Catching up with the write up, for consistency.
This week: Water Tanks for the Memories
First Up: Lee Hathaway
Lee starts with six decks of cards and has an audience member select one of the decks. He then gives the audience member the rest of the decks to inspect later. (This should preclude the use of trick decks or arranged decks.) There’s no falderol about this one or that one, or pick one blah blah, just holds up the stack of decks and the guy in the audience pulls one out.
Lee explains that he is going to do his trick without touching the cards, and with his back turned. Another reason for turning his back, he explains, is that he has had his back modified with a special “stomach entering device”, and he turns around to show us a hatch on the back of his coat labeled as above.
One note here: the camera does a close up of his back to show us the hatch and how it is labeled. This is unfortunate, as it obscures what he is doing. It is just possible to see that at one point he pulls his arms in and has both hands and the deck of cards in front of his body away from the audience, and holds this for about 3 seconds. This would be the time I would think he swaps decks of cards, which is, I assume, why Penn and Teller think he did so as well.
Lee explains that he has a “mind-reading stomach”, and that after the cards are inserted, he will read the mind of the volunteer and then regurgitate the card. If that doesn’t happen, he has a back up plan, but it is messy, if you know what I mean. The suggestion is that it uses the other end of his digestive tract.
Teller then selects a woman from the audience. Lee tells the assistant to cut the deck, look at the card and show the audience, and then there will be further instructions. He demonstrates cutting the deck and shows us the 9 of spades. Then he returns the stack and turns his back. He turns around and the assistant cuts the deck and shows us the 10 of spades. Put the stack back, then pick up the deck, give them a quick shuffle, and open the hatch. (She does a little Vanna White guesture.) Put a few cards in. A few more. Now the rest of the deck, and close the hatch.
A comment here: There are two large TV screens on the sides of the stage, presumably for showing the close up card work and such to the audience. It is not shown was is displayed on the screens during this part of the trick - I would expect the camera view of the card to show which one was selected. My observation: can he see these screens?
Lee attempts to regurgitate the card. He has the audience clap as he tries to cough it up. He’s having trouble, so he turns around, opens his shirt to expose his belly, and takes a knife and cuts into his belly, spilling blood and guts on the stage. He reaches into his belly and pulls out a card, which is the 10 of Spades - her card.
Penn and Teller deliberate, then they ask to approach. He says yes, they walk up on stage, study his belly, and Penn says, “We think these guts are fake.” Penn then says, “By the way, when you cut the cards, you gave it away.” Lee asks them to explain.
Penn says that when he walked up on stage, he turned his back, and when one turns one’s back, that’s a really good time to do sneaky stuff, like “ring in a cooler”. Lee says that he doesn’t do anything when he turns his back. Penn says, “If he did not do a deck switch when his back was turned, then you… have… fooled… us.”
Lee goes on about how he designed the trick knowing what they would expect with the decks and he was very genuine, and then is practically giddy about wanting to tell them how the trick is done. The host says, “You must never tell them.” Har har.
Second up: Jack Taperell
He’s a 14 year old kid. Jack invites Penn and Teller to be his assistants, and brings them up to a card table on stage. He explains their actions. Penn is to cut the cards without revealing any card to anyone. Then Jack explains Teller is going to deal out cards on the table. Then he has Penn cut the cards and look at this card but don’t show anyone. Then cut the cards again so Jack can’t know where it is. Penn says, “It’s so hard to do this fair, I’m so used to cheating that move.”
Jack hands the deck to Teller, and has Teller begin taking each card off the top of the deck and setting it aside. He will continue this one at a time until Jack tells him to stop.
Then Jack has Penn start concentrating on the card, saying it over and over in his mind. Jack tells him to put his head up, guesses it’s a high card and says he reads on Penn’s face he’s right. He moves on to a “cork” card, then goes “Jack Queen King” a couple times, before dialing in to Queen. He then swaps between black and red, asks if Penn is having trouble with that (“a little bit, yes”) and then says black. He then turns and tells Teller to stop dealing and place the next card aside on the table face down. Then he returns to Penn with clubs or spades. He concentrates, says “I’m going to take a gamble on this, so, clubs…- no, spades. Queen of spades.” Penn says correct.
