The magical blog of Steven Gabriel Warburton

I am of the opinion that David Copperfield's 14th television special - the one where he was flying - is the greatest magic show of all time. That special aired in 1992 and it doesn't surprise me that Copperfield's television broadcasts became few and far between afterwards. I mean, how can you top that? The dude was actually FLYING freely around the stage. Everything about it was perfect - the set, the music, the opening story, the choreography, the hoops and the glass box - all combined to pack one emotional powerhouse of a punch. It was the perfect marriage of stagecraft, lighting, technique, and childhood fantasy. If you haven't seen it, I urge you to watch it here:   When I was in college, I had the opportunity to speak with one of Mr. Copperfield's former advisors, who told me something like this: "Everyone in the audience knew what was happening at some logical level - they knew he had to be wearing a harness and using wires of some kind - but no one care...

On Wednesdays, I take my son to therapy in a nearby city. While he's there, I go to a local coffee shop where I spend about seven hours on various work or leisure projects. They include journalism (work), creative writing (leisure), and practising magic (work and leisure.) So I sit at my booth, I set up my laptop and my closeup pad, and I go to work. Today, I spent about five hours practising two routines. One of them was the four-coin routine that I recently mentioned on this blog, the other was a very colourful and visual ace assembly. I was mostly ignored, which is kind of odd when you think about it. I mean... there I was, literally making the impossible happen. I was making coins disappear and reappear somewhere else. I was making red-backed aces jump from a blue pile into another a red pile.  But no one cared. They cared more about their coffee and their donuts than they did about the guy who was defying the laws of nature in the booth next to them. And that got me thinking a...

  I have this longstanding theory about magic dealers. I think they prefer dealing with "magic enthusiasts*" more than magicians. At this point, some definitions are in order. A "magic enthusiast" is NOT a professional or even a semi-professional magician. He (or she, but probably a he**) is someone who likes magic tricks and likes the air of mystique they might lend him. Perhaps he wants some magic tricks to pick up girls or entertain the grandchildren or to do a set at the company picnic. And so they go to the magic dealer for a few modestly priced easy-to-do miracles. The magic enthusiast is an easy sell. The professional magician is not. I have spent hours in magic stores, undoubtedly boring the proprietor as I searched for something that "fit my style." I reject most of the magic I see - not because I don't think it's great (for much of it is) but because it doesn't suit my personality. I think most pros (and semi-pros) are imp...

 Every year, I spend the Victoria Day weekend bringing my magic show to campgrounds in East Ontario. In a good year, I can get six shows. This year, I only got five. Oh well. It gives me a bit more pocket change to get me through the spring. (Sometimes, I jokingly refer to my Victoria Day weekend shows as the Pay Last Year’s Taxes Tour.) What was different about this year’s tour? Two things: 1.        The weather. 2.        My kid came with me. I’ll take them one by one. Usually, the weather on Victoria Day weekend is at least warm, if not hot. Sometimes it will rain. Once it rained so hard that it caused power outages. It was a small miracle that none of my shows got cancelled that year. But this year, it was cold. Seriously, the temperature hovered around six degrees Celsius and I had to wear long sleeves and long pants for all my shows. (I prefer to do all my shows in short sleeves, the late great Darwin Ort...

August is usually a busy month for me. This month, I had two county fairs, the Williamstown Fair and the Chesterville Fair, both in Eastern Ontario. I have been a mainstay of the Williamstown Fair for close to two decades now but the Chesterville Fair is a more recent addition. It's not as big as the fair in Williamstown - there's no mechanical midway, for instance - and I don't think they get as many people through the gates. However, the Chesterville Fair does have a demolition derby, which is a mainstay of many a county fair - and something that, to my recollection, has never been offered in Williamstown. In Williamstown, I usually do a show at the centre stage, which is a permanent structure at the Williamstown Fairgrounds. I don't think it's used much more than once a year. In Chesterville, I do my shows in the kids' tent, which is a portable canopy that the fair board puts up during fair time. This year, they told me that they got a bigger tent so they cou...

 ...has been a good one, magically speaking. January is usually the toughest month of the year for magicians. The Christmas rush is over, no one is booking corporate shows, and most people don't want to go out in the cold to watch magic shows anyway. Of course there are exceptions. I am a January baby and I always like to celebrate my birthday by doing a charity magic show. This year, we chose a local autism charity (my son is on the spectrum) and I am so happy that so many people in the small town where I live braved the frosty temperatures to come out and see some illusions. And how happy I was that the Fraternité donated the money I paid to rent their hall right back to the charity.  About the only bad thing that happened that night was that I severely over-estimated how much birthday cake I would need to feed the masses. I ordered a FULL SLAB from the grocery store when a quarter slab would have absolutely been big enough. No matter. The family and my workmates got to feas...