07x20 - Niagara Fools

[bunniefuu]

From the Penn & Teller Theater

at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,

here's our host, Alyson Hannigan.

Welcome to "Fool Us."

If the magicians on tonight's show look familiar,

that's because they've all been here before,

but none of them were able to fool Penn and Teller.

They wanted a second shot, and we gave it to them.

Can they turn the tables

on the two brightest minds in magic?

There's only one way to find out.

Let's bring out the guardians at the gate

of the "Fool Us" trophy case, Penn and Teller.

The prize for fooling Penn and Teller

is a trip to Vegas to perform

in their world famous magic spectacular.

We throw in the trophy for fun.

So let's meet tonight's first potential Fooler.

I grew up just outside Niagara Falls

on the Canadian side.

The grandeur of the falls--

I think it's made me a bit of the person I am

because I don't think small.

I like to think big.

When I was a kid, there was

a gigantic Houdini Museum in town.

I fell in love with magic in that Houdini Museum,

and I decided to do grand illusions like he did.

I worked hard on my magic,

and I made my name as a magician in Las Vegas.

Then I came back to Niagara Falls

and opened up my own theater,

because no matter where you go,

there's no place like home.

Tonight, I'm doing the biggest effect I've ever done.

It's Penn's fault, actually.

The last time I was on, Penn called my routine

the biggest effect ever seen on "Fool Us."

Penn and Teller, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Let's take the show on location to Niagara Falls

for the magic of Greg Frewin.

Hi, Penn and Teller.

Thank you for having me on your show again.

My name's Greg Frewin,

and welcome to Niagara Falls, Canada.

Harry Houdini was one of

the world's greatest escape artists,

but there was one illusion

he wasn't able to perform before he died--

to escape from a solid oak wine barrel

over the raging waters of this majestic landscape.

Tonight, I hope to honor his legacy

and perform that for you.

Here we go.

Wow, Greg Frewin!

Wow. That was amazing.

Hi, how you doing?

Oh, well, I'm good.

So the first time you were on,

you did the biggest trick we'd ever had.

- Yes.
- And now here

you've topped that.

Penn said he loved bigger,

so I think that's the biggest I can do.

Yeah, well, it must take a tremendous amount of planning

to do something like this safely.

Yeah. There was a lot of planning.

I've got a great team, and we had

really good cooperation with the city here.

Our mayor, Jim Diodati.

We took a lot of precautions.

It was a very difficult illusion to perform.

It took a big team to make this all come together.

So what would you do if you weren't a magician?

I guess I would want to be a hockey player

if I wasn't doing magic full-time.

Do you ever incorporate hockey into a magic trick?

Sure, yeah. I play every week,

and the guys always tell me when I score a goal that,

hey, you just did that with magic; it doesn't count.

They always try to get it taken back.

And you've brought your athleticism into magic.

You know, the hardest part of the whole thing,

actually, was being able to get inside.

The barrels are pretty small in comparison to a person.

All right, Greg. Well, let's find out

if Penn and Teller figured out how you did that trick.

All right. Thanks, Alyson.

Hey, Greg. Good to see you again.

How are you doing?

It's great to have something with this much spectacle

and so--so gigantic and beautiful.

And, as you said, a trick that Houdini wanted to do,

but even Houdini didn't have a damn helicopter, did he?

Well, I don't think they had them back then,

and unfortunately, he wasn't able to, so right.

So you even one-upped Houdini on Niagara Falls

and on a helicopter.

- That's right.
- And it's just so beautiful

to see really, really big tricks we couldn't do in here.

Being able to bring Niagara Falls

to the Penn and Teller Theater in Vegas is pretty nice.

Still looks beautiful behind you.

And putting that, you know, the human scale in the barrel

in that natural wonder

is just a great place for a magic trick.

- Right.
- Just beautiful.

I gotta tell you, it's much harder for us

to be able to figure out how you do things

when it's something that's that spectacular,

when the barrel is this little compared to the setting.

