In the last few years there seems to have been an explosion of interest in the area of ‘ metal bending’ and so I feel very late on the scene with this field. The reason I finally caved was the clear strength of such an effect. Bending a borrowed coin is so very tangible and the ‘in their hands’ nature gives the potential for a very powerful effect indeed. Although there are a myriad of coin bend effects out there, the feedback on the Coinvexed series seems to have been consistently strong. So here we dive in with the latest version – Coinvexed 3.
The neat black box which you receive contains some unexciting looking gimmicks and a teaching DVD. As far as I can gather the gimmicks have been slowly refined from the original release – though these are only incremental changes. Without having seen the earlier versions I cannot really comment on the changes.
The gimmicks are precision made, and are well fit for purpose. The very clever aspect of the Coinvexed solution is the way that the gimmicks are hidden ‘in plain sight’ – and as we will go on to discuss – it is the clever routining which makes this such a compelling effect.
The DVD
This is very comprehensive and easy to navigate. After an almost pointless (!) introduction, the next section is a performance section. As always, I was pleased to see live performances which give you a real sense of the impact on a spectator. David performs a couple of versions (which are interspersed) with different folk. It’s quite a long performance but gives you a great indication of the real work here.
The next section introduces you to the gimmicks and the following section takes you through the basic bend. David is a clear teacher and everything is explained in detail with a variety of angles to help you understand.
We then come to the main routine which is a very well constructed double bend routine. It’s not a quick routine, but it has been put together in such a way that there is plenty of natural misdirection for the moment the bend actually happens. For someone just starting out in magic it is very helpful to have such a well-designed routine to work with since all the thinking has been done for you. But as ever, you will need to put in some practise to get the bend natural.
The nice thing is that David clearly uses this routine all the time – and his wealth of experience shows. There are loads of little tips on the way which are invaluable. There is also a very helpful separate section which discusses one of the performance techniques used in the routine (equivoque).
Extras
A couple of extra presentations are on the dvd. The first is Marc Lavelle’s ‘Phobia’ routine. This is really a single coin bend with a great presentation angle which adds extra interest to the routine. Although there is a brief discussion of the routine it’s not really explained. But this isn’t a problem since the method is not significantly different; it is really the routine you’re interested in.
Amit Badiani provides a hypnosis routine. This is performed in both a studio and live context. This routine didn’t do a great deal for me, but if you use hypnosis in your act then it may well appeal. There is no real discussion of the techniques involved though there are some pointers to further resources if you want to pursue this.
A few additional thoughts finish off the DVD. It starts with a brief discussion of a one coin bend routine. But it is really an encouragement to experiment and find your own routine.
I’m going to need to do a bit more practise to get this to a usable state – but I can’t wait because I think the reactions are going to be superb. If you don’t yet do a coin bend then this is a highly worthy contendor.
You can buy Coinvexed 3 from MagicDirect.