# Penn & Teller: Fool Us, US run on CW **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2014, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015 "2014-08-07T07:25:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/201 "2015-07-16T19:06:17Z")
I’m starting to not like this format. It seems like it is turning into incorporating fake moves rather that fooling P&T with how the trick was done. Take DIngus and Dorkus. Yes I originally thought he passed the card off with the box like P&T thought but I was watching him closely with the misdirection of putting the helmet on Jonathan it is clear he puts the card behind the podium. Yeah I guess technically they fooled P&T but it still left me unsatisfied. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/202 "2015-07-16T19:20:48Z")
The finale of Shin Lim’s trick with the cards in the plastic bag was really, really good. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_Tightlips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@Joey\_Tightlips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_Tightlips)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/203 "2015-07-16T19:38:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The slate trick is usually done with an extra loose slate sitting over another slate in one of the frames. Bah, I should have known that! I had a similar effect in a magic set as a kid. It’s always so obvious after you know the secret. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/204 "2015-07-16T20:25:27Z")
> [@troub](#): > > EDIT: but he puts the chalk pieces in between the slates before he closes them up and hands them off. That’s throwing off my visualization now…Is there room in that frame for extra chalk pieces between the “middle” slate and the bottom slate, too? (For it not to look obviously like one of the slates is way thicker than it should be) Does he? Look at the video, the chalk that drops out comes from his hand. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/205 "2015-07-17T03:54:03Z")
The loose slate has already moved from its starting position to its finished position when he drops the chalk in. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/206 "2015-07-17T06:21:05Z")
> [@Joey\_Tightlips](#): > > Two parts in particular have me baffled. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the effect where a deck full of cards gets compressed down to a single card. You can kind of see where he has an opportunity to do a deck swap for what must be a gimmicked “non-deck”, but still, it’s a beautiful how it folds away to nothing. And then to have it come back in the other hand, wow. You can see the act of folding the gimmick, and he’s passed the deck to his other hand. > [@](#): > > The other part I don’t get is when he has his back to the audience. He clearly has the signed card in his right hand near his belt, but then without moving either hand, it suddenly appears in the other one?! The only thing I can think of is that he must have some apparatus in his clothing that can pull the card from his belt up through the sleeve of the other hand, but even in slo-mo, I caught nothing. Or else there are somehow TWO signed cards all along, but that just raises more questions. Kudos on a great routine. Force a card selection, and have a duplicate. I hadn’t considered copying the sig real time, but that makes sense. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just close enough to look right at a glimpse. > [@zombywoof](#): > > The Rubik’s cube guy in the Reddit AMA linked to above says [“Penn and Teller get only one guess… If they say I used a trick or gimmick cube essentially they lose. I did so many things to draw them in thinking it was a gimmick or trick cube.”](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3d5wlc/hi_im_steven_brundage_the_magician_who_fooled/ct25w8c) They have to have something to keep them from continuing to keep guessing, so I can see that. I guess that’s why Penn has to play word games to get a second option in. > [@](#): > > The big difference to me, though, is the end result - “Wow, I can’t tell AT ALL how they did that!” vs. “Oh, that was just a red herring? Meh…” Yeah, if the show just becomes how many fake moves can you pull, that will be less interesting. But the thing is, if these two were that bad, why didn’t Penn and Teller catch the fake out? How hard would it have been for Penn to watch the obvious, and Teller to look for the second option? Apparently they didn’t. They were truly fooled by Romy and Leon using the tools of magic against them. And it’s not like they threw a dozen tricks so if any one fooled them, they win. No, it was one trick. But P&T fell for the most obvious, and neither considered she was the decoy. > [@troub](#): > > I think when they said he wasn’t using a gimmick, it referred specifically to the “invisible touch” or “psychokinetic touch” trick, which is apparently sometimes done by rigging the chair. Yes, Penn was specifically talking about the invisible touch part, not the chalkboards. The slates use an extra