Halloween themed? - Just Another Magic Monday

In honor of Samhein and/or Halloween I wanted to bring back a classic from my favorite magician, Jeff McBride. Why Jeff McBride? Well, because he is best known for his mask routine. Many who have already followed my JAMM posts have seen his most popular mask routine but I need to show the one that floored me way back when. I couldn't find that original post (it has been removed by the user) but I found another performance from TV that incorporates it. So here it is. Jeff McBride's early Mask routine in honor of All Hallow's Eve: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCKpGauQ2TY&w=480&h=360] [ad#Ellusionist] Do you have a favorite magic routine for Halloween? Do you perform it? Do you have a video? I'd love to see/hear about it in the comments.

Not Just Another Magic Monday

The weekend before last was a very magical weekend for me.  The local magic ring in my new home, Ring #199, had a weekend of 2 lectures, a magic show and a master class. All of which I had the pleasure of attending. The first lecture was an awesome lecture from Dan Harlan that was more about presentation than it was on any tricks. His background in drama came through clear and at times he had me in stitches. The second lecture followed a show by none other than Jeff McBride, my favorite magician. His show was more amazing in person than any recording I had seen, even if it was in a more intimate setting than a Masters of Illusion taping. In fact, the intimate setting and the fact that I'd seen some of these before made the show better. I had the chance to see, well...nothing. The routines and effects which I was unaware of how he accomplished them left me still unaware - though very entertained. Much of the audience were magicians and I can say that we were all entertained. He actually did sorcerer's apprentice on stage with a teenage magician and it came out quite funny without deviating much from any time I've seen it performed on video. [ad#Ellusionist] As if that show and the following lecture weren't enough I was lucky enough to be part of a 4 hour ( turned into 4.5 hour ) master class taught by Jeff Mcbride the following Sunday. In this class I was able to get a little taste of what it must be like at Mcbride's Magic and Mystery School out in Vegas. I learned a lot from this master class and I feel very lucky that I was able to attend.

However, this post is not about me gloating that I got to see my magical hero in person and learn from him. Instead I want to teach a lesson I learned from the weekend. If you want to learn to be a master you need to seek masters to learn from. For some that means making it out to Vegas to attend a Master Class at the Magic and Mystery School. For others it means heading to South America to learn from Juan Tamariz ( mentioned several times by Jeff ).

It may not be ( or at least it may not seem ) possible for you to do any of this right now. However, thanks to the power of the internet, the Magic and Mystery school can come to you. Now there is a Virtual Magic and Mystery school available for you to learn from the masters. I'm not sure how long they'll be doing this but you can sign up for a free trial and get a free lesson in magic from Jeff to see how the system works.

[flv:http://virtual.magicalwisdom.com/video/vms_promo.flv 480 360] [ad#Google Adsense]

Just Another Magic Monday: Close-up Magic

It's been a while since I've shared anything, let alone magic, so here is my first JAMM post of 2009. The following is a BBC special on close up magic. Lots of great magicians are interviewed and many great pieces of magic are performed. Well worth the time to watch it. ...

Just another Magic Monday: Jeff McBride

Many weeks ago, I had the bright idea of checking youTube for some magic performances. One of the first I found worth mentioning was Lance Burton from The Best of Magic. A few weeks after that I had the bright idea of seeing what else was under the Best of Magic. First off, I stayed up for a long time watching these when I probably should have been sleeping. They were just so amazing and diverse. There was your standard stage magic by The Pendragons, humorous magic with Kohl & Co., a peaceful and impressive table routine by Hiroshi Sawa, and a great psuedo mime routine by Tina Lenert. There was also many more with some of the greats in magic, after all the show was The Best of Magic! One piece floored me though. The piece of Jeff McBride doing one of his mask routines. Amazing work with great mime and I was hooked, so I thought I'd share some with you. ...

I know that when I was younger, the above routine would have been too artsy for me. So I've added a second video from The World's greatest magic that also has some awesome card manipulations.