07x24 - The Magic Toilet

[bunniefuu]

From the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio Hotel

in Las Vegas,

here's our host, Alyson Hannigan.

Welcome to "Fool Us".

I've been around this show long enough

to learn a trick or two, like this.

I'm sending you an image

of a famous magic duo.

Are you seeing Penn and Teller?

Huh. It worked.

Now, let's bring that image to life,

and bring out our stars, Penn and Teller.

If a magician wants to walk away with a "Fool Us" trophy,

they've got to successfully fool Penn and Teller.

Let's see if our first magician can pull it off.

After my first appearance on "Fool Us", Jonathan Ross,

the host, said incredibly nice things.

Listen, I think that's my favorite comedy magic act

I've ever seen, in my life.

After my second appearance,

Penn said incredibly nice things.

You are the greatest comedy magician

working in the world today.

What I'm hoping for my third appearance

is that I can somehow coax Teller

into saying something nice.

So this is just a small sample

of my plaid collection.

It turns out plaid is a lifetime commitment.

This was "eating the guinea pig" suit.

Yeah, the first time I was on,

I ate a live guinea pig.

Second time I was on, I ate a live goldfish.

No.

Wait till you see what I eat this time.

Please welcome back a friend

of the "Fool Us" family,

Mac King.

Hey!

Wow.

Oh, hey, you guys, you have a magic toilet.

Seriously, the toilet in the monkey room is magic.

Is it?

Yes. I ate this donut yesterday.

I know that doesn't make any sense, so I will explain,

but I need to borrow some U.S. currency.

Some sort of bill.

I'm working, Mac. I don't have money on me.

- You got no cash?
- Oh, Teller has money.

Whoa.

You've got money sewn in your belt?

What do you got there? What do you got?

- A 50?
- Yeah.

Ooh, as you know, bigger is funnier.

Usually.

Yeah.

So I'm gonna talk to you

from the monkey room.

I'll be back.

Ooh.

Well, we've never had a magician walk out

in the middle of their act,

but there's a first time for everything.

Mac?

Guys, this is the Penn and Teller monkey room

where Penn and Teller relax with their monkeys.

Come on in. This is the magic toilet.

Here's what happens. I'll explain how it works.

Everything I eat, and then digest,

and then deposit into this toilet,

after I flush it away,

it immediately reappears back here,

in this tank.

But not just in that tank,

but in that tank in its original, uneaten,

undigested form.

Allow me to demonstrate.

Please.

This simulates me eating

and digesting

your $50 bill.

I'm now depositing it

into the toilet.

Wait.

I meant--

I meant to keep one of those pieces.

I'm going in.

Ooh.

All right. This'll be our receipt.

Watch, as the other 16 pieces--

or 15 pieces

magically disappear.

Gone.

As I said, whatever I flush

into the magic toilet

instantly reappears back here unharmed, in the tank,

in its original, uneaten, undigested form.

I'll show you. As you can see now,

floating in the tank

is a $50 bill.

Not just any $50 bill,

but a $50 bill missing a piece.

Not just any piece,

but the exact piece that we reserved earlier.

You guys, you have a magic toilet.

This is the third time I've eaten this donut.

Mac King.

You're a disgusting pig.

It's not my toilet.

Oh, dear.

Uh-uh.

That's why I don't carry money with me on the set.

Oh.

Very smart.

Oh, aw.

It's still good, on the third iteration.

That is definitely one way

to get you to give up carbs.

- This is from three days ago.
- Oh, goodness.

Oh, sh**t.

Oh, boy.

I had the straw in upside-down.

What's it been like knowing these guys

for all these years?

Man, we've known each other a really long time,

and every time I spend time with them

I feel like I know them better,

and I feel like I love them more.

Yeah, well, you certainly feel comfortable with them.

I can see that.

Hopefully, they feel comfortable with me.

They might feel a little less comfortable

letting you use their bathroom now.

- Or spend their money.
- All right, Mac.

Let's see if they can flush out how you did your trick.

All right.

