I don't agree with a lot of what you said. The conditions of the effect that you dislike are what truly make Insane an effect.

The envelope itself has a lot of presentational possibilities, not to mention the practical purpose for it, which is to keep the gimmick from getting destroyed or warped in your pocket.

And dealing the stopped-at card face down also makes plenty of sense. If the spectator simply dealt it face up, there's no effect. Sure, the cards match, but the power has been completely robbed from the effect. Dealing it face down does build tension and I don't understand why you consider building tension to be a drawback. I think the effect is beautifully constructed.

I dislike a lot more than those 2 points. I dislike:

- This effect has been published over and over and over and over with small variations
- The demo demonstrates the gimmick very clearly
- The gimmick makes a lot of noise, especially on the DVD
- The final card has huge "tells" on the DVD demo, several times. Anyone in real life can see these tells
- He hands Kristen the card to examine, which is NOT possible in real life
- If you watch the DVD demo, Kristen actually deconstructs the gimmick when it's in her hand. You can hear it, and she starts smiling while looking at it

Shall I continue? I gots me sum'more!

Also derren brown teaches on his dvd and in his books, how to do the exact same effect.

His however is impromptu and requires one card ^^;

lol the only reason i mentioned derren brown is because andy nyman helped make some of his shows.

Thanks for the review