panel between the boards. Notice he hands the first one to the lady, but doesn’t let go of the second one? I watched his hand and he’s securing the panel. He puts the panels together, then opens to drop in the chalk - that’s when he flips the panel. > [@ftg](#): > > The couple went the other way. Doing so many fake moves for getting the card off stage just hoping P&T couldn’t figure out which one is the right one. My guess is when the guy went over and got the hardhat. You can see his left hand with the deck dip below the stand. And since that stand was right next to where the skateboarder appeared … . Not much style or finesse or anything to recommend them. It wasn’t a lot of fake moves. They had a misdirection, but twisted it by using the normal misdirection as the actual move and the normal trick was the misdirection here. > [@TriPolar](#): > > With the drawing guy, a ‘thumper’ was used, simple enough with all the wireless electronics these days. But the guy was good at the core of the gimmick, entertaining the audience sufficiently with his patter that they don’t notice that he is telling the volunteer what to color in after he knows what the color is. If he really wanted to impress P&T he should have found a way to use the same color caps on all on the markers. But really he’s doing a comedy routine, the magic isn’t that important. But markers have different colors, and the audience expects it. That’s the point of the blindfold. Sure, with a thumper rigged to the caps, he could maybe get a way to do that, but I don’t think that would have made a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/207 "2015-07-17T11:18:12Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m starting to not like this format. It seems like it is turning into incorporating fake moves rather that fooling P&T with how the trick was done. Take DIngus and Dorkus. Yes I originally thought he passed the card off with the box like P&T thought but I was watching him closely with the misdirection of putting the helmet on Jonathan it is clear he puts the card behind the podium. Yeah I guess technically they fooled P&T but it still left me unsatisfied. I dunno. Too much of that kind of thing might be annoying, but I think we saw one person do it last season, and this is the first this season. It would be kinda silly to have a magicians not trying to be tricky in trying to fool other magicians. In anycase, its probably more fun not to take the “game” part of this show too seriously. (FWIW: I caught the pass behind the podium on the first viewing, and while I don’t think the camera was on skate-board guy when he actually retrieved it, it did show him off in the corner doing an exaggerated stretching routine that was obviously an excuse to get him close enough to the podium to pull the card off. So I was pretty surprised it fooled P&T, even with the misdirection. I think they must’ve decided that they knew how it was done early on, and stopped watching closely after that. ) ---
**Author:** ![notjezza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a6a055/32.png) [@notjezza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notjezza)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/208 "2015-07-18T03:06:26Z")
My theory on the drawing trick was that each pen had a motion sensor inside it that caused a receiver or receivers on the magicians body to vibrate as it was used. Hence why only one pen was ever in use at a time and the trick did not continue to the next pen until the current pen was dropped into the bin and isolated. Place a receiver tied to each pen colour on a different part of the body and this is an easy one to get right ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/209 "2015-07-18T03:18:17Z")
It was pretty bogus to hand a bag full of pens, several of the same color, and then ask the audience member to pick out any pen as long as they’re different colors. Why didn’t he just give him five pens? Or was to make it look like there might be more than five different color pens, even though we know that that would make the trick not work. BTW thank you to members who post here who help make watching the show interesting, especially watching the second time after reading this thread. I was really stumped about the “thumper” reference - I thought Penn was referencing Roger Rabbit, or perhaps Jessica Rabbit as the blow-up doll. I was _way_ off. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/210 "2015-07-18T13:33:55Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Or was to make it look like there might be more than five different color pens, even though we know that that would make the trick not work… I think thats the case. At a distance, the audience cant tell that theres only five colors in the bag. Of course this doesnt work as well on tv, since the camera zoomed in enough to make it clear that the bag had only five colors and the extra pens were just repeats. But the magician presumably designed the act for his stage show and didnt bother to adapt it for tv. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/211 "2015-07-18T16:50:39Z")
