I’m really confused by the state guy. I have no idea what the heck happened at the end. Also what was the purpose of the cello? Seemed unnecessary. I’m going to guess he does a switch when he asks Penn to stand up. However how could he ensures that Penn’s state isn’t in the deck is beyond me.
The mentalist woman was good and I agree that there is most likely a person in the table. There is some time between hearing the word and when the dictionary is pulled out giving plenty of time to do the rip. Especially given all the suffering for art talk. Still a neat trick.
If you think he does a switch, figure the deck he has Penn pick from has – I dunno, maybe 25 states in the top half, and those same 25 states again in the bottom half? And so Penn picks one of those, and maybe even gets a good look at the nine to the left of it and the nine to the right of it, and it doesn’t matter, because what’s left of that deck is going to get switched out for one that only contains the 25 states that weren’t in Penn’s deck. (After all, he doesn’t do the trick with 25 volunteers.)
Yeah, it was just his demeanor that didn’t resonate with me. It also was a bit grandiose for what amounts to more of an “on the street” or “bar bet” kind of trick.
My suspicion is that P&T expected the “Do what i do” bit would result in a trick, but then when he spit the milk, they assumed that part was comedy and he’d start anew with the “REAL” trick. They didn’t expect that “bet” part to continue. So they didn’t think twice about him wiping his mouth because that part of the routine was over and they figured we’d be starting again - it was too soon in their mind for there to be a trick up his sleeve (or up his napkin).
That’s my theory.
I kind of got the feeling that his demeanor was a little bit of him thinking “did I actually just fool them with that simple move?” kind of surprised smugness.
Well, as pointed out throughout this thread, people are the wiser because either they can later figure out that 666 or 6666 are not factors of the 577,345,663 - but more basically, many people know that if either of the first two numbers are even, the odd number he gets COULD NOT be the result.
This sounds plausible as to the landscape issue but wouldn’t he have to go back into landscape to recall the final number? Wouldn’t the final volunteer also see him do it?
The problem with # + 0 x on an iphone is that the “x” will appear “selected” (iphone doesn’t show you the full formula you’ve entered, so it’s good on that front, but the outline around the ‘x’ might be enough to tip off. On the other hand. I went back and confirmed in the episode that it was not.
At the end of this trick though, he has teller hit “x” and then (without going landscape or appearing to press anything) has Allison hit a two digit and “=”. He doesn’t seem to touch the phone after that. # + 0 x … seems like it fits the pattern much better, except that it doesn’t look like “x” has been pushed. I can only presume the landscaping has to do with hiding the “x” being selected.
It may be that he has a loose knot around a nail or something, then at the last moment, quickly hooks it to the right balloon and tightens as he removes it from the box.
It was asked how penn had the iphone so quick and teller had a $100 so quick. I don’t think it would be against the rules to simulate a random person from the audience, but to do the trick with penn or teller, I believe the producers, before one of these tricks occurs, will furnish penn or teller with the necessary (ungimicked) prop, or even tell them to have it all episode without telling them why. It would simulate doing the trick for a random person on the street or audience member by saying “who here has a…” but then allow penn or teller to personally participate.
I assume for this particular trick, he would have asked “Who here has an iphone” or even “smartphone” - either he could pick an iphone from what’s held up, or else if he felt confident using an android calculator, pick anything.
Well, he didn’t feel around in the box, or look in the box – and there was enough room in that box for more balloons. And since the box collapses into a pile of flat slats at the end, why not simply include a flat slat of cardboard or balsa wood or whatever to wall off other balloons so they can’t be seen or felt at the outset?
Oh I agree with your last point. I think a lot of magicians go on Fool Us not really trying to fool P&T but to get the nice exposure from it and be able to say “As Seen on Fool Us” on the advertising.
Watching the routine again, even Chris Rose says “totally surprised” after he wins so I don’t think he was really expecting to fool them at all but just get some exposure with a nice little routine.
See my later post, something large attaches the string to the balloon, no need to work out multiple ties. I like it, very original, a magician has done something good when P&T have to guess.
I believe the implication is free choice. While dealing with the alien (he knows the card fairly early at that point and the alien serves no real purpose, so that’s why they probably focused on that move). However, when he’s laying out the line of nuts, he clearly pulls one from his pocket. During the alien move, he may have pulled a nut out of an “index” (the 4D nut) and pocketed it for later in the trick. He isn’t palming the whole time because we can see his hands.
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Angela Funovits:<333 Okay, so I’m easily distracted, but I could tell while the guy was looking through the dictionary, she must have had her hand firmly inside of the jar. Penn’s hint was that there was a second person “willing to suffer,” so was there someone hidden in the table or something? I don’t even know how that would work.
I believe that’s the implication. Person hiding in the table whose under the box, and then they find the page, circle the word, rip it out. Her hand was likely not firmly in the jar, but rather was likely waiting to receive the torn and crumpled page (perhaps from the box) which she then switched with the scrap in the jar. It was all done behind the guy’s back. Clearly his body concealed a move which is why I didn’t like her random audience selection - she clearly threw the paper (or could have) to a specific person - likely because he was a big strapping guy to act as a curtain.
I’m glad he mentioned it. I’d like to hear him mention more often that shills are not permitted, which I’m assuming is the case.
I stand by my comment that Penn’s attempt to work the trick out with Teller and super impressed attitude suggests to me either a MASSIVE index of words or body language used by the guy to signal her the necessary info. I still have no F’n clue how they figured out who gave the guy the watch though.
