The magical blog of Steven Gabriel Warburton

Over the past two Saturdays, I was privileged to perform two evening magic shows at private residences in the Montreal area. The first one was for a woman's 40th birthday party. The second was for a Halloween party.  I'm 52. I'm sure I was the oldest person at both parties. I even made light of that at the latter celebration. "Hello, house full of people who are younger than me" was my opening line. It got a laugh, thank God. Both shows took place in the living rooms. Neither of them were large enough to accommodate everyone, which necessitated some people having to "watch" the show from the kitchen or hallway, not getting the best viewing angles. No matter. I enjoyed both shows. My jokes landed, the magic was appreciated, and everyone had a good time - especially me. As a magician, most of my business comes from kids and family audiences. I do a lot of school presentations, county fairs, and campgrounds. I enjoy them all for what they are but I have to ...

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...