I am interested in adding this type of an effect to my routine and wonder about Platt's comments above... If you don't have any of the effects you mentioned, is the Black Envelope a good way to go? Or would you reccomend one of the others over it?

I would recommend the black envelope over the three Platt listed.

I have seen this effect mature from it's infant stages, when Bob was first taught the principle from Frank Garcia more than 15 years ago and he has turned it into a first class miracle.

Sure, there are other signed card to impossible locations, but you're getting much more that just that one routine. Bob has worked out every subtlety and in addition to the main effect, you will learn some very practical and valuable lessons in routining.

It is very different from the Regal/Curzon envelope effect, because at the end, all can be examined. The Black Envelope is an awesome routine and Bob put a lot of thought and effort into the routine even going so far as to have custom envelopes made without the gummed flap so they would never inadvertently seal themselves shut in your pocket due to humidity or performer's perspiration.

The gimmick you have to make is a no brainer and you can do it in under a minute once you understand how to do it. I highly recommend this.

The DVD contains brilliant routines. No argument there. I just think people should have a rough idea of what they're getting. You're not going to receive some cosmic invention that duplicates signatures, nor are you going to receive a flawless, totally clean, repeatable "no palm" to envelope.

What you will receive, in addition to five great routines, is perhaps the most convincing gimmick of it's kind. "It's kind" being the key words. The basic effects could be done with nothing more that an ungaffed card box. I'm sure guys like Greg Wilson would argue that's all you really need. The black envelope, just like the Vox box, Kennedy box, and many others, help sell it.

The main advantage of the Black Envelope is the simplicity and innocence of the props used so the "miracle" stands on it's own. Props like card boxes already dampen the effect, because these are obviously gimmicked in the eyes of the spectators. Additionaly, you can't "load" the boxes during the routine without obvious suspicion.

I don't see how an ungaffed (or gaffed) examinable Bicycle card box is anymore suspicious than a black envelope. And as for
"loading" (as opposed to no quotes) the box without any suspicion, it's not that difficult. Pop in a Greg Wilson tape.

I just received the Black Envelope. Very slick packaging, excellent DVD, and well worth the price. But as far as the effect, we have to come back down to earth. Why does the effect rate nearly an instant flurry of 50 posts? It is VERY much like Regal's Special Delivery. It is not revolutionary. It does end clean which is an improvement over Special Delivery, but Special Delivery doesn't have much heat on the dirty item so it's not like a fatal flaw was fixed.

I can't understand why some things create a frenzy.

Gianni

bob's site is

http://www.bobkohlermagic.com

It seems like most people are excited mostly about the clean card to envelope. I'm interested in hearing about the other effects. Are they all just car-to-envelope tricks?

I recently got Steve Draun's Real Man's Wallet and after modifying the presentation a bit, I can't imagine doing any other so I'm really interested to hear if the other effects are different and what are they like?

I just received the Black Envolope and I'd like to know what the purpose is in gluing the gimmick to the flap.

magiclee

If you mean gluing something black to the gimmick itself Mr Kohler tells you on the dvd.He says "to keep the gimick from accidentally flashing when "the move is done".I hope I did'nt give away too much if so just edit me.Hope this ansers your question.

Bob also recommends the Perfect Stop trick that comes with the set. So do I. It's excellent!

Steve H

Mine's on the way now also!! I did like was suggested and ordered it from Bob!!!...I LOVE "signed card to impossible location" (I invented my own "signed FOLDED card to (sealed INSIDE) name tag"!!;)...hope I can add this to the routine!

Is this a similar principle to the Mirage Wallet?

I have ordered my copy already, just trying to think ahead...

My favourite effect on here is "perfect stop". It really is sublime...

Could some one please describe the effect of "Perfect Stop"?

You can see a demo (with poor audio) at Magicsmith:

Click Here!

Specky deals cards face-up, stops anywhere, deals next card face-down. Bob shows a card in the Black Envelope, removes it, turns it over. It matches the specky's face-down card. Very clean.

Steve H

My friend v received it this week & he said it is very very similiar to 'Special Delivery' by David Regal (I think it is David's effect).

I've just seen the demo and my fears have been confirmed. I too had come up with something remarkably similar, called Sealed and Stamped, using a huge paper clipped black envelope. The effect I used it for was signed Card to Envelope.

The handling is slightly different as the dirty work is done at the start but the finale is a cross between a Peter Duffie idea from Cardzones and the pull out illusion featured in Sankey Very much. I also added a touch for showing the Envelope empty at the end.

Now that I've read Kohler uses the Mirage wallet idea, I'm slightly relieved as I use a normal envelope and sleight of hand.

Groovy

Just a thought here. Martini was a close friend of Frank Garcia for years and it was at Marty's house I first met Frank about 25 years ago. Marty worked out a signed card to envelope that he showed to Frank in the late 70's, and which Steve Beam thought so highly of, that he printed it in Semi-Automatic card Tricks vol. 1. It has also been done and explained in the Martini lectures for years. My thoughts now that I have seen all of these posts, especially the reference to Frank and such, is, how close is this to the trick by Martini? I use Marty's trick called The Postcard a lot and it never fails to get a great reaction, the nice part about it, is that you end so clean, and they can keep the signed card and envelope. Is there a similarity here? just wondering.