A Magician Breaks Out of the Mold (and the Pack)

Prowling a cabaret stage, wearing a he referred to as “commando mime.” “The sorcerer’s robe embellished with stars By GLENN COLLINS word for most mime is wimpy, but rock and moons, the magician Jeff McBride is audiences won’t stand for portrayals of but Mr. McBride corrects any who deem his definitely not David Copperfield: clean- dying butterflies,” Mr. McBride said. “I show alchemical. “Alchemy came long after cut is hardly the description that leaps to incorporated a kind of attack mime, thanks ,” he said, “and magicians were there mind. It is instantly apparent, too, that to my training in aikido and judo.” first.” this magician is no cheery , It took four years for Mr. McBride to Mr. McBride is the youngest magician as he peers through a forbidding white- put together his show, and it takes more ever to receive the Star of Magic Award from face mask and performs a show dense than four hours for him to prepare for each the International Brotherhood of Magicians, with drama, mystery and occult symbol- performance, what with the readying of and honor that has eluded both Mr. ism. apparatus and the arrangement of makeup. Copperfield and Mr. Henning. Mr. McBride combines magic with There is also the half-hour of stretching, The speed and power of his illusions mime, dance, Kabuki theater and martial warm-ups, and the daily card- and coin- derive from his early experience performing arts. He wields the primordial weapons manipulation exercises he religiously per- as the opening act for rock groups like of the magician -- the wand, chalice and forms. Santana and Cheap Trick. “You had to go sword. He wrestles with titanic unseen out and dazzle people, blast their eyes out,” Changed by Kabuki forces. He does not do rabbits. he said. Mr. McBride was born in Goshen, N.Y., If Mr. McBride’s nightly magic act To do this, Mr. McBride developed what grew up in nearby Rock Hill, and at the age on the stage of the Ballroom would seem of 8 -- the year he started studying judo - fairly uncategorizable, it has not deterred - he also performed his first magic shows Mr. McBride from describing it. for his parents, after stealing a copy of “I call it renaissance Kabuki from “The Golden Book of Magic” from the Mars,” he said with a wry smile after a Rock Hill Public Library. recent show. Certainly there is an other- At 10, he began charging a quarter for worldly quality to Mr. McBride’s magic, his magic shows in the McBride basement; his alien choreography and his striking at 12, he was performing at children’s camps costumes of red, yellow, blue and black, in the Catskill hotels, and at 16, he was traditional color signs for the shaman’s appearing as the opening act for a salsa elemental tool kit of fire, air, water and show touring Japan. “There I saw Kabuki earth. for the first time, and it changed my life,” he Mr. McBride displays his legerde- said. main to the accompaniment of a high- After this first of eight trips to Japan, decibel electronic score by composers Mr. McBride began performing in a Ka- including Vangelis and Alexandros. On buki-inspired whiteface mask, blending a West Side stage known for its celebra- mime with his magic, and incorporating tion of the torch song, this is a decided Oriental influences in his costuming. “All change of pace, and indeed, Mr. McBride of this enabled me to detach myself, and is the first magician ever to perform there. create a more magical ritual level for the During the show, Mr. McBride’s audience,” he said. powerful and precise illusions turn a In the show at the Ballroom, Mr. handkerchief into a coat of samurai ar- McBride performs eight magical “experi- mor, transform a feather into a magician’s ments,” he said, “rituals based on the wand, transmute sand into milk, and symbolism of the tarot deck.” Enacting the dramatically materialize cards and coins. myth of a sort of wizardlike Everyman, he He eats fire, generates a show-storm materializes from the primordial void, dis- of Japanese rice paper from his hand and covers and manipulates the four elements, seems to levitate on beams of light. These and after mastering the universe, wrestles light rays do not emanate from lasers: with his own soul. they’re beamed from aircraft landing lights, which impart an eerie brilliance to Unmasked in the End the stage. In the finale, a balletic frenzy of quick- At one point in the act, Mr. McBride paced illusion, he battles with a series of launches his transformations from a table demonic masks until, ultimately, he stands modeled after the one in Faust’s study, before the audience as himself.