"Intact" by Jesse Feinberg
Suggested Retail USD$20.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

"Intact", Jesse Feinberg's "card to impossible location" plot, is a really good piece of work, bringing a much-needed visual to the old standard.

I know lots of performers will be bored out of their minds. I can hear the thinking now: "Oh, great. Another 'impossible location' thing." Yeah, I know we need another one like we need a hole in the head... and I say that as an admitted lover of the plot. After countless oranges and infinite eggs and all of that, do we really need another entry into the game?

Well, yeah, we do. The part of the "impossible location" plot that hasn't been explored often enough is the visual component. True, there have been looks at it, but for the most part we've concentrated on the "impossible" part and not the visuals. That's especially true, I think, in the close-up arena.

So I was a bit excited to see Feinberg's "Intact". The ads sounded a little too -- pardon the overuse of this word -- impossible. A signed selection visually appears in a box of Tic-Tacs? Neat idea. But the cool stuff was in the details:

A playing card from a regular deck is freely chosen, signed and returned to the deck. An ungimmicked Tic-Tac box is taken from the pocket; a couple of mints are inside, otherwise the box is obviously empty. The box is shaken around a couple of times and then shaken "emphatically" as the ads say. Suddenly, a folded playing card is seen inside the box. The box is opened, the playing card removed and unfolded and shown to be the signed selection. At the end, everything can be examined.

So, with all of that, expectations were high. "Intact" met those expectations pretty darn well. Well enough that this one is going out the door with me more often than not.

Here are the details:

The deck is normal, the box is normal, the mints are normal... all you have to do is get the gimmick away from things and you're as clean as can be; due to the nature of the gimmick, this is much simpler than you'd think. The gimmick handles the appearance of the card; the rest of it is going to have you either doing a little bit of work or a lot, depending on which one you are skilled enough to get away with. Set-up is quick and easy, taking only a few seconds and then you're ready to go.

There are a few things to be aware of about "Intact". The gimmick does a bit of the work, sure, but you're going to have some work to do. Feinberg offers two variations, a simple one and an advanced one. The simple one is light on sleights (though you'll still have to possess a little bit of knowledge about card work to pull it off, but we really are talking the basics here) but horrible on the presentation and the angles; the more advanced version, which Feinberg rightfully skims over, requires a bit more skill with sleights but looks much better and loses the angle issue the simple version has. Lastly, resetting will likely need a trip the bathroom. Now I say "likely" because it sure seems to me that this is a way of quickly, easily, and comfortably resetting "Intact", but I haven't found it yet.

Okay, so those are the highlights. But there's something else that makes me recommend "Intact": the flexibility. Feinberg basically took an old idea attributed to Theo DeLand (used in DeLand's "Rainbow Card Cremation", if I remember correctly), shrunk down the framing from a stage effect to a close-up piece, and added some technological pieces to make the gimmick more useful. With all of that behind it, "Intact" becomes a bit more useful than just sending playing cards to Tic-Tac boxes. You can use pretty much any small, clear plastic box (I actually use a small, cube "dice box" -- gamers in the readership will know what I'm talking about; everyone else, well, yes, I'm a geek). Also, you're not stuck with cards: coins will work (well, small coins anyway) as will other small, thin items. Feinberg was thinking ahead and explains a bit how to make additional gimmicks to fit your needs.

I'm a bit high on "Intact"; it's got a lot going for it with drawbacks that are only marginal to its workings. Having done this one a few times, the reactions it gets are great and when properly framed as a part of a bit larger routine you move closer to reputation-maker territory.

Jesse Feinberg gets a big thumbs-up on this one.

"Intact" by Jesse Feinberg
In a Blink: 9 Out of 10

Practicality: 9
A box of Tic-Tacs or similar box, a deck of regular cards, the simple gimmick, and you're good to go. The set-up is quick and simple, though resetting could require some privacy. You've got an angle issue to deal with if you do the simple handling (this disappears if you go with the more sleight-rich version). All in all, this is a really nice, practical piece.

Workmanship: 10
The gimmick, such as it is, is very well done in red Bicycle stock.

Documentation: 9
Feinberg hit the nail pretty square with this one; the instructions are clear and you should have no problem picking this one up (especially after you see the gimmick -- this one pretty much becomes self-explanatory after that). My only criticism? The color pictures are way too small and, at least on my copy, appear to have been misprinted a bit. It certainly didn't stop me from doing this one, though.

Effect: 10
The thing I like about Feinberg's material is that when it's good, it's powerful stuff. This is good. There, B follows A and this is powerful and gets the reactions.

Presentation: 9
Clean, visual, and impossible... three of my favorite things and "Intact" has them. A slight hit on the "clean" part, though, due to a piece of the handling, but certainly not that detrimental to the impact the other two traits bring to the table.


Shane