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Card Bend 'Mindbenders' DVD by Anthony Billen Co, Brad Christian and Justin Miller

Price: £15.00

Available from: The Card Collection www.cards4magic.co.uk

http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/acatalog/N ... ST_IN.html

...and others soon I suspect.

Mentalism/PK card effect

Ease of use: 1 out of 5

They say:

Tired of bending forks? Borrow a deck of cards.

Ask the spectator to pick out any card from the deck. It does not matter which. You can barely even touch the card as it is placed on the back of your hand.

As you stare at the card intently you will draw your middle finger across the length of the card from a few inches above - at no time do you touch the card. Slowly, at first almost imperceptibly, the card begins to bend upward. The only way a card can bend normally is for a person to apply pressure to the edges and actually bend it, but at no time does this happen.

You.
Don't.
Touch.
The.
Card.

They see it happen. It happens before their eyes as the seconds tick by. They can stare at the card until their blood runs cold and they won't know what happened.

I say:
Some may work this one out, some will not but you can’t deny that this is clever.

What Anthony Billen Co has revealed here is a pet effect of his that works first time...every time! It is an idea that is so simple it will anger some who buy this and they will re-sell the DVD, but you know what? They'll still do the effect...I GUARENTEE it!

This is a very clever and devious effect. The description tells it all. The bend happens right in front of the spectator’s eyes. The card sits on your hand and it visually bends…it REALLY bends. The cards are genuine, new or old, yours or theirs…anything goes. I also tried it with a business cards….wicked stuff!

I predict the effect will do well but people will cry in their beer about spending £15 for “just” a method and a DVD…TOUGH! You are getting a well-developed routine, a fresh effect, a CLEAN effect and that is rare for PK stuff. There is nothing to hide, nothing to “clean up”. There was a time when magic was tough to learn about and well developed ideas were well guarded secrets… the life blood of performers, we should consider ourselves lucky that routines and methods like this are so openly shared with us on a very accessible medium.

The DVD is typical Ellusionist stuff...well produced, flashy and loaded with eye candy, but it does the job of teaching you the technique, the routine, and gives you plenty of tips and pointers. There are very well shot performance videos sequences as well and these are a great example of spectator management and you can dissect the work being done very much to your own benefit. The basics are described 2 or 3 times and no detail is left out.

Overall:
This is a well-produced DVD highlighting a very clever and VERY convincing real time PK effect. If you like PK effects buy this and keep it to yourself. Don’t be mean…, behave yourself and give the man his fair dues…he deserves to be paid for this nugget of cleverness.

9 out of 10

got to agree tom, it was one of those jiffy bag rage moments.

But as you rightly point out this is a great simple to acheive effect. that is a change from bend metal

are tarot cards a problem due to the size?

I've got absolutely no idea how this would work by the way - so sorry if thats a stupid question...

...and im glad they've re-vamped their site at last...

Tarot cards should work...but it would depend on their size, thickness etc.

It would be a "try it and see" job I suspect.

I agree. I was totally fooled by this the first time I saw it. And yes there are alot of people who feel they were ripped. I think this effect for the right group of people is worth it's wait in gold.

How is this different than the Ellusionist effect?

It is the Ellusionist effect, I first heard about it through Cards4magic though.

I normally don't go for "Ellusionist stuff " but I made some equerries and the feedback was good so I bought it form a UK supplier.

Sorry if it is a bit out of date! LOL

Oh, okay...there was a huge thread on this one a little while ago. I bought the Ellusionist one and think the effect is brilliant.

Sorry folks...I seemed to have missed the whole thing first time around!

Oh well...better late than never.

I bought the Ellusionist download version and started the other Mindbender thread with some very mixed reactions - a lot of people saying it was rubbish and they could work it all out from the demo. I have my doubts how many people actually did work it out.

I totally agree with everything you've said Tom. Once you know the principle behind it, you've got one of the cleanest impromptu tricks going. You don't need to do any additional sleights to make this a powerful trick and IMHO it is more impressive if you don't touch the card with your free hand at all and let the card bend itself. Its slow I know, but if you present it as 'Your spectators doing some PK they didn't know they could do' then the slowness is not a problem at all. You wouldn't expect them to be able to do it quickly!

I downloaded this today - and got to say I thought it was genius.

Well done to the guy in the Phillipines for coming up with it.


9 out of 10

Rob

I definitely concur with Martin in this one. It is a wonderful effect and is useful in so many situations. It is nice and eerily slow, with a great finish.

...yep, i got this over the weekend, love it...

works on certain tarot cards, and tube tickets too...i don't bother with the secondary thing, it's stronger in my opinion just right in front of their faces...

i also ask a spectator to try it at the same time that i do...

I have purchased the download version and have to say I love the effect, my wife thought I must have spent hours gaffing* to make this happen. I have ruined several bikes doing it though because I can never flattern them out properly afterwards.
(*Text changed by Mods to avoid being too explicit !)

Sorry Mods, didn't do anything on purpose!
We know !

have
and love it
but takesto mutch time