- Hello.
- Teller.

Mac King. My dear friend.

Jillette.

We start all of these busts

by complimenting the magician.

And then...

What can we say about you that we haven't said?

We have said greatest comedy magician alive.

- We have said our best friend.
- Aw.

We have said one of the funniest magicians

and one of the best magicians.

Is there a superlative we have not used?

What would you like us to say complimentary about you

that we have not said, Mac King?

You know what it is, but you can't say it.

And you're right, on both counts.

Yeah.

On both counts, but that, too, Mac King.

That too.

I think, for the people watching,

they have to see the kind of dedication

it takes for a magician

to actually flush 50 bucks down the toilet.

Which you actually did.

Actually cost you cash money.

And for all the young people watching,

let's break this trick down.

Number one and number two.

You had a lot of opportunities

to do sneaky stuff

while you were off camera, and you didn't do it,

because you like to do things right.

- Right.
- And I'll also tell you

that the amazing thing about this trick,

Mac King,

is there really is a magic toilet.

- It's a magic toilet.
- Oh, I didn't--I made that up.

We're supposed to now tell you, in a sneaky way,

how you did the trick. Are you hearing me?

- Oh, I see.
- It's a magic toilet,

and you really flushed 50 bucks down the dumper.

- Oh, yeah.
- You got that?

I'm not as smart as you think apparently.

I get it now.

And thank you for being willing to reach

into our toilet

to do one of the greatest bits we've ever had on here.

But you did not fool us.

Is that right, Mac?

He's correct. It's a magic toilet,

and I flushed 50 bucks away.

Aw.

Well, you didn't fool them, but come back anytime.

And next time, bring donuts for all of us.

- I will.
- Thank you, Mac King!

- Bye, guys.
- Aw.

We'll be back with more "Fool Us"

quicker than you can wave a wand.

Welcome back.

Let's see if this next magician

can crack open the "Fool Us" trophy case.

Take a look.

I was introduced to magic by Muhammad Ali.

My father was his bodyguard.

Most people don't realize that Muhammad Ali was a magician,

and he used to do levitation.

And he took a red handkerchief,

put it in his fist,

and made it disappear.

And to a five-year-old,

like I was, that was real magic.

I have a PhD in psychology.

It gives my magic more realism and credibility,

because I understand how people think

and what they're thinking. I like doing bizarre magic.

It's the kind of magic that creeps people out.

I like to know that I'm having that effect on people.

Penn and Teller, prepare to meet

the Muhammad Ali of creepy magic.

Prepare yourself for the moody magic

of David Shareef. Hi.

Hello, Alyson. Good to see you.

You too.

I want to tell you a story.

This is a true story. I swear.

You can look it up on all over the Internet.

Okay.

Several years ago in New Hampshire,

there was a man riding his motor scooter home

around 8:00 in the evening, on a dark stretch of road.

True story.

He was hit and k*lled by a taxicab driver.

And in the back of the cab, this taxicab driver

had a passenger.

A year later,

on the same stretch of the road,

around the same time of the evening,

the man's twin brother,

riding the same motor scooter,

was hit and k*lled

by the same taxicab driver

with the same passenger in the back seat.

Now, that's a coincidence.

I'm gonna try and create a coincidence for you,

but a lot less deadly okay?

- Please.
- Are you ready?

- Yeah.
- All right.

Now, here's what I want you to do.

I'm going to have you to cut about half the deck

- and put it in my hand.
- Okay.

Good, and you're gonna take the other half for yourself.

And put it in your hand just like this.

- Okay.
- Good, good, good.

Now, here's what we're gonna do.

Just gonna go off of motion, all right?

So I'm gonna go through the cards,

and I want you to do the same thing.

So just do what you're doing?

Yeah, just go through the cards.

Okay.

See if I can go with one here.

Yeah. You got one?

Yes.

Good, good, good. I'm gonna go with that one.

Okay.

Okay, and what I want you to do is take your card,

and put it on top of my deck.

Now, you take my card, and put it on top of your deck.

