02x09 - Star Spangled Magic

[bunniefuu]

From the Penn & Teller
Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada,

here's our host, Jonathan Ross.

Thank you very much indeed.

You're very kind. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much indeed,
ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to Penn & Teller: Fool Us,

the show with more magic than Magic Mike,
but far less impressive bodies.

Instead of Channing Tatum
pulling off his shirt,

you'll see today's hottest illusionists
trying to pull one over

on the all-time legends of legerdemain.

If they can do it,

they'll earn a one-night stand
with Penn and Teller

as part of their nightly
Vegas spectacular.

And, boy,
is the talent backstage incredible.

This is the only program around
where, if Kanye West storms the stage,

our acts can actually make him disappear.

Now let's meet an act that hasn't
disappeared for over 35 years.

The duo have seen it all,
they've done it all,

and the one who said it all,
Penn and Teller.

Teller, fabulous to see you.
Penn, as always, great to have you.

Penn and Teller, ladies and gentlemen.

Gentlemen, if you'd like to take
your chairs, the show can get started.

Penn and Teller, ladies and gentlemen.

So sit back and get ready to be amazed,

because it's time to meet
our first magician.

My name is Blake Vogt
and I am obsessed with magic.

I was a pretty socially awkward kid
growing up.

Most people, when they're younger,

find it easy to go up
and meet someone and say hi.

And I found it easier to say,
"Hi. Pick a card."

- Creeped out?
- Yeah.

I dropped out of college

to pursue working for David Copperfield
in Las Vegas,

and I've been making my living
the last few years

creating magic for television and movies.

Whenever I've been working
for all these other magicians,

I give them all of my ideas.
But this trick I'm performing tonight,

I've held on to for myself
for over four years,

so I'm very excited
to finally get to debut it.

Go crazy for the superbly gifted
Blake Vogt.

The linking rings.

None of you seem into this.

Okay. How about the linking squares?

Pretty cool? You can cut the music.

Thank you.

I don't mean to start off my performance
by making fun of a classic of magic.

I love the linking rings.
It's one of my favorite.

It's just there's a few things with it
that I think could be better.

And so I would like to show you guys
my version of the linking rings.

But instead of using those props,
I'd like to use a borrowed object

from someone in the audience.

So if you have a $1 bill on you,
either in your wallet or in your purse,

if you wouldn't mind pulling it out now,
that would be great.

Now, I'll let you know
that I'm going to be destroying

your dollar bill during this trick.

So I don't want you to have to pay
to see a magic trick,

so I'm going to trade you
my bill for yours.

You, sir, do you mind
if I borrow your bill?

- You can have it.
- You got it. Okay, cool.

Now I have to ask you,

is there anything sentimental
about this bill?

- Nothing.
- You don't mind if I destroy it?

And then you can keep mine,

but before I commit
to destroying your bill,

if you wouldn't mind looking
into that camera right there and say,

"I accept responsibility."

- Okay.
- Oh, thumbs up. Thumbs up works.

Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it.

Give him a round of applause
for volunteering. That's great.

Now this is a smaller trick.

It's kind of a close-up trick
since I can't use the big rings.

So if you, Penn and Teller,
wouldn't mind joining me on stage,

that would be awesome. Thank you.

- Penn, if you wouldn't mind sitting here.
- You want me in this chair?

- Yes, please.
- Okay. Okay.

Teller, good to see you. Please sit here.
Thank you so much.

Now since this is already a unique bill
this gentleman kindly volunteered,

I'm gonna make it a little bit more unique
by asking you guys to sign the bill.

Just like that.
Penn, if you wouldn't mind signing there.

Thank you.

And, Teller, if you wouldn't mind
signing on that line.

Thank you so much.

Now, this bill, you could argue,
that now is worth more than a dollar

with you guys' autographs on there.

- At least $1.01.
- Exactly.

So I'm gonna take this a step further now.

And actually, if you thought, like,
writing on money was ill*gal,

I'm going to take this
to the hardcore level of tearing it.

This trick is intense so far, right?

So I'm gonna tear it right down
the middle. Just like this.

Now, Teller, if you wouldn't mind
holding onto this half for me,

I'm gonna have you do a few things
with that half in just a moment.

