Hey there. Long term lurker, first and possibly last post. Just bought and received Bending the real. I'm giving this product a 4/10. It's also a reason why I'm going to stop buying dvds, possibly even books, but not magic supplies. Anyways here's my thoughts:

The good:
The philosophy itself is decent. I've been performing magic for several years, so the philosophy is taking a different direction from magic theory. For example, "bending" is about sharing an experience with someone, not fooling someone completely. I can say the philosophy is the best part of BTR.

I also liked some of the tricks. Some of them were particularly sneaky/ingenious. In particular, I liked zero gravity, vanishink, hijacked, toolong tea.

However, I thought other tricks were lame. For example, without getting too into detail, the phone number trick was really lame. If any of you have the DVD you'll know what I'm talking about. In reality, some of the tricks, such as skin deep and reconnection are basic sleight of hand tricks. If you are fairly experienced in magic, you'll know how to do such tricks by watching the trailer. There are even practical jokes in this DVD, labeled as "bends". Unless you want to get beaten up, I honestly wouldn't recommend doing some of them. Don't get me wrong, I like practical jokes, but some of them are plain mean spirited.

In conclusion, I think the price is asking for too much while giving not enough (with the exception of the philosophy). This was my first Jay Sankey product and will certainly be my last. I'm pretty confident that if you are a fan of Jay Sankey I wouldn't advise buying this product seeing as he repackaged his signature tricks. But if you aren't, if you want to spend the extra money for a product that is overpriced go for it. For people who have bought this product feel free to chime in. As a sidebar, penguinmagic has been generous enough to include some M and M's (candy), which seems to be a new promo they're doing.

I hope I haven't broken any rules. First time posting so cut me some slack. I'd be willing to write one more review if anyone wants to know my opinion. However I won't if this post gets deleted.
For example, the good stuff I have, factoring in price/quality:
Dresscode, Ammar's card miracles, TKO, bike 125 (not likely to review this one since I'm not too proficient at XCM), Art of Astonishment, Mark Wilson Complete Course, 13 Steps to Mentalism, Carneycopia etc

Mediocre in terms of quality/price
True Astonishments

Not recommended:
Generation extreme, visu-antics, etc

Yeah the initial reviews over at The Cafe have been pretty harsh, will be interesting to see how this pans out with some more reviews.

Storm Cloud - make a cloud of dust appear

Jay recommend on the DVD to do this in the principal's office. You have to watch this just to see how stupid the "bend" is and how bad that advice is.

This DVD was TERRIBLE.

my prediction was correct, i predicted this was crap when i saw it.

Jay sankey has become nothing but crap lately

Zack, don't discount all of Jay's stuff just because you don't like this one dvd. Front Row Sankey is excellent. As is his "Greatest Hits" dvd. Loads of workable stuff. He's released a lot of good products over the years.

I wasn't the BIGGEST fan of the DVD, but I really did think it was clever. He did well, although, like you all said, a few of the tricks were unnecessary. I did look at a couple of them as clever pranks though, like the drink trick. I think that these tricks are pretty much awful for real performance settings, but I don't really do that. Maybe that's why I liked it. Definitely something to get if you perform around school or casually with friends.

Front row sankey is his best DVD IMO. Although his DVD "invisible" was excellent as well.

The best thing about this dvd seems to be the marketing around it. That seems to be theme with Sankey's stuff lately.

I hate to say this because I am a massive Sankey fan, but I have to say, I REALLY REALLY wish I'd spent all that money on something else. I guess I got caught up in the hype and now I feel almost ripped off when I could have took my money and went back to my penguin wish list and got something I might actually use or learn something from. He even posted a few of the "bends" from the DVD on youtube and I ignored the fact that they SUCKED because I figured that surely that couldn't be the best this DVD had to offer. Well, to anyone who might be considering buying this DVD, I suggest you head over to the official "Bending The Real" youtube channel and watch those videos and see if this is the kind of material you really want to spend $35 on... because the rest of the material doesn't get much better than that except for maybe Hijacked or Vanishink which were already out. I had high hopes for Sankey's latest project, but in retrospect I feel like I should have bought one of the Card College books instead.

But zack, PLEASE don't make the mistake of making a final judgement of Jay Sankey based only on what could be the sh-ttiest product he's ever produced. Try Anytime Anywhere, Front Row Sankey or DEFINITELY Revolutionary Coin Magic. Great stuff!

Well this is my final say. It's hard to overcome first impressions, but it just makes me realize how vulnerable I am to marketing. I usually wait for reviews before buying products, but I gambled wrong. Lesson learned. Besides, I already have enough magic material to last me a lifetime. The only things I could possibly want are the Apocalypse books I don't have or supplies when I run out. "Dream like" experiences is very misleading and as said before unless you do some of the practical jokes to a friend who has a sense of humor, you will get beaten up.

Unlike some people in the magic cafe, I didn't find the visual camera work too annoying. Assuming you have experience in slight of hand, the "bends" are simple enough to do just by watching clips of Jay doing them. I just wish Jay could have added some sutleties or ways to maximize the effect. But then again I am spoiled to Ammar's teaching style in Card Miracles.

IMO beginners are the ones who will most benefit from this since the effects and the teaching are simple and clear, respectively. Beginners also will have a unique perspective on magic. On the other hand, I don't think a seasoned magician would appreciate this as much. Stupid tricks, and theory could have been elaborated more.

I think the price would have been justified if Jay turned this book into a Eugene Burgeresque Mastering the art of magic (a book I highly recommend) type of project. If you add up the pages in even the bonus book, it's about the equivalent of 4-5 pages off Mastering the art of magic at most. It's sad because "bending" is a unique idea. If this was a 70 page book with essays and tricks (a la MTAOM) this would have been really interesting. I just think coupled with the sparse taste of theory and overall poor quality in tricks makes me want to sell this trash off to some poor schmuck on ebay.

Well sorry for rambling, just thought this purchase was one of my worst magic purchases of all time (although certainly not the worst). If you haven't bought this product look at the reviews and develop your own opinions on this. I might as well add that at $35 you also aren't going to get the bonus book which means even less theory than I am receiving. I'm off.

Just a quick personal note from me to you...GET APOCALYPSE! Those books are absolutely worth every penny! In fact, I'm so in love with them that I wrote all these reviews. Check them out at this link.

I've posted a review with some relatively contrasting thoughts in this forum.

And in terms of the practical jokes... where do you guys live that pranking someone will get you beat up? I'd just be concerned for their feelings.

With all this Sankey criticism lately, I may have to make a Sankey guide here on Penguin about my thoughts on every one of his DVDs. I have over 100, so I may spend some time doing that soon. Just to help people make good decisions about buying his material.

Good idea buddy. he does have some duds. here's my 2 cents.

front row sankey
hijacked
paperclipped special edition
Insider
real work on restaurants and bars (mixed bag, but Guarantee is a great effect on there)
In a flash
22 blows (mixed bag, IMHO)
Nailed
Stirring silver
Back in time (one of my favourite impromtu card effects)
Airtight

That's what springs to mind at present.

If he really has anywhere near close to 100 DVDs, then I think that might be the issue right there.