I'm going to use you as a table,

- and use me as a table.
- Okay.

Now, here's what I want you do.

Just take a peek, and see how we did.

- Okay.
- Wow.

Okay, put your card down here on the table.

- There you go.
- Just that one?

- Yes, yes, yes.
- Okay.

And this is the card you gave me?

Mm-hmm.

Let's see how we did. The ace.

Would it be crazy,

would it be weird, a coincidence,

if you've got the twin to this card,

- like in our story?
- Mm-hmm.

And that's our first coincidence.

- That's crazy isn't it?
- Yeah.

I tell you what. Here's what you do.

- You can give your cards a cut.
- Okay.

Just like I did.

Good, good, good.

Now, here's what we're going to do.

Going to do the same thing.

We're gonna go through the cards,

and pick out one that stands out to you.

Okay.

- You got one?
- Yes.

And you can take my card,

and put it on top of your deck.

And I'm gonna take yours and put it on top of mine.

Good, this time let's do it a little different,

because Penn and Teller's watching me.

They want to say,

"Where is this sleight of hand gonna happen?"

Okay.

All right, but I'm that good. It's not gonna happen.

- I have a pen.
- So here's what we do.

I'm gonna put a little smiley face on yours.

Aw.

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

And then you put your initials

or draw a little picture on mine.

- I do smiley faces too.
- Okay.

There's another coincidence,

but I'll do my initial too.

Good.

Now, let's let them see that is your card.

Okay?

And now, put it down on the table.

Okay.

Wait. I didn't look at it.

Should I have looked?

Oh, that's--no. You don't have to look at it,

because I'm praying that this is gonna work.

On the count of three, I'm gonna turn them both over.

Okay. Ooh.

One, two, three.

And that's the second coincidence.

But Alyson, it could have happened no other way.

It could not have happened any other way.

This is the only way this could have turned out.

Do you know why?

Well, I'm not riding a motorbike tonight, for sure.

Because there are no cards.

I know. You're holding a deck saying,

"Wait a minute. I'm holding a whole deck."

- Mm-hmm.
- No.

Literally, all the rest of the cards are blank.

Turn yours over. Go ahead.

What?

Yeah. That's a coincidence.

David Shareef.

That's crazy.

Yeah, that's magic, but that is an absolute true story.

And the weirdest part of the story is the two twins

that were k*lled in that story were married

to two twin sisters.

- Oh.
- You can look it up.

So you have an interesting early life.

Yes. Yes I did.

So did knowing Ali influence the man you became?

Oh, absolutely.

In fact, I'm a three-time world karate champion.

So knowing a champ made you want to be a champ?

Knowing a champ gave me the mindset

of whatever I do,

I have to be the best at it.

You know, like, "Oh, I'm gonna ride a bike.

Well, nobody's ever rode a bike like this."

So whatever it is, you know, I just want to be good at it.

So why do you adopt

a sort of creepy style to begin with?

Because I like to be frightened.

You know, I like to do bizarre magic, creepy stuff.

Talking to Jack the Ripper through seances and--

But you're not creepy, at all.

I know. I know, yeah.

All right. Okay, David, well let's see

if your creepy story fooled Penn and Teller.

- Nice, nice job.
- Oh, thank you.

You're taking a card trick,

and making it have a creepy story to it,

and having all that atmosphere, and all of that.

And making a card trick mean something.

You know, it's always hard to do that.

It's also great that Alyson

really has complete freedom of choice,

all the way through.

There's no force. No nothing.

You really do pick any card you want.

Any card you want, David can handle it.

And to do that kind of thing, to learn that kind of thing,

you gotta get into magic,

and then have a lot of stick-to-it-iveness,

to be able to keep going with that,

and be able to control that.

So you can have an open thing, and hit it right on the mark.

And you say that story in New Hampshire's true?

Yeah. That's an absolute true story.

Goodness gracious.

Everyone is gonna be looking it up now.

Oh, yeah. I bet they will,

because you know everything you see on the internet...

- Mm-hmm.
- That's true.