The skateboard couple were just flat out boring. Too many things going on. Blah blah blah. The guy with the “thumper”…I still enjoyed the trick, because I was tricked. It wasn’t so great after the secret was revealed (in this thread) but still if I was just in the audience I’d come home and be like “Wow great magician!” I liked his banter too. I was also fooled by the guy with the slates, although I did notice how he very obviously didn’t let go of the slate for the guy to erase. I think the guy was trying to yank it from his hands! I had never seen that trick before so the fake tap really got me. Fun! I thought Shin Lin was amazing! Great hands make me giggle with delight. (Hmm, that sounded naughty…) You just know there are thousands of hours of practice behind all that. Love it!! I watched Teller’s ball trick a second time, after reading the article. You can see that his right hand is misdirecting by “directing the ball” and his left hand makes the TINIEST movements every time the ball moves. But then he goes behind his back and it’s all much harder to follow. He makes it look so easy of course but reading that article about all the practice makes it so much more impressive. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/212 "2015-07-18T17:32:28Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I watched Teller’s ball trick a second time, after reading the article. You can see that his right hand is misdirecting by “directing the ball” and his left hand makes the TINIEST movements every time the ball moves. But then he goes behind his back and it’s all much harder to follow. He makes it look so easy of course but reading that article about all the practice makes it so much more impressive. > > I LOVE THIS SHOW!!! I’m curious about the Red Ball. This appears to operate like a classic routine usually done with a silk (handkerchief). That would have been done with a pair of expert pullers off stage on either side. He may have a thread run around a pulley so he can control the movements himself, just not sure, but I think he would prefer not to use offstage assistants. I’m not sure it’s done with a thread either, though I have no idea how else it could be done without obvious give-aways in the ball’s movement. The dazzling curtain is definitely a sign of a thread in use. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/213 "2015-07-18T18:06:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m curious about the Red Ball. This appears to operate like a classic routine usually done with a silk (handkerchief). That would have been done with a pair of expert pullers off stage on either side. He may have a thread run around a pulley so he can control the movements himself, just not sure, but I think he would prefer not to use offstage assistants. I’m not sure it’s done with a thread either, though I have no idea how else it could be done without obvious give-aways in the ball’s movement. The dazzling curtain is definitely a sign of a thread in use. I believe the thread runs from Teller, somewhere on the upper part of his body, to offstage with the ball in the middle. The mystery is how it goes unnoticed by the person in the audience who examines it at the beginning. Or maybe it doesn’t. Penn tells us at the top that a thread is used, so the audience member wouldn’t think anything of it. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/214 "2015-07-21T03:25:39Z")
Watched tonights run. Brian Brushwood did the money trick. He’s the only one that verifies the serial number at the end. I’m curious how he got the name on the bill, but it’s significant that he doesn’t let anyone check the bill. The psychic surgery bit is fine as a stage act, lousy when scammers do it. Seems like his handling was poor, too easy to see he isn’t reaching inside, there’s no opening. I wonder if someone backstage prepped that bill with the name. Simon Pierro, the digital magician. Entertaining act with an ipad. Good sleight of hand. I think the tennis ball is a foam fake. The beer tap he slips and shows the end of the handle, it looks hollow. I think he has a hose in the top. Look how he stands up against that stand, and his arm placement. The one that was pretty tricky was the final bit with the selfie ending up a photo. My guess - he’s got a printer in the box that feeds in the frame, and the black slide that pops up when triggered. It prints while he’s walking back up on stage, so it’s ready when he displays. Love that Penn and Teller saw his act 3 weeks ago and figured it out since then. Handsome Jack, don’t care for his schtick. Pretty gimmicky, though the grapler is amusing. Surprised P&T declared themselves fooled. Seems obvious he folds and palms the bits behind the full one he restores and hands to Teller. I don’t see how they missed it. He fans the bits, transfers hands, then pulls the folded handbill in front. He does a fold behind, opens the handbill. I think he tucks them into his palm, hands off the playbill, then dumps when putting back on his coat. I guess the handling was so smooth? Kyle Knight and Mistie, seems rather obvious. The rings connect with one post into the backbeam, so she rotates the rings and slides through the gap. The first outfit is black and shiny, which matches the curtain and is easy to hide. Dress under loose pantsuit, quick change. I don’t know how they do the bullet catch trick. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/215 "2015-07-21T04:34:39Z")