But first, I'm gonna ask you
to fold it in half.

If you could go ahead and do that,
that would be great.

So what we're going to do is
actually form the two rings for the trick

instead of using the giant silver ones.

So we're gonna tear out
the center of each of these halves.

So if you don't mind
just tearing out a circle,

leaving about a half-inch border
around the bill,

and I'll do the same thing here
with my half.

Exactly.
Just kind of like that, that deep.

Perfect. So there you go.
Get rid of my middle.

Now what I'm gonna do is take your half

and I'm going to try to create
the illusion that they're linked,

if that makes any sense.

So it's gonna use origami,
and kind of misdirection,

and a little bit of an optical illusion.

So if I hold them just straight like this,

you'll see that they start to look like
they're linked.

But that's just an optical illusion.

The origami in magic
starts to look a lot better

whenever you open one of the bills,

and then whenever you open the other one,
they really look like they're linked.

Pretty cool.

Now... Thank you. Thank you.

Now obviously this is just
an optical illusion.

You know they're not actually linked.

So, Teller, if you mind
just holding up one finger for me.

Just like that.
The longer you stare at the illusion,

the more you start to realize
that they are not actually linked.

Thank you. Thank you.

So I'm gonna try to do this one more way,

but make this different
than anything you've seen before,

but in order to do that,
I'm gonna hand you the bills in a moment.

But it's because of the legal issues
with this trick

and destroying money on television,

Teller, I'm actually gonna need you
to accept responsibility for these.

So, Penn, if you don't mind saying
into the camera,

"Teller accepts responsibility."

Teller accepts responsibility
for all federal crimes done

within the next two hours.

Anywhere in the U.S.A.

Perfect. Amazing.

So now that we've got that out of the way,
I'm gonna try this one final time for you.

So you can see the two bills here,
and on the count of three.

One, two, three.

They link.

Now, what makes this link
slightly different is if...

Teller, do you mind grabbing right here
with your right hand?

At this point in the trick,
instead of unlinking them,

you can examine everything.
And that's the end of the trick.

Thank you.

Blake Vogt,
ladies and gentlemen. That was great.

Guys, you can take those
back to your seats

so you can continue examining them.

How good was that, ladies and gentlemen?
It was out of this world.

Thank you.

Especially bearing in mind
you had Penn and Teller,

two of the keenest minds
and two of the sharpest eyes in magic,

staring right at what you were doing.

So for you to do that in front of them,

you have either got to be pretty confident
about what you do, or just insane.

A little bit of both, probably.

It seems an especially brave
or foolhardy thing to do

to let them take that away,

but I guess that's part of the whole trick
you're playing on them, isn't it?

Yeah. All or nothing, I guess.

Okay, so you're being pretty crafty
right now.

I'm hoping so.

Let's go to Penn now and find out
what they feel. Penn, your verdict please.

We know this guy!

And we have seen the work that
this guy can do with a piece of paper.

We've seen things he's done,
close-up tricks for us,

and he has shown us afterwards
how he did it.

Maybe not with a lot of foresight
for this show tonight. Yeah.

If I would've known I would've been here,
I might've handled that differently.

Because he can do anything
with a piece of paper.

And I'll tell you,
our eyes and our fingernails

are not good enough to see

how you made these bills into,
essentially,

what ends up being a paper version
of a locking ring,

and then put in our hands.

Which means,
not only are your hands very skillful,

but you also have gonads
the size of Texas.

We saw a few of the things you were doing
because there's no way in this trick

- to put in any sort of real misdirection.
- Right.

Because when you need to do
the dirty work,

we're staring at your hands.

- Right.
- This is just raw skill.

We know what he's doing
and when he's doing it,

and he just does it so well
that we can't...

We can't see the seams,
but we saw the seams being made.

- So they know what you're doing.
- Yes, they do.

- You didn't fool them.
- No, I did not.

Well, you fooled the rest of us.
That was an incredible performance.

He would fool anyone in the world
except us.

Yeah, but what a great act.
Blake Vogt, ladies and gentlemen.

- Superb. Great job. Thank you, sir.
- Thank you. Thank you.

Let's meet our next contender.

