Price$35.00
Media TypeDVD, Gimmick(s)
CategoryGeneral, Close Up
Date AddedMar 07, 2015
Feel N' Seal
Peter Eggink
Empty Hand Productions
(Based on 2 reviews)
Right in front of your spectator's eyes and with NO COVER or whatsoever, VISUALLY and MAGICIALLY RE-SEAL your deck of cards! With NO SWITCHES hand over the freshly wrapped deck to your spectator, only for her to confirm it is indeed factory sealed again!
You can start with an already opened deck OR, If you prefer, start by having your spectator remove the cellophane and break the seal sticker from a BRAND NEW DECK. She then removes the deck and picks a card...whenever YOU want, instantly RE-SEAL your deck!
How about magically re-sealing your deck of cards while your SPECTATOR HOLDS THE DECK?
Or for another KILLER effect: VANISH the ENTIRE DECK inside the case...except for the spectator's signed selection!
Comes with special engineered gimmick and a full training DVD. The gimmick can be adapted to any brand poker size playing cards. Available in Red and Blue. (Supply your own card case to complete the gimmick).
Key points: EASY TO DO SUPER VISUAL SELF-CONTAINED IMMEDIATELY HAND OUT THE RE-SEALED DECK WITH NO SWITCH RESETS IN SECONDS PERFECT CLOSER FOR YOUR CARD MAGIC ONE GIMMICK. TWO KILLER EFFECTS.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
PROS
The effect is stunning.
CONS
Wow, what a huge craft project for a few seconds of wonder! It’s like waiting in line for a whole day to ride a five second roller coaster.
The effect is stunning, but the preparation is so extensive I can’t even bring myself to do this once. There are a lot of amazing effects that don’t take this much preparation.
VERDICT
Stunning effect, but extremely tedious set up.
The effect is stunning.
CONS
Wow, what a huge craft project for a few seconds of wonder! It’s like waiting in line for a whole day to ride a five second roller coaster.
The effect is stunning, but the preparation is so extensive I can’t even bring myself to do this once. There are a lot of amazing effects that don’t take this much preparation.
VERDICT
Stunning effect, but extremely tedious set up.
(Top ▲)
Right off the bat I will say that you MUST watch this DVD all the way through FIRST before attempting to construct your gimmick. This is especially true if you plan on using a box from a different deck to make the gimmick. That said...
This is one of those projects that frustrates me but not necessarily for any wrong reasons. More on that later.
The DVD is nicely produced, the menu is very easy to use with the option to play all or play chapter by chapter. The video quality is excellent and the audio was good.
The teaching portion of this entire DVD is less than 30 minutes, including the bonus ideas. For the teaching portions, there is no talking - it is light background music with text overlay and in some spots, you will have to pause it to read everything or watch it over again. Even still, it covers everything you need to know in order to construct the gimmick and perform the effect.
You get everything you need to construct a gimmick. Here is where I got frustrated-ish the first time: You get ONE part of the main gimmick that is preconstructed for you just because of what it is. This is nice and will work if you are going to use Bicycle boxes, BUT if you want to use a different brand, say, Phoenix or Tally-Ho decks, you will have to de-construct a portion of the gimmick and make another gimmick with this cut-off bit. Further, unless you want to forever be de-constructing this gimmick to change the type of box you are using in performance, you are stuck with whatever brand you make it with. Since this portion of the gimmick that I am referring to is printed, it would have been nice if they threw in a couple more just so you can use the included assembled portion as a model to make your own with other brands.
You also get another piece that you will need but you only get ONE and I am pretty sure that once you put it on the first gimmick you make, you will not get it off. Certainly with a bit of thought you can find more of this material (or something close enough) to build gimmicks with another brand of card box. But it would be nice to have gotten a couple.
You get a bit of elastic thread (not IT, the clear stuff that comes on a spool) and you get enough for three gimmicks according to the video instructions. You also get 3 cellophane sheets as you would get with the Wonder Sealer product.
That is the sum of my frustrations with this product - nothing that will cause me to detract from the rating.
Now, as for the ad copy I have a few issues to clarify. The first is that they say you can immediately hand out the sealed box for confirmation that it is sealed, cellophane and all. You can, but you need to make sure you follow the instructions to make sure it seals itself enough to pass the examination.
The second thing is that you cannot leave the box with them indefinitely because you do not end completely clean. You APPEAR to be totally clean, but the gimmick is still hidden inside the apparently sealed box.
Third is the point where they say that you can cause the box to seal again while the spectator is holding it. This is true, but you have to make sure they are going to follow directions or the effect could happen prematurely and expose the working. Just to clarify, once you hand them the deck and get them to hold it as you need them to, you do actually let go of the deck completely before doing any secret stuff and the deck really does apparently reseal itself while they are holding onto it.
One last point is they claim there are no switches, but if you read the ad copy, the words 'NO SWITCHES' are in the correct place in the sentence. If they had been in a different spot in the sentence, it would have been false. You do require a switch, but it happens before the re-sealing.
None of the above points are false or misleading, so I would call the ad copy 100% accurate - I just wanted to clarify a few points that may cause people to think something else.
