Penn & Teller: Fool Us, US run on CW

Cafe Society
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This week: Teller is a Blockhead

First up: Daniel Kramer

Daniel is a 10 year old boy. Daniel has a really charming act. He starts off by turning himself into a 10 year old boy. Then he tells a story about seeing a magician perform an amazing card trick where he takes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 cards, throws away 1, 2, 3 cards, and still has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 cards. Each time he counts that off and demonstrates the trick, very polished. He tells about going to the magic store - oops it’s the butcher. Then goes to the real magic store. Buys the trick. By now he’s performed it four times, but he says he’s finally ready to perform the amazing trick for us. Ready. And as he’s going through, he ends up with only three cards at the end, so he quickly tears them in half so he can count of six cards.

What sells it is his look of absolute glee that he’s finally going to perform the trick, and then the expression when it doesn’t work, and his rapid solution.

Then he pulls out a special box that is going to twist his arm up. It has a window for his hand and a hatch to show his arm. So he puts his arm in, shows his hand holding a rod and his arm, then closes the hatch. He has Jonathan Ross rotate the hand part all the way around a couple times, and we see his hand in position as it rotates by. Then he opens the hatch to show his arm is all twisted up. So he has Jonathan unrotate, and pulls out his arm intact and normal.

He’s a very charming performer, no mystery to any of it, but he does handle the cards well and plays the stage well. Penn is effusive with praise, telling him he is just like they were. He says that there are videos of Teller at that age doing the same things, and he himself was doing similar things at 15, but not as good. So lots of praise for the young lad.

Second performer: Gazzo

Gazzo is a street magician doing a sleight of hand show with an aggressive banter and exchange with the audience/passerbys. He comes out to do his rendition of the oldest trick in the world, the cups and balls. He has three metal cups, three tiny soccer balls and a magic wand. He does a number of variations on making balls come and go, appear and disappear and move around. The throws in a lot of humor to keep it interesting, and interacts with an audience member. Toward the end, he brings out oranges under the cups, and finally a melon under his hat.

He has a good patter and entertaining routine, but there is nothing deceptive in his act. In fact, you see him dip the cups to put the oranges in. Still, Penn gives him lots of praise for doing the act so well. He says better than Penn and Teller do it.

Third up: Alan Rorrison

Alan is a scottish lad, so watch out for accents. He starts off showing a classic trick with a table, four cards, and four coins. The trick is to place the four coins near the corners of a placemat, then place a card over each coin. And as he taps a card against two coins, he can make the coins move from one to another and collect them in one place. Regular sleight of hand, catching the coins with his fingertips, which he then explains.

Then he has Jonathan select an audience member to help, and he places the two of them on chairs facing each other, and outstretch their hands palm up. He uses their hands as the table top, and explains it makes it harder to do the regular tricks because they would feel him lift the coins, and he can’t slide the coins, etc. He then repeats the trick of moving the coins around.

If you watch his hands, you can see that on the lift off cards, he doesn’t reach around underneath, but holds his hands across the tops so he’s gripping only by the edges. Makes it hard to get fingertips underneath. Of course the drop off card his fingers fold under the edge, so that’s a simple drop.

Penn and Teller confer, they say they only have one guess, they ask him to show his hands, then ask him if he could do the act exactly the same if he took off all his jewelry. When he asks specifics, they say rings, and he says spot on. Penn also admits it fooled him, it was Teller that figured it out. I figured there was magnetism involved, but I was thinking he might have had gimmick cards, since he pulled different cards out of his pocket when he set up the second half the trick. But the ring is easier.

Fourth: Romany

Romany is a lady with a flair for showgirl outfits. She comes out in a flashy gemstudded outfit with feathers in her hair. She says she is looking for somebody to tie her up. Teller’s hand goes up immediately, followed by Penn and Jonathan Ross. She selects Jonathan. She has Jonathan tie her hands together with a small piece of rope. Then an assistant brings out a much longer rope, and the two of them tie her in an elaborate sequence starting around her neck, through her arms, around to her belly, behind her bottom, and in front of her legs. There’s lots of saucy flirting with an by Jonathan while all this is going on.