Anyway, it was a really great thing.

Really great tone.

Everything else, but I think I slipped in a few things

and maybe gives you an idea

that we might have some idea how you did it.

What do you think?

Do they know how you did your trick?

I don't know what the hell he's talking about.

Maybe Teller can tell me.

Okay, we're gonna have Teller tell you, David,

but things are a little different this year,

because we now have the "Fool Us" hotline.

So Teller's not gonna have to whisper to you.

He can actually call you.

Oh, there you go. Go ahead and answer.

Hello, Mom?

Oh, okay.

All right. Okay, okay.

All right. I got it now.

I got it now. -

First of all, I just want to say

he sounds like Marvin the Martian.

Secondly, they got me.

They busted me, but I swear to the invisible man

out in space, I will be back, and I'm gonna fool you.

- Okay.
- I promise that, I promise.

- We look forward to it.
- You didn't scare up a trophy.

- I know.
- But you scared me.

I know, thank you very much.

Thank you so much. David Shareef!

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Later on tonight, you'll see Penn and Teller perform.

And right after the break,

you'll meet another world-class magician.

Stay close.

Welcome back.

A mysterious package has just arrived for you,

and inside is our next potential fooler.

Live from a theater in Costa Rica,

please welcome Alejandro Navas.

Hi, Penn. Hi, Teller.

It's a pleasure for me being here with you.

Teller, you have a deck of cards right?

Excellent. Shuffle, shuffle.

I am very excited, because from my country, Costa Rica,

I am going to try to make the magic happen in Las Vegas,

and in your hands.

All right. Ready?

Excellent.

Now, take the first card,

and place it like this.

Yeah. And keep going.

Place card one by one on the table.

And just stop whenever you want.

Ready? Excellent.

Place the card like this.

Excellent. Now, take the next two cards.

Don't see them and place them aside.

All right.

Two cards at random right? Yeah, yeah.

For example, take this card,

yeah, and place it like this.

What would happen if you stopped on that card?

That would be your card right?

So we got two cards at random.

So take one of those cards, and show it to Penn.

Don't let me see it. Show it to Penn.

One. Yeah?

Remember the card, Penn.

Place it back right here. Yeah.

Excellent.

Now, take the other card

and show it to me.

Queen of hearts.

Excellent. Place it back.

All right.

One card for me, and one card for Penn.

And now, Teller, one card for you.

Do as I do.

Take the cards like this, yeah?

Place it like this.

Cut. Flip it.

Place them.

Excellent.

And separate the cards like this face up,

from the face down.

Yeah. Like this.

Separate them.

Now, only you, Teller, only you,

look and remember the next card, like this.

Don't share it with anybody, all right?

Because it's a secret card.

Like this. Yeah, you got it?

Excellent. Place it back.

A secret card, right?

And take it like this,

and let's do this impossible shuffle.

All right.

Place them and complete the deck.

Yeah. Now, Penn, Teller,

believe it or not,

I'm going to find all three cards.

But not with my deck.

In your deck. Ready?

All right. The first card.

The queen of hearts.

Let me see it.

Oh, yes. I got it.

It's in the position number 21.

Yeah.

Wait. It's starting to move.

Now it's in the 12th.

Now it's in the tenth.

Wait a minute.

This is not any card of any number.

It's an ambitious card.

And now,

it's at the first position.

Come on. Take a look.

The queen of hearts.

Yeah!

Excellent.

Now, Teller, throw it.

Throw it.

All right.

Now, the second card. Penn, tell me your card.

The king of hearts.

It's also moving and climb to the top.

Three, two, one.

It's at the top right now. King of hearts.

Come on. Take a look.

Yeah!

I can't believe it.

Now, the last one.

The last one is the most difficult card,

because only you saw it.

All right, Teller.

Place your hand like this

on the table.

Take the card.

Don't let me see it

and place it like this.

Yeah.

Now, take the deck and...

Throw it!

Yeah, yeah.

Now, sandwich the card.

Don't open it.

Now, I'm going to read your mind.

