I must say that when I watched the video, I thought to myself, I think i know how they do that... But when I read the description, I thought "nah, I must be wrong", so I bought the effect out of curiosity.

Turns out I was half right, and the advertising is half truthful. They don't mislead per se, but nor do they tell you everything (understandably).

The ad should really read: "...It is shown, then (partially torn open and) given back to the spectator with the cell phone still inside".

I think the video is also quite misleading, as it appears that the phone is given back to the spectator inside an undamaged balloon, which simply is not the case.

For the low price, it's a great effect and I do in fact use it professionally. Not as clean as the ad makes it sound, nor quite as clean as they lead you to believe in the video. For the money I really don't care, but there's something to be learned - take all ads for magic with a pinch of salt.

As seen in the video, this effect is very visual and can be done surrounded. It requires absolutely no set-up, all you need is a balloon. I have done it with cell phones of all sizes. The wow factor seems to range from "Holy!!" to "wait a minute...". With that in mind, kids and teens seem to love it; I think my most skeptical audience members were adults.

One weak spot of the trick is that the moment the spectator sees his phone penetrate the balloon, he will instinctively reach for it. Unfortunately, you cannot simply give it to him. You must make a secret adjustment. I have found you can make the move in the open, nobody seems to understand what you're doing.

Considerations: The trick should not be performed with balloons that have writing or a design on them, as that can give an important clue to the secret.

This effect is awesome, I bought it, and I must say, it's awesome...^^.
It's totally impromptu, and you get much greater reactions than you see in the demo, I did it in my class, and my friends jumped on the table...

Take my word: BUY IT!!!

IMO, the trick is really cool. The clean up is a breeze. With out giving anything away, after i'm done with the trick, I show the spectators that the cell phone is really in the balloon; as i'm doing the clean up. Its SO simple.

It is unfortunate that there are magicians out there that really take advantage by putting out dvds that just show one effect. Towards the end of the dvd, theres actually an entire segment where daniel garcia is doing the pressure effect on things like scissors and peoples faces (trying to be funny). As i'm looking at this segment, i'm thinking "wow, people paid to see him act like a fool"

Magicians like greg wilson and jay sankey show us how you can be informative and have humor. Even with DVDs that promote one effect, they always add bonus's. This DVD is truely a rip off.

The Good: You really can use anyone's cell phone and balloon. The balloon is ungimmiicked. It's interactive because you get to use their cellphone. At the end, they can take the cell phone out.

The Bad: The secret, sleight of hand move has to happen right in front of them. If they don't see exactly what you are doing, they assume you do something sneeky right then because you have to do it right in front of their faces. And then is when they are watching you the most closely. It's easy to spot the move even if you do it well. I choose not to do this trick anymore because of this.

Not sure who some of the other reviewers have been showing this to but so far everyone I have done this for has been totally amazed. Simple, easy to do and quick to learn. Great impromptu trick, I will always be carrying around a few balloons from now on.

Every one complains that the clean up move is too obvious. The solution is simple. do the handling that Micheal Ammar did lately on the late show. this handling is fool proof & simple. You guys can stop crying now.

This trick definitely has it's stand up appeals to it. You can perform it on the street, in a stand up performance, parlor etc. The best place to do it though, is hanging out with friends.
I found that like many of Theory11's products, they edit them way too much. There is too much of the flashing lights and grungy smoke and what not going on that it takes away from what you are actually trying to see. I could do without all of that
The method is pretty obvious to Magicians but what we need to realize is that WE aren't meant to perform for ourselves. We were meant to perform and astonish the WORLD. Not just other Magicians. While I feel this was marketed TO magicians, it does have it's merits for actual audiences.
So over all, I really enjoyed watching this and seeing the different performances and lines they use. The performances were really only about 30 seconds each, but they look cool. And finally, the DVD was only about 30 minutes in length. But it was cool to see them both perform with different objects.

So this is a great trick. I actually figured part of it out before I watched it. It nice though for the fact that they show a few different handlings and how they go about the clean up is great. The dvd though is eh, a few random times they changed the lighting. The blooper reel was funny. and as far as paying $20 this was one of the few times I was glad with a magic purchase I made so I did not mind the price, do wish it was cheaper though for what you get.

I bought this and performed it the next day. I showed it to my friends at school and they literally ran away from me cause they thought i had magical powers