Once she is properly tied up, she has Jonathan get into her “tunnel of love”, a round cloth tube on the stage. She climbs into the ring behind him, and her assistant raises the ring to form a tube curtain around the two of them. He shakes and shimmies the curtain for a few seconds, and drops the curtain, she is now wearing Jonathan’s suit coat but still tied up.

Jonathan cuts the ropes to untie her, to show the knots are still tied.

Penn explains that this kind of tying up was done by spiritualists in spirit cabinets, and that it’s wonderful to see it done as a sexy flirtatious act instead, something good instead of something evil. He says it uses a variation on the “Keller rope tie”, and she nods, and then all you need is someone who is compliant and bends to your every whim, like Jonathan Ross.

So no winners this time, but entertaining acts if not particularly deceptive ones.

Now Penn and Teller’s act. Penn and Teller come out on stage, Teller wearing what appears to be a large block of concrete on and around his head. Penn blabbers on and picks someone (Becks?) from the audience to assist the trick by being an observer. He takes her glasses and puts them in his coat breast pocket. Then he pulls out a billiard ball. In order to prove it’s real, he bangs it on the block on Teller’s head, then hands it to Becks to inspect. Then he shows her his magic wand.

He does a little disappearing magic wand gimmick by throwing it on his ear, and sells her with that beautiful moment of magical joy, followed by the let down when she sees the wand on his head.

Penn then explains that she needs to pay close attention to Teller for the rest of the trick, and he goes to pull her glasses out of his pocket, but they aren’t there. So he picks up a hammer, walks over to Teller, and smashes the concrete off to reveal Teller inside, wearing a safety mask, and her glasses underneath. Extract glasses and return them to Becks. Ta da!

I noticed

[spoiler]when Penn has Becks inspecting the billiard ball, he reaches into his pocket with his left hand as he walks over to Teller, he bangs the wand on the box to prove it is solid, and reaches up with his left hand to the back of the block to adjust Teller so he’s “properly facing the front”. After that, I notice that for the next part of the trick while Teller is carrying on with Becks, the camera is focused on just those two, so we don’t see what Teller is doing.

I think one of Teller’s arms we see is fake, he’s got one under his coat. When Penn puts his hand up to turn teller, he sticks the glasses into the back of the box. Teller takes them and puts them on and sets the mask, then waits. Then when Penn draws us back to focus our attention on Teller, there’s nothing left to see, any strange movements were covered while everyone was watching Penn toy with Becks. [/spoiler]

And that’s the show.

82

Missed an episode, watched one this week. The nail gun one. (Again, barely watchable due to poor signal. Thankyou Comcast.)

The first act, Cubic, was fairly good. Generally well done. Most “serious” magicians like P&T aren’t impressed with Stage Magic acts. Too easy to have gimmicks hidden in all the gear. But this was at a modest scale. They were impressed and fooled.

I assumed that the background rod behind the cube was key to the box moving around. But then it was removed and just one of the guys was standing behind it (but not always). I think instead the gimmick was one of those ultra strong rods likefloating Indian fakirs use. Put in front of the background rod or the guy, it might not be easily visible. It could also be planted in different places as needed to keep the viewer from easily zooming in on it.

Too bad the arms thru the box stuff and such was done poorly (possibly for comedic effect, but not good enough still). And the quick change behind the cloth bit at the end. C’mon, we are utterly tired of that.

They could fix up the act a little and really have something.

Michael Vincent was back. And the guy continues to impress. Just wow. A master at card manipulation. Unfortunately, you knew the second he pulled out two decks of different colors what the end game was going to be, so you’re looking the whole time for the move where he palms the red cards and slips them into the blue deck. And they take the camera off his hands! What? The main part of the trick and they don’t let us see it? Aaaagh.

