The middle of the Nevada desert. Four hundred square miles of nothing. Not even streets. Just 50,000 people attending the world’s largest art festival. It’s Survival Magic and there are no spectators, only participants in the most extreme conditions imaginable. Welcome to Burning Man and Magic at the Edge! Since the dawn of time, magicians have sought inspiration in the most unusual places. Burning Man is one of the most inspiring environments for performance magic in all the world.

You’ve seen Jeff McBride featured on A&E’s Mindfreak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and VH-1’s Celebracadabra. Now you can see Jeff in action performing his magic at one of the wildest places in the world, the Burning Man Art Festival. But this is far more than just a performance video. It is a teaching video, an exploration that searches for the very heart and soul of magic. Here is an inside look into the lifestyle of one of the world’s great magicians and how and why he seeks inspiration.

Magic at the Edge offers magic for all skill levels, with commentary from Eugene Burger and Jeff’s wife, Abbi McBride. They share their philosophies and techniques on performance. They teach you how you can add more meaning to your existing routines and use your magic to teach powerful lessons. Polish the magic you already perform and experience the wisdom of these masters of the art.

DISC 1: MAGICIAN 24/7

EFFECTS

• TRIBAL PIERCING - An impromptu shocker! Push your thumb through your ear—listen to the screams!
• MAGIC WISHING RAINBOW - Your participant’s wish comes true with a surprise gift! A lesson in eye contact and engagement.
• RAINBOW TO DOLLAR - You will conjure a rainbow from the air and transform it into real money your participant can keep!
• WISHING RAINBOW/RAINBOW TO ROSE - The magic rainbow is back and transforms into the gift of a rose. An effect sure to melt the heart and make a lasting memory.
• MAGIC BUBBLES - Enchanted bubbles become real in your participant’s hand! This effect can silence crying children and might even get you a first-class airline upgrade!
• HINDU ROPE / RISING CARD - An immaculate rising card, totally impromptu, with a mythic presentation. Better than nearly any gaffed deck version.
• THE BEAD & STRING MYSTERY - Break free from bondage! A ritual of liberation that enpowers your participants to set their minds free.
• WORLD’S FASTEST HANDS - Jeff’s super fast card opener: two participants’ cards revealed—really really fast. A close-up illusion that defies explanation.
• NO SMOKING - A magical performance with the intention of healing and perhaps empowering your friends to quit smoking.
• THE POD BELT - Jeff shows you his survival accessory belt that has more toys and attachments than Batman!
• McWALLET - The signed card appears inside the wallet that is also inside a zippered pouch! A real world Card in Wallet that can be repeated multiple times. This has fooled the best!

DISCUSSIONS

• Magician 24/7
• Audience Participation
• Flight Time
• 21st Century Street Magic with Eugene Burger
• Definition of Magician

BONUS MATERIAL

• Meet Jeff McBride
• The Shaman’s Drum
• McTip #1

DISC 2: SURVIVAL MAGIC

EFFECTS

• HOUDINI STRAIGHTJACKET - Abbi Spinner McBride’s performance and explanation of the Houdini Straightjacket Challenge, with Eugene Burger giving historical background on this pack-small, play-big illusion.
• THE MAGNETIC CARDS - A modern version of Nate Leipzig’s astonishing card levitation. A trance-inducing wonder!
• HEART CONNECTION - Make deep personal connections with two signed playing cards. More than a mere trick—it is real magic from the heart.
• PRISNA’S DANCING CANE - The evolution and revolution of the dancing cane in pop culture (performance only).
• THE SHARK FIN PIN - This little known close-up illusion even fools experienced magicians! A saftey pin rips through your jacket and leaves no trace!
• SAMINA’S “INTO GOLD” - A lesson in alchemy—from the scintillating sorceress—will teach you to change real lead into gold in the participant’s hand.
• TRASH TO TREASURE - An enviro-magic experience that transforms garbage into glitter. Ecologically inspired conjuring.
• BUSINESS CARD CONNECTION - Jeff shares a few of his impromptu business card effects that ensure your business card gets kept and remembered. A networking solution to a modern problem.
• MCQUICK TIP TRICK - A super fast impromptu production and transformation of cards and money. Your participant keeps the money and your reputation builds as a real world wonderworker.
• McMINT - An ultra-modern version of Signed Card to Impossible Location using a breath mint case. This is a mini-illusion and Jeff’s closer in his close-up show.

