Breakdown

Effect: The effect shown in the demo video utilizes the technique as a coin vanish. The coin is placed in the palm of the hand as the other hand waves over it. After a few waves the coin instantly vanishes.

Presentation: Before Dan even gets into the mechanics of the technique he explains the presentation. Dan provides his personal presentation for Breakdown complete with a script. In the Presentation section of the PDF Dan also explains how he uses Breakdown in a routine and supplies you with the actual sequence of effects he uses.

Handling: In this section Dan goes over the mechanics of the technique. The method uses no gimmicks and is impromptu except for a very, very slight set up which can be done in front of the spectator’s with ZERO suspicion. First Dan explains the basic mechanics of the technique. He talks about the best kind of “material” (sorry, it’s hard to explain without exposing) to use as well as a tip on how to make it never “fail” (again, hard to explain without exposing; you really have to have the document in front of you to know what I’m talking about.) After the explanation for the technique he goes on to explain the coin vanish application of Breakdown. He doesn’t go into great detail here but not that much detail is really needed because of the simplicity.

I’m not going to state the name of this next section for fear of exposure. Here, Dan explains how Breakdown can be utilized in other coin vanishes. Personally I think this section is a bit redundant but it does give a few little tips that are helpful. Dan then proceeds to briefly explain the Retention Vanish. He uses photos taken from a previous project and with a card which makes it a bit confusing considering that he’s teaching the Retention Vanish as a way to vanish a coin.

Angles and Cleanup: Just like the title implies, this section explains the angles and clean up of break down. The angles aren’t too bad; there are only really two angles to worry about, but spectators wouldn’t normally positioned in those areas unless you had a whole crown in a semi circle around you. Dan also explains how you can clean up the effect, although it isn’t really necessary to do unless you need the coin/small object for another effect in your routine. He also explains what to do if you accidentally flash to a spectator. Personally, I don’t think the method for covering up your mistake would work well. I think the spectator would still be suspicious; then again I haven’t had this occur before so I could be wrong.

Ghost Coins: This is the last section of the PDF save the “Last Words” section which doesn’t actually teach anything. This teaches a bonus effect Dan came up with titled Ghost Coins in which two coins are held at the finger tips and pass through each other as the hands come together. The explanation provides a brief video which is embedded in the PDF showing the method in slow motion after the text explanation. The effect is pretty hard to do smoothly and at a decent pace; but if you can do it, it looks really nice. I think there are many more easier penetrations out there than this. Unfortunately with Ghost Coins, if it’s not almost perfectly smooth, the method becomes pretty obvious to the spectator.

Conclusion: While I don’t think I will be using the specific coin vanish taught; I do think I’ll be adapting Breakdown to some other coin effects and using it to clean up previously “dirty” coin vanishes. I think Breakdown is a tad too expensive at $11.99 but it will be well worth the money for those of you who can adapt this technique to your coin magic.

Thanks for the review!