Yeah, I liked seeing this. They did a good job since almost no one seems to have guessed it. I definitely think the packing-peanut-cloth could come off, so I get the pressure of having to do that trick on TV.
It was well done and while I don’t think it looked like that great of a trick, it really was quite impressive and simple to understand.
He gave the guy the opportunity to control the outcome one more time. It didn’t matter whether Penn said it had to be heads or tails, it was a concession.
Sort of in conjunction with Eric LeClerc (he mentions Eric’s video in his video), Wes Barker gave up the secret to his Fooling trick from Season 2, Episode 5. It’s a very entertaining video, you learn a lot!
This is even a better video than the earlier one. The ending bit about how great Penn and Teller are because they challenged themselves to guess the parts they didn’t know is a great part. I definitely have noticed they often know most of the trick, but make themselves guess the aspects they aren’t sure about.
704:
Miranda Allen: I liked the premise, but that wine barrel escape really stressed the shit out of me.
Iñaki Zabaletta: I thought it was a nice clean act, and couldn’t catch any deck switches (though Penn must have seen something).
Keith Kong: So clearly “Old MacDonald” was a force, but how did he pull it off?
Guilherme Silveira: I found the email prediction impressive, and while it didn’t fool them, I’m most interested in learning about this.
The P&T routine was notable for being the first time Teller spoke on the show.
Was it? He could have prepared clips of Penn “singing” every song on the list. He’d also need some way of switching the plaque on the record. Then, no matter what song Alyson chooses, the trick works.
During the debrief, Penn said something to Silveira about sending an image from the future. I think the e-mail sent to Penn didn’t include any text, just a link to an image. During the trick, Silveira has an assistant watching from backstage. The assistant types all the events into a computer, then creates an image of that text, and saves the image file to a server (under the same name as the link which has already been sent to Penn). The e-mail was sent before the trick took place, but the image doesn’t get downloaded until the message is opened.
My initial thought was that he created clips for all the popular songs on the list, but it’s the reveal of the plaque that threw me off. Unless he’s trying to trick them using different methods, I agree that is the more likely solution, although Penn strongly suggested it was a force.
That’s a great point about there being a downloaded image embedded in the email. That’s one of those things that probably worked against the magician, since they had plenty of time to investigate the email closer. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective.
I can’t understand why people are impressed by escape acts. This woman was not Houdini, she doesn’t even hide the use of lock picks or how she opened the lid on that barrel. Escape artists use rigged equipment, they are in no danger. These acts are worse than mentalists.
Can anyone explain what all the talk about “hero” and “best friend” was all about for the wine escape?
I thought for a hot second that the wine barrel escape was actually a legit escape, but Penn used the words “safe and moral” which leads me to believe that she was never in any actual danger. Maybe there was a hidden oxygen source inside the barrel? Anyway, a MUCH more entertaining act than the escape from the season premiere.
I also don’t see how “Old McDonald” could have been forced. My guess was some sort of micro-printer, or a mechanical device to put the correct plaque in place after the choice was made. I was surprised P&T didn’t inspect the plaque more thoroughly.
If it was at all dangerous they wouldn’t have let her do it. There was probably plenty of air space at the top of that barrel right from the beginning. There might be a drain in the bottom too.That probably isn’t real wine. I guess if you have no idea how these things are done it might seem there’s an element of danger, but there isn’t, and in this case there’s no mystery of how she opened the locks because she showed us the lock pick. I’m sure that barrel is full of picks too, so she doesn’t have to put any effort into finding it after she pretended to drop it into the barrel. Oh, and obviously the lid’s not on tight either. At least the Australian lady’s lame escapes are done behind a curtain leaving some question about how they are done exactly.
The plaque was sitting on the easel the whole time the selection was being made up until the end when he revealed it, unless there was something cut from the video. He left the plaque with P&T so I’m sure they looked it over well. It’s possible he had a way to change that plaque while he held it up just before tearing the wrapping paper open, but I think having a bunch of plaques makes more sense than some kind of printer, however, the bottom of the backside of the wrapped plaque is never seen, it’s hidden behind his arm initially, then never seen by the camera after that. I don’t know what could have been hidden there, but he could have hidden something under his jacket while holding up just before opening it.