But I hope it doesn't reflect too badly on us

as we try to figure out how you got out of that barrel.

But I just want to thank you so much for being on this show

and I think I snuck a little something in there

among all the praise.

So, Greg, they know how you did that trick?

Yeah, I think they have a good idea.

All right, well, we can't wait

to see what you do next time.

- Thanks you so much.
- Thanks, guys.

- Have a good one.
- Greg Frewin.

Don't forget, Penn and Teller

perform at the end of tonight's show,

but first they'll take on more skilled sorcerers

when "Fool Us" returns.

Welcome back to "Fool Us,"

home of dazzling deceptions.

Let's roll out the welcome mat for our next magician.

Magic is about change.

This will be the first time

I've performed as my true self...

as Dyna.

I'm transitioning now,

but I was on the show before as a man.

Dennis Staats, ladies and gentlemen!

The common trope is being trapped in the wrong body.

And it hurt.

I thought that me wanting to have a career in magic

meant that I had to keep this a secret

because people wouldn't accept me,

but being transgendered, I had to come out.

I needed to kind of live my life the way I was meant to.

What magic really did was connect me to people

who've shown me that you can be different

and still be accepted.

I'm hoping that, by doing this,

someone might be watching me

and see that they can fulfill whatever dreams they want

and still be themselves.

It's a little nerve-racking,

but I couldn't imagine a better place to come out,

and I can't wait for everyone to meet the real me.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dyna Staats.

Thank you very much. And thank you so much

for having me back on your stage.

It's wonderful to be here.

Obviously, a lot of things

have changed about my show,

but the one thing that hasn't changed

is the science!

It still works.

I brought for you one of my favorite experiments

to show off. This is a gene splicer.

We're gonna clone an animal together on stage.

It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'll show you how it works.

We're gonna take--

this is different vials of DNA

that I've collected over the years.

Don't ask me how I got them. I got them.

That's all that matters. -

What we're gonna do is we're going to pour the DNA

into this conical liquid funneling device--

a funnel--

and the animal comes out of the box inside here.

In--inside--

Every fangirl has one but mine works.

So the animal comes out of in here.

Nice and easy.

Now, to choose our animal-- it's not gonna be random--

we're going to use a--

We're--um...

Oh. Sorry.

It's, uh--it was in the back behind the box.

I have a book we're gonna use.

This is "Dyna's Big Book of Animals,"

and I'll use this to help us pick our animals.

So you can see I have many different kinds in here.

I have things like horses, bats,

wolves, lions and tigers and bears...

- Oh, my.
- Every time, works every time.

So, Alyson,

since you're closest, would you do me a favor please?

- Yes.
- Just I'm gonna flip through,

and just say stop wherever you want.

Okay.

- Stop.
- Right there.

And you--ooh.

I like turtles.

- Aw, me too.
- That's good, no.

We're gonna clone a turtle. That's a good choice.

Okay, so find the turtle DNA.

Oof.

It would help if I labeled these.

I think that's right. Okay.

So...

that goes into the box.

Now, we could stop there. We could clone a turtle.

That'd be a great thing for zoology and conservationalism,

but cloning is just so 1996,

so we're gonna have some fun with it

because this isn't just magic; it's science.

So we're gonna pick another one.

Penn, could you please

just as I flip through, just say stop wherever you like.

- Stop!
- Real early.

Okay.

- So we have a unicorn.
- Unicorn.

That's good. No, it's a good choice.

So we'll clone a unicorn.

Let me find that one. Hold on.

It's that nice paisley. Yeah, okay.

And it's inside.

We'll do it one more time

'cause I don't wanna leave you out.

Teller, could you just, like, do this with your fingers

when you want me to stop?

Just jab Penn in the ribs so he screams out a little bit?

- Ow!
- Okay.

All right. An elephant.

- Aww!
- That's good.

No, yeah. We'll make an elephant too.

