Jeff McBride

So first of all, since last week, they've announced for the very first time the Mystery School comes to Blackpool Magic Convention 27.

Hosted by the founder, Jeff McBride.

He was the guy who introduced me at Magic

Live.

So there you go.

So first of all, you got the OG himself.

You got Jeff McBride doing the mystery school.

Also, and I did not realise these motherfuckers had a show.

Well, you can tell your wife because he knew my wife.

But that meant I couldn't tell people like Jeff McBride or Max Maven, Eugene's closest friends.

And it was because he really wanted it to be kept secret.

100 percent entirely secret.

There is a magical dimension to the production of either of them.

Another piece of the light bulb is that it seems to be such a fragile object.

How could this possibly be manipulated? One thing listeners might enjoy is in the early days of developing this production, I just would produce the item and I realized it didn't have the right impact until I discovered with the help of Jeff McBride, actually, that I needed to have a three beat, like follow the rule of three.

One thing happens, not so magical.

He is a member of the Magic Circle in London.

He teaches at Jeff McBride's Magic and Mystery School in Las Vegas and he writes for Vanish Magic magazine and the Mystery School's newsletter.

Frank is an army veteran who spent his service years performing in a wide variety of settings and has also designed and published board games.

Frank's book pairs 17 pieces of magical theatre with 14 essays and carries a foreword by Geoff McBride.

And it was a piece of magic that I wasn't sure who could tell me if this was something that should be put on stage.

So I sent an email to Shaden.

Jeff McBride, because I remembered hearing that he was very into storytelling magic.

And I sent an email to Christopher Hannibal as well.

Channing came to some of our things.

And so it was always Max Maven, Eugene Berger, you know, Jeff McBride.

Over the years, we had just everyone you can think of.

And and so then we started doing a lecture also at the end of the lunch.

And I said, you know, that's a really great idea and sounds very ambitious.

I don't know how to do all that stuff.

But I had been to Jeff McBride and Eugene Berger's mystery school as a guest several times.

And I watched Jeff and Eugene do classes and conduct classes and lectures and workshops and teach-ins.

And Mystery School.

Eh, el gran, eh, el gran, eh, director de la academia se llamaba Jeff McBride, que es un, eh, manipulador y, y, y, este-

¿Manipulador?

Sí, manipulador, ilusionista y, y este, y mago de escenario de hace muchísimos años.

Imagínate, o sea-

¿Y cómo lo conociste?

Lo conocí justo, eh, eh, mmm, gracias a mi maestro, justo a, a Jeff McBride.

Eh, yo lo conocí porque, eh, Jeff estaba contratado por David Copperfield.

A real fan and student.

Have you attended, then, uh, Jeff McBride's Mystery School?

I have not gone, but Jeff was here, uh-

Last year

Everybody just loved it.

And after I was done, Jeff McBride came up to me and said, "Alan, maybe you should put some material on the screen 'cause it would make it a little more, a little warmer." And I said, "Jeff, I'm gonna only do this once.

[laughs] I only prepared it to do it at Mystery School for tonight." And he said, "We'll see about that." Anyway, I had such a good response from everybody.

I was dealing with George Schindler, who I did some business with, and I said to George, "Maybe, maybe you could book me at a convention.