talkmagic.co.uk

Name: Airtight

Price: £9.99 from Abrakazam

Type: Cards/Close-up

Difficulty: 5/5

Examinable: Completely examinable after the trick has been performed

Performance time: 3-5 minutes

Reset time: 2-5 minutes

What you get:The pack contains a detailed booklet with detailed illustrations to help explain the various moves required during this trick and for its preparation. Eleven transparent balloons are also included.

Effect:A selected and signed card is lost in the deck. A spectator chooses a balloon and the magician holds it in his open hand. The magician slams the deck against the balloon and the deck literally becomes sucked into the balloon! The balloon is blown up and the cards are shuffled around inside. The magician now pinches the selected card through the wall of the balloon and visibly pulls it through to the outside! The balloon with cards and the signed selection are immediately given out as souvenirs of this incredible trick.
Performed by David Copperfield

Comments: The preparation involved here is probably the most difficult part of the trick, and much practice will be required in order to perform the trick smoothly. However,this trick is well worth all the practice and after a few weeks you should be able to perform the trick very smoothly, and when performed as such, this trick can really astound your audience.

Advantages of the trick include that no gimmicks are required and everything is entirely examinable after the trick has been performed. Additionally, the balloons can be re-used if the cards are taken out or else they can be purchased from most newsagents or toy shops e.t.c.

The problem with the trick is that the set-up in particular is incredibly difficult and is rather frustrating at first.

Overall rating: 9/10 (The effect of the trick after practice is worth a ten, but it gets nine because the set up can be very tedious)

anything new on this effect, i heard good things about the effect but hear the prep work is a pain!!!!
cheers
andy

Matt Edwards does it as part of his close up act - and it always goes down a storm. Well worth any effort.

russellmagic wrote:anything new on this effect, i heard good things about the effect but hear the prep work is a pain!!!!
cheers
andy

The prepwork really is a pain, but well worth the effort.

The supplies are hard to come by in a decent quality (like the ones supplied with the effect) but going for dearer ones rather than cheap ones makes a heck of a difference.

Give it a go, it's well worth the dough! (ooops, that's a whole different Sankey effect !)

Also there is "Air tighter" on the real work Dvd that eliminates a move or two.

I often perform airtighter (from the real work DVD) as part of my working act.
No prep involved so you can go into it at any point in your act. It is a streamlined version of airtight. It does eliminate the phase of the deck being smacked into the balloon, however, for walkaround the trade off is worth it.

Good quality balloons of a slightly larger size are worth finding for this.

I get great reactions from it and there are plenty of opportunities to play this for laughs as well as astonishment.

For an alternative to this effect check out my review for The Animated Card Thru Balloon Of Death in the Tricks n Props forum. Similar effect with some pros and cons to Airtight.

I heard that this trick was a very angly thing and did not buy it however, after reading your review I may change my mind.

It isn't a bad effect at all if done well.

A tip for setting up is to apply a little smear of vaseline round the inside of the balloons neck

showed my girlfriend this who is pretty magic savvy after two years constant magic and it fried her!
i agree set up is a bit of a pain but once you've got the technique it's a snap, two minutes tops. have a very easy technique for the prep. PM if you want to know

Once you practice a couple of times, the prep is EASY. There's really nothing to it. I use this in my stand up work and it always goes over fantastically.