I'm Joshua Jay and I'm from Ohio.

When you're as crazy about magic as I am,

you see everything
through the lens of magic.

Everything that I do,
everything that I read,

everything that I watch

is fodder for magic tricks.

The thing I love about magic

is the same thing
that I love about movies.

So many different ways to tell a story.

Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen King,
many others,

these people are great storytellers
and they would make great magicians.

I like to try and transport the audience.

I wanna take them into my story
and then give them this magical payoff.

I feel like magic is like a game of chess
between the magician and the audience,

and the end game is pure entertainment,
pure astonishment.

To see something incredible,
that's what you go for.

Now one of the all-time magic greats,
Mr. Lance Burton,

said of this next performer,
"This kid is going places."

Well, we're thrilled
our stage is one of those places.

With a randomly selected member
of our audience to help him,

will you please welcome Joshua Jay!

Thank you. Thank you.

It's...

It's an honor to be performing here
for Penn and Teller and for all of you,

and it's a challenge, right, to try
and fool these guys, Penn and Teller?

But not as challenging
as the last show I did.

I was trying to fool
a seven-year-old girl.

You see, this girl came up to me
and she wanted to see a trick

and I realized she was blind.

And I thought,
that's a really powerful moment.

And it is a challenge,
because magic is visual.

It's for the eyes.

If I were gonna fool her,
I'd have to fool her mind.

So I'm gonna show you what I showed her,
with your help.

Now I can't have you pick a card
if you couldn't see,

because you wouldn't know
which card you picked.

Even if I could get your hand to the deck
and have you pick a card out,

you wouldn't know
which one you were looking at.

So I've got a better way.

Hold out your hand
and put your other hand on top.



I want you to do it like this.
First think of the number.

- Do you have a number?
- Yeah.

- And now I want you to think of the suit.
- Okay.

Now you have a card, a number and a suit.

And this is perfect,
'cause he knows the card in his head,

but of course Penn and Teller
don't know it and none of you know it.

And you all need to know the card.

Now if you whispered the card,
you'd accuse me of listening.

So I've got a perfect way
for Todd to code the card to all of you

and you'll be...
You'll know the card, but I won't.

Here's how it works.
I'll blindfold myself and I'll turn away.

And when I do,
what I'd like you to do, Todd,

is I want you to deal
the value of your card in a facedown pile.

So we'll get a close-up in a second
on Todd's hands.

And if you thought of three,
you'll go, one, two, three, one by one,

and put the deck on top when you're done.

Deal as quietly as you can
so you don't think I'm listening.

I will turn away.

The audience will tell me
when you're done.

Go ahead and go. Deal that value
of your card in a facedown pile,

and when you're done, put the deck on top.

- It's done?
- It's done.

Now all of you know the value of your card
except for me, which is great.

But you need to know the suit.
So I'll turn away again

and I want you to deal the value
or the suit of your card like this.

If you're thinking of clubs,
deal one down, and put the deck on top.

If you were thinking of hearts,
do two cards, one by one, deck on top.

Spades would be three.
Diamonds would be four.

Audience will tell me when you're done.

Oh.

Applause for dealing. I like this crowd.
Okay.

Now the question is,
how can I find this card?

'Cause it's the perfect situation, right?

Todd thought of a card.
He never had to take it out of the deck,

never had to show it around,
never had to mention it.

But now how can I find a card
for somebody's mind?

And I'll tell you how.
I'm gonna go by feel.

I'm gonna try and feel for that card.
Go by a feeling that I get.

- Todd, you didn't leave, did you?
- Nope. I'm still here.

That's good. I'm gonna go... Oh... Oh!

I'm getting a feeling on this card.

Todd, did you, by any chance, pick...

The 4 of Diamonds?

That I did.

Is this card, by any chance,

the 4 of Diamonds?

- Nice.
- Thank you.

But I said that this was a trick
not for the eyes, but for the mind.

You see, there is no deck of cards.

This is completely for your mind.

And I want you to look at these.

Make sure that they don't come apart,
peel apart.

This is a real deck of cards.
In fact, it's my gift to you,

and I thank you so very much.

They're yours to keep.

Let's hear it again
for Joshua Jay.