But...

I think I got it.

Teller...

this is not your card right?

No.

This is the jack of hearts.

But when I move this card

your card also moves.

Do you feel that?

Now, Teller,

this is your card.

Wait, wait. Don't open it.

This is your card, right?

And you know, when the card move between countries,

you know?

And you know where is the jack of hearts?

Between your hands.

Thank you. Thank you.

Alejandro Naves.

Hola.

Hola. Hi.

It's amazing you can control cards here

all the way from Costa Rica.

Yeah. I don't know how.

It's so weird, right?

If you don't know how,

then that's a good sign that they won't know how.

I hope so.

How have you met the creative challenge

of working long distance?

Well, Alejandro, let's see

if a trophy is in the cards for you.

Alejandro.

I don't know how well this will translate,

but that was a [bleep] damn great trick.

A fabulous trick, and I've gotta tell you,

you did a really smart thing.

You took the really smart guy,

and you took him out of commission.

Teller's the brains of the outfit.

Everybody knows that. It's no secret.

You put him in charge of doing the trick,

so at the end,

you 100% fooled Teller.

Teller had no idea

how you did it.

So this is a rare moment on "Fool Us"

where I've got to go up against you.

All right. Go on.

So here we go.

During the past few months, we've had to look into

how to do tricks remotely. And we've learned

a few key principles that are very helpful.

And I think I have an idea

of how you did it.

And I also think I might be wrong,

but right as of now,

you're halfway there,

because you completely fooled Teller.

And there's a little bit

of the language barrier and so on,

so let's hear from the judges whether you fooled me.

They've heard everything we've said.

They know how you're doing it, and I've gotta tell you.

Whether you fooled me or you didn't,

I am gonna be very happy with the outcome.

- Aw.
- 'Cause I want you to win,

and I also like to play the game.

Hmm, yes, so I'm hearing from the judges.

I'm sorry to say

you did not fool Penn and Teller.

Just so good, man, so good.

But it was a marvelous card trick.

Fabulous.

Alejandro Naves.

Thank you.

Don't vanish on us.

"Fool Us" will be right back with more magic.

Welcome back.

"Fool Us" fans will definitely remember our next magician.

Take a look.

My first time on "Fool Us" I had some stage fright,

and I try not to look at Penn and Teller directly.

Then Teller noticed that I was nervous,

and he waved at me.

And it totally put me at ease.

- You fooled Penn and Teller.
- Oh!

"Fool Us" changed my life.

After I fooled Penn and Teller, I had an offer

to do an off-Broadway run in New York,

my dream, and it came true.

The first time you come on "Fool Us," it's checkers.

It's simply about trying to win.

But this time, it's chess. Penn and Teller know me.

They have expectations of my methodology.

On both sides, there is more strategy.

I have high expectations of myself.

I always want to come up with illusions

that have never been done before.

Tonight, I'd like to prove something to Penn and Teller,

but I'm also trying to prove something to myself.

Back to try for his second "Fool Us" trophy,

give it up for Vitaly Beckman.

I started doing magic when I was a little kid

in my parents' home.

Whenever they had visitors,

they also became my audience.

Ever since, I've been fortunate to travel around the world

and perform on different stages,

including on yours, a few years back.

Isn't it ironic that, today,

life has come full circle,

and I'm back performing in my home?

But this time, you're my guests.

And actually, before I did magic, I used to paint.

And I used to carry a little sketch pad like this,

to sketch my impressions.

My inspirations. Let's see.

I think I'm gonna give you an example.

I'm gonna sketch something simple right now.

As simple as a leaf.

One of the beautiful things I love about magic.

Not only you can put your imagination into paper,

like in painting,

but you can also make it...

Real.

And you can even remove it from the page.

And this is what drove me to do magic.

The desire to transform

what I imagine into reality.

And actually, over the years,

I learned to use the art for more practical purposes.

Like many of you, I am a creature of habit.

And every morning,

I start my day with something I just can't do without.

Mmm.

I guess it was all in my imagination.