I think you are right on these, but I wonder if Mistie’s rings slide up when they raise the curtain. The husband handled the right side of the rig so it’d be easy for him to grab on the rings. I saw the bullet trick in person years ago. I don’t know how they do it, but I almost don’t want to know either. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/216 "2015-07-21T04:47:25Z")
Looking forward to watching their bullet catch trick - I _think_ I remember hearing Penn in an interview somewhere say they didn’t do it in the UK due to the hassles that would be involved with importing the guns etc. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/217 "2015-07-21T05:22:17Z")
OK, so I dont _know_ exactly how they do the ‘Magic Bullet Trick’ (which, interestingly, is never referred to as the Bullet _Catch_ trick), but I’ll bet I’ve got a pretty good idea how it’s accomplished. Here’s two clues. 1) ask yourself why the glass plate and the padded backdrop couldn’t already be in position before the trick even began, and 2) why are they putting on bullet-proof vests? ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/218 "2015-07-21T11:53:30Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > The one that was pretty tricky was the final bit with the selfie ending up a photo. > > Love that Penn and Teller saw his act 3 weeks ago and figured it out since then I DVR’ed it and if you look, there is a guy in a red striped shirt behind them when he takes the selfie. He even throws his hands up so he is obvious. If you look at the photo then in the trick that guy isn’t there. My guess is the girls are plants and he has a photo already taken with those girls. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/219 "2015-07-21T14:52:38Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > I believe the thread runs from Teller, somewhere on the upper part of his body, to offstage with the ball in the middle. The mystery is how it goes unnoticed by the person in the audience who examines it at the beginning. Or maybe it doesn’t. Penn tells us at the top that a thread is used, so the audience member wouldn’t think anything of it. The thread doesn’t need to be attached when the audience member checks it out. I think he attaches the thread when he puts the ball on the bench. I think the ball is too heavy to make it bounce and rise with just a thread attached to Teller, it must be attached high up somewhere off stage, if not in the hands of a puller. Teller also may have some kind of winding device on him, he makes some odd movements during the routine that may be activating or loading some kind of device to pull and release the thread, see the use of a grappler on last night’s show. Speaking of the show, P&T once again made too specific a guess with Handsome Jack. They knew how he did it, they just assumed he had a single piece torn up handbill, but he clearly showed multiple pieces, one of them being the untorn handbill. Once again just a small variation from the standard routine. The video guy was mildly entertaining, but it’s just video tricks. The selfie is a composite, his picture overlaid on an image of the audience members prepared beforehand, so he doesn’t need a printer to pull it off, though that’s a possible way to do it. I saw a similar routine on TV recently, the magician pulled something obviously printed out of a box, then lifted up the box to reveal the printer, then crushed the printer with his hand because it was only made out of paper. Dollar bill guy was entertaining, but as he demonstrated, he wasn’t going to let anyone see the bill when it was over. The rings could be done several ways, but I assume the simplest is to allow two of the rings to tilt leaving plenty of room for a lovely assistant to slip through. You can even see that the rings are not quite aligned and may have moved somewhat during the trick. You can also see the girl duck down before the curtain is all the way up. Jonathon Ross is quite tall so he probably got a glimpse of it over the top of the curtain. Now I have a chance to go back and watch the bullet catch in slo-mo. I’m pretty sure I know how it’s done, but now I can see if I’m wrong. P&T are damned good, I’m never sure if I really know what they’ve done. They put in the effort to try and fool other magicians. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/220 "2015-07-21T15:44:19Z")
My first re-examination of the bullet catch shows what I was looking for. I have to check it carefully now to determine the hand-off, but it happens sooner than you might think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015.md?page=12)