# How did Penn & Teller read my mind during their act? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940 "2011-10-27T03:40:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/21 "2011-10-27T16:12:03Z")
My guess it that’s it’s a book test and the cold reading angle is smoke and mirrors. A true cold reading doesn’t usually involve extraneous props. This is a great way to dress up and disguise a book test by claiming that it involves an esoteric skill that some audience members may be vaguely aware of from popular culture, “The Mentalist”, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/22 "2011-10-27T17:04:49Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I bought a Penn & Teller book (oh, about 20 years ago) that came with a mini book of random stories. It was a prop book used for a trick in which you’d give it to someone and let them randomly pick any page and read the first line to themselves. You’d then make a quick sketch on a notepad and ask “Does this image mean anything to you?” You were to draw a circle with wavy lines coming off of it. > The trick was that every page’s first line was made to look like a random segment of a sentence. i.e. “in which I squished the round multi-legged bug flat”, “the sun beat down on us with its sweltering rays”, “the dismembered head lied face down with blood trickling out from all sides”, “peered down into the top of the vlocano cautiously.” The storybook is called “Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda” and I think it’s from _Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends_. I saw P&T do the skit described in the OP and I thought of the same thing as you, really. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/23 "2011-10-27T17:16:43Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > My guess it that’s it’s a book test and the cold reading angle is smoke and mirrors. A true cold reading doesn’t usually involve extraneous props. This is a great way to dress up and disguise a book test by claiming that it involves an esoteric skill that some audience members may be vaguely aware of from popular culture, “The Mentalist”, for instance. I am shocked, SHOCKED that you would imply that professional magicians or entertainers would lie to their audience. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/24 "2011-10-27T17:23:36Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > My guess it that’s it’s a book test and the cold reading angle is smoke and mirrors. A true cold reading doesn’t usually involve extraneous props. This is a great way to dress up and disguise a book test by claiming that it involves an esoteric skill that some audience members may be vaguely aware of from popular culture, “”, for instance. Next you are going to tell me that Darren Brown really doesn’t use NLP. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/25 "2011-10-27T17:42:11Z")
So, how long did the books get passed around before he stopped them? And did everyone with w book get to participate? Or were you just the lucky one sitting in front of his foil, perhaps? Even without that, if he knew the book, he could see which third of it you stopped in. Probably within about ten pages. And he knows what jokes are in that area, and has had plenty of time to practice them. He may even have arranged them in a given order or grouping. Still a great show though! ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/26 "2011-10-27T18:02:11Z")
Just some anther random possibility/thought: Even though it looked like a book filled with dozens of various jokes it’s possible it contained the same say 16 jokes random placed throughout. With only 16 choices all a cold reader would have to do is extract the answers of 4 questions out of you to do a binary search and get their answer. 2 of the questions he seemed to already get the answers for. Beastiality? (yes/no) Sex? (yes/no) ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/27 "2011-10-27T18:34:09Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > The [nail gun trick](http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2011/03/penn-tellers-nail-gun-trick/) from the Jimmy Fallon show. And having watched that - they’ve got the nailgun pressure tuned way, way down. If the nails were really hitting the steel table, you’d expect the board to jump each time. And his example nails on a string isn’t like any nailgun I’ve ever seen. So low pressure on the nails just in case of an accident, and an extra button to give you the noise but not actually feed a nail. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/28 "2011-10-27T20:04:14Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Just some anther random possibility/thought: > > Even though it looked like a book filled with dozens of various jokes it’s possible it contained the same say 16 jokes random placed throughout. With only 16 choices all a cold reader would have to do is extract the answers of 4 questions out of you to do a binary search and get their answer. 2 of the questions he seemed to already get the answers for. Beastiality? (yes/no) Sex? (yes/no) It would be better to say, “With only 16 choices all a **magician** would have to do…” since performing a book test really has nothing to do with cold reading and P & T are using the term in this routine as window dressing. ---
