Reviewed by David Fulde

As CAM 2009 comes to a close and I get prepped for my drive home I reminisce about the good times I had. The lectures, the sessions, and the pranks.

This was my first CAM so I cannot compare it to previous conventions but I’ll do my best to tell you what it’s like. So it all, officially, started on Friday with lectures by Steve Dupree and Jason England. After lunch/dealers show there was the close-up competition. Spencer Peterson from New York won the junior and Marc-André Rayle won the senior competition. After the competition was an excerpt from Eric DeCamps’ off-broadway show for half of the convention, followed by a Bob Friedhoffer lecture, and the other half of the convention got to see Eric’s show which is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in a LONG time.

Friday came to a close with Jason England’s hardcore card workshop and Saturday began with that workshop ending at around 5 in the morning. I, sadly, did not get to see this workshop. In the morning was David Acer’s hilarious lecture where he taught some amazing routines, some of which I’m putting into my repertoire as soon as I get them down. George Saterial gave his lecture an hour later on stage and gave some amazing tips and handlings on some of the productions he uses in his stage routine. Some of these tips were used in his FISM routine! One of the most important tips was how to care for your silks.

Saturday ended with jamming sessions late into the night following a skills competition with charlier cuts, most in a minute; left hand, right hand, both then the three were totaled, Trent Tinney won by a landslide. Sunday opened with a lecture by Alain Choquette and some other magicians all giving their own lectures. The other magicians gave smaller lectures compared to the ones earlier, and later, in the convention. After the lunch break was Arthur traces’ lecture in which he taught both theory and some amazing routines. After Arthur’s lecture was Nathan Kranzo’s in which he taught about some amazing ideas routines and effects. After supper was the all-star gala show where Alain Choquette, George Saterial, Arthur Trace, Nathan Kranzo, and more magicians performed, Arthur and George performed their FISM routines both of which have won awards. Next was jamming in which the amount of people slowly dawdled down to four. At about 4:30 everyone left for bed.

All in all, it was a GREAT convention. Highly recommended to anyone in the area. You get to meet some amazing people. CAM is a bi-annual convention held in Canada. It is a small(ish) convention with about a 250 person limit. This is the last of the bi-annual conventions and in 2010 CAM heads to Kitchener Ontario.

David Fulde is an semi-proffesional magician based in Nova Scotia Canada. He has been into magic on and off for the past twelve years, but essentially started back at square one 4 years ago.