A small one.

It's okay. We can do a small one.

Oh, that's an elephant. Yep, we got it.

All right, into the box.

Now...

Okay.

Let's see what we get.

Now what this box is doing is it's taking

all of the microscopic single-celled organisms

and getting them to evolve together at an exponential rate

based on the blueprint we put in the box.

The blueprint of a turtle, a unicorn, and an elephant.

So it should be very exciting to see what we see here.

Smoke means it's working.

It's fine. It's fine.

Okay.

Due to the nature of this experiment,

I don't quite know exactly what's coming out of the box,

so I brought some protection for myself.

Oh, it's cute.

Oh, it is, it is, it is. Hold on, hold on.

Okay...

Look.

I think we have-- ooh, we have an elephant.

We have a turtle.

And we have a unicorn.

Science!

Dyna Staats!

- Science!
- Science!

Oh!

Ooh, I get why you like that.

- It's fun, yeah?
- Oh, yeah.

So do you really know a lot about science?

It's been my favorite subject ever since school,

and one of the things I really love about it

is the fact that it is literally everything.

You can study genetics, DNA, all the way to,

like, stagecraft and lighting and sound.

It's all science.

- It's so awesome.
- It is, right?

It also makes it really easy when someone asked

how you did it. You're like, "Science."

- Science.
- Yeah.

What was your first professional job?

Well, I worked in a theme park in California.

And I started learning magic

because my boss would come in

and he would show me little pocket magic tricks.

He showed me one I could not comprehend.

It blew my mind.

I had to know how it was done, so he taught me.

I went and bought my own, and started doing it

for the kids in line, like, that day.

I had to do it. And I was immediately hooked.

And the kids absolutely loved it.

That's so cool. Aww!

Dyna, let's see if your magical science

- fooled Penn and Teller.
- Let's see.

- Hey, Dyna.
- Hi!

Can I say first of all quite seriously

how honored we are

that you chose our show to come out on.

It means the world to us. It really does.

It means the world for me to be here.

- Thank you so much.
- And you are so welcome.

I'm so happy to have you on the show.

Thanks for coming out and doing a great routine.

You're always so funny and so interesting,

but now it's time to try to figure out what you were doing,

and, as you know, you used this, and so do we--

when Teller and I have to solve something,

we always use science!

- It's so fun.
- And we thought your elephant

had a really nice-- you know, where it came out,

it had kind of a tip over trunk

where it worked like that, but a different kind of trunk,

because it was of course cloned.

And when you put the turtle together with the unicorn

and also the elephant,

it's kinda had this weird kinda critter

that my children might have drawn in their coloring book.

Such a great style,

and it's nice to see you grow into yourself

and to do such a wonderful routine.

And you're always entertaining,

and I think I slipped in a few things that would show

that we don't think you fooled us.

Does Penn's genetic code

tell you they know your secrets?

You know, I'm pretty good at cracking genetic codes.

I think that we're on the same page with that.

I think he's right.

Okay. Well, you didn't fool them,

but it was a wonderful trick. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Dyna Staats! Whoo!

You're not going anywhere.

I've placed a spell of comfort on your couch so just enjoy it.

We'll be right back.

Welcome back.

This magician tried to fool our boys once before,

and now he's back. Take a look.

Hi, I'm Matt Marcy.

I'm a comedy magician from California.

I remember aggressively loving magic

since I was about five.

I really wanted to watch it whenever I could,

but back then you couldn't find magic

all over the Internet.

But when you're passionate about it,

you just find a way to do it.

When I was in college and I was supposed to be studying,

sometimes I was just doing magic.

I wanted to practice and develop as much as I could.

I've even started my own magic club...

with four whole members.

So I'm doing a brand-new routine for Penn and Teller.

And normally I do about 200 shows a year,

but this last year has been anything but normal

and I haven't had a chance

to put it in front of an audience.

And recently my only audience

has been my 4-year-old daughter.

