Gents, I'm from South Africa and have the same iTunes issues. If you want to watch the sepcial, buy it from the US iTunes store by creating a US iTunes account
Ike this:
http://www.pffft.co.za/stuff/how-to-crea......dit-card

It works. You will then load store credit from buying gift vouchers from third parties. That, or watch The History Channel 24/7 until it airs in your country...

- sorry for that aside, now back to the Bend..

Aubrey, thank you so much for sharing this! I have gotten many requests and will also share this info with Steve Cohen.

And thank you all for the comments. I love hearing about DBB being performed Dave!

Aubrey...

You, sir, are a genius!!!
I followed your directions and now the lovely Mr Cohen and his special are downloading to my little old iMac here in sunny...well, wet...England.

Thank you VERY much for the info, I'm sure it's going to come in most useful in the future.

I am tipping my imaginary hat towards you.

Cheers,

Tony

So now I've watched the special, thanks again to Aubrey, and very good it was too.

The downside is I now have to send Bill more money for another one of his brilliant ideas.

Ah well.

Tony

Glad I could be of assistance

I don't have it ( yet) but everything Dr Bill is writing is GOLD. Everything

Lior

Hehe, have you been reading Doug's thread?

I wrote:



No offence intended, Lior. It was just such a close match

T.

Doug is a very close friend.
Everything he writes is gold. Everything
(this is true)

There are some people that are sharing great stuff and there are some names
that share very bad stuff...
Most of the people in the Café are amature magicians and their reviews are good most of the time
just for amatures.

Lior

And by the way... I got it 2 weeks ago.
So I know what I am talking about.

Lior

There’s a lot being said about Dr. Bill’s Bend in the meantime – and to be completely honest, I’m somewhat biased anyway when it comes to Dr. Bill’s publications. Nevertheless I like to share some informations about the book on the one hand and my personal impressions on the other – emphasizing explicitly on the fact that the latter are exactly what I called them: personal impressions!

The ebook contains seven main parts for me:

• An ‘Introduction’ which offers a few informations on the history of this publications as such.
  
  
• Dr. Bill’s Bend which describes the actual effect, the methods and the basic presentational approach – but which already adds some clever subtleties to the pure description as well.
  
  
• Bonuses (to the actual Dr. Bill’s Bend routine) which not only offer alternatives to particular parts of the handling. More than this several wonderful (at least wonderful in my eyes) ideas, twists, ‘add-ons’ and subtleties are shared. Some of them are developments which have parallels to (credited) ideas or concepts of Docc Hilford, Richard Webster, Bob Cassidy, Andrew Gerard or Kenton Knepper for example. Other variations are contributions by great minds like Tony Razzano or Greg Arce.
  
  
• Steve Cohen’s Presentation from “Lost Magic Decoded” – well, it is obviously self-explanatory what you’ll find in this part. This is a highly commercial approach of Dr. Bill’s routine. Unfortunately I haven’t seen the actual performance. But even reading the description clarifies very well what happens and why the routine is structured the way it is. Great to learn from.
  
  
• Incredible Tips from Banachek – a self-explanatory headline as well. What a simple yet brilliant idea!
  
  
• In Pender Bender Mauricio Jaramillo shares not only a wonderful concept for pendulum work as such but more than this a great idea to combine this concept with Dr. Bill’s Bend. Stunning.
  
  
• The Appendix contains Dr. Bill’s thoughts on two particular important aspects of pendulum work: ‘Stillness’ and ‘Movement’. One shouldn’t underestimate reflections about those two topics when it comes to create a pendulum sequence!

I personally do metal bendings just on rare occasions – and even for pendulum work I have a quite ‘special’ approach which is different from the common pendulum applications that you’ll find in the corresponding literature. That said, Dr. Bill’s Bend offered me food for thought in the first instance no matter what! But more than this my first experiences with this routine in practice were astonishing!

I experimented with an approach of announcing the bend in advance as well as with apparently ‘just’ performing a pendulum sequence and only realizing the bend ‘accidentally’ later.
Both approaches caused great reactions - so the preferable interpretation of this routine depends on the situation and the personal taste I think. For me personally the second approach of not announcing the expected upcoming occurrence and acting puzzled about the proceedings and their results matches my performance style better.

Nevertheless the ebook (respectively its content) offers a wonderful wide range of potential interpretations and performance alternatives. The subtleties Dr. Bill as well as the contributors to his book offer are brilliant and worth to be reflected in-depth whether or not you are performing this routine as it is.

This implicit value of a publication and the options to apply ideas and concepts even to other routines is something that I always appreciate – and in Dr. Bill’s Bend a lot of implicit value is shared.

As I said in the beginning: I’m undeniably biased when it comes to Dr. Bill’s work anyway. So keep this in mind when you evaluate my thoughts on this ebook. But I hope you found some valuable informations in my deliberations nevertheless.

Best
Th.

Hi everyone. First, Tony, thanks for your compliment. Having Steve Cohen as my "TV spokesman" is a wonderful experience.

Lior, not everyone gets your sense of humor! Lior has had DBB for two weeks and is just being cheeky.

Andy, I'm not sure what you are implying about Doug's thread. Doug was one of the first people to see The Dr. Billet Tear, if that is what you are referring to, and was only concerned I credit him for an aspect of R2D2 that I adapted and I think is great. Interestingly the one aspect he didn't particularly like has become a non-issue. Doug hasn't seen it since then. I will still include both options (they aren't that different) because I think it has its place in the right circumstances and like everything else in our odd world, some not only prefer doing it that way, it is their favorite part of The Dr. Billet Tear.