Note that Penn mentioned how he had P&T sit in specific spots. In particular Teller at the right. This would be the worst angle to see the move. He also tries to distract Teller by asking him if he was left or right handed, knowing that Teller would raise his hand instead of talking. It is very hard for someone to not get distracted when asked to do something like this. But Teller isn’t just someone.

Just remember, when a magician asks you to do something, it’s purpose is misdirection. After all, why did Vincent need to know right then whether Teller was left or right handed (if at all)?

Penn asked Vincent if this was an original trick or something. Vincent said it was the first time it was performed on TV. I.e., it’s an old trick from way back that he’s resurrected. Not original. But still quite good.

There was some bozo with tables and cards in envelopes and dishes and such. Totally ho-hum. Especially since they cut from the 3 guys being picked and then they have name tags and the guy has the envelopes in his hands. Again, skipping over a really key part. It could be explained by the woman being a stooge, but for some reason P&T discounted this.

The worst of the bunch were two “mind readers” in Victorian clothing. Seemed to be a very standard carnival trick. But P&T got thrown by a fake non-move they threw in. They claimed they didn’t do the fake move to fool P&T, but I strongly suspect they did. So they won, too, for with a 4th rate act for the wrong reason.

The P&T trick of the week was a nail gun thing. Penn claimed that the strip in the gun had a pattern of missing nails that he memorized so that he knew when to pop a nail in the board and when to pop nothing into his hand, or Teller.

Note that nail guns have a protective muzzle to prevent it from going off without being firmly pressed down. Which he did when nailing the board and didn’t when “nailing” his hand. A mod to this (with maybe a safety button) would allow the click-fwwwp sound of the nail gun going off without a nail being discharged. No pattern to remember.

Not impressed.

83

Not their best show.

The floating box could have been done a couple of different ways, but I think it was a common levitation trick using a rod as ftg suggested. The lamp may have been there just to move later to throw off the audience. It was a good performance though, just not very mystifying.

The guy with tables and food caused some controversy, I’d heard about this before.


And overhead camera caught some writing on the cards, there was a box that said something like <state you name>. That makes the whole thing easier. Somebody called those guys ‘instant stooges’ for going a long with it. Possible they were offered something in exchange for their cooperation. In addition it’s possible all three cards had all three predictions and might have had ‘read this if you are sitting at table 2’. In addition to all that the girl might have been a confederate also and there was nothing random except the selection of the three men. The controversy is because some thing that’s cheap unskilled magic. I think magic is about performance and it looked pretty good. I think the guys said they were fooled because it was complicated and they’d have to guess piece by piece what happened. Penn jokingly referred to the guys switching the cards, so he may have been on to something.

Vincent was once again spectacular. The rules of the show are weird. This guy is a master of card manipulation, Penn admitted that they didn’t catch his moves, they just knew what they were. It’s a shame he’s not going to Vegas when less skilled magicians are.

The mind readers were absurd. I caught what looked like a deck switch also, but it wasn’t really necessary. One of the guys is looking at the cards. There are all sorts of ways to do that. Notice that his hand on his vest took different positions quite deliberately. The wording was slightly different each time. It wouldn’t be hard to communicate the limited set of images with just a few subtle signals. Terrible act, and yet they are going to Vegas.

The nail gun was mildly entertaining, too many ways to rig the gun though.

Except for Michael Vincent none of the acts were all that entertaining. Maybe he isn’t either if you don’t appreciate the skill level involved. As Penn stated, the techniques he uses take decades of practice to master. Penn admitting that they didn’t actually see his moves is incredible praise.

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I don’t think that’s how it was done.

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Because it was against the rules of the show, a point I felt they should have stressed more. On an interview somewhere on YouTube, Penn says that this act is the one that stumped them the most. If the woman isn’t a stooge, then there is no effective way the magician can control how the routine ends, who ends up where with what. The best hint, I feel, to how this might be done is the participants’ complete lack of surprise as they’re reading their cards.