**Author:** ![mikemo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/41988e/32.png) [@mikemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikemo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/29 "2011-10-28T14:39:25Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > And having watched that - they’ve got the nailgun pressure tuned way, way down. If the nails were really hitting the steel table, you’d expect the board to jump each time. And his example nails on a string isn’t like any nailgun I’ve ever seen. So low pressure on the nails just in case of an accident, and an extra button to give you the noise but not actually feed a nail. I watched it as well. I noticed that, when he was nailing into the board he wasn’t pulling the trigger. I’m pretty sure that a lot of pneumatic nail guns have a mechanism that allows you to just bang them down on the surface being nailed–useful when nailing plywood to floor joists, for example. It looked to me like he pulled the trigger when he didn’t fire a nail, and used the plunger on the foot of the nailer when he did. Perhaps the trigger was reconfigured to not actually fire a nail? ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/30 "2011-10-28T16:59:14Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I thought a simpler explanation for the nail gun trick would be that it had been modified so as to make it possible to choose (at the moment of operation) whether it just makes a noise, or shoots out a nail. I’m a competitive videogame player, and the thought of pressing the wrong button and ending up with a nail shot into my arm is terrifying, I wouldn’t do such a thing regardless of how much practice I could get…sometimes people think “Press A!” and hit “B” a small percentage of the time. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/31 "2011-10-28T18:27:29Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > I’m a competitive videogame player, and the thought of pressing the wrong button and ending up with a nail shot into my arm is terrifying, I wouldn’t do such a thing regardless of how much practice I could get…sometimes people think “Press A!” and hit “B” a small percentage of the time. :eek: I don’t think the safety of the trick relies on him not ever accidentally pushing the wrong button either…another WAG I had was that the nails and board were not real steel and wood, but some softer fake materials (plastic and sytrofoam or something). ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/32 "2011-10-28T18:44:30Z")
> [@mikemo](#): > > I watched it as well. I noticed that, when he was nailing into the board he wasn’t pulling the trigger. I’m pretty sure that a lot of pneumatic nail guns have a mechanism that allows you to just bang them down on the surface being nailed–useful when nailing plywood to floor joists, for example. Good thought - if the spring to fire the nail required a lot of force to fire it, he could easily use the impact of the gun against the board to supply that force, but simply pressing it against his hand, or Teller’s groin or neck, wouldn’t be nearly enough. You notice that when he’s driving a nail into the board, he does seem to bang the nail gun down pretty hard. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/33 "2011-10-28T19:00:10Z")
Couple things about the nailer from someone who’s used them: 1. Nailers in that style aren’t loaded with nails on a strip. They’re loaded with “sticks” of nails stuck together like staples. A spring at the bottom of the magazine feeds the nails in exactly the same way as a stapler is fed. No way to put gaps in. There are nailers that use nails on a strip, but the “strip” is a coil and the magazines are round like gangster-style Tommy guns. Also if you look at his sample strip, I’m pretty sure there’s nowhere near enough room for a strip with as many nails & blanks as he fires in the magazine. 2. However it works, it isn’t operating like a real nailer. A real nailer will sink a nail all the way into the board, plate steel or no. If the nail hits something unyielding it will bend, but it comes all the way out of the gun one way or another. Now if the system is way underpressure, then it won’t fully drive the nail, but if it only went in halfway like in the video the head would jam and the next nail wouldn’t feed. 3. Even an empty nailer will hurt a lot if you shoot it against your hand, because the bolt pushes out to countersink the nail. Nasty bruise. Of course this is adjustable, but don’t ever go shooting yourself with an empty nailer because they’re never adjusted for no countersink in ordinary use. Either the nails are being pushed up from the bottom, or the nailer is extremely heavily modified. I’m guessing the nails are being pushed up from the bottom, and the nailer is just run at low pressure with the countersink adjustment backed all the way off. