Reviwing on Andrej Mxyzptlk’s act I see that he showed the video where Alyson picked the Ace of Spades after she had picked the which guru picture she put the bug in. He could have had a different video to play or even performed additional tricks to correlate with her choice. I’m surprised this got past the guys. It may be a tribute to this guy’s ability to distract with his oddball act.
That was my immediate reaction.
7.2 was a really fun episode; I enjoyed every act.
I think I’ve figured out Eric Leclerc’s packing peanut trick. While Teller was initialing the peanut, Leclerc and his volunteer closed and shook the box. I’m guessing it ended up upside down. He dropped Teller’s peanut into the bottom of the box, under a false bottom, perhaps into a small compartment. Then the box was shaken and turned again, and he entered the box from the top, reaching under the false bottom while inside to retrieve the correct peanut. Nice misdirection.
Conan Liu’s act was very nice. The tea girl appearance didn’t fool me; as Penn said a couple seasons ago, “Light isn’t always coming from where you think it is.” The girl came down from above with the sheet. The animation of her appearance was projected from the front, making the sheet opaque. Great effect though. I was mystified by the teapot trick until hearing Penn’s hint about timing. I’m thinking there was a rection triggered when he poured the “water” that would change the color in exactly 20 seconds. Alyson never tasted the “water,” she only tasted the tea. It had been tea the whole time.
Dev Sherman did some very good card manipulation; I don’t think there was anything groundbreaking in there though. The Five of Diamonds reveal was very good. Had to have been indexed, but I looked hard and didn’t see the move. Well done.
Very ballsy of Ruben Vilagard to do a trick so similar to one of Teller’s signature tricks. The twist was that the thread was attached to a spool and therefore couldn’t have been switched out – or could it? I didn’t follow Penn’s explanation, and I’ve never quite been able to wrap my head around this type of “sleight-of-mouth” stuff. I was fooled.
The Penn vs. Teller twist was a great idea. I’m thinking there was a force involved, though it sure seemed as if Teller had a free choice. We never saw an entire deck of different cards, but there was a glimpse of a few cards during Penn’s quick shuffles. Maybe that’s all we were meant to see. I dunno. Not totally astounding, but as with all of P&T’s work, nicely presented.
For Episode 1, I think the guitar pick selection was forced. He showed a bunch of different colored picks, then picked them up and palmed them, dropping into the bag a different set of picks all the same color, letting Teller choose any color he wants as long as it’s green (or whatever the color was, I forget). He then did another swap as he dumped them out. [Note Teller talking about using a pick to play with a “lot of FORCE”].
I also want to know how the force was done when Alison had the audience member select. I’d have to go back and look to see if he could have put in a deck of all the same card.
Agree the escape was vastly underwhelming. So, you built your own cage, and then were able to get out of it? And the way to open it wasn’t obvious to someone able to inspect it for about 3 seconds? Wow. Must be magic.
And a couple thoughts on episode 2: On the peanuts, I noticed the peanut that Teller signed came from a separate bag, not from the box. So the one he signed could have a magnetic BB inside or something, different from the ones in the box. With the ‘false bottom’ idea from Wheelz, it would be pretty easy to to use a magnet to find the one marked one out of a hundred or so in the compartment.
The tea flavor could also have been in the cup the whole time (he uses a new cup for Alison, and nobody sees the inside of it before he pours water in and hands it to Alison), so all he needs is to change color in the teapot (dunno if it would be easier to just have clear tea-flavored water in the bottle).
I suspect the five of diamonds was drawn after Alison reveled her choice: his left hand kept moving around and fingers and thumb stroking the cards. It wouldn’t be hard to make that crude five and diamond shape with a hidden gob of heat-sensitive chemical on the end of his thumb.
Nothing was poured from the teapot. Look closely. The water never actually pours. And notice he uses a separate cup for the tea. Why 2 different cups? Because they’re pre-loaded with the water and the tea.
Brilliant!. The stuff in the teapot is a timed chemical reaction, doesn’t taste like tea, might even be toxic, and never leaves the pot.
I didn’t catch that he wasn’t actually pouring from the teapot. So simple!