86

Cubic Act was the name of the group. I was thinking that there should be three people, and quickly that became evident. Yeah, there were a couple alignment issues with the arms, but that wasn’t really the mystifying part. The lightweight box floating and moving around lightly with a person in it was the real trick, the rest was artistic stage show.

Well, it fooled Penn, and Teller’s was just a guess. Probably a variation on what has been said here. Some sort of rod at the back to the table, masked by the lamp or the guy. Penn calls it the best big illusion stage act he’s ever seen. I’m sure that’s largely because it doesn’t use the standard gimmicks of squishing someone into a deceptively sized box or sneaking them out through a trapdoor and a ladder/staircase/platform that is wheeled off “to get it out of the way”.

Yeah, for all that Penn says there are no camera tricks, there sure are plenty of times when the camera angle doesn’t show us the competitor or the whole view of interest. That’s rather annoying. I’m sure he palmed the cards when he put them into the deck and moved them to the bottom as he was spreading the deck to receive the other cards, but I didn’t see any moves. And like you said, the camera cuts to a view of Teller without the magician in the shot precisely when he would be doing one of the moves. Grrr.

Actually, Penn says “They force you on television to put Teller at the educational angle, and me at the other educational angle”, and then goes on to say that “the location Teller got to see, and the, shall we say, add on I got to see.” I think he was saying the exact opposite - that the angles chosen for best television viewing put Penn and Teller in exactly the best spots to see the moves, the corners.

For the code speak, I’m trying to figure what “location” and “add on” mean. “Add on” sounds like the part where he sticks the red cards into the blue deck. Would “location” be pulling the cards from the red deck? He also doesn’t want to name the move where Michael puts the cards down on the table, but says it is a move every magician needs to learn. So I’m guessing that had something to do with the card transfer, whether it is masking or palming.

Exactly. “But he was finding out if Teller would use his right or left hand.” Why does that matter? It’s not like he had Teller writing or juggling or something. He just had to place his hand on the card deck and keep it there. Any hand would do.

Well, it is “Fool Us”. Knowing what the moves are isn’t being fooled. It’s like a stage show where the magician goes into a box and then disappears, and the stairs get wheeled off stage. You don’t have to see the magician slide into the stairs to realize that’s how he got into the mask for the “surprise” reveal.

His name is Nick Einhorn. The only choice he seems to control is selecting the girl, and telling her the order of tasks. He tells her to assign dishes to tables, but he picks up a dish and then asks her which table to put it. He asks her to pick three guys at random. He asks her to assign color envelopes. And he gives her the opportunity to swap them.

Watching closely with the remote and slow speed, at table 1 with the yellow card, there is a glimpse of text on that card right as the overhead shot starts.

The first visible line is hard to make out - I can’t get a clear freeze frame - but does appear to have a smaller text portion that could be “insert name here”. The next two lines are “SITTING AT TABLE NUMBER 3, WHERE HE IS EATING A PIZZA.” This is the yellow card for Table number 1. So it appears that all three cards have text for all three tables. It also appears that the food and tables are predetermined. I can’t think how this could happen without the girl being in on it.

Notice that he picks up a plate of food, then asks her which table to put it. He doesn’t ask her which table, and then pick up a plate.

[QUOTE=jovan]
The best hint, I feel, to how this might be done is the participants’ complete lack of surprise as they’re reading their cards.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, I notice how bland the three guys are. Not a jaw-dropping “how did he get my name right, and know what I’m having”, just a matter of fact reading of their individual message.

TriPolar, I think there’s probably room for a thread discussing the merits and ethics of magic.

As far as swapping the cards, Penn’s point was that that exchange occurred without the magician handling the envelopes, so he couldn’t control what was in each in the manner of, say, the previous trick with the five envelopes and the 100 pound note. At that point, the envelopes were closed and the guys didn’t know what they said. They exchanged because the girl directed them to.

From what we saw, it doesn’t appear to have mattered. If each card says the exact same script and they are told to pick the table that corresponds to them, insert their own name, and then told the dish.

