Liquid Metal 2

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Liquid Metal 2

Postby Beardy » Dec 12th, '11, 20:11



The Effect

Morgan pushes the boundary of metal bending by introducing a never before seen routine that doesn’t just bend metal, but allows the metal to destroy itself and break apart into the spectator’s hands.

Or watch as your spectator manipulates a shadow on the wall while psychically altering the metal.

Also includes full, revised cut of Liquid Metal 1.

The style of psychokinetic magic in Liquid Metal 2 is bold and visionary: Using the power of the mind, you can bend forks and spoons in a way that no one has ever witnessed in history. Morgan even uses the power of shadows to manipulate the properties of hard steel.

You'll learn Strebler's best kept secrets and more:

• Multiple Phases
• Tine Bends
• Tine Twists
• Tine Breaks
• Neck Breaks
• Shadow Bends
• Shadow Breaks
• Fork Destruction
Types of forks to use
• Q & A
• Troubleshooting and Tricks
• Routining
• Performance TIPS
• Included full, revised cut of Liquid Metal 1
• Live performances and more...

Cost

$24.95/About £22

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Although technically very easy, you need to build up hand strength, and gain a lot of experience to utilise it effectively. 3-4

Review

My Background:

I'm a full time professional using magic as my sole income. I utilise cutlery bending as my main performance piece, and rate Morgan Strebler highly. Whenever asked where to begin learning cutlery bending, I point people towards Liquid Metal 1 rather than Banachek's DVD.

First impressions when initially watched it:

Firstly note that I don't do the LM1 routine as taught, but rather have developed my own routine using LM1 as inspiration. However, let us assume that you are performing everything as taught.

The strengths of the main part of the LM1 routine was the lack of prep. You could be handed a fork and just go with it with pretty much any fork (after a bit of practice). It was a very nice routine which left the volunteer with a very nice souvenir.

So what is LM2? Is it an entirely different routine? Is it an adaptation of the original? Is it just a dvd with different bends on?

No. I have always rated Morgan Strebler as one of the best metal benders in the worlds, taking metal bending as an idea and making it commercial. That is why I have always recommended LM1 to beginners over Banachek's dvd. MS makes it workable in a working environment.

LM2 is in a nutshell, part 2 to LM1. If you were to take the LM1 routine and perform it, being left with a bent fork with "splurred" tines, you then begin the LM2 routine at that point, and start destroying the fork. The tines twist and break off, the head and shaft of the fork separate etc. And it does, to be honest, look good.

The downside I can see though is that you no longer have a souvenir for your spectator to take away with them, having destroyed the fork.

LM2 also includes some extra ideas for the original routine - using shadows to show the fork bending, etc. You also see MS put a corkscrew in the tine using his bare hands!!! F**king Hell!!!!

And the line of the dvd?

"You can do the shadow bends in the daylight...in the nighttime...anywhere you can get a shadow"

It just made me chuckle

All in all I would still say get LM1 to begin with, before you get LM2. The original routine was only retaught on this dvd because there isn't enough new material (maybe 20 minutes worth?) to warrant an entirely new dvd on its own, but it was taught in much, much, much more detail on LM1.

For those who have LM1 and who work metal bending in the real world, I would say it is probably worth picking up LM2 at less than £20 just for a couple of nice ideas, and just to watch MS tine corkscrew with his bare hands, but don't expect anything groundbreaking.

I would also say that LM2 isn't as workable as LM1, as it does take preparation. For those of you who, like me, can easily go through 100-200 forks minimum a night, it doesn't make sense to have 200 normal forks and 200 prepped forks! It just wouldn't be workable!

It would be something to perform at the smaller gigs, where you don't go through as many forks, rather than the massive ones.

I would never recommend going with only 10 prepped forks because, once they are used up, you're buggered (unless you can retire and re-prep for a few minutes!)

Thoughts now a week later, since I watched it, with a couple of gigs in between to test run:

I really like Morgan Strebler. I owe him a lot because, without his initial dvd, I probably wouldn't be doing what I do today. It is due to this that it pains me to say the following:

Don't bother with this dvd.

It saddens me, in some ways, that MS has gone from pretty much perfection in his initial dvd to this. It's approximately 50 mins long, of which 25 minutes is just the LM1 routine again. The remaining 25 minutes include LM2.

