# 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:** 15
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/281 "2015-08-05T21:28:45Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [And how does John Archer do this neat card trick?](https://youtu.be/i2Dpzt5BJQE?t=60) > [@BigT](#): > > That I do not know. He had to have forced the cards, making it where they had to choose those cards, but I don’t know how he did it. I can’t think of anything that would not leave some people getting the same card. :smack: I’m an idiot. I saw this thread again, started thinking about this again, and it came to me like a flash. The all chose the same card, which was done by making sure the cards only opened to one specific spot. The rubber band would keep you from realizing the others were stuck together–even if only slightly. Essentially, you have a breather card. (Less likely would be a bunch of duplicate cards, with the rubber band to keep you from looking at the other cards. Thing is, it would only take one crafty person to notice.) Since no one else knows what the other person’s card is, he can just give the real card and a couple fakes, and everyone thinks he got all of them. If, for some reason, one person got the wrong card, it still looks pretty good. As for that shuffling at the beginning, I didn’t see it for certain, but I suspect he switched the decks. The main reason is because he’s clearly holding more than a full deck’s worth when he calls Shawn up there, and we see him put something down. (In fact, it looks to me like he took Shawn’s cards and then put them down on the table, and then just used the other cards in his hands. But surely it wasn’t that simple…) ---
**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:** [August 7, 2015, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/282 "2015-08-07T06:24:00Z")
Question: An index was mentioned twice. What is that? ---
**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:** [August 7, 2015, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/283 "2015-08-07T06:56:26Z")
A card index is sort of like the stacked credit card slots in a wallet. It gets loaded with cards and they’re all held a little apart. Magicians learn to pull a selected card out of the index with a quick smooth or hidden move. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/284 "2015-08-08T03:28:30Z")
More generally, then, an index would be a set of all possible answers arranged such that the magician can quickly find and pull the correct one surreptitiously. For the phone book, it would be a duplicate with all pages separated and held in some manner to quickly thumb through. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/285 "2015-08-10T15:28:48Z")
Regarding the guy with the markers. He likely was using this: > **[ColorMatch](https://promystic.com/products/colormatch)** > > ColorMatch is the classic that never gets old – and, when performed with our copyrighted Picasso routine (yes, that one) – it can close any show and make your audiences get on their feet. A volunteer colors in a black-and-white picture, freely... I think the way it works, and which someone has already suggested in this thread, is that the markers contain accelerometers and transmitters. When a marker detects that it is being moved it sends some number of vibrations to the Thumper device that is being worn by the performer. Different numbers of vibrations indicate different colors. Note that the sales page mentions 5 “MagTags” and the performer used 5 markers. In this day and age of miniaturized electronics, a lot of mentalism loses it’s impact because it’s easy to see how it can be done with electronics. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/286 "2015-08-10T15:41:10Z")
Regarding the woman mentalist: Penn mentioned that she used a “center peek” for the magic square trick. Here’s a video explaining it. Recall that she drew a “psychic circle” in the center of the paper and had Penn write his number in it. As others have said, filling in the square is just a matter of mathematics. Duplicating the drawing could have been done electronically. The pad that Teller drew on could have had a touch sensitive screen which transmitted the image, maybe to her watch or a small screen someplace like on the edge of the table. Alternatively, the marker she had Teller use could have had a motion sensor that is triggered by pressure on the tip. The motion is transmitted and then used to reconstruct the image. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/287 "2015-08-10T15:44:28Z")
If you like open discussions about how tricks are done, the “Secrets of Magic” forum is an interesting place. [http://www.somfv3.com/secretforums/](http://www.somfv3.com/secretforums/) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/288 "2015-08-10T20:48:47Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Duplicating the drawing could have been done electronically. The pad that Teller drew on could have had a touch sensitive screen which transmitted the image, maybe to her watch or a small screen someplace like on the edge of the table. Looking up the link on the markers lead to this: > **[Mentalism](https://promystic.com/collections/mentalism)** > > Promystic offers a range of cutting-edge mentalism products that work together as a Modular System. Once you own a product with the Promystic Receiver, you can add additional products that are compatible with the receiver. This saves you time and... The description on the markers also says something about using them for drawing duplication. So yes, that’s two methods, but judging by the pad, I’m going with the first. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/289 "2015-08-10T21:02:29Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Looking up the link on the markers lead to this: > > [Mentalism – ProMystic](http://www.promystic.com/product/parapad-set-3-x-5-size/) > > The description on the markers also says something about using them for drawing duplication. So yes, that’s two methods, but judging by the pad, I’m going with the first. I don’t think that pad is electronic, it simply retains an impression from the pressure of the marker and the performer can then peek at the impression at an opportune moment. Of course, that requires the performer getting hold of the pad. I’m not sure if she took the pad back from Teller before duplicating his drawing or not. I’d have to look at the video again. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/290 "2015-08-10T21:13:57Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I’m not sure if she took the pad back from Teller before duplicating his drawing or not. I’d have to look at the video again. I’m not certain if she touched it, and camera editing is a bitch on the show, but I did notice the notepad does change between when Penn gets up from the table and she has Teller stand. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/291 "2015-08-11T07:46:01Z")