Now I'm about to do it on TV in front of millions.

But tonight, I'm going for the trophy.

It's gonna be great.

I'm sure.

Sit back and enjoy the comedy magic of Matt Marcy.

Thank you very much.

Alyson, would you join me for a minute?

I have an envelope here

that's gonna be very important in a little bit.

I wanna make sure that we all know

it's the same envelope at the end,

so I'm gonna ask you to begin by writing

a magic word on the envelope.

It doesn't have to be abracadabra,

but just any word in the English language

that will fit on the envelope and that you can spell.

- Go for it.
- Okay, well, that's difficult.

There you go.

I don't know if I'm spelling this right.

That's an O. -

I don't know if that's right.

Okay, you got--oh. Hocus-pocus.

That's very magical. Hang on to the pen.

You're gonna need it again in a moment.

- Okay.
- I'm just gonna hang this up

here where we can all see it. Perfect.

That's not my best writing, by the way.

It's lovely.

You know, Penn and Teller, I have always admired you.

Not just for your magic,

but for your unbridled passion

in your search for the truth,

how you've exposed frauds and fakes and phonies.

Well, I, too, have been searching for the truth

in our world.

And you know what I've learned?

Everything is one giant conspiracy.

From the fake moon landing to the crop circles,

GMOs, Girl Scout cookies, that round earth society--

it's all one big cover up. Think about it.

You go shopping at the Salvation Army

where you get clothes from Old Navy.

What about this? What's two plus two?

Four. What's two times two?

Also four.

Even Teller isn't the real Teller.

Yeah, I know.

The real Teller was k*lled in 1990

when Penn drove a truck over him for a TV special.

This imposter, this "Teller,"

has been working with him ever since.

Sure, he looks like a lot like the real Teller,

but the voice.

He sounds like a 90-year-old chain smoker

who just inhaled a tank of helium.

It's a dead giveaway.

Why do you think he never talks?

Even the words we speak are under their control.

You know who I'm talking about.

Them.

The illuminati. The trilateral commission.

The deep state.

Oh, don't tell me there's no deep state.

What about Arizona?

Have you been to the Grand Canyon?

That's a deep state.

Of course, what do I know? I'm from California,

the shallowest state.

And, look, I know that there are skeptics.

So tonight, I'm gonna prove it.

We're gonna play a word game together.

My favorite word game. "Matt Libs."

And I'm gonna need to have some words randomly selected.

Penn, I'm gonna ask you to help, if you would.

And tonight we're doing a Matt Lib appropriately titled

"The Truth," and I need you to begin

by naming any adjective that you would like.

Smiley.

Smiley. Fantastic.

Next to number one, please write "smiley."

Yes. Lovely penmanship.

Penn, I also need a food-- a food you like,

a food you don't like, something you're ashamed

to feed your children. Any food product.

- Watermelon.
- Watermelon.

Fantastic. Watermelon next to number two.

And, finally, a silly word. The silliest word.

You can make up one if you want,

but she does have to spell it.

- Hungity.
- Ungity.

- Hungity.
- Hungity, with an H.

- Yeah.
- All right, hung--

sound it out. Hungity.

Hung--hung--

- H-U-N--
- Guh.

Guh--gid--

That's the Greek spelling I think.

Very well done.

Teller, I'm gonna ask you for a few words.

Maybe you can convey them through Penn.

I need a type of vehicle,

but make it an unusual type of vehicle.

Not one you see every day.

Motorboat.

Motorboat. Fantastic.

Motorboat next to number four.

Very good.

Oh, this will be fun. I also need an insult.

Insult me. Call me a name.

I'm a magician. I'm used to it.

- Bloody.
- Bloody?

Bloody next to number five.

And finally, Teller, I need a present participle.

Please don't make it dangling. That could be awkward.

- Sparkling.
- Sparkling.

Sparkling next to number six. Very good.

- So we ended up with smiley...
- Wait, spar--

Watermelon, hungity,

motorboat, bloody, and sparkling.

