"The Session 2007" DVD by Alakazam Magic
Suggested Retail USD$50.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 5 Out of 10

"The Session 2007", a DVD by Alakazam Magic, is a collection of session material from "The Session" close-up convention that, although a bit too single-minded and with too much filler, contains some interesting ideas and thinking that make this worth a look for advanced card workers.

"The Session" was a gathering of close-up magicians back in January. To hear Andi Gladwin and Rob James, the masterminds behind the event, describe it makes it sound like a spectacular "mass-session" that would have to be seen to be believed. This disc purports to let you see a bit of what went on through the work of some of the attendees.

Let's get straight to what's on the disc.

Dynamo begins with "The Rubbish Trick", which isn't. A card is selected and lost in the deck. With a fancy one-handed cut ("The Hot Shot"), a single card spins out of the deck and lands in a baseball cap. It's the wrong card. Cap and card are placed on the table and, when the cap is lifted, the wrong card has changed into the selected card. An ancient gimmick is used, but Dynamo's thinking here is clever. I'd like to see more of what this guy can do.

Luke Dancy's "Fire Writer" is interesting, but familiar. A card is chosen by a spectator and another card taken from the deck by the performer. A lighter is waved over it and then shown to contain, burnt into it, the name of the chosen card.

Next comes the first break in the action: a short discussion with Wayne Houchin concerning magic and the internet. It's stuff you heard before (on these pages even) but without any real meat to it other than usual (and valid) complaint about magic videos on YouTube tipping secrets because of bad performances.

Back to the magic, this time with Mike Davis performing his "Triple Sandwich". In this one, two Jacks are removed and set aside, then a card is selected, signed, and lost in the deck. The spectator picks up to the two Jacks and puts them into the deck, one at a time. The cards are spread and the selected card is found between the two Jacks. The card is placed back in the deck, the Jacks tabled, and the card leaps back between the two Jacks. This last action is repeated. Kinda neat, especially that first phase, but by and large still a sandwich effect, a plot on which I'm completely burned-out.

Oli Mealing's next with his "Mealerang". This is a neat card-toss flourish, with a boomerang card toss going behind the back. It's neat and pretty and much simpler than it sounds.

Miles Nakouzi presents "Queens Variation" and, unfortunately, camera angles really killed this one -- the performance video almost serves as the explanation. It's a neat production of the four Queens, though, if not too angly to be that practical for most workers.

Another break, this time to hear Wayne Houchin talk about meeting and working with Criss Angel. Sorry, but hearing about Houchin fooling Angel just doesn't rank high on my list of education or entertainment.

After that, Oli Mealing's back with his "Switch Trick". In this one, spectators shuffle the deck and two cards are selected and lost in the deck. The deck is spread and one of the selections is face up in the face down deck. It's tabled and changes into the second selected card while the first card is now face-up on the deck again. Cute, quick, and pretty neat.

Marc Oberon's next in a performance-only piece using the ancient and oft-exposed two-digit force.

Jon Armstrong's up then, with one of the highlights of the disc: "The Versatile Sandwich Move". I missed this in Magic Magazine, but it's a slick move great for transpositions and teleportations. I love this one and would love to see more of Armstrong.

Time for another break, this time with Houchin talking about creativity and how he gets his ideas. Nothing really new here you haven't heard before, I'm afraid.

Rob James shows up now with his "Moving Pip". This one's a bit tricky to describe but it begins with a Seven of Hearts on the face of the deck with the odd pip pointing toward the spectator. A wave of the hand and the odd pip is now toward the performer. Neat, but it's exactly what you think it is and probably not worth dirtying a deck for.

Robert Moreland is next with "Inverted Elevator". It's the elevator plot, with four Aces rising one at a time from the bottom of the deck to the top. This one has some great visuals and is a fine variant. I'll use a word Moreland used to describe this: "elegant".

Hold the material again, this time for Tyler Wilson interviewing Andi Gladwin and Rob James talking about the get-together. Interesting and there are more than a few chuckles courtesy of Wilson setting up Gladwin and James.

John Carey is next with "Slo-Mo Collectors". This follows the usual Collectors plot, with three chosen cards appearing between face-up Aces in the deck. What made this one intriguing was the simple, repetitive handling and the nice one-at-a-time appearance of the chosen cards.

