Hello - welcome to my magical blog

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Hi there. My name is Steven Gabriel (that is a stage name) and I am a professional magician from East Ontario, Canada. I specialize in corporate events and festivals, though I've also been known to dabble in school shows.

This blog is going to be a little different than other showbiz blogs in that I don't intend to spend a whole lot of time talking about how great I am and how many standing ovations I received last night. Instead, I want to focus on the people I meet and the things I learn while performing on the road. It's much better to be interested than interesting. The former is a two-way street; the latter is a shortcut to narcissism.

Okay. So here goes.

I had the glorious fortune to perform in one of the hospitality suites at the Electrical Safety, Technical, Maintenance, and Projects conference in Calgary this month. Eaton, the international power management company, brought me in to entertain their employees, clients and - yes - even competitors. Most of the people were from Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton mainly) but there were others from Ontario, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and even Great Britain.

I'm so happy for the privilege of performing for these three.


Later in the evening, after ensuring that I'd performed for everyone in the room, I got to eavesdrop on a group of electrical engineers who were talking shop. Their conversation was filled with technical jargon that went way over my head. Still, I did my best to follow what they were saying. I learned that much of our electricity is generated by coal, which has been criticized as environmentally unsound. I learned that hydro-generated electricity is a greener solution, but is not practical in landlocked areas. Listening to them banter only deepened my appreciation for electricity. Without it, I probably couldn't make a living.

When an opening came, I asked the assembly about the future of solar and nuclear power. My question was a naive one, but they were happy I asked.

Solar power is great, they said, but the problem is storing it for later use. As for nuclear power, it generates a lot of radioactive waste that will remain that way for 10,000 years. Scientists are still working hard to come up with solutions to these problems.

So yes, you learn something new each day. I don't have the smarts to be an electrical engineer but I'm quite thankful that the world has plenty of people who do.

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