Then Jack picks up the card Teller dealt down two, holding it in two fingers, and does a quick flip to reveal the Queen of Spades.
Penn starts with a compliment about how he came out and started trembling, but then was able to pull it together and do the moves. Penn then asks if he had free choice for whom to use, and yes, he could have picked anyone from the audience and picked Penn and Teller. Penn says, “If you had picked anyone else from the audience who isn’t a professional magician, you would have gotten away with it.” Penn then says that they saw every move he made, but only because they knew what the moves were before he did, and also, there is a place on the set that he could look that would give away part of the trick, but he didn’t want to do that, so “you didn’t quite fool us, but you fooled everyone else, and I doubt there’s anyone at home that even knew”.
Act III: Laura London
She comes out and says she’s looking for a man with a little something special… a 20 pound note. Then she has Jonathan Ross come over with his note. She takes the bill, then tears off one end with serial numbers on it, hands that bit to him, and folds up the rest of the bill, puts it in an envelope, sets the envelope on fire, and burns it up. Places it in a glass jar.
She has her glamorous assistant, Frank, bring out a bunch of lemons and pour them on the table. She selects one, then reaches down behind the table and pulls out a knife. She cuts the lemon and squeezes it to show it is a normal lemon. She then has Jonathan select a lemon at random. Then she takes the lemon and cuts around to open it up, and then reveals that inside is an egg (a brown egg). She has Jonathan shake it and he says it sounds like a normal egg, she pulls out a glass. She takes the egg, breaks it open into the glass, and out falls… a walnut.
She asks if he has anything to crack his nut. Jonathan says, “No, my nutcracker is at home. I can call her if you want.” She brings out a huge mallet and a cutting board, places the walnut on the board, and has Jonathan smack it with the mallet, which reveals inside… a piece of paper. It is the 20 pound note, and she then has him compare serial numbers with the original piece to show they are the same.
While Penn and Teller deliberate, Laura admits it’s an old trick, but she added her own spin. Penn says it is great to see a woman doing magic, and she’s making it harder by her outfit, where she can’t do things under the coat or up the sleeves. Penn then comments that she is hurt a bit because that is a trick that they did back when they were street performers. But he compliments her additions, like the free choice of the lemon. “Because we’ve done the trick, you didn’t fool us.”
This week, instead of a fourth act, it goes straight to Penn and Teller’s performance. This is a lengthy trick, which is why it’s only three performers this week.
Penn walks out on stage. He says that he’s going to do a card trick, and picks an assistant (Sara?) and asks her if she knows how to use a stop watch. He tells her that he needs a readout every 30 seconds. He then gets another volunteer, Dan. (He says “Dahn” - stupid vowels.) Penn pulls out a deck of cards, says he’s going to do a card trick, but to give the human beings in the back of the room something to look at while he does the trick, he has Dan go pick up a scuba tank at the back of the stage and drag it slowly forward. As Dan pulls the tank, a screen opens to reveal a water tank with Teller in it, breathing from the tank. Assistants move the tank toward the center of the stage.
Penn starts explaining that Teller will be holding his breath. He’s not at the moment, as you can see by the regulator and the air bubbles, he’s breathing fairly comfortably “except I’m stepping on his air hose”. Teller is holding his hands out the top of the tank with a lock and a key with a large keychain that says “Teller”. Penn has Dan go over and take the lock and secure the top of the tank with the lock.
“The world’s record for holding one’s breath on purpose is five minutes and thirty five seconds, and is held, like so many records, by the great Harry Houdini.” (Note, the other performance linked says the record is four minutes and 37 seconds, held by Harry Houdini. How did Harry Houdini up his record in between those performances? 