That said, in things like those John Edwards talking to the dead shows, I understand that they use hidden mics in line to listen in and hear people talking about what the hope to hear from their loved one. “Pre show work” Penn discussed as forbidden was specifically taking the person before the show and doing a trick with them - prepping the person. I’m not sure if that would ban hidden microphones in line listening it. This guy might have mentioned his watch to someone in line. They may listen for the most unique and “unguessable” story they hear in line and use that person. He was on the aisle though…
Concur that I was waiting for him to rattle off Penn’s card. I believe that he handed Teller the 20 states he uses for the stage people. Penn pulls a card from the 30 states he doesn’t use. He memorizes the same 20 for every trick. Penn pulls a state that will never be used. He then stacks Teller’s 20 on top and hands them out. The deck may be marked in some way if it was a legitimate shuffle by Teller, or he swaps Teller’s 20 with a pre-ordered set of 20 during his walk back.
As Penn points out, he only has to remember one card in each bundle he hands out. He rattles off all but one in each bundle, and then just has to figure out which bundle each standing person is part of.
My other disappointment with this trick is that it appears the show edited out him handing out SIX piles. They only show the 3 he hands to the back row. That makes the trick seem better, but also edits out a key part of how he does it (I think for a show like this really should be required to show everything relevant to how the trick is done (I feel like at times sleight moves have occurred while the camera was showing Penn or the audience assistant).
He did ask if Penn shouted out his card. I wonder if he thought there was a way to guess Penn’s card but it failed and he abandoned that finale. Otherwise, why have Penn select a card.
That’s my guess. The marked deck or a deck swap would account for the issue he had with the shuffle, but we don’t know what element of the trick Penn and Teller didn’t get. The essential element of him memorizing the 20 states and leaving one in each bundle remaining is clearly the secret of the trick. How he knows which bundle when where is a formality.
He was personable and a funny presenter though.
We never see the inside of the puzzle box. Unclear what kind of options she actually had… that’s what Penn is suggesting. The pieces she pulls out all seem to be unique (I didn’t look too close) but I think what Penn is suggesting is that there are, say 20 unique pieces she could have picked. He has those 20 pieces rigged on the complete puzzle to have magnets on them, and when he removes the curtain, he is using a magnet to quickly remove (along with the curtain) the relevant piece of the fully completed puzzle (he’d have to memorize which coloured piece (it’s unlikely she picked random pieces and they were all very specifically unique in colour) is in what area of the puzzle.
As to Allison, I found her very forced and unnatural and that’s what bothered me about her. I don’t believe anything she says. That’s my biggest issue with her.
Final note. In this last trick particularly (while Penn was busting to Teller), I noticed his face is fuller. He is looking much more healthy than right after he lost all that weight.
I think this is and has to be exactly how its done, but the fool seems to have come on the technicality of how exactly he knew where the “shuffled” cards had been distributed (i.e. how he knew iowa illinois and indiana were in a group). For the record (as I posted above), I think he only memorized one card in each group - he just rattled off the rest from memory.
I figured calculator would have to be one of the few apps you can’t delete since there’s a button for it in the pullup control panel, but it seems that you can.
The trick doesn’t hide that he’s using the phone’s calculator, so if he asked for a phone and it didn’t have a calculator, he’d presumably just say that and then ask someone else for their phone.
One more thought on the puzzle trick. He specifically tells her to pick a few different styles - not just all ones with two holes and two tabs. I think this is a subtle way to get better odds that she doesn’t pick two pieces that are identical because there may only be 10 different 2+2 pieces in the box, so if they were all that type, she’d be likely to have doubles.
He was incredibly reminiscent of Howie Mandel (circa the 90s) in both look and performance. It was a great trick and a great performance on top. A+ to that guy.
It’s a great trick. Again, I’m not sure if he got really lucky that the first balloon didn’t have a gimmick because all the others ones seem to. I would think the trick performs best when the 1st one just pops and then the 2nd one is gimmicked and it adds even more surprise.
Perhaps he has a joke for if the ungimicked balloon goes in the middle “well, that one was boring” or something funnier than that.
Howie used to put a latex glove over his head and blow it up (I think it was him). This trick maybe could be improved with some balloon animals or other shapes that would appear much larger when removed from the box. P&T did comment on his clever patter and loading of the balloons, I like that they do this, that part of magic is underappreciated. One of the reasons I find a lot of stage magic dull is just the same old flourishes and lack of patter save for a boring and stupid introduction that adds nothing to the effect. When I criticize stage magic it’s not the form in general I’m talking about, it’s the magicians themselves who could make it better with effort. P&T do plenty of stage magic and they are what they are for breaking that tired old mold.
Given the method you guys described this trick was done, when everyone was shouting out their card, all Ivan had to listen to was Penn’s state. (He works out the rest of the trick later as process of elimination.) I think he was probably trying to zero in on Penn’s voice at that moment, but he failed (and that’s why he asked to confirm that Penn actually shouted it).
I guess that part that confuses me most is the fact that P&T seemed to guess the method how it was done, but the producers still jumped on it and gave him the win. I guess what Penn was saying about a deck switch when his back was turned was wrong and Ivan separated out the cards a different way.
There is another person in the table, one who is quite thin. The table has more room than it looks, but it is not comfy for the other human in the trick. The box has a trap door, so the individual can pull the book, take the page with the word “gold”, and put it back. She positions the trickee in front of the table to look through the book. Meanwhile, the person in the table has circled “gold”, crumbled it, and handed it to the magician behind the trickee’s back. Or put it in a jar or something.