The two guys are Morgan and West. I saw the move Penn referred to, and thought that it was a deck swap, too. When West takes the deck from Jonathan as Jonathan walks over to sit down, he passes the deck behind the book as he shuffles the book to put it down. He passes the cards from his right to left hands and the book from his left to right hand, and then puts the book down. There’s no reason to do that if it isn’t either a deck swap or a misdirect.

Now I will accept that the show’s consultant would keep them honest on their statement that there isn’t a deck swap, but that is an awkward and unnecessary handling of the book at that moment if it is for no reason.

After that, I was looking for any form of reflection that could be used, and also for any overt signaling. I’m assuming they used carny signaling methods. This is another case where the camera angle juggles when it should remain constant on both magicians. Instead we get cuts to looking from over Jonathan’s angle at Morgan, so West is totally out of sight. He also happens to be standing on the exact opposite side of Jonathan from P&T, the place to make it hardest for them to observe him.

Actually, I don’t note his hands taking different positions. I’m having a hard time discerning much difference in hand position or what he says to cue it up. Of course I don’t have an uninterrupted shot, so I can’t be certain.

I wonder what the rules state for how many guesses P&T get before they have to give in. I suppose technically thinking they see a move that isn’t a move counts as being fooled, even if they realized alternate methods right away. Maybe if Penn had prefaced his remarks with an either/or situation he would have had more leeway in that conversation. In this case, his confidence in thinking he knew what happened tripped him up. Hmmm, keep that in mind if you’re going to be on the show.

First off, we’ve seen acts where Penn introduces it and then sits down and Teller does everything. This act, Teller did nothing but stand there. Penn did everything.

One question for anyone who has handled one of these kinds of guns - what happens to the plastic strips holding the nails as the nails are used up? I would assume if it’s a spring loaded or ratcheted system, those rails should be moving up to move the next nail into place. But we didn’t see that.

[spoiler]I don’t think there are any nails in the gun at all. I think the board has spring-loaded popup nails that are activated by the pressure. There is just a bit of wigglyness as the nails spring into place. As Penn says, it’s fake, so there’s no risk.

I considered a safety mechanism, but I think not having any nails loaded fits better with what we saw, and is definitely safer. It’s like the previous act where he vehemently said to the guy with the nails and hands trick, putting someone at real risk is evil. Having a loaded nail gun would be dangerous.

And it did appear he was applying the same pressure on the end of the nail gun when he fired at his hand, or Teller’s neck. [/spoiler]

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Penn is rather effusive with praise on this show. I think Teller’s guess was spot on and he wasn’t fooled at all. There is another way this could be done, maybe, I’d have to look at again to see for sure.

When the box is in the air we only see the girls head pop out briefly while at least one of the guys hands is unseen. She might be inside the table at those times the head is just a lightweight prop. Again, I’ll have to look again to make sure that is the case.

Certainly. I’d just prefer to see someone like Vincent rewarded instead of Nick Einhorn.

He only needs a small number of cards to match up the food and the tables. He has plenty of time to select the right cards while the 3 guys are being brought up on stage. I haven’t seen the shot of the writing myself, but others claim to have been able to discern the ‘insert name’ portion. I think all 3 cards has all 3 messages on it. Several people also believe that this act wouldn’t work in the US because us ugly Americans wouldn’t cooperate. Not saying I agree or disagree, but I haven’t seen the act used other than one case, apparently Einhorn said something about have some problems in a rehearsal.

It would be interesting. No doubt Uri Gellar would get mentioned.

There are two distinct hand positions, and you can see him clearly switch. We don’t see much more of him because the camera is close up on the host who is sitting. We don’t know what other gestures, etc. he may be using. I have to look again to catch the exact wording of his denial of a deck switch, he may have added cards to the deck, which is not a ‘deck switch’.

None of my nailers have that plastic strip, but I have a roofing nailer with a paper strip, and you’ll see the strip emerging from the gun as you shoot. Your suggestion of a non-rigged gun is quite possible. I definitely have to review each act again.

