If the name of the dish is visible on the plate or cover, and the volunteer is instructed in writing to insert the name of the dish when reading the card, the magician wouldn’t even have to to that. If the girl was truly selected at random, there was no way he could know in advance where each dish would end up.
I did a Carnac-type routine at a party once. I didn’t have to memorize anything because all of the “answers” were printed on the outsides of the envelopes in pale blue pencil, which the audience (or, for that matter, even my assistant) couldn’t possibly have read.
The text on the card is: Table 3 – Which leaves please say your name _________________ sitting at table number 3, where he’ll enjoy a pizza.
But you can clearly see that this is the yellow card from table #1, meaning all 3 options must be on the card, and that the pizza is always going to be at table #3. Either there’s some trickery in the lids where each lid contains all 3 food items and they drop out onto the plate somehow, or he was able to manipulate the plates while putting them on the table, or there was some business going on under the tables themselves.
That’s amazing. Was there room under each cover for all three dishes?!? And how could he have ensured that the right dish would end up on each plate if they were stacked?!? My method would have been much easier.
She tells him where to place the dishes before she selects the men. Einhorn can have different sets of envelopes for each of the different possibilities of where she placed the dishes. Each envelope has the wording for all of the tables so it doesn’t matter which envelope each gets. He only has to count on the men following the instructions on the cards correctly.
Damn, somebody said it first. There are envelopes with all possible combinations (for where the meals will be). He just selects the ones that match the food selections to hand to the three men.
The real trick is picking the right woman, which was not random at all. No, she isn’t a stooge, none of them are. The trick is knowing how to pick the right woman, because she will choose the men, and that is what is important for the trick to work.
I would imagine that most of the audience is interested in helping the magician fool Penn and Teller. I think you’re unlikely to pick a person who will deliberately ruin the trick. I know that I wouldn’t be the asshole who ruined the guy’s big moment. Would you?
That would be how many permutations? Having to keep track of so many envelopes would complicate the trick unnecessarily. And how would the first two men know which wording to read? How would Einhorn know, unless the names of the dishes are visible on the plates or covers?
Again, much too complicated. The more you complicate a trick, the more likely it is to fail.
I third Frylock and Mr Sine. No one has offered any evidence that the alleged screenshots actually exist, or if they do that they actually came from the show. And there’s nothing in the comments on the video even alleging screenshots, just some WAGs from anonymous commenters.
You would hope, but picking the right girl to pick them men assures that one asshole in the audience doesn’t get picked. Like what happened when he did it before.
And the screenshot we linked to would have come from 5:47 in the youtube video. As soon as they cut to the overhead shot you can, very very briefly, see all of the words on the card, before the guy flips the top of the card down and covers them. The resolution on youtube isn’t sufficient to read the words, but the dark blobs do match up with the higher resolution screenshot.
It’s six permutations. If he could design this trick, Einhorn is certainly smart enough to keep track of which pocket contains the correct envelopes.
Einhorn knows which dish contains which food. He knows which table he put the dish on. He selects the set of envelopes which match tables/dishes. Each envelope contains the words to read for each table. The men play along and read the correct wording for their tables, inserting their names when instructed to do so. It’s amazingly simple.
But he does know what is under each dish. It’s the one thing he knows for sure, which table he placed which dish on.
The rest doesn’t matter, as long as she picks three men who will go along with things, and not spoil the fun.
He says, “Lets start off with this dish here”, and he picks which dish is first,nobody messed with the dishes until after he chose which one to pick up.
Maybe in principle, but I would be nervous as hell trying to keep track of what went where, and to make sure everything matched, especially in front of a huge audience.
It also explains why he asks if she wants to rearrange the men after they sit down but doesn’t ask if she wants to rearrange the dishes. Any man with any envelope can sit at any table, but the dish that’s on each table can’t be switched after he has selected the correct set of envelopes (the five incorrect sets remain in his pockets and there’s no opportunity to swap them at this point).
It took me all of 30 seconds to figure out how to select the correct set of envelopes with almost no chance of making a mistake. Have a jacket with six pockets inside. Label each pocket with one of the six table/dish combinations. Put the corresponding envelopes in each pocket. Now all you have to do is remember which dish she put on which table. But you don’t even have to remember that. You mark each dish so you can simply look at them to know which dish is on which table. Chicken/burger/pizza on tables 1/2/3? Find the pocket whose label matches and you’ve got the right envelopes.