)
Penn has Dan go over and pull the regulator and hose out of the tank, and Sara begin the stopwatch. He has Dan take the tank and regulator across the stage to the stagehand, and Dan gets caught up piddling around with the regulator, while Penn and Teller are motioning to hurry up.
Penn starts explaining he has a new unopened deck of cards when Sara calls out 30 seconds, and he tells her nicely done. Then he continues, he has Dan verify the shrink wrap is real, open the shrink wrap. Dan struggles. Penn pulls out a knife, Dan still struggles. “Don’t stab it through the cards.” Teller’s pathetic look is pretty amusing.
Another time call out, Dan gets the deck open, pull them out and throw the deck on the floor, throw the jokers and ad cards aside. Give the cards a shuffle. “Take your time shuffling, unless you have a shred of human decency anywhere in your soul.” Time call out 2:00.
Penn shows his hands are empty, takes the deck and fans it out, has Dan select a card but do not let him see it. Dan selects a card, Penn takes the rest of the deck and turns his back. Dan shows off the card, Queen of hearts. Penn gives him a pen, write your name on the face of the card. Show the audience the card with name. Now put it back in the deck, and Penn gives it a shuffle.
Penn takes the deck, starts counting cards into Dan’s hand “Dan L. Ali”. Shows off the next card, a 2 of clubs. No, not the right card. Pitch cards, begin counting again. Not the right card. Pitch more cards. Penn pulls an envelope out of his pocket, sealed, with “noon today” written on it. Says for Dan to open the envelope, display the card, say “Yes, Penn, that’s my card” and then Teller will hand Penn the key to open the top and let Teller out. 5 minute call out.
Dan pulls out a card, but it isn’t the right card.
And we have a commercial break. :eek: Yep, right in the middle of a timed act.
Show comes back and gives a recap of what’s happening so anyone who tuned in during the commercial break isn’t lost. Card trick, Teller holding breath, blah blah blah, Penn’s holding the key with Teller, but it’s not the right card, they give each other scared looks, Penn goes back over to Dan.
5:30 callout. Penn counts Mississippis and tells Teller, “Congratulations, you just broke Houdini’s record.” Penn says he palmed off the wrong card, goes over to get the key from Teller, but Teller pulls the key into the tank and won’t hand it over because of honor or whatever. Penn starts a rush job of dealing cards off looking for the special card, pitching the remains. Not finding it. Not finding it. Teller is getting impatient. Teller throws the key at Penn.
Penn resorts to having him and Dan search all the discarded cards on the floor. Teller turns around facing the back of the stage. Penn starts panicking and telling Dan to grab the key and let Teller out, but of course Dan is slow on the uptake. Dan gets the key, goes to the lock, but it won’t open. “Jiggle it, it’s a copy!” “7:26? Yeah, screw it, Dan, he’s braindead.”
Penn comes over, jiggles it a bit, then pronounces it the wrong key. “There’s a rule in circus, whenever someone is attempting a dangerous stunt, they themselves are responsible for their own rigging… So it’s clearly Teller’s responsibility to make sure this was the right key. And I don’t think there’s a court in the world that could blame you, Dan, even though it’s recorded on television you locking him in and taking away his only air supply.” Then Penn hands Dan the key. “8 minutes 30.” “Thank you.”
Penn comes to the front, assumes a solemn pose, “I would like to dedicate all my future performances to being titled simply ‘Penn’ to the memory of this great man.” He goes over to turn Teller around so we can gaze on his face one more time, “and is that your card?” The signed Queen of hearts is on Teller’s face mask inside the tank.
Applause, Dan and Sara return to their seats, Penn has a stagehand bring him a bottle of water. Another stagehand comes out to mop up the water. Someone yells “Let him out.” Penn triggers the stopwatch off. He walks over to the tank. “That was amazing. You would have loved this. Ten minutes and thirty one seconds, 10 minutes and 31 seconds before the first person bothered to yell ‘let him out’. And that’s why we love playing England.” And Penn walks off.
The end.