The Session 2017

I’m not long back from The Session convention and now that I’ve recovered I thought I’d write a small review of my experience. Without a doubt, The Session convention is the best magic convention I’ve ever attended, admittedly it is the only magic convention I’ve ever attended but I very much doubt it will be my last and certainly not my last time at The Session.

I arrived half way through The Event, which was the day of mentalism on the Friday. I didn’t get to see any of this but I’d love to attend this next year. Instead I arrived at the hotel after getting my pod from the Heathrow. What a strange experience that is. If you don’t know, the hotel is connected to the airport by these driverless car type things, which is clearly the future. After checking in we obviously started drinking in the kind of bar area set up for attendees. This was one of my favourite parts of The Session is being able to actually session with our magicians. The first night was filled with us getting fooled firstly by Joe Barry and then Peter Turner. I only wish I could remember more of what I was witnessing …

The second day started after a well needed breakfast and we were straight into the Saturday Session. The highlight for me was Bill Cheungs mini-lecture. I think he fooled just about everybody with it. Luke Jermay also had an interesting talk and Roberto Giobbi showed off things from his new book. Next up was Woody Aragons lecture. Woody is such a great performer and a master of that Spanish school. It really is treat just to watch him perform. After this Jamy Ian Swiss was up. Honestly this was probably my least favourite part of the weekend, although that could be because I was started to feel pretty tired and hangover was definitely kicking in. The last lecture of the first day was one of the reasons I booked up for The Session in the first place, Ben Earl. If you have Ben’s latest booklets you’d have known, all the effects he performed but seeing them performed as well as he does is a treat. He also had a few more tips and subtleties for them. It’s always a pleasure watching Ben perform and I managed to pick up his new book and 2 new DVDs that I imagine will be on Vanishing Inc. soon (the book sold out over the weekend!). After a break for dinner Danny Buckler hosted the late night event. I’m a big fan of Danny and he was a perfect host for this. In this show I got to see Chad Long for the first which was a delight. You can tell how comfortable he is performing and how natural it seems for him (Almost made up for him taking ages at the bar later on …). I also got to see Rune Klan for the first time, who is absolutely hilarious. The show concluded with Kieron Johnson performing some regurgitation effects and freaking out Chad and Danny. With that I ended up going to bed not long after as I was absolutely shattered.

The final day of The Session started again with a well needed breakfast to try and clear the hangover. After this we checked out the dealer’s room which was alright, I generally don’t buy too much these days, but we ended up going back later when Michael Weber had set up. The Sunday Session started with Hector Chadwick talking about creating which I really enjoyed and picked up 2 pamphlets he had. Guy Hollingworth then spoke about intellectual property in magic which was a lot more interesting than it sounds! The first lecture was Kieron Johnsons which was good but I can’t see myself using anything from it. After this we went back to the dealer’s room before lunch where Michael Weber had set up. Again I had all the stuff he was selling but it was great seeing him perform these effects. Honestly sets the bar so high and I can only dream of performing them half as well as he does. My friend ended up picking up Ten off him, which is a brilliant set. After some lunch we went to the Memorised Deck Clinic by Woody Aragon, Pit Hartling and Denis Behr. I don’t currently use a mem deck but it was good seeing these guys perform with one. I particularly liked Denis performing tricks utilising his “Finding the Way Home” idea which I love. Moving on from this we had an Eric Mead event. Eric Mead is such a great thinker and performer and his lecture was one of the best. He broke down his thinking behind the creation of an effect and it was great seeing how his mind works. He also took some questions from the audience as well as performing 2 coin tricks. After this we had the Guest of Honours slot, which is year was Dynamo. Honestly I’ve never been the biggest fan of Dynamo, but this Q & A talk changed that. But I guess that’s why you should never judge a book by its cover and certainly never judge someone by using TV and the media. The final event was the Gala Show again hosted by Danny Buckler. Bill Cheung fooled me again during this, the guy is actually a fucking wizard! Woody Aragon performed a nice little triumph effect, Eric Mead performed Cylinder and Coin which is just beautiful and Guy Hollingworth performer his new stage act, which is, as with anything Guy does, brilliant. Dynamo closed the show and with that The Session 2017 was over. I stayed up drinking and mingling before heading to bed ahead of my flight home.

As I said at the start this was my first convention but I can definitely see myself going back next year. I had a blast from start to finish. The only negative I would say is the hour or so each lecture got didn’t seem to be long enough and a lot of magicians ended up missing some stuff out. Although how you could fit in more time I’m not really too sure. With that I got my pod back to Heathrow and headed home.