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Hidden Hand by Sean Fields Reviewed

One two-hour DVD, one gimmick and $35 bucks. Is it gem or is it rubble? Stay tuned to find out.

Effect

Making small objects vanish and/or reappear is the main effect here. You can also do switches as well. The number of effect possible are pretty broad.

Method

A clever gimmick, potentially, makes all this possible. The gimmick, for the most part, hides in plain site sort of. It is a little bit angle-sensitive, depending on how you're using it. However, if your audience is in front of you and not to your sides, you should be just fine. The method requires that you are wearing a long sleeve shirt that can be rolled up. It won't work in a short sleeve shirt.

Also, the method is much, much, much, much more effective if you're using an object like a ring (i.e., something with a relatively large hole in it). The DVD shows several effects using a coin rather than a ring. However, this is nowhere near as effective as using a ring. In fact, when we get to the "product quality" section below, you'll see that there are some serious issues with the non-ring effects.

The method requires involves a gimmick that is partially hooked up. Then before you do the effect, you have to finish the hook up. Then after performing the effect, you have to partially "un-hook" it again. The problem with this is that when the gimmick is in its partial hook up state, it's not a simple thing to retrieve it. Further, there is a little "thing" that you stick to your arm that is supposed to help with the management of the gimmick.

Unfortunately, it did not do its job. It would not stay stuck in place, so this ends up being something that you have to kind of fish out and hook up before you walk up to a table. Which means you have to use it as an opener because it's too awkward to hook it up in the middle of a set. They teach you how to hook it up in the middle of the set, but it relies on the aforementioned "thing" that sticks to your arm — the thing that doesn't work like it should.

However, once you are hooked up, and you are using a ring, the vanish and/or appearance is very easy to do. You just have to watch your angles.

Ad Copy Integrity

The ad copy is mostly accurate, but it's only accurate once you've loaded the gimmick on your hand. Even while the gimmick is in place, you can still show your hands empty before and after the vanish of the object. I will point out, however, that it says that you can produce "small objects." Well . . . not really.

The little thing that was supposed to stick to my arm (mentioned above) is also used when doing effects with objects that don't have a hole in them. I feel the claim that you can do this with "small objects" is a bit inaccurate when you consider the fact that the portion of the gimmick needed to make this happen doesn't work.

Also, it says "no sleight of hand." Well . . . in the DVD, Sean Fields very clearly states that Hidden Hand is not meant to replace sleight of hand, but rather to help it. You will need some basic sleight of hand for many of the effects on the DVD.

On the video trailer, there were a couple of issues as well. First, the key vanish shown is not taught on the DVD, and knowing the way the gimmick works, I don't see how you could possibly use the Hidden Hand gimmick to perform that vanish. Next, the vanishing ring that reappears on the key chain was a bit misleading. With their little speed up the camera business, they conveniently left out the fidgeting needed to load the ring onto the key ring in his pocket.

Lastly, the coin bend shown in the trailer was not taught on the DVD. There was a version of a coin bend taught, but it required two hands. The version shown in the trailer was done between his teeth and with only one hand. That was not taught on the DVD.

Product Quality

The DVD quality was excellent. It was well shot, well lit, well mic'd, easy to navigate, etc. The problem comes in with the teaching of some of the effects, and the gimmick itself. First, let's address some of the teaching issues.

In one segment Sean Fields said that (paraphrasing) there is nothing cleaner than showing a coin and vanishing it then showing both hands empty with no toppit. Well . . . the toppit would actually be a much cleaner vanish than this. With the toppit, there really are no angle problems and you are totally clean at the end. With Hidden Hand, however, the coin is still "out there" and could be seen.

The following is a method issue, but it fits under product quality as well. On some of the effects taught where the object was not a ring, Fields, just walked through the explanation without showing an actual performance of it. He would walk through it exposing everything. Then say, "Here it is a performance speed." Then he would proceed to walk through the exposed explanation again.

This is due to the finicky nature of some of the routines. They're just not as clean and angle-proof and reliable (due to the stick gimmick thing problem) as they should be. Further, he had a reappearance method called the "Slingshot" that he demonstrated with a ring. Not once was he able to do it without serious flashing. Further, he said that you could use the "Slingshot" to reappear coins. Nope. You cannot use the "Slingshot" to reappear coins.

This "thing" that you stick to your arm was supposed to have the adhesive already on it according to the DVD. However, it did not. Instead it came with a small square of adhesive that you had to apply yourself . . . a little bit of a pain, but the real problem is that the stuff only sticks to the "thingy" and not your skin and not to the other small objects that you might want to do the tricks with. Without its sticky-ness, you cannot use this to do non-ring tricks.

Also, without the sticky-ness, you have less control/management of rest of the gimmick. This is where retrieving it from its hiding place becomes much more tricky. Without it, you have to fish around and get the gimmick in place which is not a quick or smooth task that can easily be done in front of your audience. It's doable, but much more trick without the sticky thingy.

Once the gimmick is in place, then making a ring vanish and reappear is very easy to do, and it looks great. But to add more fuel to the fire, the entire segment with Eric Jones was done with him keeping the gimmick in place at all times. That's just not practical. When you are done with the effect, you need to disconnect the gimmick. He never connected the gimmick or disconnected during his performance/teaching session. He also was not wearing the sticky thing. That being the case, he couldn't disconnect the gimmick and reconnect it between effects. This does seem to support my concern about the sticky thing not working.

There were also several cases during Fields's sections where he was supposed to be setting up the gimmick secretly, but it wouldn't "get in place" with the one hand secretly. So he reached over with his other hand and openly adjusted the gimmick. This is not something you would be able to do in a real performance environment.

Final Thoughts

I've been getting a few products like this lately where the final rating is a tough call. The concept for this is good, and it's doable. However, there are quite a few issues. Part of the gimmick does not work at all. This means that any effect that is not using a ring will not work, so it's not "small objects," but rather "just rings." This problem also makes getting the gimmick in place a lot less smooth.

Some stuff shown in the trailer was not taught on the DVD. Some of the methods taught are very likely to flash and not work well. However, if you are looking for a very clean way to vanish a borrowed ring and make it reappear then this will get the job done. However, there are so many other issues with inaccurate claims and gimmick issues that it's very hard to give this a solid rating.

Final Verdict:
2.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Grubble (somewhere right between gem and rubble).