DISCUSSIONS

• Traveling with Props
• Less-on
• Interview with Sensei Strange

BONUS MATERIAL

• Mystery School
• Assistant’s Revenge
• McTip #2

DISC 3: ART ATTACK

EFFECTS

• THE CHEN LEE MCBURGER WATER SUSPENSION - Water magic that mystifies close up, parlor or stage. This combinatin of classic method and modern application creates a powerful impromptu effect with props you already own.
• WATER IN THE NEWSPAPER - Abbi McBride performs her commando-style routine in the round, under the Big Top at Burning Man center camp (performance only).
• JINKS - Performing in tandem, Abbi and Jeff present an in-the-hands Wild Card invented by the brilliant Gordon Bean. Introducing the Spinner Count.
• LISTEN TO THE MUSTN’TS - Inspired by Tracy Atteberry and Shel Silverstein, a tale of hope and courage. Blank canvases mysteriously paint themselves with images of your magical potential.
• HERMETIC STAR GAZER - Alan Wong created one of the great rubber band effects of our time. This is Jeff’s lesson in alchemical geometry with guest participant Stephen Larsen. As above . . . so below!
• SPELLBOUND - Jeff’s tips and subtleties on this classic coin routine.
• BURNING MAN IN THE HAND - A cutting edge presentation for the classic Okito Wicker Rising Doll. Burn baby burn!
• FIRE RITUAL- A ceremony of enchantment where burning intentions manifest into reality with a flash of fire.

DISCUSSIONS

• About Burning Man
• Simplicty

BONUS MATERIAL

• Kabuki Magic
• McTip #3
• TV Commercial
• Fire Circle

You’ve seen Jeff McBride featured on A&E’s Mindfreak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and VH-1’s Celebracadabra. Now you can see Jeff in action performing his magic at one of the wildest places in the world, the Burning Man Art Festival.

But this is far more than just a performance video. It is a teaching video, an exploration that searches for the very heart and soul of magic. Here is an inside look into the lifestyle of one of the world’s great magicians and how and why he seeks inspiration. Magic at the Edge offers magic for all skill levels, with commentary from Eugene Burger and Jeff’s wife, Abbi McBride. They share their philosophies and techniques on performance. They teach you how you can add more meaning to your existing routines and use your magic to teach powerful lessons. Polish the magic you already perform and experience the wisdom of these masters of the art.

What people are saying:

"I just watched the burning man video of you doing the string and bead with Nala. I got to tell you…it was a real joy to watch someone take their artistic gift and use it in a way to empower someone. I called Malinda in to watch it with me a second time. Her first words were, 'he might have actually changed that woman’s life.'

"I know some magicians get that to a lesser extent, but more on a performance level…doing part of the trick in the spectators hand for example. But to understand that you have the ability to entertain, empower and possibly even heal someone’s spirit…that’s to be admired and applauded."

-- Glenn Farrington

Jeff McBride thinks a magician should be performing magic as much of the time, on and off stage, as possible. He loves the Burning Man Festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada and when he attends he loves to walk around doing magic for the attendees.

That’s the loose theme of this DVD set, which also features Jeff’s wife, Abbi, herself a performer, and Eugene Burger, who teaches with Jeff at their Mystery School. Both Jeff and Eugene, I am happy to say, are Magic Circle Members. The videos are divided into ‘Magician 24/7’ which explains impromptu (or nearly so) effects; ‘Survival Magic”, effects Jeff uses when he’s traveling with very light luggage; and ‘Art Attack’, full-blown routines he performs at festivals in more formal, usually stage settings.

There are more than 20 effects taught and several more simply performed, as well as several travel tips and discussions of things like Street Magic. The videos include material shot on site at Burning Man, with some of the colorful characters in attendance.

Some of the material is taught by Jeff in his lectures, but it is very good. There’s the gag where you apparently stick your thumb through your earlobe, Jeff’s rainbow streamer from thumb tip, an impromptu rising card and Card to Wallet. Abbi demonstrates her straitjacket escape, Jeff shows the Magnetic Cards using both the Gary Plants gimmick and something you can rig up yourself, a Two Card Transpo, a nice Lead to Gold transformation using an old gimmick in a new way and a business card production that recipients will remember. There’s a rubber band trick, a thumbtip water suspension and a lot more. Extras include Jeff’s showreel, excerpts from a TV show which featured Jeff at home and on stage and lots more.

Much of this is excellent, and includes magic that’s easy to do and impressive. Jeff’s enthusiasm and expertise are second to none, and he teaches some excellent magic and gives some practical road advice that I think any magician, professional or amateur, will find useful.

