Name: Factory Sealed: Coin In Bottle
Price: $25 available as a download or a DVD
Publisher: Ellusionist
Created by: Nick Verna
Taught by: Justin Miller
Effect
A coin penetrates into a factory sealed bottle. 2 versions are showm. One where the bottle is held vertically and can be performed for 1-3 people, and one where the bottle is held horizontally which can be performed surrounded.
Review
Ok, so i don't have Impervious or Abyss or Sealed In so i cannot compare this to other CIBs although i have heard there are a lot of similarities.
What do you get. Well the video is just over an hour long and you will start off by watching about half a dozen different real world performances. Justin then takes you over the moves and the secrets including a number of different handlings and displays. There are even sections where you see the real world performance from another angle so you can see Justin doing the moves in a real situation. Justin teaches 2 versions which are both very good. One which is restricted to having people straight on in front of you and another version which can be performed surrounded.
So what did i think? The actual secret is fantastic! A very clever idea. It is excellent. The teaching is very good. The video is crisp and clear and the sound is very good. Justin goes over lots of different handlings and ideas so that you can pick and choose what works for you.
So why am i not going to give this product 10 out of 10? Well for a couple of reasons. I thought that rather than write a really long glowing review i would write a shorter review that points out the negative points. Its just easier that way!!
3 things niggled me about this video:
Firstly, we all know that this isn't real magic, there has to be a move somewhere, a switch or a vanish or some such thing. So what's going to be important is that at the end of this effect we end clean. In some of the demos i have seen and in the product description it says 'everything is immediately examinable'. Well for the second version of this effect that is true. And also for the first, but you do have to do a little clean up, and here is where my first gripe is. Justin spends so much time showing us all the parts to this routine but doens't really spend much time at all on how to clean up. He goes into great details about how to make it look like you end clean but not on the actual clean up itself. Now this isn't a big thing but it would have been nice for him to talk about the misdirection and timing involved in this. I would compare it to a video teaching the Card Under Glass effect: Imagine you've been shown how to control a selected card to the top of the deck invisibly. You've been shown passes, undercuts, side-steals, the timing and the patter has all been discussed. Then a lot of time is spent teaching you how to pam the card and the misdirection involved and how to not get caught. AND THEN just being told to put the card under glass and no one will notice!!
It's not that bad but it did niggle me. At one point Justin even suggests a method but then says he can't say how to do it as its covered in another dvd of his sold at E!! Its not a big problem for me as an intermediate magician as i can think of numerous ways to finish clean and find a method that suits me, its just that these methods weren't shown on the the video.
Secondly, the name of this effect is Factory Sealed and ellusionist refers to the Factory Sealed bottle in its product description. However you are only selling the illusion of the bottle being factory sealed it is not actually sealed. The lid is on but the seal has been broken. You just make it look like it isn't! So that is very cheeky! And annoyingly there are a number of products on the market that teach you how to do bottle penetrations using a genuinely sealed bottle. Why couldn't they have gone over a few of these ideas in the video? Luckily i already own Labelled by Ben Williams and i can use an idea in that to end with a proper factory sealed bottle that i can hand out to spectator's. In this DVD you have to take the bottle back and open it before you give it to the spectator.
Thirdly, i really liked it when we saw real world performances from other angles so we could see Justin actually doing the moves in front of a spectator. But what annoyed me is in at least one of the presentations Justin used moves that weren't even taught in the DVD!!! Now these aren't trademarked moves or anything. If you watch some of the performances you can see things happening that aren't taught. Bad? Not for me cos i know enough about timing and misdirection but for a beginner some insights into what he was doing might have been helpful. Its like watching a performance of an ambitious card the performer does an invisible pass but never mentions the pass or even what move he did when explaining the trick. To a beginner that might be a little frustrating!!
So how do i rate this DVD:
8/10 - Its a great effect but this isn't the holy grail of CIBs. I think combining this with other CIB effects will make a fantastic and nearly perfect CIB. I still intend to buy Abyss 2 and Impervious as i want to see what other subtlties i can learn and apply to my CIB. This dvd is great as a springboard of ideas but its not the be all and end all in CIBS. From what i had heard on the forums it sounded like this was going to be it, you'll never need to buy another CIB again! Not quite, this very nearly could have been a perfect DVD. It starts out fantastically but it seems like they just missed a few things which make it very good but not perfect!
Would i recommend this to others? Yes definitely!
Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any questions!
laters
dan