Josh, come out in the front.

That was phenomenal.

- Because I've seen a lot of card tricks...
- Thank you.

...but I've never seen one
quite like that.

Wasn't that out of this world?

Thank you very much. Thank you.

I know you have a lot of interest
in the history of magic

and the greats that have come before you.

I do. Absolutely. My apartment is like
a mad scientist's lair of magic stuff.

I have Houdini's straitjacket
that he used, and his handcuffs,

and, like, 4,000 books.

'Cause it's my life, you know.
I mean, this isn't just what I do here.

I'm thinking about it
and reading about it constantly.

I'm assuming
the straitjacket is on display.

It's not used for, like,
Shades of Grey moments at home, is it?

- No comment on that.
- Okay.

So what was it?
What kicked off your love of magic?

My dad showed me a trick
when I was eight years old

and didn't tell me how it was done.

And the not telling me how it was done
part was what hooked me.

- And did he ever tell you?
- Never did. But I figured it out.

So I had a little Fool Us
at eight years old in my living room.

I have my fingers crossed for you.
Penn, the verdict, please.

Okay, we see a lot of people come out here
and do trick after trick after trick.

Just machine-g*n quality going through
that we have trouble keeping track of.

You did one clearly plotted trick
that used, actually,

four methods that you had to use
to do that.

Your cards, from the very beginning,
were not shuffled

and were not handled by Jonathan.

And we also thought that
the move you had to do at the end

was done absolutely beautifully.

Just gorgeous. Wonderful...

- And at a wonderful time... Yeah.
- Just so we're closer,

are you saying that something
was switched or changed out?

There was one moment when something was...

I'm trying not to say too much,
but where something was switched.

But there were four things
that Teller could write down,

- and he will show them to you.
- So, Josh, if you take a look

- at what Teller's worked on...
- Hi, Teller.

- That's... That's not correct.
- Wow.

- Whoa! That's not correct?
- And that's a pretty major part of it.

I think I can say,
without giving anything away,

I absolutely did not do a deck switch.

You did not do a deck switch?

Well, then, I do know
what you did do, then.

If you did not do a deck switch,
then I think...

And I didn't confirm with Teller on this,
but I think there's another way...

I think you fooled us.
That was the way you did it.

If you didn't do a deck switch,

you fooled us, is what you did.

Why'd you do that?

Beautiful job.

Oh, God. You gave me a heart attack.

Thank you.

You might wanna give that
to the young man there.

- Here you go, sir.
- That's for Joshua.

There you go.

- Beautifully done.
- Oh, my God. Thank you.

Joshua Jay,
you fooled Penn and Teller.

- Thank you.
- Joshua Jay, ladies and gentlemen.

It's time to meet our next contender.

My name's Levent. I do comedy magic.

My area of interest
is magic within vaudeville.

We're right now in David Copperfield's
Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts.

Let's take a look
at what some of this stuff does.

I will often take an old trick and just
polish it up and give it a new angle.

But I'm still performing, in its core,
the classic trick.

And it's a classic for a reason.
Because it's good.

Ugh, ventriloquism. This stuff's creepy.

A modern magician learns
from what magicians did in the past.

So how you pay it back

is you teach the magicians of the future
how to do tricks.

So, in other words, you pay the past back
by paying it forward.

Besides being an accomplished magician,

our next performer is the curator
of David Copperfield's Museum of Magic.

So to be here tonight,
either the big guy gave him the night off

or he called in "sick."

Will you please welcome Levent!

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, folks. Thank you.
Some scarf music, please. Here we go.

One, two,

three scarves go here on the chair
that says the word "not."

One, two, three scarves
remain at my fingertips.

Now I'm gonna tie the corners of
these two scarves together into a knot.

Speaking of the word "knot,"

if you look on the chair,
it says the word "knot,"

but it doesn't say the word "not."

If you look on the other chair,
it says the word "not,"

but it doesn't say the word "knot."

So the most important thing to remember

is that you may not place the knots
where it says "not,"

and you may only place knots
where it says the word "knot." So watch.

Three handkerchiefs, two knots,
go gently onto the chair like that.