- Spark--
- Sparkling.

Yes, like your smile.

Sparkling. There you go.

All right. That's a good list.

Now, look, there are almost 200,000 words

in the English language you could have picked.

That's almost as many choices

as you have at the Cheesecake Factory.

And, look, I know even to you, Penn and "Teller,"

those choices felt fair,

but they control everything,

and I'm gonna uncover their conspiracy right here,

right now.

See, before we started, I did this Matt Lib myself,

and I blew it up really big,

and I hung it in an envelope over the stage,

an envelope that Alyson wrote her magic word on.

Hocus-pocus.

I'm gonna get it down and I'm gonna

ask Alyson to help me to unfold it.

Alyson, would you step over here please?

And I'm gonna ask you to hold this corner.

Hold onto it right there. Hold it up high.

Here it is--the truth.

In this smiley country we think we have free will.

But everything is a cover up.

From the microchips they put in the watermelon

we eat to the hungity waves

that 5G pumps into our brains to the flying motorboat

that crashed in the Nevada desert.

Even Penn and "Teller" are just pawns in their bloody game.

Oh, you can try sparkling away,

but your only chance to save yourself

is to shout the magic word, hocus-pocus!

Matt Marcy!

I loved that game when I was a kid.

Thanks. Yeah.

Well, now you know how it all works.

What has influenced your magic the most?

Well, I really like to do magic

that's based around story

and things in the world, like conspiracies that

I can work in and talk about with my magic as I do it.

Do you have a favorite conspiracy theory?

Like the world is flat?

I've never--

- Traveled?
- I've never traveled anywhere.

Never taken a plane?

Looked at the horizon?

What is your favorite performance ever?

I did a series of shows in a stadium

for 10,000 people a night

for three weeks a couple years ago,

and it was amazing to be

in a room of that size with that many people,

and, you know, pyrotechnics and--

- Wow.
- Yeah.

It was like a rock concert. So that was super fun.

Yeah. And of course this right here.

Exposing the truth about Matt Libs.

Yes. All right.

Let's see if Penn and Teller

can expose the truth about your trick.

Hey, Matt. As you know,

Teller saw your one-man show several years ago

and he still lights up when he sees you.

He just thought that was a wonderful, wonderful show.

And this is a great routine. Mad Libs is always funny,

and you have just a nice style and a nice delivery

and a nice trick. A really beautiful trick.

I'm looking back over the list of things

and wishing that instead of hungity,

which is a personal word that came out of nowhere,

that I'd used the word confabulation.

There's all sorts of words that could've gone in there,

but it was a wonderful version and just funny,

and to get all the laughs and tie it all together

with the truth thing and the conspiracy

and the proof of the illuminati,

getting all that together

it was just really funny, wonderful, wonderful routine.

And I don't think you fooled us,

and I hope I got a word or two in there.

- Well--
- Well, of course.

I mean, of course this is all really exposing the truth,

but if it were a trick,

then I think they would've figured out how I did it.

So it's not a conspiracy?

They know how you did your trick?

- Yes.
- All right.

You didn't fool them, but thank you,Matt Marcy.

Hope you're thirsty because we've got more magic on tap

when "Fool Us" returns.

Welcome back to "Fool Us."

Although so far tonight it's been "Can't Fool Us,"

maybe that'll change with this next act.

Hello. I'm Guilherme from Brazil.

Before I was on "Fool Us,"

I had never done magic in front of an audience.

Oh, I'm gonna get personal with him.

Even though it was my first time, I loved it.

Boy, what a great trick.

It was one of the best days of my life.

Ever since that night, magic has become my passion,

and even though I still cannot shuffle a deck of cards...

See?

I smell magic everywhere.

In Portuguese, that make sense.

Since I didn't grow up as a magician,

my process is different,

and this is my one great advantage.

Penn and Teller, my trick

is something no other magician has shown you.