New show, “Now THAT’s Bunny!”. First contestant, Jay Sankey. He does a series of tricks with cards and a candle. Rising card from a box of cards - you can see his thumb motion. Next, he places a dollar bill between two cards, staple through, then quickly removes the dollar while the cards are stapled. Penn says something about seeing some larceny that allows him to do the trick. What I do notice is that Jay retains hold on the cards and dollar bill while he has Jonathan check the staple. He’s careful in how he holds the set. Rewatching I think I finally see the move, so here’s my guess. His queen of clubs is pre-stapled to a seven of diamonds, and he has a second 7. He puts the pair under the single 7, carefully slides the dollar between the pair and the top 7, uses an empty stapler. Then when Jonathan walks over to his right, he slips the top 7 onto the top of the deck as he sets it down. The camera and Jonathan are only shown the side with the queen, Jonathan feels the staple but doesn’t see the back side. Then a quick pull to slide the bill, and the cards are stapled and the dollar is not damaged. What was throwing me was when he pulls the top card, but I finally saw where it had to be. Next he separates the cards and removes the staple. Then he folds the cards together and tears them into quarters. A simple palm in his right hand (his two lower fingers are closed while only using first two fingers for folding and tearing) in a pair that is folded and not torn, and he ditches the torn pieces into his collar while rubbing his arm hair. Final trick uses a sparkler. He forces Jonathan to select the Jack of Spades, then he uses the sparkler and pushes it through the deck and burns through a slot through all the cards but the Jack. The Jack is on top, masking the gash, when he pulls the jack off, the gash is revealed. Good job masking. But no fooling. Second up: Greg Wilson. Greg is a second generation magician, whose parents are famous from the 60s and 70s - Mark Wilson and Nani Darnell. He uses a hell of a lot of stage smoke. This appears to be a case where Penn and Teller award him for his heritage, not for anything he actually does. He had a large plexiglas box and puts swords through with the lady inside - kinda Penn and Tellerish that we see into the box as it’s done. Then he has the box wheeled backwards into a larger draped box with curtains. Pop inside the curtains, quick change, the girl is out and it appears he’s in the box with the handkerchief he had Penn sign. Except, they open the box, it’s someone else in a wig, he pops up in the audience, but then he runs back on stage to reveal the handkerchief with his father and mother. Penn and Teller were apparently surprised with the parents’ reveal. The thing is, this is the second time a second generation magician has pulled his famous magician parents into the surprise reveal, so that shouldn’t be a big surprise. Oh well. Trigg Watson, young guy using his Ipad. First trick, he makes a flower and vase appear behind his Ipad in the camera, and then pulls aside the Ipad to reveal a real flower and vase. Seems fairly obvious he uses a prepared video - he is slightly out of synch a couple times, and when revealing the flower, has a slight hangup that makes the vase wiggle out alignment. Oops. Then he uses a big display board with cards representing the apps. He has Jonathan come over, blindfolds Jonathan, selects the clock app and places it on a stand, has Jonathan select a random app from a stack of cards that he shows us are all clocks. Immediately I knew something had to be up, because that’s not an impressive magic act from our standpoint. So of course, even though it looked like all options were clock, he ends up selecting Angry Birds. And then the surprise reveal, the “Clock” card on the stand is shown to now be Angry Birds. And for bonus, his shirt under his jacket has become an Angry Birds T-shirt. The quick change was a surprise. Angry Birds was a nice tie back to the first Ipad gimmick where it opened to an Angry Birds game. Fairly obvious what was done and when. Fourth up, Jen Kramer. She went to Yale University. She spreads a deck and has Jonathan confirm it’s random, then gives him instructions to follow. She splits the deck and lets him pick one half. She shuffles his half, then she turns around and fans her half, and has him fan his half and select any one of the cards. She turns back around, puts the two halves together, does a little shuffle, then has him slowly deal one card at a time from his stack to her hand. She has him ID his card (8 of diamonds), then deal off the cards and the third card she has stop, and viola, it’s the 8 of diamonds. Penn praises her for her trick being largely a mind trick, though her card work is a little sloppy. I suspect she splits the deck, then looks at her half and while her back is turned, swaps in a stack that matches the half of cards that Jonathan has but are in a set order that she has memorized. So when she puts the stacks together, she does a false shuffle to get her primed stack on top, and then he ID’s the card, she just counts down to the correct card. No fooling. I notice Penn avoided the words “false shuffle”. 