Now let me put this in perspective. The first dvd was about 2-3 hours long, focusing solely on one routine (which, in turn, was taught in 25 minutes on LM2). This one is 1 hour long, of which only 25 minutes is new material.

Now, I will therefore judge the dvd based on the remaining material as the first two thirds of the dvd I do not rate as highly as LM1.

The shadow bends are ok. Nothing earth-shattering, but they look nice. Hold the fork up against the wall and use the shadows as they bend. It looks pretty.

The Liquid Metal 2 routine itself looks good. I cannot doubt that. For the hobbiest it is very good.

Unfortunately though, LM2 is not good for the working pro. It takes preparation which cannot be reset - once the fork is destroyed it is destroyed. This, in turn, means that each fork you use in a night has to be prepared, stored, and swapped in.

It just. Isn't. Workable. In. Bulk.

It makes me sad...it really does. I recommend that working pros who go through more than 10 forks in a single night ignore the other reviews bumming this dvd. For the hobbiest it may be worth a peak.

Overall

Imagine the most perfect beef sunday roast. Yum. Perfection!

Now imagine trying to improve it by adding a drizzly chocolate and banana sauce onto the yorkshire pudding. It ruins it!

If you try to improve perfection, there is a high potential that you can ruin it.

Liquid Metal 1 was perfection.

Liquid Metal 2, unfortunately is a drizzly chocolate and banana sauce atop a yorkshire pudding.

Love

Chris
xxx

"An amazing mind manipulator" - Uri Geller
"I hope to shake your hand before I die" - Derren Brown
"That was mightily impressive - I have absolutely no clue how you did that" - Tim Minchin
Beardy
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Posts: 4221
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Location: London, England (25:SP)

Re: Liquid Metal 2

Postby Chris » Dec 13th, '11, 15:18

Yeh and whats interesting Beardy is that theres some routining that is almost the same as mine and wording is almost a match too... from over a year ago...strange that...

http://youtu.be/x49vDtg9Gzc" target="_blank

". You also see MS put a corkscrew in the tine using his bare hands!!! F**king Hell!!!!"

again something I've been doing for years mate...

Chris
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Posts: 2904
Joined: Jul 11th, '06, 14:04

Re: Liquid Metal 2

Postby magicwand1973 » Dec 16th, '11, 19:37

Ah thanks for the honest review. I was shown this by David Penn two weeks ago ( LM1 ) and if I hadnt have already spent £80 that day I would have had it. Its the top of my list for Jan. I d have probably bought the second one but after this I will get the first one!
It blew my girlfriend away when she saw it and visually its outstanding!!

magicwand1973
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Re: Liquid Metal 2

Postby Tony Hyams » Dec 19th, '11, 15:04

Received my copy the other day. As soon as he mentioned switching forks I turned it off, it's just not practical I will stick with LM1. It's a shame, I was hoping it was going to be so much more.

Tony Hyams AIMC
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Tony Hyams
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Re: Liquid Metal 2

Postby Robmonster » Jan 12th, '12, 16:35

Does LM1 teach the tine corkscrew bend?

Robmonster
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Re: Liquid Metal 2

Postby Ste Porterfield » Jan 13th, '12, 20:21

Robmonster wrote:Does LM1 teach the tine corkscrew bend?


Nope.

edit: At least I'm 95% certain it does'nt.

second edit: Thanks for the great, honest review, Beardy.

Ste Porterfield
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Re: Liquid Metal 2

Postby Beardy » Jan 14th, '12, 21:15

No worries.

And yes it does, but using pliers. Replace the pliers with your hands and you have the method.

Quick update - I now do a time corkscrew in the spectators hands (they rub it and twist and the corkscrew occurs) using the realisation I gained from this DVD that pliers aren't needed, so it wasn't a totally complete waste of money.

Love

Chris
xxx

"An amazing mind manipulator" - Uri Geller
"I hope to shake your hand before I die" - Derren Brown
"That was mightily impressive - I have absolutely no clue how you did that" - Tim Minchin
Beardy
Elite Member
 
Posts: 4221
Joined: Oct 27th, '05, 18:12
Location: London, England (25:SP)


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