I know that because I invented it just for you.

Back again and this time direct from Brazil,

Guilherme Silveira.

Hello, my name is Guilherme, and I'm from Brazil.

Brazil's a country very famous for its beautiful beaches,

bossa nova, and amazing tropical fruits.

My wife always complains that I don't eat enough fruits.

One year ago, she decided she would she blend me

some 100% natural juice each morning.

Every day, she changes her recipe.

I got so used to drinking them that now

I can taste any juice

and identify exactly what is in it

like an expert wine taster.

To show you my newfound magical gifts,

I have asked a volunteer

to create a unique juice blend.

I will look away

while you fill this blender with fruits.

Today's fruits are

the canary melon,

the watermelon,

the guava,

the mango,

and, at the end,

you get to decide whether to add sugar to it.

While you make your choices,

drop them quietly into the blender

so I don't hear any sounds.

Penn, on the pad I sent you,

please keep track of the fruits

my volunteer puts in the blender.

Please take as much as you want from the canary melon.

Remember to close it.

The watermelon.

Here's a fun fact.

Watermelons are both a fruit

and a vegetable.

The guava.

This is amazing.

The guava fruit can contain up to 500 edible seeds.

The mango.

This one is my favorite.

The oldest living mango tree is over 300 years old

and it still produces fruit you can eat.

And finally, add some sugar if you feel like it.

Now blend the fruits

until it's all mixed together,

and then pour me a cup of your creation.

Thank you.

Now I will drink it

and show you my juice tasting superpowers.

Now you could have added sugar to it

but you did not add sugar. Correct?

Correct.

Great.

Now, Penn, confirm the recipe, please.

Two pieces of canary melon.

One piece of watermelon.

Two pieces of guava.

Three pieces of mango.

And, of course, no sugar.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's a miracle.

Guilherme Silveira.

Hello. Welcome to Vegas.

Thank you. Thank you.

It's very nice to be here again.

So the first time you were here

it was your first public performance.

Exactly.

And since then, I've appeared in a theater two times.

Well, actually today's the second time in a theater.

So every time you invent a trick,

you'll be on "Fool Us"?

Well, that's something that we can discuss.

- I'm totally into it.
- Okay.

So you run a very successful tech company.

Is magic taking over your life now?

Yes. Magic is taking over my life.

At least the free hours-- the free time that I have.

So the trick is based on a true story?

Yes, it is.

My wife, she was a chef,

and she does make a lot of juices,

and I saw that how she was capable

of noticing the smells and saying

what is inside something

and she just knows what it is.

So I said, okay, perhaps I can learn how to do this,

and there we are.

All right. Well, let's see

if your magic trick fooled these two smoothies.

You know, when we're watching the acts,

I usually write down the first thing that pops into my head,

and I wrote down "goofiest trick I've ever seen."

Just totally goofy. I mean, so original.

"Tasting fruit is my superpower."

That's--not alchemy.

Not cheating at poker.

I can taste fruit.

That's what you're claiming.

You're at a little bit of a disadvantage,

because I know you're a tech guy.

We exchange emails now and again,

and you talked to me about the brilliant stuff you're doing.

So we were watching with that in mind.

And we love you. You do great routines

that are always a really good idea,

and always just not the same stuff.

As a matter of fact, not even similar to the same stuff.

Just terrific.

But you've got the fact that I know you're a tech guy

going against you.

So, let's talk about show business unions, shall we?

- I don't know.
- The way people get paid

for being on this show--

this is important-- the way people get paid.

Because some people work for years on a trick.

Some people develop it especially for the show.

But those same people, people that work really hard,

people that get really easy. They still get paid scale.

Everybody gets paid scale. That's what they get paid.

And you know, we, because our names are in the title,

we have a little more weight. So we get more than scale.

But everybody else gets paid scale.

And I just wanna make that very clear

because some people ask us

about the pay rates of people on "Fool Us."

