ALTERED BY DEE CHRISTOPHER
Effect: A coin is initialed and place in the spectator's closed hand. The magician gently waves his hand over the spectator's closed fist, and the spectator begins to feel something. The spectator ACTUALLY FEELS the coin moving around in his own hand! No psychology is used to pull this off, the coin is genuinely warping and bending in his own hand. The spectator opens his hand, and the signed coin is revealed to have a small but very real bend in it.
Review: Dee graciously sent me a pre-release ebook detailing his pehnomenal take on the signed coin bend. I would like to clear something up first... This is going to be a DVD project, however since the DVD hasn't been fully produced yet, a nice little PDF was sent.
Although the PDF was a rough temporary file, everything was well explained and crystal clear colour photos were included. It's only four pages long, but that is an ample number of pages to cover the method to this effect. I had no trouble following anything detailed in the PDF. I'm quite positive the DVD release will have even more details. As I said, this is only a rough little ebook.
The method itself is a brilliant take on the signed coin bend. It uses an easily made gimmick that allows the spectators to really feel the coin moving around inside their hands. The bent coin at the end genuinely does have their initials on it too. The gimmick itself requires virtually no construction (depending on how you go about making it) and will only cost you a few dollars. I'd even bet many of you have the gimmick readily available at home anyways.
Can the coin be signed by the spectator directly? Well, no, but that doesn't seem like much of a problem to me. I mean, it is still their own initials, it's not as though they'll think you have hundreds and hundreds of pre-bent coins with every possible initial combination written on each one, and that you switch their borrowed coin for one of the pre-bent ones. The effect's impact is not decreased at all. It's no different in my opinion and the effect is still just as impossible.
The actual bend within the spectator's hands feels simply awesome. It's very spooky and magical, enough to make a few spectators scream I'm sure. That's the real innovation in this effect and it is an incredible addition. Also, Dee's excellent subtleties within the routine make it seem even cleaner than one would imagine. He seems to, with all of his releases, include some excellent little bits of business to make the effect seem even more impossible than if one were to use a standard sleight. He uses some different and more foolproof methods to get the job done and this is very commendable.
The effect is dead-easy to do, extremely strong, and makes for an excellent giveaway. I didn't mention this before, but the coin is actually marked on both sides... one side with the spectator's initials, the other with the current date. This is so darn awesome! Coin bends worth hundreds of dollars don't hold a candle to the simplistic and VERY cost effective coin bend known as Altered.
Overall, my final verdict for Altered by Dee Christopher is an 9/10. This may well become your favourite coin bend and it costs next to nothing for such a powerful and impossible effect. Save the money you were going to use to buy Quantum Bender and go buy 12 card bricks... oh, and of course, this effect. This is highly recommended.
Michael Kras
Effect: A coin is initialed and place in the spectator's closed hand. The magician gently waves his hand over the spectator's closed fist, and the spectator begins to feel something. The spectator ACTUALLY FEELS the coin moving around in his own hand! No psychology is used to pull this off, the coin is genuinely warping and bending in his own hand. The spectator opens his hand, and the signed coin is revealed to have a small but very real bend in it.
Review: Dee graciously sent me a pre-release ebook detailing his pehnomenal take on the signed coin bend. I would like to clear something up first... This is going to be a DVD project, however since the DVD hasn't been fully produced yet, a nice little PDF was sent.
Although the PDF was a rough temporary file, everything was well explained and crystal clear colour photos were included. It's only four pages long, but that is an ample number of pages to cover the method to this effect. I had no trouble following anything detailed in the PDF. I'm quite positive the DVD release will have even more details. As I said, this is only a rough little ebook.
The method itself is a brilliant take on the signed coin bend. It uses an easily made gimmick that allows the spectators to really feel the coin moving around inside their hands. The bent coin at the end genuinely does have their initials on it too. The gimmick itself requires virtually no construction (depending on how you go about making it) and will only cost you a few dollars. I'd even bet many of you have the gimmick readily available at home anyways.
Can the coin be signed by the spectator directly? Well, no, but that doesn't seem like much of a problem to me. I mean, it is still their own initials, it's not as though they'll think you have hundreds and hundreds of pre-bent coins with every possible initial combination written on each one, and that you switch their borrowed coin for one of the pre-bent ones. The effect's impact is not decreased at all. It's no different in my opinion and the effect is still just as impossible.
The actual bend within the spectator's hands feels simply awesome. It's very spooky and magical, enough to make a few spectators scream I'm sure. That's the real innovation in this effect and it is an incredible addition. Also, Dee's excellent subtleties within the routine make it seem even cleaner than one would imagine. He seems to, with all of his releases, include some excellent little bits of business to make the effect seem even more impossible than if one were to use a standard sleight. He uses some different and more foolproof methods to get the job done and this is very commendable.
The effect is dead-easy to do, extremely strong, and makes for an excellent giveaway. I didn't mention this before, but the coin is actually marked on both sides... one side with the spectator's initials, the other with the current date. This is so darn awesome! Coin bends worth hundreds of dollars don't hold a candle to the simplistic and VERY cost effective coin bend known as Altered.
Overall, my final verdict for Altered by Dee Christopher is an 9/10. This may well become your favourite coin bend and it costs next to nothing for such a powerful and impossible effect. Save the money you were going to use to buy Quantum Bender and go buy 12 card bricks... oh, and of course, this effect. This is highly recommended.
Michael Kras
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