Lastly, let me thank you for starting this thread. This a great discussion of the shows and the art.

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Teller’s guess was spot on, they admitted it. I think Penn’s point was that Teller only had one guess, and he wasn’t certain.

No, at one point she thrusts her head out the top and her shoulders are protruding. I’m almost positive (I deleted it) that she changes facial expressions when she thrusts her head out the side. I don’t think the head-on-a-stick answer would work.

I considered wires from above, but at the end they drape the cloths over the top.

Oh, I agree, and if we’re right about the methods, Penn and Teller would probably agree, too. (In fact, I think it’s been mentioned that they did invite him to Vegas anyway, even though he didn’t fool them.)


He only needs a small number of cards to match up the food and the tables. He has plenty of time to select the right cards while the 3 guys are being brought up on stage. I haven’t seen the shot of the writing myself, but others claim to have been able to discern the ‘insert name’ portion. I think all 3 cards has all 3 messages on it. Several people also believe that this act wouldn’t work in the US because us ugly Americans wouldn’t cooperate. Not saying I agree or disagree, but I haven’t seen the act used other than one case, apparently Einhorn said something about have some problems in a rehearsal.

That makes a lot of sense. I can’t speak to the willingness of Americans vs British people to go along with it, but that is a risky method in my mind. Of course, that gets into the theory of just why that method works at all.

I see holding the card with his right hand and inserting his left into his waistcoat pocket. What is the other?

Agreed. He specifically says something about not changing the deck, and all the cards that Jonathan has for the shuffle being in his hands in the order he placed them for the trick. It is just possible there are inserted cards, but how many?

I’m enjoying it.

89

His fingers are sometimes curled, fingertips tucked, other times his fingers are extended straight with the fingers and palm flat against the vest. I was able to recover this off the DVR, I’m going to be looking for other variations, and to see if the size of the deck seems to change after the shuffle. It could be a combination of techniques, a good thing to do when the goal is to fool P&T.

90

I started a thread on the ethics of magic.

91

Ok, I wasn’t paying attention when I first saw it. There is no way a mannequin head is being used. But the box only levitates when the lamp or one of the guys is behind it, so it’s the classic levitation technique. Very well done, I missed a lot the first time.

92

Re. Morgan and West: IIRC he says “all the cards he shuffled are on his hand”. Which doesn’t preclude adding cards. Note that midway through he trick, “because we don’t have time”, he throws most of the deck out, all from the middle. So it’s either a combo trick (signalling the first ten, memorized last 8) or he added both the first 10 and last 8 to the deck, which are memorized. Clumsily added, I might add, I could see it a continent away…

93

My guess on the Cube act was that the girl had her legs wrapped around the light pole, and then around the guy standing behind the box, allowing her to stick her torso into the box but still manipulate it as if it were empty and feather light. She could stick her head out the top and jump fully into the box when needed.

There was something hinky about the way the guy stood behind the box, supposedly to hold it up, in the second part of the act. At one point he brings his head back up because he had it bent down and to his left. Perhaps he had to lean out of the way so she could get in and out of the box?

It wouldn’t be that difficult for a strong woman (gymnast type?) to wrap her legs around the pole or the man and hold herself up horizontally.

I think that would make it possible to manipulate the box the way they did.

94

Probably, except there was likely something she attached to the lamp (pole) while it was there to make it easier.

Moving the pole may have been the reason Penn liked it so much. P&T often use the technique of showing that the obvious way to accomplish the trick can’t be it.

95

Thinking about the cheesy ending of Cubic Act’s bit. With the drape and clothing change and all.

I’ve been wondering if this was just a stall for the gymnast to extricate herself from some sort of harness gear that was used to attach herself to a pole (or whatever) and also wired to the cube so she could easily bounce it around.

(Of course the real cynic would claim that there were twin women. One who stayed in the box and another who popped up behind the drape.)

