keep moving straight ahead.  That’s another Montgomery-ism.  There’s no time for looking back with regret when there’s so much to do on the road ahead.

4) Eat more fruit, less potato chips…. ‘Nuff said.

WONDERGROUND, THURSDAY APRIL 15TH!!
If you’re going to be in Las Vegas this week, you are cordially invited to WONDERGROUND!  We have an amazing NEW line-up (yes, the show changes completely EVERY month).  You can see the list of performers here: http://www.vegaswonderground.com

Wonderground
Abbi will be the Mistress of Ceremonies this month, and I hear she’s gonna be doing her “McBondage Escape” which I guarantee you don’t want to miss….

VIRTUAL JEFF MCBRIDE
I will be beaming in via internet, live from Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. AJ Olsen and Jeremy Espinosa fromwww.streetofcards.tv have created a cyber-magic interface that will connect me, live-time, from Canada to all the folks at WONDERGROUND!   Even if you can’t make it to Las Vegas this week, you can see it all as it happens, or on demand, at streetofcards.tv.

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