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/34 "2011-10-28T19:48:14Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > I can’t answer the OP but wanted to chime in to say that P&T are awesome. I’ve had the pleasure to work several of their shows as a stagehand, some when they were in residence at my theatre for a couple months while they designed a tour. Their stage antics and banter might seem fresh and unrehearsed, but everything is timed and perfectly choreographed down to the finest detail. > > Also, although Penn does all the talking during the show, during development of the tricks and rehearsals, Teller is the one on stage running things, totally in charge and designing how it will all go, while Penn is over by the craft table picking up the cocktail waitresses. Then he comes on stage and does his part right, first time, every time. And Penn will be the first one to tell you that. When we saw them in Vegas last year, they met the audience after the show. Penn was talking to SWMBO and he said, in no uncertain terms, that Teller is the brains. He’s in the theater about three or four hours before the show starts, obsessing over the exact placement of things down to the millimeter. Penn says he shows up about 15 minutes before the show starts and plays bass guitar for a while to get ready. SWMBO expressed some mild disbelief at this, and Penn said, I’m tellin’ ya, he’s the organ grinder, I’m just the monkey. Penn obviously has a great deal of respect for Teller and it’s well deserved. Teller is renowned as being one of the best magicians in the world and you don’t get that level of respect by being a hack. Penn is very good at sleight-of-hand and does some small tricks, but when it comes to the serious magic, it’s Teller by himself, with Penn sometimes acting as a straight man / diversion. [A classic example](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPzHQuqpfCo). ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/35 "2011-10-28T21:00:59Z")
Didn’t Penn explain the trick after? I went to see them at the Rio in, oh, 2009 or so, and I remember them explaining how the “guess your joke” trick worked. It’s much as has been described above: there’s only so many variations (even though it looks as though there’s a ton), and he’s very good at noticing which particular section you’ve turned to. ISTR that the books are also “pre-damaged” (for lack of a better term): the spine is bent such that the book will automatically open to only four or five different pages, so those are the ones that most people look at. As an audience member, you’re distracted (because you don’t necessarily want to look at the jokes, you want to see the show) and you’re not going to examine anything closely, so you’re not going to stray too far away from the “natural” openings of the book. And that’s what they’re counting on. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/36 "2011-10-28T22:06:40Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > Yes, I started to compose a response along these lines earlier today but got distracted (by work :eek:). It may well have been cold reading, but made a lot easier because Penn knew what the variable parameters were. > > Regardless, P&T put on a great show (even on TV, which is the only forum I have seen them in), and I am envious of the OP because he not only got to see them, but to participate. > > **What a great experience to tell one’s friends, children and great-children.** > > Lucky you! What an even greater story to tell your kids and grandkids if you were the one who got the real nails shot through your arm! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/37 "2011-10-28T22:31:59Z")
You’re a plant! You were in on it the whole time but you didn’t tell us! I’m on to you… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/38 "2011-10-28T22:50:17Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > You’re a plant! You were in on it the whole time but you didn’t tell us! I’m on to you… :dubious: You talkin’ to me? (Mods: Are you allowed to call someone a plant outside the pit?) It’s okay. I am indeed a plant. But I’m a sentient carniverous plant (as evidenced by my carniverous posts on the nearby McRib thread), rather like Audrey II or Widow’s Weed. I’m not your run-of-the-mill potted geranium. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940/39 "2011-10-29T00:54:51Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > The storybook is called “Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda” and I think it’s from _Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends_. I saw P&T do the skit described in the OP and I thought of the same thing as you, really. I’ve seen that book, though my brother wouldn’t share it. I still figured out the fork in the (coffee creamer), err, EYE! My sister was even more “OHhh, _Lady Gaga_!” about David Copperfield (but long before _LG_). My father got “his” tie cut in half at the DC show he brought my sister to. It wasn’t his tie. They gave him the tie when he went in. It was all preplanned, but he didn’t know it. Neither did my sister. Dad was amazed that the tie they gave him contained a trick. Except that it didn’t. These “tricks” are trivial. Anyway, 10 years later (or so), my sister wants me to examine his tricks. She records them on her VCR, from _ **the** _ TV special, and wants me to tell her how they can be done, (her words) “To witness for Jesus”. I watch the TV special she records, I rewind, forward, slomo, etc, and I describe how 3/4 of the tricks were done. Umm… She can’t use what I find for her “witness”. _Not my fault that your assumptions were wrong_, dear Sister. If 3/4 of these tricks are readily identifiable “tricks”, how does that advance your “tricks for Jesus?” And how is it _my_ fault, dear sister, that you were wrong? I ruined her “teen love” for David Copperfield, ruined her “tricks for Jesus” idea, and actually rained on the “miracles”, themselves, all at once. Damn, I’m an unpleasant bastard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-penn-teller-read-my-mind-during-their-act/600940.md?page=1)