Now, to confuse your brain cells,
I remove the letter K from the word "knot"

and I simply place the letter K
over to the word "not."

Suddenly, on the chair,
it no longer says the word "knot,"

it says the word "not,"
which means the knots are not there.

You got it or not? You get it?

Watch the chair. Look.
Each handkerchief one at a time.

One.

Two.

Three handkerchiefs.

No knot. Thank you.

Ah. You may applaud at will.
Thank you very much. Thank you.

Come here, Jonathan.
Come here for a second.

Jonathan, watch this.
Can you step onto the stage right here?

Three handkerchiefs, two knots.
Three handkerchiefs, two knots.

I'm gonna place them right down there.
I'm gonna remove the letter K.

The word has changed and knots are gone.

Please give me each handkerchief
one at a time.

Oh.

Wow.

- Thank you very much, Jonathan.
- Wow.

Thank you.

You know...
Folks, I'll do this one more time,

but I'll remind you, this trick only works
in the English-speaking world.

For instance, if this was Norway,
this wouldn't be the word "knot."

In Norwegian,
it would be the word "knute."

Knute, which is a sport
which involves a piece of rope,

a reindeer, a lit candle,
and a bottle of whale oil.

And it's ill*gal in most countries.

So a trick with one knot.

One knot, because the word "knot"
is singular, it's not plural,

and I don't want to get
the angry grammarians coming after me.

So watch.

All the magic is done with the letter K.

Now, how many people
expected to see a 1K run?

I'm not sure. But look. Look, look.

Boom! It goes right there.
Let's see the handkerchiefs.

No knot. No knot.

The one knot has disappeared
from this group of handkerchiefs.

Then I grab this corner here,
and this corner,

and the handkerchiefs on the chair
have tied themselves as if by magic.

Thank you. Thank you.

Gonna get rid of half of the handkerchiefs
and I have here, remaining in my fingers,

we have here the blue handkerchief,

the white handkerchief
and the red handkerchief.

I'm gonna show
each one of these handkerchiefs

to be truly empty and without guile.

Jonathan, please help me
for just one moment.

I'm gonna pull the handkerchiefs
through your hand...

- Okay.
- ...make sure there's no knot. See that?

- No knot.
- No knot.

The next handkerchief, white handkerchief.

- Pull it through your hand, no knot.
- Nothing.

And finally, the blue handkerchief.
Pull it through your hand. No knot.

And the most difficult thing
in this entire trick

is hiding the bottle of wine

while handling all the handkerchiefs
just like that.

Ah!

How's it done?

Get a bunny rabbit.
It does all the hard work.

Let's give him a round of applause.
Thank you very much, folks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

- Levent, ladies and gentlemen. Fabulous.
- Thank you. Thank you.

- Very funny finish as well.
- Thank you.

That was incredible.

That was as close to real magic
as I think I've ever sat.

- Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
- It was really remarkable.

It's one of the great classic tricks
of magic from vaudeville.

Many versions of it,

and this happens to be
my little version of it.

I study all different kinds
of magic tricks

and I try to bring back old tricks,

because just because something is old
doesn't mean that it's bad.

Sometimes, in the arts,
something is old and it's good,

- we call it a classic.
- Yeah.

And I consider this trick a classic.

Let's see if the guys are getting close.
Penn?

You know, you do the classic stuff,

but I don't think
that gives you enough credit...

Oh, thank you.

...because you talked about
that being vaudeville stuff.

That is the Sympathetic Silks,

and it is a classic of magic
and one that we're aware of and we study.

But you always add stuff, too.
I don't mean just the comedy.

There's also little wrinkles that
made this a brain-buster in a few places.

I think that there was
a lot of sleight of hand in here.

And then the wonderful thing in there,
and we love when you do this.

The best thing you can do in magic

is to use multiple methods
to accomplish the same thing.

And there is something mechanical
in there.

- I don't want to say any more than that.
- Right.

But it's not all sleight of hand.

So, some of it's
real clean sleight of hand,

some of it's mechanical.

You put those two together,

you really, really do blow minds,
which you did.

We happened to see a couple of the loads
that we knew were gonna be coming in.

Because we knew we were coming.

Because that's the bad part
of doing classic magic

is we know the rhythms
and know where you're going.

