Sessioning...

Sunday, I had a chance to attend a great little one day magic convention near Philadelphia. Hosted by a dear old man, Bob Little. He holds these small events every 6 months at a Holiday Inn. There is a lecture where tricks are taught, a show, an auction to buy someone's used props etc. The real reason I go is to experience a phenomenon that magicians call sessioning. Sessioning is basically a BS session. Guys sit around a table, each with a deck or some coins in their hands and show and teach each other tricks, moves, and new things we're working on. In this day and age, computers and the internet have affected everything, even this wonderful area of magic. There are countless bulletin boards, and websites where magicians trade ideas and such back and forth. But, there is no substitute for a good session. I had the opportunity to make several new friends, Nick, Matt, Ethan, (this little punk fooled me REPEATEDLY) and Marcus. It's also good to see several other friends, who I only get to see once or twice a year, and we normally only communicate via email and phone. A bunch of us got together for dinner at Friday's and the card tricks never stopped for a second.

My buddy Al Angelo (master juggler) was psyched to perform his "Boomerang Rubber Band" for me and a few other lucky attendees. This is merely a wonderful little deomonstration of inertia, gravity, and friction that really looks like magic. A rubberband is stretched on your fingers like a gun. When Al fired it at the floor, it bounced, and rolled right back to him, into his hand, and up his arm! This is about the coolest thing I've ever seen.

We also had a few surprise "celebrities" among us. So many people who see me perform ask me if Copperfield, Angel, or Blaine are my favorite magicians. They're usually surpsrised when I tell them no. MY favorite people, are guys you've never heard of, and probably never will. We were lucky enough to have the Dean of American Magicians, George Schindler drop by our little gathering. It was my first time meeting him and it was quite a pleasure and he said some very nice things about my work.

(Now, for my favorite moment of the day.) David Blaine, like most celebrities and businessmen has a large group of people on staff as his support crew and consultants. Two of them were in the area and decided to drop by. Daniel Garcia is one of these guys. Dan is 26 and is a brilliant performer, and has been consulting and creating for David Blaine for a year or so. Now some guys in our community look down on many young super talented artists. They say they don't respect the older guys that came before them and their style of performing. Enter Billy MacDonald. Billy is a bit of a legend to magicians in the PA/NJ/NY region. He's in his mid 70's and has been a lifelong amateur magician. He has studied with some of the greatest card mechanics of the 20th century, and it shows. When Dan met Billy, several gasps and expletives where heard coming from the table as Danny fell victim to Billy's ingenious sleight of hand. I LOVED IT! Afterwards, I asked Dan what he thought of Billy's work, "Unbelievable" was all he could say.

If any of my readers are in my area, I want to invite you to a great summer concert I'll be playing in. Sunday June 22, I'll be playing with the Encores Big Band at Adam's Ricki Park in Enola PA. The concert starts at 6 and is free, so bring chairs, blankets and enjoy some great big band music on a summer evening.