As for Penn referring to “safe and moral,” isn’t that a reference to their rule that they will never do a trick, or allow one on their show, that actually puts someone’s life in danger? It seems he was acknowledging that she was never truly in danger of drowning in the wine, that all that was just for drama.
I don’t know exactly how she did the trick, but I immediately noticed the platform that the barrel was sitting on. There was plenty of room for her to slide under the barrel and wait there for the drama to build. I don’t know how she’d get in and out the bottom of the barrel without it losing the wine contents, but we know nothing about how the barrel was constructed and whether it was full of wine top to bottom.
But once she sticks her hands out and fumbles with the lock pick, that’s all scripted drama. There’s no reason to think the lock was legit and even needed to be picked open.
By “plaque” I was just referring to the small plate in the bottom right corner, which was the only part showing the song title. (Upon re-watching I also noticed the farm picture next to it.) I’m thinking those could have simply been on a scroll of some sort, that was programmed to roll to the appropriate point to display the correct prediction.
Entirely possible, The guys seemed convinced it was a force, but I’ve seen before that when they get fooled they can be way off base. I just gotta say I can’t spot anything to give it away, I think they would have examined the whole big thing he gave them carefully, but they didn’t actually show them doing that.
Without a force he would have had to prepare all those songs using Penn’s voice, but we’ve seen magicians go to great lengths with video tricks before. That’a not going to dissuade a magician who wants to fool P&T,
I think there is an air hose in there, utilizing the platform the barrel was on. She could breathe the entire time.
Why fill the barrel with wine; is it somehow more risky to be in a barrel full of wine than a barrel full of water? They play it off as though it makes the trick more dangerous and edgy, but by using a dark liquid she could have hidden all kinds of things in that barrel. I figured there was a scuba tank in there and she had all the air she needed.
There was also something sneaky about the way the chain was wrapped around her. It went around her waist and then up around her arms almost to the shoulder. I suspect that the way she was holding her arms was keeping the chain tight, then once she was in the barrel she could hunch her shoulders together and that would give her the slack to get out of the chains. Maybe that’s what the code words from P&T were about.
I don’t think the “hero” was code for anything. Think that they knew going in that a (non totally new) escape trick wasn’t going to fool P/T. This was a pretty standard barrel escape trick, so no fooling possible, I think. The long chain going multiple times around is pretty standard; easy to puff up and then sag when wriggling out (and not locking it to the two tightest links when attaching it too).
However, I agreed with the comments on their showmanship. It was the most affecting escape act I’ve seen (and I thought that before the Penn spiel). The assistant obviously caring about the magician was something that worked. Voice had the right amount of quaver and appearance showed the right amount of tension. Most escapes either have too much tension that’s obviously staged (showgirls gasping in horror with dramatic backlight) or none at all. This worked really well in my book.
That was the worst part of the trick for me. The dialogue was so obviously scripted (and recited as such) that I didn’t believe for a second that there was necessarily any emotional connection between the escape artist and her assistant.
Have to agree with that. The two women were both very pleasant with their scripted act, but I never for one second thought it felt genuine. I felt like the assistant could have put me in the barrel with the exact same emotions and comments. (But if she were putting me in the barrel, her panic at the end might have seemed more genuine.)
705 (7/20/20):
Telekinesis act (Guy Bavli): Super entertaining. I didn’t catch what popped the balloon. Was it a dart or some timed explosion? I’m guessing whatever she had on her wrist caused the sensations that he was poking her with his “third hand.” And the other objects must have been rigged to drop? So many variables.
The Spanish Mentalist (Javier Botia): There were a lot of hoops to jump through with this one. Picking five different colored cards (he took away orange, how many colors were left?), everybody selecting one of the five cards and putting it in an envelope, then shuffling them (what was the point?), and then positioning the three corresponding colors under the flag for the reveal. I guess P&T thought that all the envelopes already had cards in them, but it seems to me that he could probably see the shades of the cards through the thin envelope somehow.
“Twins” (B.S. Reddy): This seemed very amateurish and none of it really fit together thematically. The double-jointed rib gag was effective but completely random.
Blindfolded magic (Chad Allen): Obviously the secret made it that much more impressive, but I think the key to this was that he moved Teller’s card to the bottom of the deck so it was easier to stab with the knife.
In the P&T routine, what was in that yellow solution that was injected into the watermelon? I kept thinking it was probably toxic for her to eat.