We just loved it, but I do think

we have a pretty good idea how you did it,

as much as we loved it.

Well, I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.

You know, I think the sign that...

And you're happy, then?
You're convinced that they do know,

they've busted you, you didn't fool them?

I mean, I'm using sleight of hand.

That's... There's no way...
You can't get away from that.

- I'm using sleight of hand.
- And it's beautiful.

- But at the end, you're...
- Thank you.

...not just a sleight-of-hand artist.
You're probably the best.

- Oh, thank you.
- 'Cause that was...

The thing about a true professional
is they make it look so easy,

you can't believe anything is going on.

And that was faultless.
Wasn't it, ladies and gentlemen?

Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Just remarkable and beautiful to watch.

Levent, ladies and gentlemen.
The fabulous Levent.

Thank you. Good-bye.

Well, it's been an eventful night
here on Fool Us.

One magician has already taken down
the mighty Penn and Teller.

Let's see if lightning can strike twice
as we meet our next contender.

My name is Ben Seidman.

I do magic tricks
and I live in Los Angeles.

I wanted to play in a band for years.
I love playing music.

And I also love acting.
I was an actor growing up.

So I decided, eventually,
there are three things that I love,

I have to choose one passion.

So I chose magic.

And I really do love what I do.

The hardest part about it is the travel.
Last year, I did more than 200 shows.

So I was on the road
about 95% of the year.

There was a week this month

where I didn't sleep
more than two hours a night.

It was just... Do a show,
get on a plane, drive,

do a show, repeat.

Everywhere I've gone in my life,
I've moved to get better at magic.

I've always been chasing this high,
and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I've got some good news for you, guys.

I'm gonna bring out an artiste
from the world of burlesque for you.

The bad news is, it's a guy,
and he left his feathers at home.

Here he is.

Dressed in a shirt and jacket
as nature intended, it's Ben Seidman!

Thank you. I feel the same way about you.

It's nice to be in Las Vegas
filming a TV show.

Proof that what happens in Vegas
gets broadcast nationally, apparently.

Penn, I've got one playing card.
Name a card, Penn. Any one.

Four of Hearts.

It would've fooled you,
but I'll move on as planned.

I used to live here.
I lived in Vegas for, like, five years

and this actually happened to me.

I was walking downtown and I see a guy,
and he has a manila envelope

and he's jingling it,
asking people for change.

And I walked by him,
I was just kind of in a hurry.

And he yelled at me. He actually yelled!

He was like, "Hey aren't you
gonna give me any money?

"What, are you not a good Christian?"

"No. I'm not.

"I'm Jewish."

And I'm not even good at that.

I mean, I was raised Jewish,
but I don't really practice.

So I'm Jewish, but I don't practice,
which means that my mom still nags me,

but when I pray that she'll stop,
nothing happens.

That was a thinking joke.
Thanks for coming along with me.

But it's true.
Jews are the worst Christians.

Except for one. One became the best.

It's not me, though.
That's... That's Jesus.

I'm Ben Seidman.
Different people altogether.

Yeah.

Maybe, just maybe,

you're applauding because
you think I am Jesus.

And maybe I am. How would you know?

What if Jesus came back,
but no one believed him,

so he went on TV
and tried to fool Penn and Teller...

...but he wasn't successful?

Penn was like, "Uh, yeah,
that's food coloring and water. Not wine."

And Teller was like...

That would be disappointing
for religious people and for atheists.

But for very different reasons.

Anyway, I see this guy, he yells at me,
and I wanted to get mad.

But in that moment, our eyes met,

and we had this, like,
real, like, human moment.

And I just started to feel bad for him.

He was clearly a nice guy.
He was down on his luck.

And I reached in my pocket,
I took my wallet out,

I gave him the only bill that I had,
which was a $100 bill.

Because I felt bad for him.

And he hugged me. He was so overjoyed.

And I walked away.
I thought, "What a nice guy.

"I completely misjudged him.
How long was I talking to him?"

And I looked down at my watch,

and my watch was gone.

I don't know how,
but this guy must've somehow managed

to pull my watch off
without me even feeling him do it.

So he took my watch.

