Ah, Cory Chapin and Artistic Street Magic. It's been months since I found out about him, ASM, and the truly impossible looking effects. Truth be told, months ago with the original Signed n Sealed demo, I tore into the effect and Cory and made quite a big deal about how he was cheating the camera and the viewers of the demo. Cory took these criticisms quite calmly and shortly there after he reshot a new demo video which he then posted for all to see. This time, I was EXTREMELY impressed because everything was done quite fairly and it seemed like a true performance of Signed n Sealed. At that point, I allowed my doubts to subside and awaited patiently for Cory to release his material in which I could then truly see if he was the real deal or another fly by night scam artist. So, question is, did Cory Chapin and his Artistic Street Magic company surprise me. The answer is quite a resounding yes and a very positive yes at that.

So, after that little history lesson of how I came across Cory's magic, let's get into the nitty gritty of the effect that caught my eye and for me was either the deal sealer or the deal breaker for my faith in Cory's products. First off, does this effect live up to how totally fooled I was watching the demo. This is a very big YES. It looks absolutely impossible and is a complete fooler because what you get with Signed n Sealed is really the combination of two separate effects. Each effect is done very deceptively and works together to create an extremely impossible effect. The first effect is the actual vanish of the coin and then the second effect is the coin ending up in a zip locked bag within your wallet which is in turn in your back pocket. What you see on the video is exactly what you can accomplish with the gimmicks that Cory goes step by step with you through on the construction of (pretty simple crafting is required). The gimmicks really takes up little to no pocket space and are totally concealed while being easy to use (getting it ready and ditching is a breeze, the ditch of the vanisher is well motivated while the ditch of the other gimmick is well covered because it's never in sight to begin with). This is class A stuff but admittidely not really new methods or gimmicks, it's just that nobody has really thought about using them in conjunction and for this purpose. Angles are also extremely good with this, you can almost be surrounded but I would suggest that you keep it to about 140-160 degrees, in other words, you don't want anybody behind you (but then again, everything is happening in the front so there's no point for anybody to be behind you). Also rest assured that this is indeed a close up effect.

Now, is there anything to complain about with Signed n Sealed? Definitely. The first glaring fault of Signed n Sealed is not in the actual effect itself, it's the inclusion of the construction for a gimmick that while is very clever, works well, and well made, it's just not a necessity for the effect. Cory actually teaches you three different versions of this gimmick and he teaches this backwards if you were to look at it ranging from importance. The semi-impromptu version of the gimmick should have been taught first with the second more complicated version of the gimmick as a additional handling kind of thing. The super complicated and advanced version of the gimmick should just have been omitted as pretty much nobody is going to bother constructing that since the other two gimmicks works more than well enough for Signed n Sealed. For that advanced gimmick, the footage could have been included as a bonus for the sake of historic preservation. However, since Cory taught the construction of the three different gimmicks in reverse order, you end up with the video teaching you the super advanced gimmick first, the slightly advanced gimmick second, and then the simplest and in my mind the most sensible gimmick last. The vanisher howerver is dead simple and is just one gimmick, can be made in a few minutes and works quite well. The initial asking price of $40 was also slightly overpriced which Cory has now lowered to the very good price of $30.

Finally, the infamous preaching segment that introduces each and every one of his videos. What do I think of that? Well, I'm not religious at all but I still watched them just out of curiosity. While I haven't converted to Christianity from it I did like how it gave insight into why Cory is the Cory that we see and know. It sounds like propaganda but this guy really appears sincere and after learning a bit about his personal life from the "preaching" intro video, I really do feel like I have a much better understanding of why he is the way he is and how come he initially appeared a bit "off" to me. It's really the honesty I am seeing from him in the intro "preaching" video along with a solid product that earns him my whole hearted recommendation of most of his products as well as customer satisfaction. He makes bold claims but he backs it up, he really has gone all in with himself and his magic. I commend him for that. Also for Signed n Sealed, in the "preaching" segment of the video he explains that he came up with Signed n Sealed while in Las Vegas trying to get work and waiting outside of Criss Angel's studio, in respect to that, I think if Criss Angel didn't take him onboard then Angel really lost out on the what I would consider a McGuyver in magic creations.

Good review, Mr. Da Dookie...darnit, you got me again!

:)

Nathan

I agree kissdadookie. Signed and sealed is a good value.

I think he should change the videos a bit. Start off with a demo of the effect.
I actually like the hard gimmick. It really gives a super clean effect.
Good job Cory!
James

He actually does start off the video with a demo but it's easy to miss if you skip forward too quickly. Ha ha. Again, Cory and Artistic Street Magic's first outing is a work in progress so his next wave of releases should hopefully be better produced but I totally trust the guy since he's taken every suggestion and criticism to heart as well as acted swiftly on them. Instead of wasting time arguing with customers on the Café, he's been changing things almost as quickly as he gets the suggestions for the changes. He is absolutely a stand up guy. Makes me feel pretty bad that months ago I was bashing him on the Café about Signed n Sealed as well as Strung.

It's all good KISS, I'll do my best to hook yall up! Cory