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Penn & Teller: Fool Us....how did the guy do this trick?

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M

mclem

Member
big_z said:
there were two acts that i could swear penn and teller guessed right but the magician(s) lied anyway for the trip to vegas. one was the two guys predicting profile cards where they cut out a penn silhouette at the end. the other was some dude returning to the show but i cant remember the trick.
Click to expand...

There's an independent judge who has been shown the trick - which the participants must not deviate more then cosmetically from - and the workings. The participants cannot lie. They *can* be extremely careful with their wording, mind you.
 
N

NZer

Member
For the Mathieu Bich trick, I reckon he tries to reduce the number of possible permutations with his ball/ballon: it's red, and has snowflakes on it (forcing red, diamonds). If he does it using the method suggested above, he can probably adjust for any card, but any extra help doesn't hurt.

(I know nothing about magic)
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
BigJonsson said:
I saw Penn and Teller in Vegas and talked to both of them afterwards.......Teller talking is a total mindfuck
Click to expand...

Yea they seem to be real cool dudes. Penn was on stage before the show just chilling when I went and you could just walk up to him and chat
 
A

ArjanN

Member
kottila said:
They or someone else writes down the solution and they do a switch (or they simply cheat).
and you always know how the trick will end as well. I used to be very impressed by them (especially P&T live trick with the jokes described earlier in the thread), so I might have just overdosed
Click to expand...

Umm, that type of trick is actually ususally done the other way around. The one doing the prediction already knows what card (or number/word) you're going to end up with. They just give you the illusion of choice. Either that or there is a limited number of answers and they have multiple hidden predictions for each one.
 
M

Majine

Banned
I gotta say streetmagic impresses me 20 times more than on stage, because they often use props that aren't theirs and they have audience up close and from many angles.

And Cyril Takayama is god.
 
G

Gav

Member
big_z said:
been watching this from the start. it sucks that theres no more episodes until the christmas special.

there were two acts that i could swear penn and teller guessed right but the magician(s) lied anyway for the trip to vegas. one was the two guys predicting profile cards where they cut out a penn silhouette at the end. the other was some dude returning to the show but i cant remember the trick.
Click to expand...

Wiki tells me theres another episode at the end of this month.
 
R

RevDM

Banned
He told you at the beginning of the act that he uses being from Scotland as part of the trick. Count how many times he says the word "book" and notice how it sounds like "brick"
 
ajim

ajim

Member
Littleberu said:
I really hope people don't start to post magicians from all around the world. This thread is clearly about Fool Us Penn And Teller.
Click to expand...
Lol I was hesitant in posting it, but I thought it was neat.
 
S

satriales

Member
big_z said:
been watching this from the start. it sucks that theres no more episodes until the christmas special.
Click to expand...
There is one more episode at the end of August, and then a 2-part Xmas special.
 
O

Owensboro

Member
I had never heard of this show, but thank you so much for posting about it! It's incredibly entertaining, and you just successfully helped me waste 3 hours.
 
K

kottila

Member
ArjanN said:
Umm, that type of trick is actually ususally done the other way around. The one doing the prediction already knows what card (or number/word) you're going to end up with. They just give you the illusion of choice. Either that or there is a limited number of answers and they have multiple hidden predictions for each one.
Click to expand...

both the guy with cards spelling out the choice and the darts guy shown in this thread clearly had to adjust their results by what the audience chose. no matter if they do it one way or another, I want to see something different.
 
L

Lance Bone Path

Member
NekoFever said:
Also, it's made me realise just how good Teller is. Penn's great too and they're obviously a superb double act, but Penn admits that Teller's the brains of the outfit and he seems to know everything.
Click to expand...
Penn has also admitted on more than one occasion that he first started out as a juggler and then got into magic while Teller started out as a magician who learned to juggle.

Here's an anecdote I heard about Penn and Teller from a professional juggler:

They have a broken bottle juggling act which they will claim that other jugglers don't do because it's too dangerous.
When they do that act for an audience of jugglers, they tell the audience that they will personally hunt down and kill anyone that copies that piece.
 
M

Metal-Geo

Member
Haha. Fucking love this show. Been watching episodes for hours a few nights ago. Can't say I mind Jonathon Ross' appearance either.

