Hey guys,
Does anybody know something about Jay Sankey's Insider.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rSGhzr-908
I would like to hear some reviews from you!

Thanks

Martin

Same over here... especially for the signed card version... I guess there is some fumbling involved?

Just got it in the mail today. I'll let you know how it is!!!

Yeah ordered thru Vanishing Inc, will post comments when it arrives also.

Great, thanks guys!

I'm waiting for the reviews.....

Question: did you wonder in any way about the size of the envelope and its window when watching the demo?
This is no joke, I'm really curious! Please let me know...

Looks promising !

I have this...its actually a mixture of very old, a litttle new and very clever...

which is a good thing...

I like the fact that you can get them to open the envelope and tip out "whatever" you have jump into it...

I've altered it to suit me, and I don't need the gimmick for some of effects I have in mind...

but its a good quality release...8/10

I've not watched the routines, just the applications - I bought it for mentalism purposes and porpoises...

I got it last week.

When you open the DVD, your first reaction is going to be, "what the heck, there are just some regular envelopes in here!" And they are regular envelopes except for the size, and that is the beauty. It is very ,very clever and very easy to do.

Also, Insider is very visual. As visual as he shows on the video. The envelope is empty, you pass a fan of cards or a napkin or a handkerchief over the envelope and a previously destroyed or disappeard card or bill (or whatever you want, as long as it is flat) appears and can be immediately handed out to be opened by the spectator.

There is a bit of one time prep, to make a very simple gimmick and Jay provides the raw materials you need. It will take you all of 10 minutes to put it together if you have what you need around the house and you most likely do.

The envelopes look like completely normal envelopes and other than their size, they are. Note they are a little smaller than normal envelopes but that is by design because if you make a playing card appear in the envelope, before letting the spectator open it up, they can check to see that it is impossible to hide the card outside of the window. So that just adds to the impossibility of the effect.

Jay spends a lot of time explaining how to prepare the gimmick... too much for my taste but I could accept that as I can imagine that he sells quite a bit to young magicians and this level of explanation might be needed for them. I also wish Jay had provided more than one gimmick and if you get the envelope refills, they don't come with an additional gimmick.

Jay also spends a lot of time on the concepts behind the Insider and I found that interesting and useful. He even talks about effective ways to reuse the envelopes rather than have the audience member tear them open each time. As usual, he presents many ways to perform Insider and discusses how you can do the effect in a way that allows you to reuse the envelopes but still pass the bar of card or bill to impossible location.

The two most popular versions are likley to be (1) torn bill or torn card to sealed (or unsealed) envelope inside a plastic bag and (2) signed card to a sealed envelope. Note that he does not present a method for signed card to envelope inside a plastic bag and I don't think it could be easily done using Insider.

Unlike most of his videos, he does not present the effect end to end as a performance. He just walks through the basic methods of each potential effect. So for a beginner who needs everything spelled out step by step, they might find Jay's explanations to be not specific enough. For instance, for the bill with torn corner that appears in the envelop, you will have to figure out what approach you want to use to disappear the bill. For me, I find that Jay's style is so strong, that not having him show his presentation was useful. It makes it easier for me to take the Insider in my own direction without being too influenced by Jay. At the same time, he provided plenty of food for thought.

Think of the Insider as a utility for getting a flat object into an impossible location and the rest of the presentation is all up to you.


So overall, a fantastic effect that is well made, very visual, seems impossible, and is super easy to do.

That's what's bothering me - over here in my place such envelopes look very uncommon and that contradicts the premise of using a "regular envelope" for the transposition. When I watched the demo I was asking myself: The effect looks really great, but why is the envelope AND the window of such an unusual size?? It must have some reasons...

Of course, they won't find anything about it afterwards but still it might impliy the nasty thought "that it must have something to do with how the window is cut and the envelopes are sized".

Envelopes in the States come in all different sizes. In fact, I've got a box right here that is 3 5/8 X 6 1/2.

