Not from Fool Us, but from America’s Got Talent and an example of how not to film magic.
Here is Colin Cloud’s performance and at 2:00 you can see the reason why angles are important. You clearly see the piece of paper which gives away the force. It’s a neat trick, although they really, really push it too far with the video. Also I knew the ending within the first few seconds because no one I know writes numbers that way so it could only be an upside-down thing.
Glad that guy got eliminated. Worst mentalist I’ve ever seen. Can’t understand how he made it this far.
Wow, then he’s in the Guiness Book twice (see worst haircut).
mmm
Also he was on the British version of Fool Us where he does another mentalism trick. P&T bust him pretty easily.
As for how this trick is done, according to someone online who has purchased the trick, you have a list of things in your hand (hence the Teller palm thing) that the audience member reads and picks from. Honestly, I think it’s very insta stooge, but I guess because you are giving the audience member a few things to choose from it isn’t…
Liberty Larson: I like the banter and it is definitely inspired by P&T. As for the trick, it’s quite simple and she drops the piece of paper into her lap early on. Based on Penn’s suggestion, it sounds like she has someone under the table helping her out. Simply take the card, insert it into the ice, put it in the bag.
Jorge Blass: lots of things going on here. The chalkboard thing was easy to predict because it looked so flimsy and he moved them around in a strange way so I knew something was going to be behind it. The card from regular to green I dunno. The smoke hides something… maybe a switch in the table? the 7 of hearts is forced but honestly I have no idea how he gets her card to be under the frog. The switch to the jack of diamonds is easy to spot and the kissing thing is clear misdirection and you can see that the cards look really weird after that as they are concealing the frog. how the unfolding reveals the 7 of hearts I don’t know. I watched again to see if he does a switch of the paper frog but I can’t see anything. Maybe it’s a super gimmicked card where unfolding it leads to the given card?
Paul Gertner: the cups and balls. I like his version although there is nothing really to bust since if you’ve seen P&Ts version you know the basics and his is just a vast improvement. The coke can is compressible and has very little liquid in it. Watch him pour it out and you’ll see. Otherwise, magnificent sleight of hand and more to showcase skill and not meant to fool.
Sergio Starman: A fantastic presentation and an example of what I love about magic. It’s not magic for magic’s sake, but to tell a story that uses magic to enhance it. My favourite routine of the night. It is easy to see most of the sleight of hand moves and I’m wondering if the ring following off his finger was a mistake. It’s a half ring and you can sort of see that when it drops.
P&T: this a P&T trick I only saw for the first time on Fallon a few weeks ago. There are clips of it on some documentary about P&T and I think it was there opener for a while.
Overall a collection of well-performed and thought out tricks. What caught my eye most was the look of amazement on Teller’s face when Jorge Blass’ live frog appeared. I suspect up to that point he had been mentally checking off the earlier actions as routine, but the frog was a genuine “where did that come from??” moment for him.
Kevin Li has a short Youtube video reviewing his Fool Us experience. Interestingly, he wasn’t aware of the emotional effect his act had on Teller until after he left the stage. Very mature for 19–at that age my “act” would likely have consisted of falling into a fetal position and whimpering due to all the pressure.
I really liked like Jorge Blass’s bit - we’ve seen some acts that just pile pieces of tricks onto each other to try to overload P&T, like the one act with a bunch of people on stage that fooled them but they clearly didn’t like. But his routine felt like he was doing a lot of sensibly connected tricks with a mix of the obvious (jack of diamonds, prince from behind the board), unusual (card turning green) and surprising (the actual frog), and could appeal to a variety of audiences. I usually get annoyed with acts that string together too many reveals, but this one worked. The sound in Paul Gerner’s trick was a really nice touch, he wasn’t going to fool them but the ringing tones really added to the trick. I suspect he’s got a ring on his right hand to make the ringing sound when the ball is hidden. Haven’t watched Starman’s bit yet.
