I sent a negative review to the company that markets this "trick" (Vanishing, Inc.) and they REFUSED
to publish it. They said my facts were incorrect!! Talk about stacking the deck!! Anyway, there are
several reasons you should seriously consider not buying this. First, it is much too expensive for
what you get(5 envelopes, a paper "gimmick", and an instruction booklet that is VERY poorly done). I
have the yellow envelope version. Believe it or not, you can actually SEE the paper currency, or
whatever you put into the envelope: it is partially translucent! Anyone asked to pick an envelope
with money in it would know which one to pick, no trouble at all!!! Then, the instructions are
terrible, I still have not figured them out. The booklet is filled with artists drawings, no
photographs, which makes it very hard to figure out what goes where. Another thing. You have to use
a special glue to put the gimmick together. They very easily could have provided it, but NO, they do
not. You have to find it. Lastly, and this REALLY got my goat, there are really no instructions on
how to do the routine!! They keep saying you should develop your OWN personal routine. Otherwise, if
you get stumped, watch the original presentation on Fool Us. I think anyone who pays $25 for this is
the real sucker. And one last thing.I have to reconfirm this, but I think that Penn and Teller
really did figure out how this was done, but the magician balked and made them think they had not.
As it is, I will never use this for any of my shows. I suspect that very few people will: at least
until the materials you are given are greatly improved upon. Everything currently provided is of the
cheapest quality: all, I suspect just to save money.
I agree with Rob Rook for most of it. I differ because I think this is a great routine, but they don't supply the routine for you. Just in the teaser. I find this unethical.
Race, perhaps you should buy it before criticizing someone who has bought it, idiot.
I'm not going to disagree with your review on the quality of the instructions or the envelopes, but I do want to disagree with two things you said:
1. Most tricks you can buy do NOT include "the routine". They typically include just the trick,and it's up to the magician to tailor a routine around the trick that suits their style. For $25? No I wouldn't expect a routine to be included. I'd expect the price to be much higher if they were going to include a full routine instructional. At that point you aren't just paying for some props.
2. Penn & Teller's Fool Us format includes a 3rd veteran magician backstage (Johnny Thompson) who is shown all of the tricks. It's actually his decision whether Penn and Teller are fooled or not. If an act attempts to lie, Johnny Thompson will call them out on it. If Penn and Teller try to make too many guesses and are not even close, Johnny Thompson stops them and tells them they were fooled. This is done seamlessly through ear pieces and for some reason is rarely mentioned. But it is an important part of the show. Johnny Thompson also verifies that tricks are relatively safe and that no audience plants will be used as the show has certain criteria for the types of acts they will even allow. Such as a danger act involving chance would not be allowed, Johnny Thompson will verify before hand that there is a safe way out for all involved before even allowing the performance.
Anyway, if you want to bash the trick sold for it's poor quality materials and instructions, that's valid. But don't expect a routine at this price, and don't ignore the fact that Johnny Thompson is aware of how all the tricks are done to verify if P&T are actually fooled.
The thing to remember is that P&T don't get to watch the routines over and over again, and if a trick has multiple ways to be complete, it's possible for them to be wrong and not allowed more guesses.
In interviews Penn has stated they typically figure out all of the tricks that fooled them within a couple of hours after the show. So it's not that they can't figure them out, it's that they were fooled in the moment with only one chance to view the performance.
Well, I must say you opened my eyes to a lot of things about the show of which I was not aware. Very nice to know.
Having said that, I disagree with your opinion that a routine should not be expected with a trick which ONLY costs $25. I would change that amount to $9.95.
When I first entered the world of magic in 2001, I bought a mentalism DVD by Richard Osterlind. On it, there were 10 routines!! Excellent routines. No gimmicks, just routines. One of them was Bank Night. The first and original. The one John Archer copied but improved upon with the addition of the special, gimmicked envelopes. Richard Osterlind used regular, orange, clasped envelopes and a thumb tip. I used his routine to much fanfare.
I bought Archer's Blank Night because I liked the idea of being able to ditch the thumb tip entirely and use his gimmicked envelopes to remove clear, crisp, unfolded bills and show the envelope empty. If you're worried about the translucence of them, that can easily be remedied with a little common sense.
I'd like to add, though, that Richard's DVD did include 9 other very strong routines. Cost for 10 strong mentalism routines by the Master himself? $25. I watched the DVD and copied his routines word for word. I'll be using Bank Night's routine with Blank Night's envelopes.
Conversely, just watch Archer's performance on Fool Us, pause it and copy his routine word for word if you like it...or don't. But, you can't say he didn't provide you with a routine because it's right there on video. Duh!
Kacy, the only idipt here is the one making assumptions. I do own this, and I stand by what I said. I don't see why YOU are calling me an idiot. My opinion is valid, and the only idiot here is the one making stupid assumptions that I would have an opinion on a routine I'm not familiar with.
The FACT is, there is a very obvious reason why the majority of people who have purchased this release LOVE it. Because the only issues come from user error and/or a lack of understanding of basic physics.
Not to mention, even a dyslexic(me) had no problems understanding these "terrible instructions".
And if you hate like the envelopes so much, use different ones. I've made up several different sets, and it doesn't take any effort at all.
Funny how the rest of the reviews are so positive, and the only people who have something bad to say are angry people who make up issues, or acting churlish and calling strangers names like this is a schoolyard.
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