Martin Waring Posted: Jul 21, 2007
Mine's just arrived too. A minor miracle in itself as I only hit the cart button at 4pm last night and half the country seems to be under water at the moment.

I like it a lot. Its difficult to say too much about it without giving it away but the mechanics of it are pretty much what I guessed they would need to be.

What you get is an well crafted explanation of how to present this given by a top professional with plenty of real life footage of him in action performing it.

I can well believe that it will blow people away given the right presentation but you will need some preparation and some bottle to do this.




KernowMagic Posted: Jul 21, 2007 11:33am
Back Of Box:

For the first time ever David Penn reveals his signature effect REFRACTION. Whilst holding a borrowed wine glass in both hands your spectator gets to witness the impossible as the stem bends visibly before their eyes. The glass is then given to the spectator to keep as a souvenir that freezes the moment of magic perfectly.

Bonus Material: David’s Cabaret handling presented by Rodney James Piper and a method to bend the spectator’s own key which can be used to enhance the REFRACTION effect.

Features three live performances and a two camera, studio style explanation filmed at ‘The House of Illusion’ in Spain.

The Review:

It's been a while since I felt inclined to write a review on anything but this is one product that I just had to air an opinion on after receiving a batch in my latest stock.

Anyone familiar with Germany's master mentalist, Ted Lesley, will know that he developed a wonderful "Bending Glass" illusion for stage and cabaret, which he described in his Para-miracles book and Cabaret Mind Reading DVD. As I'm a mentalist Ted's effect has featured in my act on occasions, but I can only perform it in certain venues and situations.

Well, REFRACTION takes the bending glass illusion to a higher level, once you've been through the DVD you will never go back to the Ted Lesley version again. No unreliable electronics, no elaborate setting up and the miracle takes place in the spectators hands not far away at the back of a stage. I got all excited skipping through the chapters as I could see a potential marketing tool since you can sign the glass and give it away. Imagine, you could give a "numbered" business card to the person who gets the glass, so not only will they have the glass as a souvenir but also a certificate of authenticity along with your contact details, a collectable item they will keep forever.

I love the fact that this effect can be done close up, in the spectators hand and only involves your interaction with the spectator and the wine glass, nothing else.

The DVD is split into easy to navigate sections so once you have mastered the basics you don't have to keep skipping through them to get to the bits you need, also it makes learning the trick intuitive, taking you through the preparation, set up and handling in separate sections. Once you have the basics out of the way the last few sections takes you over psychological nuances and convincers that will ensure that the spectator is in no doubt that a true miracle has happened. It also includes the handling and prformance for cabaret situations.

The Summary:

This is a well thought out DVD that has taken an existing but scarcely used mentalism effect and breathed new life into it. What was once a cabaret effect for a darkened room or stage can now be done in broad daylight and up close. I love the fact that you can give the bent wine glass away, this makes it great to use as a special presentation for the main table at the event you are doing or a little something extra for the blushing bride at a wedding reception. Magic is all about leaving a magical moment for your spectators, empowering them if you can and giving them something to remember you by at the end..... this effect ticks all three boxes. I can't wait to add this to my act.

The effect is exactly as it says on the packaging, however remember there will be some preshow preparation to carry out so you can use a borrowed glass, but you can't borrow a glass and bend it there and then. Any working magician will know there is always some preparation, after all you haven't purchased a miracle that has just been discovered and handed to David Penn by the Dali Lama....... just something very close.


Overall: 9/10
A strong magical effect that isn't too difficult to perform, a killer in the hands of a competent, confident magician or mentalist. It isn't a trick you would want to table hop with but rather save as something special for any VIPs at your events.




Martin Waring Posted: Jul 22, 2007 1:08pm

Hmmm. Limitations. Well you need some nerve, some good patter, a good sense of timing and be able to be in control of your spectator. If you bring all these elements together and David Penn certainly helps you to sort out some of these then this one will go off like rocket fuel. This will be your 'Pièce de résistance' that you do once to the person that booked you for the gig that proved she booked the right person. You won't want or need to do it again. Two presentations are shown, one is for table work and the other is for cabaret. The cabaret presentation is good but the table presentation is a killer because its close-up and the work is done in the spectator's own hands.

On 2007-07-25 05:01, Marc Spelmann wrote:
Suffice to say he was initially concerned with the simularity with Ted Lesleys effect but after much discussion with well versed professionals he put this out through world magic..

On 2007-07-25 05:18, Jaz2005 wrote:
Great review Marc,
It seems that the professional performers know the value of the effect as performed by David.

Do we listen to one of the UK's Top Mentalists and other accredited performers such as Kenny from Kernow Magic

On 2007-07-26 14:38, Gochos wrote:
As for UK Dudes giving this a thumbs up compared to US dudes, that's because US dudes haven't seen it yet

Well it makes you guys in the states look like even bigger nobodies as you are a much bigger country than little old England in comparison, so if we don't know who you Guys are, then surely that makes you even bigger nobodies than us.