Very entertaining group last night. Liberty wasn’t doing anything special, there might have been someone under the table, she also had enough time rummaging around in that satchel to set things up. Blass was great. He must have had P&T really engrossed in the act, and they may have been overly certain that they knew what was going on because the opportunity to load the deck was obvious, when she was kissing the frog he was turned sideways and his left arm and hand holding the deck was totally obscured. Gertner did great with the cup and balls, obviously the coke can was collapsible, it had very little liquid in it and you could see the where the top and bottom parts overlap, but very entertaining. Starman was great, I didn’t see any of his moves as I watched it because it was so much fun just to look at him. He did remind of me of Slydini just as Penn mentioned.
I think Gertner and Starman were actually the most entertaining acts of the evening, nothing really to fool the guys, but just the opportunity to watch such talent makes the show worthwhile without the FU competition.
I know Penn says the water-bowl guy did one move they didn’t understand or know about, but I still think it was crappy to say he “fooled us”. They clearly knew how things were done and gave him an award as a legacy award. Legacy awards are not in the spirit of the show.
I think the spirit of the show is being diluted further with every episode. Having Penn repeatedly say, “Gee, that was an awesome act, just a fantastic performance of a very simple and old trick that even non-magicians know” isn’t the same as the show’s stated premise.
There’s nothing wrong with a show that showcases good magicians, but that’s not why I originally liked FU so much.
There are not that many magical engineers out there coming up with new tricks. For every Matthieu Bich with his very neat cards and every Kostya Kimalat with his unbelievable card trick, we have guys who are just good regular magicians.
Best FU episode in quite a while – four really fun, unique acts.
Liberty Larson’s trick had the least to it, but the presentation was nice and she was really charming. I hope to see her again.
Aside from the really awkward way he moved the chalkboards around at the beginning, I didn’t catch any of Jorge Blass’s moves. Great trick!
Paul Gertner’s twist on the cups & balls was great and very enteertaining. I don’t think there’s any way anybody can fool Penn & Teller with a cup & ball routine, but this was one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Some of Sergio Starman’s moves were a bit clumsy, and he even screwed up once, but I didn’t mind. It was a really nice bit that told a rather touching story. His demeanor afterward was a bit odd, though, and he seemed pissed when it was confirmed that he didn’t fool them. It could have been the language barrier like they said, but I dunno; something seemed off about the guy.
Anyhow, a really fun and entertaining hour of TV, P&T’s own bit included!
I suspect that there was a longer back and forth trying to get him to understand what they were saying than we were shown.
Given that they also gave the reward for the frog reveal, simply because they didn’t expect it, I feel like they might be revising their rules for giving a Fool Us trophy. It used to be, “Did you fool us?” Now it’s more, “Did you slip a move past us and ALSO give a good performance?”
So as long as they miss just one move, they’ll give the go-ahead. But if you did a slip a move past them, but you’re sort of crap, then they might not give the reward to you.
Penn said they didn’t see him load the frog, so it was more than not expecting it.
The guy with the water bowls impressed them, the guy with the frog surprised them, neither truly “fooled” them…I’ve long wondered if the premise of the show shouldn’t instead be something like “entertain us.”
The fact that they said, “We didn’t see you load the frog”, would seem to strongly imply that they know how he accomplished the magic. To wit: He loaded the frog.
They didn’t see it, but they know (and detailed in their description) exactly how he did it. That seems distant from, “We do not know how you performed this trick, and you fooled us.”
To echo the collective posts from this week’s… What an entertaining show. I was TRULY AMAZED with almost every act. (Though to tell you the truth… I had no idea what was going on with the guy who had the ring and the liquor bottle!) I don’t know where P&T FU fits in the weekly tv ratings… but everyone should be watching this along with AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, THE VOICE, THE BACHELOR, etc. I’d almost say P&T FU is the modern day equivalent of THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW. Where else are you going to see this kind of top entertainment on TV? Keep it up guys!
Penn did a recap of this week’s Fool Us on the upcoming Wednesday episode and there was nothing of note to report.
However he did answer the question: has anyone refused to come to Vegas to do a show? Apparently two acts have refused; Jibrizy and the guy from this season who did the trick with Alison that was rehearsed. Instead they opted for a cash prize instead which was instead a few thousands dollars.