It is, to borrow a turn of phrase from MAx MAven, a thing of terrifying beauty. Easy to wear, take off, and change between suits to answer your question specifically.

I am more than pleased with my investment, however, it behooves me to say little more.

This product has exceeded my expectations in so many ways. Many will miss out on this wonderful opportunity. It will be their loss. All of the worries and concerns expressed in these posts have been made irrelevant. But again, in the interest of protecting this incredible tool I will not say anything of greater detail.

My work here is done. I'm going to go practice some more.

My only concern is exposure. Look at U3F. Everyone can get these now, Ebay practically has them every day. Todd Lassen sells them for $160. The method of operation is well known now. (I did this trick at my local magic shop and three people knew right away it was U3F by the Morgan Silver Dollars used, and knew how it worked by what they read from the internet.)

Hopefully this will remain a "secret" so that initial users can get the most out of it!

Rowdymagi5,

Are you interested in fooling laymen or other magicians? If you're interested in fooling laymen, it's a non-issue. The operation of U3F is not known to laymen and the operation of the F/K holdout will not be known to laymen.

If you're interested in fooling magicians, can you name any product on the market that's worth $1800 to you for that purpose? I can't, but then again, since I don't care about fooling magicians, I wouldn't spend a dime for that purpose. In any event, the target consumer for the F/K holdout is not the casual magician who wants to fool other magicians at magic shops.

Larry D.

Larry,

Good point! And you are right, when I perform U3F for laymen it absolutley kills!

I think you could say that the holdout adds a cleanliness that could be appreciated by an observant spectator as well as a magician. The cleaner tricks, thanks to many attachments, will allow for many scenarios (with the caveat, don't overdo it). Some methods will allow what would otherwise seem impossible.

Seeing the proper technique on holdout work over 5 DVDs is also what you're paying for, and this is what you really want anyway—years and years of experience. Without the proper instruction, you will have difficulty making the holdout invisible early on. The DVD in particular covers bad habbits.

So is it worth $1800? For me, yes, as that was the kind of device I'd been looking for. Can awesome magic be done without a holdout? Absolutely. To get it or not depends in part how clean you feel you need to be. You may want to try a cheaper holdout like Antonio Romero's first, and if you like it a lot, move to the Fitch/Kohler model.

-- Frank

After thinking for two months...First I decided to order this holdout but I found there is a Fitch coin attachment for $399 that will be available in December. I have given up ordering it. I can't afford $400 more for this investment. As a coin guy there's no reason I don't go with this coin attachment. But honestly, $1800 is all I can afford at this moment.

Is there someone who bought the holdout and Fitch coin attachment and feels it is not suitable for your act? Please PM me. Thanks.

Hi guys!

I made my own Jack Miller holdout almost thirty years ago. If I had all the money I made since then, using it (cut and restored rope exclusively), I could buy the FKPH!

Granted, since I moved to Florida, I rarely wear a jacket, so putting on a jacket to do a trick, kind of "gives it away", IMO.

As far as money spent, look at it like this: What do you pay these days for a Dale Carnegie course? And what do you bring away from that? Is it worth it? Do people react differently? Are you happier?

You can't put a pricetag on success. You either WANT to succeed or you don't. If you WANT to, well, you do what it takes.

The holdout is an ingenious tool. A Jack Miller holdout does FINE as it is. I just do the Cut & Restored Rope, because I'm "clean" at the end, and just by throwing the rope to the audience, the thing works! Virtually visual magic!

One can only imagine the possiblities with the FKPH. This thread took me more than 1/2 an hour to read. Absolutely fascinating topic!

Doug

Is the "Fitch Coin Attachment" available next month? Can anyone let me know about this?

I haven't had the time to read through every post in this thread. I'm one of the actual firts to register for my FKPH and—I guess—I was one of the first to receive it (a couple of weeks back).

As a professional performer I must say that the FKPH is NOT worth the $1800 asked. It is worth at least double, if not more. That is said in mind IF you know how and when to use the holdout. It's a tool that works perfectly and will last a lifetime IF you use it the right way.

I'm very pleased with my holdout and I had no trouble at all with the "hullaballo" about registration, leasing, licenses, etc.

I think most professionals will agree with me.

John Houdi
Professional magician and webmaster FISM 2006, Stockholm
---------------
http://www.houdi.se
http://www.fism.com

If I recall my conversation with Bob Kohler correctly, the coin attachment would be released in December if all went well.

For those of you who were wondering, you can use the holdout for coin effects, even without the specific coin attachment.

-- Frank

Okay. Let me bring some additional information to this topic.

Last Saturday at the Collectors Weekend in Las Vegas, Bob Kohler dropped by and spotted me. He called me over to a private area and showed me the holdout system. I could use all the different cliches in the book about it, and it wouldn't tell you a blessed thing. I have worked with holdouts a bit. I'm not a holdout expert, by any means, but I have come to grips with a lot of the objections people have to the use of holdouts. I'll give you my impressions of the item.

First off, it is actually made by Thomas Wayne, who is one of the finest machinists in the magic business. It comes with several attachments. I didn't count them -- to tell the truth, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of goodies you get with the thing! One of the chief problems with holdouts of this style is that when you change attachments, it is difficult and the holdout needs to be adjusted. Not so with this system. All of the attachments place the "work" where it belongs.

It is arranged so that it does not interfere with the normal movement of either hand or arm. You have full flexibility. The work can be locked out of the way with a simple movement that is perfectly natural. It can be released by the same movement. This keeps you from inadvertently displaying the holdout when you are in the middle of your Twisting the Aces routine or something else of that nature.

There are also mechanical provisions to keep you from tangling things up. In short, all of the disadvantages of a holdout have been eliminated.

Some years ago, I spent $165 for a double-action holdout from a well-known manufacturer of apparatus. It was a piece of junk that had approximately $5.00 worth of parts in it. If we consider inflation, that same item would cost me $1650 in today's money. (I don't think that even the company that made that one would charge that much today, but one can never tell!) And it had only one attachment!

The Fitch-Kohler sytem, on the other hand, is a viable, tested, working system that also has additional attachments coming out from time to time. If I ever decided to use a holdout, this would be the one I used.

For those of you who say, "Well, I prefer not to wear a jacket. I work with my sleeves rolled up," I say, "Go for it! More power to you." I used to think the same way. Then I figured it out. If you know how to sell your magic, they don't worry about your sleeves.