Get Bent by Doug Brewer

This is a previously viewed DVD in like-new condition, with the original packaging. MSRP is $34.95 – get this one and save.

In this video Doug Brewer will teach you the classics, as well as some of his original creations for this amazing revelation. At the end of each routine, your spectator’s signed card will be found in the most unbelievable places–and, as the title of this video implies–folded up. Doug’s teaching style is both fun and easy to understand.

Tricks included:

• Tri-Flection: An easy and amazing way to vanish the spectator’s signed card.
• Card to Matchbook: A classic taught with Doug’s touches.
• The Magic Coin: A no-nonsense method for making a signed cardappearin a coin purse.
• Your Name: A comedy call-back ends with athe signed card folded up inside your credit card wallet
• Card to Matchbox: A tiny “wand” provides for an invisible load to this classic.
• Card to Shoe: A reputation-making routine with lots of “sole”.
• The Art Collector: Art and magic come together for this mind-blower.
• A Technicolor Mystery: A signed Card changes color, then appears where it couldn’t possibly be.
• A Million $$ Mystery (Bonus Effect): A signed bill routine, suitable for walk around. Also includes Doug’s coin routine, “3 Across the Fly”.

REVIEW by Darrin Cook from TheMagicCafe.com http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=52232&forum=111

Boy, this one took me by surprise, and what a pleasant surprise! Ever since I got Doug’s notes “High Impact Coin Magic,” I’ve really enjoyed his material. I ordered this DVD as soon as I saw it. (I’ll post a review when I’ve had the chance to look it over.)

Doug is right; his routine “Tri-Flection” is a great one that I do every night I perform. In a PM, Doug was generous enough to tip the vanish to me, which takes the routine a step forward. (Note, it is a quick, highly visual, high impact card routine without gaffs, and no reset.)

I won’t go on at length before I’ve seen the DVD, but from what I’ve seen of Doug’s material (I have his notes, book, and lecture video.), he is a worker who comes up with very practical material.

I just got “Get Bent” and have watched it a couple of times. The video is well-shot, though a little shadowy in the back, but all the instruction is very clear. The graphics are top-notch. The DVD was filmed with a magic buddy of Doug’s, so you won’t get any real audience reaction shots. But the bottom line is that you’ll learn from the DVD.

The video gets off to a great start with “Tri-Flection,” a quick, highly visual routine. Doug points out that in most card-to-impossible-location effects, the vanish is inferred by the audience. In other words, since the card is not in the deck, it must have vanished. In “Tri-Flection” a card vanishes from a small packet. The beauty of this is that in the card-to-wallet effect, for example, many magicians try to control, palm, and load a card while the spectators are burning their hands. “Tri-Flection” creates an off-beat moment of relaxation: the card has been produced and vanished, creating a feeling that the effect is over, and that moment of relaxtion is an opportunity to steal away the card.

Next he covers a variety of folded card to impossible location routines, and has some great work on the Kennedy card-to-box gaff. (I agree, a box is designed to hold something. I don’t think it’s a good idea to produce an empty box.) Doug offers full routines for the mystery box, not just, “Hey, it’s gone, look in the box.” The card to credit card wallet is well done, and has got me looking for the props. Although many of the routines may seem similar, the purpose is to give you a variety of options, and allow you to choose the location that suits your abilities and interests the best.

Doug teaches the Mercury/Scarne fold, and the six-section fold. I think he should have taught the top palm as well, but he does refer to sources where one can learn it. Bits are provided to help you misdirect attention for the folding and loading of the card, and he suggests ways to get into the folded revelation routine for those who are new to it.

In the coin and signed bill routine, Doug really “sings.” It’s a fooler, and I think it’s the most magical routine on the DVD. It’s one I’ll be working on. (It’s billed as “3 Across the Fly,” but it’s not the same routine that appears in the book; however, I certainly wasn’t disappointed.)

(Other sources: I recommend Steve Bedwell’s Convincing Control Fold from the “Secret Sessions”tapes. Jay Sankey’s “Paperclipped” is a great revelation, and provides many practical tips for the Mercury/Scarne fold. Flicking Fingers “The Book” has a great card to matchbox routine, and I have one too, in my book “As the Crow Flies.” My routine combining the coin finds the card and mystery box routines will be in Scott Guinn’s next book, “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Michael Ammar also has a unique fold and card-to matchbook routine in one set of his lecture notes.) Of course, this is the point of the whole DVD, to provide the results of a lot of research and experience in the folded card revelation.

For those who are new to this field, I think the DVD is a valuable resource. For those who are more familiar with this theme, the DVD offers food for thought. As I watched the routines ideas kept occurring to me. And if you don’t do “Tri-Flection,” it’s one you’ll want to add to your repertoire.