-- Reviewed by Matthew Field, from The Magic Circular, August 2008

Part magic lecture, part philosophy discussion, part travelogue… Jeff McBride’s newest series from L&L Publishing is a collection of effects, lessons, and on-location performances that is as much a departure from the norm as, well… Jeff McBride. Together with his wife, Abigail McBride and friend Eugene Burger, Mr. McBride brings his audience a new learning experience, combining both live performances and clips of his performances at the Burning Man art festival in Nevada.

The theme of the first disc will be familiar to those who have attended Mr. McBride’s lectures: “Magician 24/7.” These effects represent some of the magic that Mr. McBride is prepared to do anytime, anywhere, for anyone. From truly impromptu stunts like thumb-through-ear (framed here as “Tribal Piercing”) to other material requiring small, easy-to-carry props (“Magic Wishing Rainbow,” or “The Bead and String Mystery”), these are the effects that Mr. McBride uses to emphasize the importance he places on being prepared to share magical moments with other people not just on stage, but in his everyday life.

Disc two is themed around “Survival Magic.” Mr. McBride has previously extolled the value of building a repertoire of practical, portable and visible routines; his “Commando Act” falls squarely within this category. It’s the “packs small, plays big” concept, but with an eye toward memorable effects that have a strong impact on the audience. Here the idea is extended along the lines of having “survival versions” of material that would otherwise be too large to transport conveniently. The first example is Abbi McBride’s “Houdini Straightjacket,” one of the most thoughtful performances of a non-comedic straight-jacket escape that I’ve ever seen. Team McBride uses it to include a taste of the thrill of escapes in shows where their “Assistant’s Revenge” or a “Burned Alive” escape would simply be unfeasible. Another example was a discussion of the “Dancing Cane,” a versatile stage prop which, to the surprise of Mr. McBride and Mr. Burger, has begun a transition into the juggling community as a prop by the name of a “flow wand.” The “Shark Fin Pin” is a magical penetration routine that uses a small prop but plays strong due to a real sense of risk to a participant’s personal belongings. The “survival” theme is also applied to a number of close-up items on the disc using business cards, playing cards, and specialty coins. In these examples, the “survival” term is used not to indicate that these routines can substitute for larger material on a stage, but rather to symbolize that Mr. McBride values them enough to travel with some assortment of them almost everywhere he goes.

“Art Attack” is the theme of the third disc, a compilation of material that Mr. McBride has performed at outdoor festivals and in other challenging, real-world conditions. The first effect is one of the true gems of the entire collection, the “Chen Lee McBurger Water Suspension.” This effect uses close-up magic props, but can play for a large room. Mr. McBride’s explanation shows how the performer can extend and strengthen the impact of this routine by building and releasing tension effectively and by focusing attention at the right place at the right time. Because water is a valuable commodity at the Burning Man festival, this routine takes on heightened significance, as does the performance of the classical “Water in the Newspaper.” Abbi Spinner’s handling of Gordon Bean’s “Jinks” – a colorful wild card routine—reframes the effect so that the magic happens nearer to the performer’s face. The remainder of the magic is close-up magic with McBride twists—a “Spellbound” handling, a piece of rubber-band magic, an eerie animation, and a more formal piece, “The Fire Ritual,” in which a piece of paper transforms into another small object in a flash of fire.

In addition to all the magic effects, all three discs contain discussions on topic such as audience management, the study of magic, working tips for traveling performers and minimalism as it relates to performing magic. Interviews and encounters with other performers add even more texture and perspective to the discussions. Because so much of the material was filmed on location at Burning Man, the L&L studio audience is much less prominent than in most other collections; again, this differentiates these discs from more mainstream productions. As an L&L production, the studio shots have top shelf production values, but the quality of the location shots is also surprisingly good.

The performance of magic inherently hints at supernatural possibilities; at the very least it flirts with the human desire to manifest some kind of control over objects or events or people. More so than most videos on the market, Magic at the Edge attempts to be a bridge between the magically practical and the magically profound… and it largely succeeds. Mr. McBride is a passionate person whose interests and beliefs naturally permeate his performances and his teaching, while not diluting the value of the real-world performing insights he shares. For some people, the philosophy may at times get deep enough to shovel; for others, the tricks may be only a distraction from what they’re really hoping to learn from Mr. McBride. The unavoidable truth, though, is that Jeff McBride cannot be dissected; the practical and the profound are both present. It will be up to the student to discover and explore which concepts and ideas resonate most. Whatever the student’s interest in magic, these discs will reward study.

-- Reviewed by Joe Turner from Genii, August 2008