Vitaly Beckman.

Ah. Welcome back.

Thanks for having me back.

Well, that is a very convenient trick.

Well, you know, it's funny.

Those sketch pads, they're not there by chance.

I actually use them to come up with ideas.

The idea to sketch some food--

a muffin and coffee.

It's kind of inspired by the pandemic,

'cause when it started

people didn't want to go outside, you know?

And I thought,

"Well, why don't I just sketch whatever I need right here?"

But the first one you saw,

the one where I sketched the leaf--

- Yes.
- I actually--it's interesting.

I invented it when I was 14 years old,

when I was just getting into magic.

I was painting before that,

and so the first thought that came into my mind is that,

"Let's turn my paintings to reality."

And this is also my philosophy in life, to create,

to come up with things that haven't been done before.

So you're a true original?

I'm trying to be.

You know, that's what inspired me to get into magic.

That's kind of what drives me, you know?

Other than muffins, of course. -

Penn and Teller, do you know how Vitaly did his trick?

- Hey, Vitaly.
- Hey, Penn.

You're a nice guy. We're nice guys, you know?

Thanks, guys.

You came on the show once. You were a nice guy.

We kind of thought,

"Here's a nice guy. He's gonna do a nice trick,"

and we'd kind of let you slide by.

We didn't take a dive. You absolutely fooled us.

No doubt about it, but you know,

you come back a second time,

all of a sudden, you're not a nice guy.

- Uh-oh.
- You're an adversary.

Now, you're someone we have to take down

because we do not like to be fooled twice by somebody.

Uh-oh.

So I'm not saying that last time we went easy on you.

I'm saying last time we didn't go hard, okay?

Okay.

Now, we're going to be a little bit tougher, okay?

All right.

And I'm going to ask you a few questions, okay?

Okay.

You ready for these questions?

Yes.

Now, I'm gonna ask you the questions right out.

No code. No nothing.

- Okay.
- Okay?

So we may give up your trick,

'cause I don't give a damn, 'cause you fooled us once.

Don't want you to fool us again.

So you ready?

You ready to play like a grownup?

- You ready?
- I'm ready.

I'm ready. Let's do it.

Were there mirrors involved in any way whatsoever?

No.

Okay, fine. We knew that.

Was there another person involved, in any way?

No, in no way,

other than the videographer.

Right. Okay.

We knew that too. -

We knew those two things.

We knew them very well. This is the question

that we also kind of know the answer to.

- But you ready for this?
- Yes.

- Did you fool us?
- Yes.

- Yes, you did.
- Ooh!

Yay! Congratulations, Vitaly.

Thank you, guys.

Aw. Whoo-hoo!

I got it for today.

You fooled Penn and Teller again.

Well, just draw another one, and pop it up.

Yeah, I got it right here.

There you go. Whoo-hoo.

All right.

Well, accepting the real one is me, for you.

And great job.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, Penn and Teller.

- One more time.
- Love you, Vitaly, love you.

Give it up for Vitaly Beckman!

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

- Whoo-hoo.
- Thanks, Alyson.

Penn and Teller are fooled, fooled, fooled.

They were only fooled once,

but I'm saying it three times to rub it in.

Boys, shake it off while we take a break.

Penn and Teller draw their inspiration

from the strangest places.

In this next trick, they may change the way you hear

this nursery rhyme forever.

Give it up for Penn and Teller.

* Alone in the kitchen *

* A late afternoon *

* Patiently there on the shelf *

* No one has seen him *

* Since early morn *

* But soon he'll be back to himself *

* 'Cause he's a little teapot *

* Short and stout *

* Here is his handle *

* Here is his spout *

* When he gets his steam up *

* Hear him shout *

* Tip him over, and pour him out *

* He's a clever teapot *

* Yes, it's true *

* Let us show you *

* What he can do *

* He can change his handle *

* And his spout *

* Tip him over *

* And pour him out *

We've filled up on great magic for tonight,

but come back next time

for another helping of "Fool Us".

Bon appetit from Las Vegas.