An array of professional magicians, including pre-teen boys and girls from as far away as Portland, and silver-bearded seasoned performers, gathered at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center Friday night and Saturday to enjoy and learn from a master, Jeff McBride. Some non-magician fans also attended Friday.

With over 200 performances on YouTube, three Guinness Book of World Records for card and coin manipulation, and appearances on all major TV networks and in front of the Queen of England, McBride, a working magician for 30 years, has plenty of experience under his belt, and plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

Coined the Jeff McBride Experience, the Friday night show included 90 minutes in the almost-100-chair intimate movement studio with the rapid-fire card flickerer, and Japanese Kabuki showman with a spiritual take, followed by a two-hour lecture. Saturday would offer a “Super Session Workshop” for magicians only.

The Friday night audience was treated to McBride's trademark finale, where he seems to produce deck after deck of fanned cards from his bare hands, then flicks them into the audience 40-feet through the air like mini-Frisbees, with accuracy. He said he worked on this routine since age 6.

The New Yorker described this routine. McBride, with sleeves pushed up, extrudes card after card from the air. Cards sprout from every fingertip like cabalistic tentacles, then pour from his mouth, as if a full deck had been sequestered inside his cheeks.

Youngstown seemed a comfortable fit for McBride as he is a teacher as much as a performer with his McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas, his home town, and instructs on the road, too. He may break the mold as he reveals some of his secrets. But that's fine with him.

"The interesting thing is that magicians are my biggest fans," McBride told the West Seattle Herald while adjusting his hat with affixed circular mirror like a dentist might use, just before taking the stage. "Magic is right now an open secret. The more you learn about magic the more fascinating magic becomes. It's like the person who plays the piano. You can buy a piano, but it becomes more fascinating the more you learn about the art. Magic has secrets within secrets within secrets."

McBride was quick to credit Seattle magician Fred Turner, a regular at his Magical Mystery School in Las Vegas.

"He is an excellent magician, speaker and host, and MC of Magic Monday, the longest running magic shows, perhaps in the world," McBride said. Magic Mondays is held at Ravenna's Third Place Books each month, offering live close-up and stage performance opportunities. (fredrick@blarg.net).

"And (Seattle-area magician) Master Payne is outstanding," McBride added. "He and Fred lecture yearly and we put their talks up online on Magic and Meaning." Magic and Meaning is a feature on his website. "We've had this relationships over the years. That's why I am up here."

"My wife and I came to Youngstown to see The Cabiri (aerialist troupe's) The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea last October and liked the space," said Turner. "That's how we chose Youngstown for Jeff's workshop and performances."

"I live in Portland and drove all the way up to be here," said Murray Marvin. "Jeff basically changed my life. I went to his school a year ago and ended up retiring and just doing fulltime magic from that point on. I had a management company. My grandfather was a magician, and my father was a magician. My grandfather was a stock broker in New York City. He travelled all over the world and did close-up magic and mentalism on ships and always sat at the captain's table. My dad was an attorney. My mother met him when he was performing magic. I have a son who is also a magician in L.A. We just had two grandchildren so we've got to start them young."

"I went to Las Vegas for Jeff's Master's Class," said Matt Wells, 12, a straight-A student from Issaquah. "I perform birthdays and other shows. I do card manipulation like Jeff. I can make a banana float." (He means float in the air, not a banana split.) Whatever I do I want to have it involved in magic," Wells said of his future career.

Seattle full-time magician Louie Foxx attended McBride's Youngstown workshops. He has performed at White Center Jubilee Days, and works casinos, comedy clubs school assemblies, and often appears in Tony Comito's "That's Impossible" shows at Egan's Ballard Jam House. On Jan. 7 Foxx broke the Guinness World Record for most bounces of a soap bubble. He can juggle bubbles, too.

"The last time I saw Jeff was '96 when I was 18, and he was good then," said Foxx. So, put another 14 years on top of that."

To learn more about Magic Monday held at Ravenna's Third Place Books each month, contact Fredrick Turner at: fredrick@blarg.net