In the States, anyway, I doubt anyone would think the envelopes are a strange size. Anyone who's been to a Staples or Office Max has probably seen a lot of different sizes. Then again, most people don't pay attention to things like that so it wouldn't matter anyway.

I certainly didn't think anything of the size when I watched the demo.

First, the size actually takes away a potential method that the audience will assume if Jay hadn't sized the envelopes the way he did. If you were to use a regular size envelope, it is possible to hide a playing card in the envelope but still not visible through the window. In these envelopes, that is not possible.

So if you make a card appear, you hand the envelope to the spectator and tell them BEFORE they even open it up, "check to make sure that the playing card could not have been hidden anywhere inside the envelope". They will slide the card around the envelope and see that there is no way to hide the card and not have it visible inside the window. They won't be thinking at that moment, hmmm I have never seen an envelope of this size before. They will be thinking, "how the heck did he get that card in there... there is nowhere to hide it".

Second, as Cameron noted, the envelope won't be suspicous in the U.S. at all. The envelope size looks very much like my PG&E (power, gas and electricity) bill envelope. However, in Europe, at least in France where I have lived, windowed envelopes are not the norm. I don't think it is too suspicious, because it is just an envelope and if you put it into a plastic baggy, the effect is still impossible.

Also, the plastic bag and the envelope are completely clean when you hand them to the spectator. So even if the envelope isn't "normal" for your region, it is also not suspicous at all. It is literally just an envelope. There is nothing special about it and becasue it is so disarming, I don't think it will be a problem.

However, if you are still worried about it, here is an idea for you....What you could do, and Jay suggests something similar on the DVD, is to do something like have the spectator select a card, the 5 of hearts, and you try to find it but can't. Fortunately, as a backup, you have a letter that your cousin in the U.S. sent you and told you to use in just an emergency. To protect the letter, which you have been carrying around for the past 5 years ,since this is the first time you have missed finding someone's card in quite some time, you keep the letter in a plastic bag that is sealed. The letter is post marked to you and has stamps on it. You pass a fan of cards or a napkin over the letter (still inside the bag)and a playing card and/or a letter on colored paper appears inside the window in place of your name and address. You hand the spectator the plastic bag, they open it and then open the envelope and inside is the playing card and letter from your cousin saying,"Nicolino, the spectator will chose the 5 of hearts. Don't mess up so bad next time, Your cousin Vinny" . There woudl also be a hand drawing of the 5 of hearts on the letter as well if you didn't want the card to appear in the envelope.

So while I don't think the letter size will draw suspicion anyway, there is a storyline that I think will work.

I have Insider and agree with tgold65's well written reveiw. Jay really did a great job of thinking this one out and the DVD is very well done as one would expect from a Sankey product. The Insider is an outstanding utility devise that any moderately skilled magician should be able to customize at least one great effect that fits their style. Although it is very easy to use I would not recommend Insider to a beginner and in fact the DVD seems to assume the user has at least a moderate level of training (knows how to get a card to the top of a deck, can vanish a bill, etc. ).
For every one else I highly recomend it.

Does anyone else have a review of this?

Can this be done as a close up trick?

Ezzet

Jay's product comes with the essentials for the gimmick (which can be completed with stuff you probably have at home), and an excelelnt DVD. Lots of routines; some are VERY simple; others require some elementary sleights. For table hoppers, reset can take as little as 1 second (or more, depending on which routine you use). Visually stunning.

This can definitely be done close up

I saw refills for this trick for sale. Just to verify, you can make your own gimmicks if you want to right?

If your spectator mentions the odd size of the windowed envelope, tell them that you searched long and hard for this particular type envelope. Tell them you wanted the spectator to know that it's impossible to slide the card from being hidden to within the viewing window.

So.... Will I need something form around the house to perform this? I am not home at the moment, and I can't go to a store to buy basic household items. I won't be home for a while.

Thanks!

Mike