Penn and Teller (and Hannigan)'s first episode of season four is tonight on The CW, starting at 8:00 Eastern.
Thanks for starting this. Been watching since the UK series. I know they are repeating magicians nowadays, but I still enjoy the show a lot.
I enjoyed the season premier, but one thing that surprised me was that, even as a person who doesn’t know much about magic, other than the first act I don’t see how either the performers or the producers thought there was a chance that any of the other acts could fool Penn and Teller. So overall the program seemed to just be a showcase for good performances of standard tricks.
Richard Turner’s card manipulation was very impressive, but I assume mostly standard sleight-of-hand. My question is whether he won the trophy because Penn and Teller couldn’t figure out how to do standard tricks without ever seeing the cards.
Young & Strange’s comment that there is now a waiting list for performers was interesting, since Penn said that originally there was a lot of skepticism about the show by magicians. But given five years to prepare, why perform (quite well) a standard routine that had absolutely no chance of fooling Penn & Teller?
Kayla Drescher’s paper cutting routine, while charming, also had no chance of winning a trophy. I was impressed that Teller was able to participate without instructions, although this was also a sign that he was familiar with what was going to happen. Also, Alyson Hannigan seemed happy to have a rare opportunity to stare with another woman – I think she hugged Drescher twice.
Mike Super’s number prediction routine was also nicely done, and I have no idea how he did it, but I also recognized that it was based on a standard concept and there didn’t seem to be anything unusual about it that would fool Penn and Teller.
In the above comments, please replace “to stare with another woman” with “to share the stage with another woman”. Thank you
I don’t know what the protocol in this thread is for discussing tricks, so I’ll spoiler my mere speculation on how it was done.
Penn’s comments ended with “we really flipped our lid on this” - I assume that was his signal to Super that they knew how it was done, since Super’s manipulation when opening the box was a little more than deliberate. I’m guessing maybe a very small printer inside?
Aww, I thought this was some news about Alyson that I didn’t know about. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
I liked Richard Turner’s personality, but I wonder if P&T really knew what was happening (was it a simple deck swap?) and gave him the FU award just because of what a nice guy he is.
I remember Young & Strange from their earlier appearance; where else on TV have I seen them? (America’s Got Talent perhaps?) You could see the last stick jiggle even before he starts pulling it out. I was hoping it would be their missing female assistant in the box; that would have been a great trick.
Kayla Drescher’s heart trick was simply fun to watch. It was really sweet of Teller to play along.
Mike Super could have been done with audience plants, but I think that’s against the “rules” of the game. What Munch said in the spoiler box is a better explanation.
After watching this I recalled how much I enjoy this series. If you like P&T Midnight with Chris Hardwickon 7/12 had P&T as guests.
In another thread we gave up on spoilers after a while. Since it’s the first page of this thread maybe a good idea to use them for now.
I think you are right. He could have done it better if he had the tiny printer secreted somewhere under his clothes and only slipped the ticket into the box instead of the obvious manipulation of the box top to hide the printer.
The first act was fantastic. Teller was ready to give him the prize just from his first trick.
Not many acts have a chance of fooling the guys, there wouldn’t be much of a show if the producers limited it to only acts that were likely to fool them.
Slow motion didn’t seem to show any deck swap on this trick, and I figure P&T would have noticed that anyway, especially from up close. Perhaps he stashed the four kings before P&T shuffled half the deck each (being an excellent card mechanic, after all), and then just dealt those when he needed to? The odds of the other three faceup cards leading to a hand that could beat four kings would be miniscule, after all.
Possibly, maybe, they decided not to make a guess. But if they had actually seen anything he did I don’t think they’d give him a pass.
His second-deal is among the most amazing things I have ever seen. Remind me not to play poker with that dude. The four kings trick is figure-outtable in slowmo replay, but I don’t blame P&T for missing it close up in realtime.
Ah okay we have a new thread finally.
Richard Turner: no idea. fancy card trickery obviously
Young & Strange: it kinda annoys me that you can clearly see there is a giant bulge in the inner part of the box when they show it at the beginning which is hiding the pizza box. Penn has talked a lot about the barrel trick on his podcast (specifically the ones after he visited England a month ago) and how tight it is in there.
Kayla Drescher: loved this bit, even though the magic is relatively well known as P&T say. Still it really worked and is a really nice implementation of that bit
Mike Super: thought this was a meh trick honestly. the way he removes the lid from the box was kinda a big give away.
P&T: a classic from Penn and Teller’s Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.
Also P&T were on a recent This American Life talking about the red ball trick.