The only other problem I would have with this product is that Peter has a demo on the DVD where he talks about most magicians prefer you to remember the end of the trick. HE prefers you to remember the beginning, then he goes into the performance: Spectator tears the cellophane and breaks the seal, selects a card, signs it, and suddenly the box is sealed with them still holding their card.
Why do I have a problem with this? For one thing, it does not fit my style. I DO like the idea of them remembering a different part of the structure of the effect, but what in the heck are you going to do with a sealed deck of cards? To me, an effect like re-sealing the deck should not happen that soon, though this version is very visual and does look very magical - make no mistake about that. What it really comes down to is presentation and how you will use this bit.
A great example of what I mean by the above statement can be found in an effect by Darwin Ortiz called 'Time and Again', which I perform all the time. The one-two punch ending is when they attempt to put the deck back into the box at the end, which they tore open and unsealed themselves at the beginning, but they cannot because it is EMPTY and completely factory sealed. With the Ortiz version, you can give the deck and the box away - a very impossible souvenir.
With Feel n' Seal, you have to have motivation to keep the sealed box instead of giving it away.
Overall, this is a quality product that will work if you follow the instructions and construct the gimmick as shown. It looks very magical but you have to find your own motivation for doing this. With care the gimmick should last a very, very long time.
This is one of those projects that frustrates me but not necessarily for any wrong reasons. More on that later.
The DVD is nicely produced, the menu is very easy to use with the option to play all or play chapter by chapter. The video quality is excellent and the audio was good.
The teaching portion of this entire DVD is less than 30 minutes, including the bonus ideas. For the teaching portions, there is no talking - it is light background music with text overlay and in some spots, you will have to pause it to read everything or watch it over again. Even still, it covers everything you need to know in order to construct the gimmick and perform the effect.
You get everything you need to construct a gimmick. Here is where I got frustrated-ish the first time: You get ONE part of the main gimmick that is preconstructed for you just because of what it is. This is nice and will work if you are going to use Bicycle boxes, BUT if you want to use a different brand, say, Phoenix or Tally-Ho decks, you will have to de-construct a portion of the gimmick and make another gimmick with this cut-off bit. Further, unless you want to forever be de-constructing this gimmick to change the type of box you are using in performance, you are stuck with whatever brand you make it with. Since this portion of the gimmick that I am referring to is printed, it would have been nice if they threw in a couple more just so you can use the included assembled portion as a model to make your own with other brands.
You also get another piece that you will need but you only get ONE and I am pretty sure that once you put it on the first gimmick you make, you will not get it off. Certainly with a bit of thought you can find more of this material (or something close enough) to build gimmicks with another brand of card box. But it would be nice to have gotten a couple.
You get a bit of elastic thread (not IT, the clear stuff that comes on a spool) and you get enough for three gimmicks according to the video instructions. You also get 3 cellophane sheets as you would get with the Wonder Sealer product.
That is the sum of my frustrations with this product - nothing that will cause me to detract from the rating.
Now, as for the ad copy I have a few issues to clarify. The first is that they say you can immediately hand out the sealed box for confirmation that it is sealed, cellophane and all. You can, but you need to make sure you follow the instructions to make sure it seals itself enough to pass the examination.
The second thing is that you cannot leave the box with them indefinitely because you do not end completely clean. You APPEAR to be totally clean, but the gimmick is still hidden inside the apparently sealed box.
Third is the point where they say that you can cause the box to seal again while the spectator is holding it. This is true, but you have to make sure they are going to follow directions or the effect could happen prematurely and expose the working. Just to clarify, once you hand them the deck and get them to hold it as you need them to, you do actually let go of the deck completely before doing any secret stuff and the deck really does apparently reseal itself while they are holding onto it.
One last point is they claim there are no switches, but if you read the ad copy, the words 'NO SWITCHES' are in the correct place in the sentence. If they had been in a different spot in the sentence, it would have been false. You do require a switch, but it happens before the re-sealing.
None of the above points are false or misleading, so I would call the ad copy 100% accurate - I just wanted to clarify a few points that may cause people to think something else.
The only other problem I would have with this product is that Peter has a demo on the DVD where he talks about most magicians prefer you to remember the end of the trick. HE prefers you to remember the beginning, then he goes into the performance: Spectator tears the cellophane and breaks the seal, selects a card, signs it, and suddenly the box is sealed with them still holding their card.
Why do I have a problem with this? For one thing, it does not fit my style. I DO like the idea of them remembering a different part of the structure of the effect, but what in the heck are you going to do with a sealed deck of cards? To me, an effect like re-sealing the deck should not happen that soon, though this version is very visual and does look very magical - make no mistake about that. What it really comes down to is presentation and how you will use this bit.
A great example of what I mean by the above statement can be found in an effect by Darwin Ortiz called 'Time and Again', which I perform all the time. The one-two punch ending is when they attempt to put the deck back into the box at the end, which they tore open and unsealed themselves at the beginning, but they cannot because it is EMPTY and completely factory sealed. With the Ortiz version, you can give the deck and the box away - a very impossible souvenir.
With Feel n' Seal, you have to have motivation to keep the sealed box instead of giving it away.
Overall, this is a quality product that will work if you follow the instructions and construct the gimmick as shown. It looks very magical but you have to find your own motivation for doing this. With care the gimmick should last a very, very long time.