Ray Kosby has always been one of our favorites, with his very visual and clever magic. He started his session by ‘vaccuming’ a pip from a card, popping a Jack into the card box, and a very clean oil and water effect.

Ray is talented in many areas and performed a very quick matrix come chink a chink, and coin through hand, swapping a small and jumbo coin in his closed hand.

What makes Ray a joy to watch is his ability to make magic out of normal objects, a colour changing apple and a torn and restored theatre ticket made the session very entertaining.

At the first Session, Andi and Rob ran ‘flashtalks’, where performers who normally wouldn’t or hadn’t really done lectures before got the chance to do a short quick talk.

Noel Qualter, as he mentioned on our postcast when trough the first of his card moves he’d come up with, the ‘EMF Control’ allowed for a card or cards to be controlled to the top of the deck through a normal looking cut.

It was a really good short session with exellent content, and something that was easily obtainable and useable.

Jon Allen started with a very nice bottle from balloon production, before he talked through his take on how he handles the effect. Elastic bands are normally a part of any commercial close uppers set, and John talked through his set of band magic, with a band through wrist, crazy mans handcuffs and band onto spectators wrist.

Jon also had a very nice ‘Gemini Twins’ effect where a couples names written on heart shaped post-it notes finds each others cards. Walk about coins across in spectators hand and finishing with John own ‘The Pain Game’ his safe method of ‘Smash and Stab’.

Preorders for Jon Allens new book, as yet unnamed, were also being taken.

This session was an extra cost, as The Session had arranged in association with Ben Earl to launch his new magazine ‘Gambit’ during the Session weekend.

Personally I think the entrance fee of £10 was the most value for money, and well spent during the weekend. Think of of how you felt when you saw Richard Turner, or Lennart Green false shuffle, show you the false shuffle and you still didn’t see it. This was the reaction from the audience as Ben first ran through some effects and slights in volume one of his magazine.

The ‘Simulation Shuffle’ was in particular the one that caused the audience to double take in disbelief, and I think could have been worth the entrance fee alone. The comment of “how much did you sell your soul for..” may give you an idea of just how convincing it was. Followed by killer, and completely unbelievable deck switches, most people I think could have left there and then happy of money well spent!

Ben’s Magazine is a very well produced and written 26 page glossy, which, as he describes was a “creative outlet for me, mainly stuff I’ve never shown anyone”, which if you know Ben’s work is a huge signal to get this limited run magazine.

The magazine features extra material by Derek Delgaudio, Pat Mustard, and future issues Jason England, and it a very bitey, cards only publication, focusing purely on the magic. It will feature Ben’s sleights, shuffles, cuts, and over moves on a bi-monthly basis. Ben said that he had over 23 deck switches that he’d release over the next issues.

Each issue will feature about 2 effects, 2 or 3 moves and a couple of articles, each magazine costing £12 inc p&p. Ben isn’t going to be taking subscriptions, but will email readers when the next issue is ready, and they can order directly from the site.

Issue one were given to those attending, and issue two will be mailed free to them, for everyone else, go to www.gambitmagazine.com for more information, but trust us on this, you need this magazine. (the site will be up next week, but if you email us we can pass on your details to Ben)

We hope to be publishing a podcats interview with Ben Earl this week to talk more about the magazine, how it came about and what you can expect to see in it.

Update: Benjamin Earl has asked anyone who has a copy of the magazine that was launched at The Session to return it to him for a replacement. He has re-worked the first issue; correcting all of the errors, sorting out the layout, printing on ‘magazine paper’ stock and added in ‘more’ material. He will send you the re-worked and now complete issue One. If you have not had an email directly from Benjamin please email him directly at benjaminearl9@googlemail.com for details on where to return the magazine to.

Something I’ve never seen at other conventions was the ‘Commercial Magic Panel Discussion’, The Session had brought together some of the most busy and well know commercial magicians attending this years session together to talk about the business, and their own personal experiences.

Noel Qualter, John Guastaferro, Kerry Scorah, Rob James and Jon Allen (with music by Tim Sutton on the accordion to start off!) made up the panel, who started to answer the questions put by Andi Gladwin.

Although at first this was slow to start, and I was struggling to see the worth of the questions, it quickly turned into a very interesting, and funny discussion around their work. from describing the funniest situation they’d ever been asked to work in, the changes happening in magic today, through to what skills a successful commerical magician need today, and how to take the right bookings for you through to fees and prices that are acceptable, or make sense in the business currently.

At the end of the questions, it was opened up to the floor to ask the panel, and a number of interesting questions came up. The nice thing was that the panel took each question, and answered them with a fair bit of humor, so it was both educational and funny at the same time.

It was definably something I’d like to see again next time, and from the comments after the session, so would many others.

There’s very few times that you can sit almost one on one with names like Will Houston, Craig petty and Tyler Wilson, and Mark Elsdon unless you are at The Session.
The ‘Hands on Workshops’ brought a short effect from each of the performers, firstly showing the effect, then getting the group to try it, and then sitting one to one with the audience whilst they work on it.
Will houston performed an taught a single coin vanish, ending in a clean empty hands display, Tyler Wilson went through a very visual vanish of a marked card in the deck, and homing card, Craig Petty ran through a very nice coins through hands, and Mark Elsdon taught the “returning rubber band” bar bet, before he demonstrated his blind folded rubic cube solving.
This was a fantastic session as all the performers went round the room with indivuals to make sure they could do the effect or routine, as well as answering questions one on one. There are very few conventions where this type of thing happens in such small groups, and something The Session organisers should be very proud of, even I left actually being able to do most of the things being shown.