A couple more thoughts on Richard Turner. I’ve often read that one problem with scientists testing “psychics” is that they are unaware just how good a person skilled at sleight-of-hand can be. This shows that even completely blindfolding a highly proficient person may not be enough. Also, magicians regularly make videos recordings when they are learning a trick, to make sure there are no tells. Turner has to work out his routines without being able to do that.
So Mike Super was printing the ticket in his pocket the entire time and simply slipped it in the box when he turned it to open it?
Can anyone find a video showing how a “pocket printer” works? It’s neat.
Based on what Penn said, I think the printer is in the lid. Watch how he carefully never shows you the inside of the lid. My guess is that there is a small home-made device that just prints a few numbers. How it could work, I have no idea but a little poke around youtube tells me that people can make printers out of simple toys so I guess it’s just taking that principle and making it smaller. You only need to print a few numbers which makes it much simpler. Plus a simple wifi connection to get the numbers to the little device.
I also rewatched Richard Turner’s performance and here is how he does the tricks
For the first trick, with the cutting and shuffling, notice how he never actually squares the deck so the halves for the riffle shuffle are always the same. He also never cuts the cards and if you watch carefully the order is always the same. You can really see these when he does the moves one-handed.
The dealing with the 7 of hearts is just amazing. He tells you what he is doing but I can’t see it at all. Even knowing what to look for it’s just so well executed.
The third trick is rather simple. If you watch, when he deals Teller’s cards, he bottom deals. All he needs to do is get the kings to the bottom. Perhaps the kings are gimmicked? He does mess with the cards a bit before he deals.
Regardless, absolutely flawless execution. Completely fooled me the first time and only through watching it again (and in slow-mo) could I figure it out.
Hey fuckers! It’s good to be back. 
So I have to be the resident idiot and say that I thought all the tricks on last night’s program were great.
-
I think Richard Turner won it just for being blind. That’s freaking crazy. I couldn’t do that with two eyes. Everything was just so glossy and seamless in his hands.
-
No idea about the Young & Strange trick. Was the guy in the box the whole time? I didn’t get it. I know I’ve seen the blades through the box trick 1,000 times before, but the method is escaping me at the moment. It looked convincing.
-
I loved Kayla Drescher’s routine. She’s so sweet and the whole thing worked so nicely, it almost seemed rehearsed. Good thing Teller is so good at performing. But yeah, I’ve seen lots of variations on this trick before.
-
I guess the consensus is that Mike Super used some tiny printer to print off the numbers. That’s cool, I guess.
Rando comments:
Nice to see Alyson come back for another round. She’s really grown on me since the last season, although it would be nice for Wossy to come back (he’s too busy in merry ol’ England, of course).
Penn sheared his hair?! When did this happen? I don’t like how it looked so poofy.
I almost kinda prefer we stayed on the old thread (which I had bookmarked). This one was harder to find. Hopefully the rest of the guys find their way back here.
And yeah, I saw them on @midnight the other night. I was kinda hoping Teller would talk.
And here is the red ball trick if anyone wants to see it. It’s well done and is, as far as I understand, done with a thread. I don’t get how it works, though.
The Young & Strange trick - I’ve seen it done before, but this was a very good presentation. I don’t know how it is done, but I am guessing…
(are we spoilering?)
[spoiler]The outside person drives the dowel in just a short distance, the inside person grabs it and pulls it through the other side. As this is done, the outside person acts as if it is he doing the thrusting.
The inside person ends up with dowels all around him, probably contorting himself a bit to fit in between them. I imagine the box is more roomy than it appears.
That said, it must take a ton of rehearsal to get it right.
Anyone know if i am on the right track?[/spoiler]
mmm
Not exactly.
[spoiler]
No assistance is needed from the assistant but they made guide the stabby things to the right spot. Inside the box, the person knows where the next sword/dowel/pointy-thing is going to be put through and moves their body and limbs out of the way. When the traditional swords are used with pre-cut entry and exit points in a box the assistant may have to guide the sword to the exit hole. There’s usually plenty of room in the middle of the box, as well as along the sides and the bottom and top, until the last few things are driven through it. As in this case the magician may make it look like he has to force the last one through but that’s just a way to do it slowly and carefully when available space has been used up. Sometimes at the end you’ll get to see the person inside the box, they’ll look like they are entwined among the implements of impalement in way that would be impossible to do without getting stabbed but they moved into that position at the end. This is a dangerous trick, the assistance sometimes gets stabbed or cut accidentally.[/spoiler]
This is specifically how the Hans Moretti box is done? I thought that kind of box was different somehow.