Episode 7!
Ricardo Berdini: Pretty confident in saying that he was using cards that read differently up close as far away (the basic premise is that one word is very fine detail and one very blurry, and when you’re far away, you can read the blurry, but when up close, just the fine line. Like this: https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2015/04/03/14/einstein.jpg - I don’t think it’s lenticulars. If it was, you’d clearly notice SOMETHING with all the angles.
I’m confident I’ve seen this before with words. When he first raises the Enchantment card, I did a double take because I couldn’t quite read the word, If you freeze frame on it and keep looking away and looking back at the card, (at least for me), you’ll notice your eyes get confused and certain letter start looking ‘wrong’. If you let your eyes kind of go out of focus (think magic eye), you will see that the letters start to look like others. (the first “E” looks like an “F”). I can’t quite make out the word, but it’s clear that if you were up close, you can understand that someone could see a different word. This is obviously why he can’t have anyone stay anything through the trick, or the secret will be blown. Only thing I’m not sure of is what Penn said that should lead to the method.
Edit: It was the performance on AGT that was linked earlier that I’ve seen, although I do think I’ve see it with letters before in person where I’ve been able to see how it works. I think the patter on that one (making Howie unable to read by choosing a gibberish bunch of letters) was far more powerful and entertaining. They take far less care on how they hold the cards; so it’s clear that’s not lenticular. Someone posted this further example using actual words/letters: https://postimg.org/image/8glk7rr8h/ - move closer or farther to the image to see the effect. Or this one https://fiverr-res.cloudinary.com/t_gig_pdf_gallery_view_ver4,q_auto,f_auto/deliveries/52094749/original/just-for-fun_ws_1471293049.pdf
John Markson: Obviously just a stock routine, but I will admit I’m not entirely sure how exactly it’s done, but it’s just a simple vanish, so I’m not entirely interested. More interesting to me is the force on ‘france’. He is holding the plastic bag open in a very unusual and awkward hand position, so I assume that’s relevant. At first I thought his left hand was palming something, but perhaps the secret is that the plastic bag has two ‘compartments’ and during the shake, he adjusts his hands to open the one that is just 'france’s. Decent presentation skills. One thing I didn’t like was the ‘cassette’ FF warble used to scrub on an ‘app’. Takes me out of the conceit that this is really an app.
Onreij Psenicka…: Very quick trick. The trick has one of two methodologies; either the headphones are fed by an assistant who gives unique instructions every performance, or the headphones are fed with instructions on how to figure out which card was selected. I lean towards the latter. I don’t know what exactly Penn was suggesting was the method that was “not right”. The first option that occured to me is that the card is returned to the deck ‘upside down’ and is the only upside down card (something on the face of the cards, suggesting which was upside down), but given Penn controls the card, and could have put it back in either direction. It seems to risky to be a solution.
Glenn Morphew: Nice slight, but just slight. The Ace, I can see an opportunity or two for him to palm the Ace on his right and ‘remove’ it from his pocket (in his hand the whole time). For the two, he’s covering the centre spot on the 3 when he quickly shows it to the audience (a classic trick). The two was probably already put in his pocket with the Ace in the first load. For the 3, it’s a bit too obvious when he loads the 3 back into the pile before mushing it into his leg. He shows the 4-5-6, but the 3 is obviously hidden behind one of the cards; this move is to re-palm the 3 in his right hand. Not sure when he palms the 4; the hand appears empty after the ‘slow’ move. Perhaps when he purports to show just the 5 and 6. When he pulls the 5 from his back pocket, after purportedly putting the 5 and 6 into his right hand, the right hand is empty. He has palmed them both in his left - puts the arm behind him and pretends to retrieve the 5 from his back pocket. He either puts the 6 into his back pocket, or else it’s just sitting behind the 5 and he’s put it into the glass together with the 5. Perhaps I’m being misled and the moves aren’t where I think they are… but I think I’m pretty confident in this one.
P&T: A nice trick I’ve never seen before. I have to assume part of the trick has to do with the stalling Penn does with the porn name patter; presumably while the final reveal paper is prepared? The glass break sounded kind of pre-recorded/fishy, while the effort Teller went through to hammer seemed fake. I assume the jug may be a candy glass jug. I also assume the misdirection of the break is an opportunity to load the final reveal paper into the broken shards. Hidden in the hammer or teller’s gloves perhaps? Not entirely sure.