96

Collin McCloud, the Mentalist on “Polyester” – and Penn and Teller said they knew how it was done, but I din’t unnerstand. They’re saying that his gestures somehow suggested the word? (Presumably, the gestures might have suggested a number of similar words, but he gave the paper to Kenny, so there couldn’t have been six words on it and he just folded different.) Any thoughts? What did Teller’s little finger-drumming mean?

97

That is what they suggested, that he made a shape that would make someone think of a house. I’ll have to watch his hands, he might have several pieces of paper that said ‘House’ with something else on the other side. Maybe one with ‘Door’, one with ‘Window’, and others. No telling how many pieces of paper he had altogether, and not just ones that said ‘House’ on one side.

Still very good act. Risky, but good.

The one that fooled them with the duct taped mouth:

The one guy very carefully taped the other guys mount first. The first foot or so of the tape had no gum on it, it’s obviously different looking, so he could slip something in his mouth at any time. It happened when the other guy it him on the back of the head and he doubled over.

I think the guy deliberately looked like he was switching the card when he took it off the tongs in order to throw P&T off. They may have even known P&T did that same trick and would go for the card switch first.

98

Yes, I thought that was very cool of them, to deliberate mislead P&T (and fooled me, too, he was just slightly clumsy about it and I thought that’s when he did it.)

99

Brynolf & Ljung: Duck tape blindfold and gag… hmmm. Whenever someone goes to dramatic lengths to make a complicated blindfold/gag, it suggests that they try too hard. So that made me question the duck tape at first. But it makes the sticky sound when peeled from the roll, and it sticks when he peels it from his mouth.

I watched when he uses the tongs and then puts the card into his palm and puts away the tongs. Looks like an ideal time for a swap, except I don’t see any way for the other card to disappear. Watching very closely, there doesn’t seem to be a way out.

I think that was a decoy move.

Looking closely, I think

[spoiler]there is a strip of adhesive along the top edge of the tape. That way it makes the sticky sound when unrolling, and it sticks to his upper lip. The placement of the tape across the mouth is careful to leave the jaw and bottom lip free. Watching the peeling, you can see the adhesive sticking only on the top, not the bottom half.

I agree, he takes the card from the deck and folds it while he’s supposedly stacking the deck for the first fake reveal, then sticks it in his mouth when he doubles over. [/spoiler]
Colin McCloud: the mentalist. It’s fairly obvious there’s something in his hands to signal the guy what word to pick. That’s what Penn makes a big show about. But then Colin says something about it not being an “instant stooge”. But how is that not the case?

No idea.

The word was “brick”. House was the fake reveal.

Keelan & Charlotte: quick change artists. I’m not sure there’s much to be said here. No fooling going on.

Etienne Pradier: card tricks.

The Teller’s card to the wallet, no big deal. Teller’s card on the back of the hand, I actually spotted the lift of the King, and I’m sure Teller did, too, because he had a better angle. I don’t know how he got the card into the bottle.

For the main part of the trick, Penn’s card, I think it actually has something to do with the phone. Why the can and the phone? I’m just guessing, but maybe the card and ink are special. No, I don’t know it, either.

Penn & Teller’s polyester act. I’ve seen a variation on that live just recently.

[spoiler]The key is that they use a really long piece of fabric, so you don’t notice that it gets a little shorter during the act. When Teller takes his end to the middle to do the cut, he holds the end of the fabric so that it looks like he stretches the middle for the cut. The scissors cut the end. Then he ties that piece around the middle of the fabric to make the knot and tails. Cut that piece to make it disappear.

The tying around the kid’s neck, he exchanges ends with Penn as they do the first wrap, and he catches a fold in a loop. That makes the tail wrap around and then back the way it came instead of going around one direction. The loop holds it in place till they pull. Presto - the cloth goes through his neck.

I think the knot in the kid’s hand was by bunching up the fabric so the kid feels a lump, but it pulls out smooth. [/spoiler]

100

I’m still baffled by this one. Even if the magician had ‘brick’ written in big letters on his hand, what’s stopping the guy from saying ‘astronaut’ or ‘Loch Ness Monster?’
What would the magician have done then?