Speaking of the first day, so far that’s all I have gotten through. Sure, I listened and watch parts of the sessions from days 2 and 3 as they were happening live but its taken until now for me to have the time to actually study the first 3 sessions from day 1. As of last Friday, all 9 sessions are available online as video on demand for people who signed up for the conference. So, if you missed this conference in real time you can still get more than your registration fee out of these videos.

As someone who still considers himself a novice magician, I gained loads from the first day( and even the first session) with speeches, performances and presentations form the likes of Lennart Greene, Barry & Stuart, Ponta the smith, Apollo Robbins, Gaetan Bloom, Max Maven and many more.

While I gained a lot from everybody, I gained the most from a magical duo I hadn’t heard of before – Barry & Stuart. They had a first day speech entitled, “Everything We’ve Learned So Far” [Registration Required]. What drew me in the most was an idea that their presentation kept dancing around and they summed up in one of their final bullet points as:

If you want to subvert your art, you need to first learn your craft.

While I have never come across as much of a rebel who would want to subvert much of anything, I do have this constant need to make things my own and I latched on to many of their ideas. Barry and Stuart are 2 young guys who have worked hard and created a niche and name for themselves in magic. And while there are many performances from day 1 I’d like to show my readership ( Ponta the smith’s performance in session 1 comes to mind ) – I don’t have access and permission to do that. So, I’ve looked up an entertaining video of Barry and Stuart for my magical and muggle readership alike. Enjoy.

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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.



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.

However, the following video proves ( if you don’t speak chinese at least ) that magic, and the language of “holy crap that’s insanely awesome”, doesn’t require much more than body language to convey its message. Watch and be amazed…watch more and be amazed more..keep watching its worth seeing all of it

Many of my past Just Another Magic Monday posts have shown off card manipulators as I learned about some of them. However, recently I posted about Go Magic Go and the Royal Road to Card Magic. I did this because I’ve decided to make 2010 a magical year for me and those are the tools I am using myself to gain some magical confidence. The Royal Road to Card Magic isn’t a book about card manipulation even if it does have some utility flourishes. Instead, it is a book about good old fashioned card magic.

For many people, card magic is the reason they think they don’t like magic. Since card magic is so easy for people to get started at, many people learn the tricks but don’t learn how to really perform them.  Without the performance a trick is just a trick and rarely, if ever, entertains. Thank goodness for my pro wrestling background, I already understand this fact.

Card magic can be extremely entertaining though. In the hands of the right performer, a simple deck of cards can be all someone needs to entertain any group of people. In the magical world many would say that Bill Malone is one of the best card magic entertainers there is. I only learned about him while talking with an old friend about my new journey into magic. In the following video Bill Malone does a lot of magic, but you may not even notice it because the routine is so entertaining.

Enjoy Bill Malone’s – Sam the Bellhop

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Today’s JAMM post, as you have probably already figured out, is me recommending the book The Royal Road to Card Magic. But that is not all. I didn’t start making my way through this book until I came across an podcast series called Go Magic Go. Unfortunately, this podcast isn’t still being created so you have to do a little, technical, leg work in order to find it. I’ve done the work for you so just point your RSS reader to http://thetrapdoor.libsyn.com/rss.

If you don’t know what an RSS reader is, a great online tool is Google Reader. Just click the “Add A Subscription” button and add the URL above. While your at it, do the same with http://ducharme.cc to follow the blog you are currently reading.

Back to the topic at hand. The Royal Road To Card Magic is the book they work through in a special series of podcasts  Go Magic Go did for beginners. Even though the book is written well and you can get a lot out of it on your own, what you get from the beginner series podcasts is almost like a virtual magic mentor. You get tips for practicing, things to watch out for and other information that you would only get from making mistakes yourself.  I still haven’t gotten through the book because I’m going quite slow ( as recommended by the Go Magic Go podcast ) and still was learning some very powerful techniques and tricks almost immediately.

Here is the first lesson to get you started:

For less than $10, this book is a gold mine of magical technique. It goes well with the fact that card magic is a nice inexpensive way to start learning magic theory. The Go Magic Go podcasts are free and come with a wealth of information for anyone serious about magic. So I highly recommend listening to more than just the Beginner Series podcasts.



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Feeling a bit disheartened in my quest, I almost gave up. Then I remembered something I had heard from one of Jeff McBride’s videos. Magic is a gift. Then I searched for ,”The Gift Of Magic”. One of the first things I found was this video which shows how much of a gift it has been for one magician by the name of Bill Rollins. It seems he had the good fortune to attend McBride’s Magic and Mystery School and decided to write a poem and share it via youTube as a thank you.

This poem is awesome, and could almost move into one of my Wednesday Warriors posts. The issue of mentors is often a big missing in this world. But as they say

When the student is ready the teacher appears

For any of you interested in magic, here is a little Hogwart’sesque advertisement video for the school.




And for those of you buying gifts for the magician in your life ( eh, hem – I think my family knows who I am talking to ) and wish to give them the gift of magic they do have gift certificates available. For those of you more magically inclined though, remember that magic is a gift that we bring into people’s lives. So give joyfully this holiday season.

Have a magical season

Before I go too much further, Scam School is not a show teaching you how to do magic.  According to the intro it is, “The only show dedicated to social engineering at the bar and on the street.” However, Brian Brushwood is a magician and a great entertainer. The following clip is an episode of Scam School that deviated from its normal format to show Brian’s performance at SXSW.

Scam school is great for magician’s to watch because of its perspective. There is a movement of bizarre magic out there and Brian Brushwood is one of the people at the forefront. For non-magician’s it is great to watch for its edutainment value. It is very entertaining, and you get to see a cool thing to do at a bar or just hanging out with your friends. For instance, check out this episode on “The Static Shot.”

In the end though, the show is called Scam School and it presents itself as thus. Even though the homework is usually to watch movies like “The Sting” or buy domain names and do a domain smack on someone. All in all I recommend this show to all lovers of magic ( and bar scams ).

For more information:

• Scam School Website
• Brian Brushwood’s website
• Follow Brian Brushwood on Twitter
• Check out one of Brian’s other shows
  • BB Live Show
  • NSFW

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“Just came across this remarkable video: find 15 minutes and watch this short-length movie, I think it’s worth it”

As I watched it, especially near the end I kept thinking of words I have heard Jeff say time and again.

I believe magic is all around us.

He is so right. As a magician myself, this is the energy I love tapping into as I perform. I hope I can continue to see the magic all around me as I delve more into my own magical journeys.

Please take 15 minutes and watch this, whether you are into magic or not.  It is a beautiful short film with high production values. It is a powerful piece that has tapped into the magic it is trying to portray.

That’s Magic! from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

The music from this short film is available at: http://www.whitestonemotionpictures.com/2009/01/thats-magic-soundtrack/

For an added bonus here is a video of her working the Montreal Jazz Fest in 2009.

I’m a sucker for a French ( and Russian ) speaking redheaded entertainer

Serious Issue + Humor is good but magic makes it better