Need more episodes. :(
 
T

The Interrobanger

Member
big_z said:
been watching this from the start. it sucks that theres no more episodes until the christmas special.

there were two acts that i could swear penn and teller guessed right but the magician(s) lied anyway for the trip to vegas. one was the two guys predicting profile cards where they cut out a penn silhouette at the end. the other was some dude returning to the show but i cant remember the trick.
Click to expand...
The skinny dude was behind teller, looking at every card before the other dude was calling them out. I think he was using subtle signs that corresponded to each card to inform the other dude which one it was.

The 2 tricks that have really impressed me were the french cube act and the french card act where the selected card was spelled out with the deck. I'm not really a fan of the long, drawn out ones with a million props, explanations and caveats. Simplicity is key.
 
N

Nappuccino

Member
The Interrobanger said:
The skinny dude was behind teller, looking at every card before the other dude was calling them out. I think he was using subtle signs that corresponded to each card to inform the other dude which one it was.

The 2 tricks that have really impressed me were the french cube act and the french card act where the selected card was spelled out with the deck. I'm not really a fan of the long, drawn out ones with a million props, explanations and caveats. Simplicity is key.
Click to expand...

Those longer ones are like that to a) pad out some time because the main trick is short b) misdirect everyone so the real trick gets lost in the shuffle and c) entertain like a good magician should.
 
C

Casp0r

Banned
Penn and Teller - Fool Us is a great show. However the only people that are fooling them are retards with a 'oo im going to guess your word' trick.

These magicians come on and do the most amazing card tricks, illusions and such*. Way more entertaining, way more skill required, and way more badass ... yet Penn and Teller know how it's done and they lose out to someone with 5 envelopes ...
 
Angry Fork

Angry Fork

Member
Casp0r said:
Penn and Teller - Fool Us is a great show. However the only people that are fooling them are retards with a 'oo im going to guess your word' trick.

These magicians come on and do the most amazing card tricks, illusions and suck. Way more entertaining, way more skill required, and way more badass ... yet Penn and Teller know how it's done and they lose out to someone with 5 envelopes ...
Click to expand...
I agree it's tough to see such skilled people lose. Although a couple of the videos I've seen here are legitimately wonderful illusions created that aren't necessarily the guessing/psychological trickery type stuff.

Also if anyone is interested in Michael Vincent's sleight of hand he did variations of the 'pass' which is cutting the deck but your hands cover specific points where the audience can't see what's going on. I learned them when I was younger but he did them perfectly. It takes a really long time to master them especially when you have people looking from multiple angles.
 
N

narcosis219

Member
JetBlackPanda said:
I really enjoyed this one, I also noticed the deck switch but from there I don't know what the hell happens.

good stuff.
Click to expand...

No idea how he gets the card in the right location, but the new deck obviously had unsealed plastic wrap
 
R

RdN

Member
You guys absolutely destroyed my productivity today with this show.. I've been watching for the last couple of hours. It's awesome.
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
NekoFever said:
Mathieu Bich has apparently done that trick in French, English, German, Russian and Japanese, which is pretty amazing if the method suggested on here is correct. That's a lot of combinations to commit to memory.

You can buy it from his website, incidentally.
Click to expand...
It has to be something simpler than what's suggested. His website says "No Force - Easy to learn - Easy to perform". He would have to be a human supercomputer to perform it in multiple languages in a way that's suggested here. It has to be something simpler and more clever.
 
MaddenNFL64

MaddenNFL64

Member
The guy with 5 envelopes from the first ep. I hated that he won. It's boring as shit. I hate those "Guess what has blah blah I have 5 things, blah blah"...

BLAH.

I love the ones that P&T actually know, because almost all that shit takes real skill, yet they're not going to Vegas, some putzes with envelopes are.
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
Lord Error said:
It has to be something simpler than what's suggested. His website says "No Force - Easy to learn - Easy to perform". He would have to be a human supercomputer to perform it in multiple languages in a way that's suggested here. It has to be something simpler and more clever.
Click to expand...

Here's the Japanese one not presented as well as Bich does it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANN4SWreEDo

I think I've got a good idea how it's done, but I have said too much!
 
