Review of Heads Or Tails by Nefesch

Reviewed by J C Sum.

Nefesch has released quite a number of unique mentalism routines and effects in recent years such as his “Self Opening Soda” and Marked Coin in Egg “Hatching”. He also has a 3 volume DVD with various contemporary and fresh magic effects

H.O.T. or “Heads or Tails” is a 3-phase heads/ tails coin routine. It is not just a straight forward heads or tail calling routine as there are variations to the presentation of the phases. But, if you want to strip it down to its bare essence, it is a routine where you know/ predict the results of a coin toss. Each phase uses a different method which cancels out from the rest and the routine is smart in its application of all the techniques.

The question is “How strong is the routine?”Another question, equally important to me, is “How entertaining is the routine?”

I guess the routine can be strong. There is a chance you may get a miss once. While Nefesch has ways of moving past this miss, my issue is that the probability is 50-50 you get it right, so a miss and recovery is not too impressive. If you asked someone to think of a card (out of 52) and get a miss, whereby you follow up with a hit, that is still impressive.

Nefesch’s performance style is quite strong and “in your face”. This is just an observation and not a judgement of whether it is good or bad. I can see this style working for him to maintain control of his audience and how he wants to direct them, I personally feel it just makes it seem as though they have to agree with what he is saying or are intimidated to agree. I know if he were to perform this in this part of the world, he may get the responses or agreements due to intimidation but I doubt the audience will be impressed. So, if you perform it in this way, I’m not sure how you will leave your audience feeling towards you and I think they will be impressed or midly impressed but not blown away by the effect.

Entertainment value-wise, as always it does depend on the performer. In Nefesch’s case, I personally did not find it entertaining. As an audience, you might be intrigued or caught off-guard but solid entertainment or having a good time will not be how you would describe the performance.

I suspect mentalists will like this a lot because of the purity of the method, especially the first phase. However, I will be the first to admit that what appeals to mentalists does not necessarily appeal to a lay mainstream audience. I do see this as a great impromptu routine in a casual setting. It is also a good lead-up to a surefire routine with a bigger range of possibilities.

The true value is really the techniques he shares for the first phase to determine and arrive at the right answer. The structure is very smart in how to get more hits from a single answer and his examination of micro expressions is noteworthy. I believe many mentalists can take away from this and apply it to other routines. His bonus item where he shares is technique for forcing a coin spin is also very good and will appeal to many. You will win a lot of bar bets with this.

For the intermmediate to experienced mentalist who can take away the underlying lessons in this routine – 4 out of 5 stars.