Manila is a utility envelope. It is a small envelope that can nicely carry a poker sized playing card inside it. This envelope allows you to vanish a card inside it, makes a card appear inside it, or changes a card to another card inside it.

What makes Manila effective is that the changes are instantaneous and visual. You see an empty envelope, and in the next moment, a card fills its interior. You see a card inside the envelope, and in the next moment, it changes into another card, or it vanishes altogether! See the trailer to appreciate how magical it looks!

You receive an instructional DVD, and all the necessary materials to construct 2 envelopes. You will want to construct a card-appearing envelope and a card-vanishing envelope. How you construct these 2 envelopes will depend on how you are going to use them in your performances. 5 pairs of differently coloured envelopes are supplied. You have enough envelopes to make 10 gimmicked ones. However, the special something needed to work each envelope is supplied such that you can only make 2 envelopes, if you wish to use both of them in the same routine – or 3 envelopes, if you use only one of them in each performance.

Julio explains 4 different routines in the DVD. In “Double Flight”, a chosen card visually vanishes in a deck and is found inside an envelope that was in a spectator’s care the entire time. It then vanishes from the envelope and -reappears face-up in the deck. In “Blank To Signed Card”, a blank faced card inside an envelope changes into the signed chosen card. The third effect is “Signed Card To Envelope”. A signed card is lost in the deck and reappears inside an empty envelope. The moves for this effect is not easy to perform and appear quite contrived. The last effect taught is “Signed Card Colour Change”. A signed chosen card, when placed inside an empty envelope, has its back visually changes colour! It can be taken out of the envelope and examines.

Once you understand the principles behind the envelope, you can create your own routines with playing cards, using them. (5/5 stars rating.)