NekoFever

NekoFever

Member
Lord Error said:
It has to be something simpler than what's suggested. His website says "No Force - Easy to learn - Easy to perform". He would have to be a human supercomputer to perform it in multiple languages in a way that's suggested here. It has to be something simpler and more clever.
Click to expand...
I don't think it would require all that many. The system of naming cards is probably the same across all the languages, and if it works how I think it does there are only 17 (13 ranks + 4 suits) possible moves to remember. Some variance for each language, of course, but once you had the fundamentals down it wouldn't take much to learn it.

If anyone's interested in how the show is administered regarding arbitration over whether P&T have been fooled, the official Fool Us Twitter account has answered some questions from people. It says all acts have to submit their method in writing before they go on.
 
R

Rapstah

Member
NekoFever said:
I don't think it would require all that many. The system of naming cards is probably the same across all the languages, and if it works how I think it does there are only 17 (13 ranks + 4 suits) possible moves to remember. Some variance for each language, of course, but once you had the fundamentals down it wouldn't take much to learn it.

If anyone's interested in how the show is administered regarding arbitration over whether P&T have been fooled, the official Fool Us Twitter account has answered some questions from people. It says all acts have to submit their method in writing before they go on.
Click to expand...
It's crazy though. The Japanese names for the card types don't line up in the same way at all.
 
W

Westonian

Member
The Interrobanger said:
The skinny dude was behind teller, looking at every card before the other dude was calling them out. I think he was using subtle signs that corresponded to each card to inform the other dude which one it was.
Click to expand...
It's even simpler than that. The guy behind him was signaling with his left hand (the one with his thumb in the vest pocket). The fingers are never in the same position for each card. And there was a switch (or insert) for the last four speed cards, after he threw away the bulk of the deck.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
SeigO said:
I'm not really impressed or even curious about that trick. The "forced" ones are always lame because it's just a matter of how they forced someone to give them that answer.

My favorite act was probably the french illusionists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtNeykCeUHI
Click to expand...
Tiny person in the box using his legs to wrap around the pole behind him and maintain crazy upper body strength.

edit; alright they changed it up a bit but i still think person inside is using a pole of some sort to rise up.
 
K

Kentpaul

When keepin it real goes wrong. Very, very wrong.
any other good penn and teller shows apart from this and bullshit ?

are there movies worth watching ?

love there presence on screen, ain't got enough cash to fly out to vegas and see them live :(
 
C

ckohler

Member
Love P&T! Thanks for introducing me to this show! I'm assuming its a new series? I follow them on Twitter but I don't remember them mentioning they were working on this.
 
P

Parch

Member
There's some legit fools but I think Penn and Teller give some freebies just because the presentation is so excellent. It's a cheap way to get some quality opening acts for their show. P&T know how it's done, but it such a good variation and highly entertaining that it's worth keeping.
 
C

ckohler

Member
Kentpaul said:
any other good penn and teller shows apart from this bullshit ?

are there movies worth watching ?

love there presence on screen, ain't got enough cash to fly out to vegas and see them live :(
Click to expand...
Penn & Teller's Magic Mystery Tour is available for instant streaming on Netflix.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
Parch said:
There's some legit fools but I think Penn and Teller give some freebies just because the presentation is so excellent. It's a cheap way to get some quality opening acts for their show. P&T know how it's done, but it such a good variation and highly entertaining that it's worth keeping.
Click to expand...
The french cubic thing though, which they claimed to be one of the best acts they have seen, they failed cause teller knew the secret.
 
M

moist

Member
Kentpaul said:
any other good penn and teller shows apart from this and bullshit ?

are there movies worth watching ?

love there presence on screen, ain't got enough cash to fly out to vegas and see them live :(
Click to expand...


Hackers has Penn in it :p


Probably not what you mean though.
 
M

mclem

Member
Parch said:
There's some legit fools but I think Penn and Teller give some freebies just because the presentation is so excellent. It's a cheap way to get some quality opening acts for their show. P&T know how it's done, but it such a good variation and highly entertaining that it's worth keeping.
Click to expand...

I find that hard to believe for one simple reason: I'm pretty sure both Penn and Teller absolutely *adored* Piff The Magic Dragon's act (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Uh5CCuM2E - see Teller's very real glee at some of the gags). If there was any act they'd have given a free pass to, it's that one. But it didn't Fool Them.
 
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