S07E03 was another entertaining episode. I enjoyed the miniature Fool Us set, the shadow and light play, and the “fashion” magic (as well as the classic P&T routine at the end). The heads/tails coin trick was interesting. If it wasn’t a gaffed coin, what was Penn trying to prove by calling it at the end? Did the magician knowingly change it to tails after seeing Penn’s hand go up, or was it always going to be tails?
First of all, the audience member who “won” the coin flip contest had to be a plant, right? I thought it was odd the magician didn’t ask for his name or anything when he came onstage.
As for how the trick was done, maybe the simplest explanation is the correct one (especially after he fooled Penn with the final flip) - the guy can somehow control how an ungaffed coin will land.
No plant, He picked a distinctive looking guy in the audience and manipulated the coin flips to eliminate everyone else.
No idea how he controlled the coin. To say it wasn’t gaffed doesn’t eliminate two or more coins, or any other manipulation. I suspect he’s just able to flip the coin under his hand, so he doesn’t have to control how it lands, he only has to control the reveal.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but it seemed like an excessively simply trick to me, assuming the guy was dextrous enough to keep two coins in his hand while flipping the one he wanted. Would the magician be able to claim something as simple as a double-headed/tailed coin doesn’t count as being gaffed?
I mean, clearly the ‘winner’ guy was a stooge, and he and the magician had memorized a string of Head/Tail/Tail/etc in order. They both know the first time he’ll flip the Head coin, so the stooge holds his hand up and half of the audience is eliminated. The next in the assigned sequence is Tails, and now we’re down to a quarter of the audience. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
I don’t know how many people that room holds, but guessing a string of H/T 10 long right by chance is a 1 out of 1024 odds, probably more than ample. Memorize a few more in the sequence – and, really, who would notice if your pattern is actually only five long and then you start repeating the sequence? – and you’re covered in case you run across an amazingly lucky guesser.
Again, no plant. He’s controlling the coin so he decides who stands and who sits until only the pre-selected audience member is left standing.
ETA: A double headed coin would be considered ‘gaffed’.
Also, it probably had nothing to do with the trick but I noticed the guy’s watch was prominently displayed and appeared large enough to contain a coin.
A half dollar coin is pretty big, so I suspect that by feel he could manipulate the coin to match the side needed. Also, depending on how clear a view he had of his intended selection – and remember, the rules don’t allow audience stooges – I wonder if his wife sitting in the audience – or even better, his daughter – was in a position to signal which side should come up.
If the magician can control the coin there is no need for a plant or for a predetermined flip sequence. He just picks a distinctive audience member (conveniently on an aisle in this case), watches the guy’s selections, and then makes them correct. He did the reverse for Penn, making his guess incorrect. The key, of course, is how he controls the coin outcome.
As PioneerPilot says, there is no need for any kind of plant. He knows who is supposed to remain standing, he selects whether heads or tails is shown after the flip by looking at the selecting audience member and making sure he remains standing. No plants, no help, no known sequence. To put it simply, he’s cheating, he can make heads or tails appear and he makes that choice just before revealing the coin.
Eric Leclerc has revealed the method to the peanut trick. It’s annoyingly simple like so many great tricks. My guess after watching the trick was that he drew a T on another peanut but the overhead camera shot had me doubting that. I couldn’t think of a gimmicked box method since at the end he tips the box over, spills the peanuts and all looks clean. Missed that the box was completely rotated at the start so this fooled me.
Stooges are not allowed on Fool Us. I believe it is:
- no stooges
- no instant stooges*(where a person goes along due to pressure)
- no beeper/vibrators that are operated remotely to signal the magician
What else is there?
*The used to allow these and a trick that fooled them used this and it is kind of lame, so it was banned.
Oh, nice. Very generous that he gave up his trick. Would be cool if more foolers did this, even though it’s not really in the spirit of the game. But it’s great exposure for him.
Regarding the coin flip, I’m still trying to figure out why Penn insisted that if it lands on heads, he didn’t fool them. If he controls the coin outcome, that seems like it would be the obvious (and only) method to guess. What other technique did Penn suspect?