Ah - I see where D ICE R is going with this...the coin bend shouldn't be performed as a trick, but as raw PK.
Coin Bend
- Thread starter worldwideme
- Start date
if you have your audience truly believe you can bend metal with your mind, the coin won't need to be signed.
They won't be looking for tricks, they'll expect that it's real.
I'm glad you've realised it mate, believe me. The concept of character and continuity is one that's especially prevalent in mentalism, because of the nature of the whole thing. But it certainly helps to look at magic that way, too, although the rules of magic are probably somewhat less stringent.
Mat - I see your point, but I don't think signing the coin is absolutely necessary. There are many ways of getting around it. Josh Quinn's method of coin bending that allows the coin to be bent to never leave sight, for example, is one. The subtlety of miscalling the date of a coin is another. I believe it is Derren Brown who has a discourse on a similar topic as well - negating the idea of a switch.
There is a lot more to Derren Brown's coin bend than simply miscalling the date though. The spectator actually takes a coin out of their pocket and verifies the date before Derren ever touches it. It is only after a random coin with the date verified is taken out that Derren touches the coin. His method works for sure, but there is more to his coin routine than just the bend--that's just the climax. Also, the method he uses cannot be used for American coins.
Not to a skeptic.
Also, you are now not talking about the coin bend as a solo effect but as a piece in a larger routine--so you've changed the context from the original discussion.
I've been doing coin bends for years. And over those years I've used several very clever switches for the bent coin. Most of the time it went over great, but sometimes people would suspect a switch even if there was no evidence of one just because that was the only possible explanation they could wrap their head around. And an effect that only works "sometimes" doesn't work for me.
With a good performance and skillful sleight of hand, I agree it is possible to push the idea of a switch further from their mind than it would normally be, but in the end I strongly believe--from my personal experience--that intelligent skeptics are still going to fall back on the idea that "somehow" you switched the coins. And those are the people I think about when I'm building my repertoire and working on a new effect--the intelligent skeptics. Because if you can offer them something impossible and without explanation, you can offer it to anyone. A wise man in magic once said, "I want to fool the smartest person in the audience with my magic. Everyone else is just along for the ride." I really took that to heart and put every effect I perform through that test before adding it to my repertoire.
If you think intelligent skeptics aren't thinking you might be switching the coins, the person you are fooling the most is yourself. The only way to convince the most intelligent and skeptical person with a coin bend is to set test conditions with it--which means borrowing the coin and having them sign it and verify the date. If you have Richard Osterlind's Mind Mysteries series take another look at his performances. The main staples in his act are all performed under "test conditions." There is a reason he designs his effects this way, and why his magic stands out as some of the strongest stuff out there.
Actually, I wasn't talking about his coin bend, but rather his discourse switching a coin in his cigarette through quarter effect. I defer back to other examples, both mentioned by me and that have gone unmentioned, that signing is not irrefutably necessary.
To clarify - I completely agree with your reasoning for negating the thought of a switch. That is completely justified. The only thing I disagree with is the idea that signing is the only way to alleviate this thought.