And now that we've answered that

and have made that very, very clear,

I wanna tell you we know you're a tech guy.

We know you're one of the original, best thinkers

we have on this show. You always make us laugh,

and I don't think you fooled us.

What do you think, Guilherme? Did you fool them?

Cheers. Right?

- So they figured it out?
- Yes.

Well, you didn't fool them,

but you certainly entertained us.

We love you, man. You're the best.

- Guilherme Silveira.
- Thank you, thank you.

If you're waiting for a Penn and Teller trick,

the wait is over.

See the legends themselves perform when "Fool Us" returns.

Welcome back to "Fool Us."

And now to close out our show,

entertainment's greatest duo,

Penn and Teller.

Right now, if you go to Las Vegas Boulevard--

right here at the corner of Flamingo--

and look down the street,

you'll see marquees advertising magic show by Shin Lim,

who got his start right here on this stage on "Fool Us."

And Piff the Magic Dragon right across the street,

who also got his start on the show.

And then you'll see Mat Franco and Mac King,

who didn't get their start with us,

but they've been on the show.

Now if you look straight up, you'll see

a huge picture of David Copperfield

who certainly did not get his start on our show

but was nice enough to make an appearance.

All this wonderful magic

with some slight relation to our show.

And you might think we're bragging, but we're not.

Far from it.

If you were on the strip with all those famous,

amazing magicians and all those pictures and lights and videos

and megahype right there in your face

and you stopped someone and asked them

to name a magician,

they're most likely to name Harry Houdini,

a magician who's been dead for 94 years.

Houdini is still more famous

than all the rest of us put together.

Houdini's name means magic.

Teller is a Houdini collector.

He has handcuffs and a cross that Houdini escaped from.

He has a picture frame that belonged to

Bess Houdini.

Teller keeps this picture of Bess Houdini in the frame,

but he loves the frame because

Bess brought it to every séance

she did after Harry died.

She'd put a picture of Harry

in the frame to kind of watch over the séance.

Houdini died on Halloween. What a showman!

And she did a séance the last day of October every year

to see if he'd come back from the dead.

This is not because they were believers.

Houdini spent a lot of his career busting spiritualists,

people who claimed to talk the dead.

No big deal.

But they also claimed the dead talked back,

a very big deal and very not true.

They tried all sorts of scams

to prove they could communicate with the dead.

Stunts like these spirit pictures.

A trick photo of a grieving mother

surrounded by the people she loved that had passed away.

It's hard to even imagine the predatory cruelty of that.

Houdini claimed that if anyone could come back from the dead,

he would. Now, some people take this

to mean that Houdini believed in life after death.

We don't think so.

We think he meant "If I don't come back,

nobody can, so shut up."

Every year on Halloween, Bess had a séance.

Spiritualists showed up from all over the world

trying to convince Bess

they'd contacted her dear husband.

We would never exploit grief for fame.

But we would've loved to try to show Bess a trick

that would have given her pause.

Not to defraud Bess, but to honor Harry.

A few rules. Like always on "Fool Us,"

there won't be any camera tricks.

We could do this trick in the room live with Bess.

We're also not gonna use any technology

that was not available in Bess' time.

The flashlight was invented in 1899, so that's fair.

Shining a flashlight on her precious frame

would not have been a miracle.

It would have not have convinced her.

Projection of her beloved into a frame

would not prove that he cheated eternity.

It's just a projection.

But the next part of our trick,

we turned off the flashlight

and the picture stayed there.

We hope that might have amazed her just a little bit.

The pieces of glass

come apart,

and in the frame

is the picture of Bess and Harry.

It's a real picture.

And on the back in Houdini's handwriting it says,

"Bess, even though I can't come back from the dead,

"I can love you for all eternity.

Harry."

And we love you too, Harry.

And now...

you've been on "Fool Us."

We're turning off the lights and putting this show to bed.

We'll turn it on and turn it up again

when "Fool Us" returns. Good night.