I believe I can even see the effect of Doug's thread on your post Thomas. Your thorough, thoroughly flattering REVIEW!

I believe there needs to be a distinction between personal views from objective fact but if we have to tippy toe around and worry about being "politicaly correct" to the point where we qualify every statement we make, something will be lost in trade. Perhaps the fluidity of a well written review will suffer from writers less talented than Thomas. All the more impressive since you aren't writing in your native language!

Coming from you, Thomas, this review means a lot. I know, and appreciate, how high your standards are.

One of the things I really appreciate is how many people have written or posted about their experiences performing Dr. Bill's Bend. While I know reviews of an effect prior to performance are valuable too, there is something significant added when people share there performance experiences. You even went out there and tried two approaches to see which went over better! That is doing your homework.

Which makes it even more valuable information to the readers of this thread who want to know if this is something they will actually use. It is also valuable to the readers of Dr. Bill's Bend who may decide to follow you in the direction you are going.

I just got DBB. I have been using ideas from Banachek, Ben Harris, Richard Mark and Andrew Gerard for years now. I am so excited to try some of the ideas in DBB. I just finished reading this and look forward to fleshing out these ideas and nuances. This is a fantastic piece of literature, full of ideas.

I had never been exposed to the method in Mauricio's lovely routine, which is a revelation of sorts.

Dr. Bill's structure (with some presentational ideas from Steve Cohen) is a thing of beauty and amplifies the key bending presentation to an entire theater. I love it.

I look forward to being able to report back after I have done this a few dozen times. Thanks for the gift of excitement!

And thank your for such a wonderful review! I look forward to hearing how you use Dr. Bill's Bend in performance.

Jheff Poncher of Marketplace of the Mind just placed his review up. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm extremely flattered. Jheff doesn't pull punches. Here is what he wrote, including the endorsements he listed:

MY COMMENTS:

This effect by Dr. Bill was one of the highlights of a
collection of material on pendulums which he has now made
into a separate e-book. This powerful routine is a
brilliant merging of the always-strong pendulum routine and
key bending. It involves numerous members of the audience,
if not all of them, and has the components of an incredibly
entertaining and effective routine. There's really not that
much more to say about this that's not in the blurb, except
that this requires no gimmicks and relies on just the
handling of the keys and the participants.

Included within this twenty-seven page PDF is the Dr. Bill's
Bend routine, some really terrific bonus ideas, excellent
additional ideas from Banachek, a presentation from Steve
Cohen (who performed it on his Discovery Channel special),
Mauricio Jaramillo's "Pender Bender," and an excerpt from
Dr. Bill's TRYBIL on the pendulum. The only consideration
is whether or not you do metal bending routines and, if you
do, this is something that you really should consider.



"If you've ever wanted to do a metal bending effect, but
lacked a well laid out routine with which to present it, Dr.
Bill's Bend is a great way to go. It builds logically by
employing ideomotor response to help your audience suspend
their disbelief as the effect reaches its climax. One can
easily see why it was chosen by Steve Cohen to be included
in his TV special, "Lost Magic Decoded."

Bruce Bernstein

"An absolutely wonderful framework for metal bending. The
audience has something to see and a wonderful surprise at
the end. This is a reputation maker."
Banachek

"When I first looked at Dr. Bill's Bend, I knew I was
holding something very special. There is much more than a
simple routine...it's an entire presentation that crackles
with fresh thinking. An absolute masterwork."

David Thiel

"Dr. Bill's Bend is, without doubt, one of the best key
bending routines I have seen. The presentational script is
powerful and there is absolutely no heat on the moment of
the bend. Whether you are a Mentalist or a Magician, Dr.
Bill's Bend is guaranteed to mesmerize, entertain, and stun
any audience."

Peter Duffie


All the kind words and reviews really mean a lot to me. And thanks again to Mauricio Jaramillo who was invaluable in putting the book together as well as offering a superb contribution.

This sounds a bit like Bendulum in Magick 414: can anyone say if they are similar?

Wonderful thinking!

Benny

Jerome Finely's "Thought Circle" routine would be a great way to transition into Dr. Bill Bend.

Wow...I love this. Most of Dr B's stuff is highly innovative and even if the effect is not something you can quickly adapt into your shows..... the ideas are gold!!! in a world of THINGS we need more IDEAS and he is def an idea man....I always try to invest in things that I can warp and mold into different directions....Dr.B's the bend is one of those things.

Anyone on the Bendulum question? I vetted this with mentalism's best and best informed and no one made any such association. Can you describe the effect of Bendulum, Lars?

Thanks Ben and Gremlin, and what a great idea Mystic! Gremlin, not that anyone should adapt any new routine to their shows before it is ready but is there something about DBB that is giving you particular hesitation? Glad to help if there is.

Oh no no! I mean that some performers may find some things more suited to their show than others..... as for me I love it all

I've been out of town, but want to comment on Dr. Bill's Bend. I'm very mad at myself for not having thought of this years ago! This is a perfect way to do a key bend and the method leaves so much open to presentation as evidenced by Steve Cohen. It's just a great concept!

The additional material from Banachek, Mauricio Jaramillo and others is pure gold. I particularly like the Pender Bender setup, but it's all wonderful.

Great work, Bill!

Richard Osterlind