😉 Finally, it’s Penn and Teller pulling a rabbit out of a hat. They talk about how it’s the cliche trick, a practical symbol for magician to pull a rabbit out of a top hat, but they’ve never seen it done. So they go on to get someone from the audience to inspect Penn’s top hat so they can get a hat from an audience member. And it’s a plain unrigged top hat. Then Teller demonstrates a similar trick using a silk (handkerchief) with a top hat on it, and pulls out a small bunny like thing that’s actually a puppet, a “kicker”. After that and a lecture on why it’s hard to do the trick, they pull up the volunteer and hat, pull out a magic wand, and “poof”, there’s a real live rabbit produced in the top hat. Okay, a couple things. First, Teller isn’t completely clean with the production, though I had a clue because I just saw them do this trick last night on The Tonight Show for Jimmy Fallon. There he was less clean, but it was covered better by unexpected timing when the wand was produced. I was expecting Penn to poke the wand around inside the hat, but that didn’t happen. Anyway, if you watch, there’s a slight glimpse of sleeve from Teller’s coat as he loads the bunny. The other amusing point: during the set up video for this episode, Greg Wilson actually does the rabbit from a hat, followed by swapping the hat to a smaller had and then the rabbit to a larger rabbit. DOH! ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/292 "2015-08-11T14:57:30Z")
Regarding Jen Kramer: I had this figured out before P&T said anything and what they said confirmed it for me. **Irishman** is close except I don’t think she swapped anything. I think what happens is that she starts with 2 half decks, each containing the same 26 cards in the same memorized order, or possibly 2 different memorized orders. I say “memorized” but it’s more likely the order fits with some algorithm or algorithms she uses. When she cuts the deck the top card of the bottom half is probably a short or corner short card allowing her to cleanly seperate the two halfs in a casual seemingly random manner. The host can then of course shuffle his half all he wants since at this point the only thing that matters is the order of her half. When the deck is put back together she does a sort of false shuffle where she doesn’t disturb the order of the ordered half and ends up with that on top. Then, once he tells her the chosen card, it’s simply a matter of using the algorithm or memorized order to tell how far down in the deck she has to go. If you watch her face and her eyes you can see there’s some mental processing going on as she counts through the deck. In this case it happened to be only 3 cards down so she made the remark about it being “quick but good while it lasted”. She probably has different lines memorized depending on how far down the card is. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/293 "2015-08-11T15:06:35Z")
Regarding Greg Wilson: I don’t know the exact method or construction of his sword box, but I will say that while the audience may have been impressed by having a third person appear in the box and Wilson appearing in the audience, this actually makes the trick less impressive since there’s more time to do the switch then there would be if Wilson had ended up in the box. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/294 "2015-08-11T15:29:50Z")
While Greg Wilson made a production of locking the sword box top with two padlocks, when they opened it afterward they lifted it straight up, indicating the back edge wasn’t even hinged. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/295 "2015-08-11T15:48:59Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > While Greg Wilson made a production of locking the sword box top with two padlocks, when they opened it afterward they lifted it straight up, indicating the back edge wasn’t even hinged. Good catch. I didn’t notice that. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/296 "2015-08-11T16:23:35Z")
The Wilson trick was just a performance to bring out his dad. A similar thing was done for the finale of the British show. I don’t think the point was to fool P&T and they were being gracious to say they were fooled (although they may even have suspected the old switcheroo because of the British show). Great to see Mark Wilson come out, The Magic Land of Allakazam was one of my favorite shows as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/297 "2015-08-12T00:21:33Z")
FYI: CW has ordered another season of Penn & Teller: Fool Us ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/298 "2015-08-12T00:36:43Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > While Greg Wilson made a production of locking the sword box top with two padlocks, when they opened it afterward they lifted it straight up, indicating the back edge wasn’t even hinged. No they lifted it straight up at the beginning when the assistant got into the box. Then the assistants fasten two locks in the front, and Wilson fastened two locks in the back. At the end of the trick, they removed four locks, and lifted the lid. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/299 "2015-08-12T01:29:14Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > **Irishman** is close except I don’t think she swapped anything. I think what happens is that she starts with 2 half decks, each containing the same 26 cards in the same memorized order, or possibly 2 different memorized orders. I was thinking along these lines - but if you watch again (in high def with the ability to freeze the video) you can see when she spreads the entire deck out on the table and when she and Jonathan fan out their half decks for the camera that there are no duplicate cards. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015/300 "2015-08-12T01:34:13Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > FYI: CW has ordered another season of Penn & Teller: Fool Us Great news! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-teller-fool-us-us-run-on-cw/695015.md?page=16)