James Brown follows with a performance-only piece that's just plain neat: he's tied a single-coin routine -- complete with "coin-falling-up", vanishes and productions -- with pick-pocketing. Now this was fun to watch (there's a pun there, but you'll have to see the video to get it)!

Back to Houchin again, this time talking about magic and psychology, especially how it applies to false memories. At last some material that's more educational than infommercial. This is a great segment to hear and think about.

Next up is Andi Gladwin with a four Ace production he calls "Road Trip". This has got to be one of the quickest Ace productions in history. Two Aces are found on top of the deck and then -- don't blink -- there are all four. The handling is tough but the visuals make it worthwhile.

Oli Mealing then demonstrates his "Mealing Peeling", a version of "Versatile Control" that controls a card to the top of the deck. This one's hard to explain, but it is fairly slick and clean.

Following Mealing's control is Jamie Badman with his control, "Flexible Shift". The title says what it is, but Badman's got the thing working overtime, acting as a control to the top or bottom of the deck, either face-up or face-down, or even into a palm. It's angly and a bit of work but still captivatingly slick.

The only non-card piece comes next with Noel Qualter and his "Cut and Restored iPod Cable". Yes, it's an old method with a classical working, but a nice update nonetheless.

Another Houchin interview, this time about his preference for performing over creating.

After that break, Rob James is next with his "6AM Production", a quick four Ace production. Not much to be said about this one. It's good, but yet another one on the same disc?

Another Houchin interview, this time about his marketed effect, "Sinful" and how it came to be.

Allan Ackermann's "Twisting Maxi Twist" is worth the price of the disc. This is simply beautiful and combines a clean twisting with a royal flush production and a chosen card revelation. Boy, I loved this one.

Houchin is back in yet another "interview" segment, this time about his effect, "Indecent".

Finally, last but not least, we get Rob James again, this time with "Sub Trunk Card", a quick, two-phase teleportation bit. This was another of my favorites: it's quick, visual, appealing and entertaining.

Whew. Okay, so that's a lot of material for your hard-earned shekels and you've probably gotten a good idea of what you can expect from it.

Me? I wanted more.

Not a truckload more, mind you, but more than what is here. This disc is overburdened with card tricks, leading me to wonder if "The Session" was actually a convention for card-workers than a gathering of close-up workers (evidently, coin-workers weren't in attendance this time around). One non-card effect doesn't make this a disc of close-up magic; it's still very much a collection of card work.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course; I love good card work as much as the next guy (and probably more so). The problem here is that there's too much repetitive work going on. Three four-card productions? Why not a bit more variety instead? There seem to be "pick-a-card" routines around every corner; why not go for one or two of the best and vary things even more? Likewise, some of the material is almost pedestrian in its working -- advanced card-workers, who will benefit most from this disc, will be fast-forwarding through those pieces; stronger pieces would have been more of a benefit and value.

And then there's the filler, the mind-numbing filler. I'm sure Wayne Houchin has some great ideas to voice, concepts to bring out, but he doesn't do that here with but one exception. Instead, we're given what amounts to fluff pieces about Criss Angel and how his effects are named and things that have been talked to death online and elsewhere. This was a blown opportunity and, if fluff is all you get, I'd much rather see another routine or two on the disc instead.

So where do I stand with "The Session 2007"? It's a collection that needs a bit more variety to be considered a disc of close-up magic, but as a collection of card work there are some very slick ideas here. For advanced card-workers, there are enough good ideas here to make this one worth the while. If you're looking for a true, rounded collection of close-up magic, though, "The Session 2007" ain't it.

"The Session 2007" by Alakazam Magic
In a Blink: 7 Out of 10

Material: 7
The accent's on card work here (there's only one non-card piece) and, while there are a couple of effects that are way too familiar and a bit too much filler is supplied, there is enough interesting work here to picque your interest.

Practicality: 9
As can be expected from a collection of material from different performers, practicality runs all over the place here. Most things, though, require little in the way of set-up, reset, or angle worries.

Quality of Production: 5
Everything here is just fine -- audio, video, navigation -- but the camera work shows just how unforgiving the lens can be: some of the performances get busted by the camera placement.

Quality of Instruction: 7
With each performer teaching their own material, the quality of teaching goes all over the place. The majority of it is well taught, but there are times when a director really needed to step in to slow things down or speed them up.

Presentation: 7
All in all, the magic here is about the visuals and they are often quite good. The verbal components, if there are any, are strictly narrative, though, so prepare to work on that side of things a good bit.

Shane

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