Not only... Not only did he take my watch,

I also distinctly remember
putting my ring on that day.

When I looked down at my finger,
my ring was gone.

So I'm thinking he took my watch

and he also somehow
managed to take my ring.

And I reached in my pocket,
grabbed my wallet,

remembered I had given this guy
the only bill that I had.

The $100 bill, because I felt bad for him.

So I'm walking away. I'm just trying
to process the information.

I'm thinking,
"Did that really just happen?"

He took everything from me.

He took my ring, he took my watch,
he took all of my money.

Sounds like I had
a pretty terrible day, right?

He learned a very valuable lesson
that day.

He learned that you should never,
ever try to steal from a magician.

Because when this guy got home,

he didn't have any of my stuff at all.

Because I still had my ring...

...I still had my watch,
and I still had all of my money.

Ben Seidman,
ladies and gentlemen.

Great job.
Very funny and a great trick as well.

- That was great, Ben.
- Thanks, Jonathan.

Now, you know how this works.
The guys are gonna sit there

and they're gonna deliberate
and we'll have a little chat out here.

But Jonathan, I hope...
Actually, I hope...

- You wouldn't mind, would you?
- Sure. A selfie?

- Yeah, yeah, thanks.
- Sure, let's do that.

I've always wanted to take
a picture of Penn and Teller

while my arm was around you.

Okay. Let's...

- Thanks.
- Should we hug this out?

- Yeah, sure. Why not?
- 'Cause I enjoyed that, too.

- That was nice moment.
- Well, good, I'm glad.

- It was a really good moment.
- Yeah.

- How confident are you?
- Oh, you know what? I...

They're really... They're my heroes.

They were some of my favorite magicians
growing up.

So I don't know. I respect them so much.

If they enjoyed what I do,
that's what means the most to me.

Well, one thing I noticed,
and I'm sure everyone else did,

is just how confident you seemed out here.

And I know that performing
in front of these guys,

it's nerve-wracking for most people.

But you seemed
cool and calm as a cucumber.

Oh, I'm freaking out on the inside.

Well, you're disguising it very well.

Let's find out how much they know
genuinely right now.

Fellas, do you think you've got it?

We see a lot of people
who try to cobble something together.

And watching you do something
that's just a polished, finished routine

is wonderful.

And, uh, you might notice,
when I say, "Wonderful,"

that I'm kind of underlining
the "wonder" part of the "wonderful,"

'cause we all know a wonderful magician
named Tommy Wonder.

You know that Tommy Wonder
did a routine called The Hold-Up.

I much prefer your version
to Tommy Wonder's version.

'Cause Tommy Wonder did not have the...

Uh, his style of comedy was
not as close to my heart as yours is.

But I think that's a wonderful routine
you're gonna want to do forever.

I don't really want to tear it apart.

- Awesome. Thank you so much, guys.
- I think it's wonderful.

It's been a pleasure. Honestly.

Well, let me check, Ben.
I want to check...

As Penn elaborated,
you're fairly confident now

- he knows what was going on.
- Yeah. I think so.

Okay. Can I just check?

You're not actually Jesus,
though, are you?

Wow. Ladies and gentlemen,
let's call him by his code name...

...the fabulous Ben Seidman.

- Great job. Thank you, Ben.
- Thanks.

- Fabulous.
- Guys.

Ben Seidman.

In all their time together,
they have invented, reinvented,

refined and redefined magic as we know it,

while entertaining millions
over the last 40 years.

They're still doing it better than ever.

Here they are.
The fabulous Penn and Teller.

There's a kind of magic
called Gospel Magic.

And Gospel Magicians use magic tricks
to proselytize.

Now in 1948, there was
a country western hit by Tex Ritter,

called The Soldier's Deck of Cards,
and the story of that song

is that a soldier is caught in church
with a deck of cards

and his commanding officer says
he'll be court-martialed

for having gambling apparatus in church.

So we're gonna do an answer song
to A Soldier's Deck of Cards,

giving us an opportunity
to proselytize a little bit.

You all set?

A while ago, Teller and I were
sitting in the front row of a lecture

by the theoretical physicist
Lawrence Krauss.

Suddenly, Krauss looked down
and said, "Teller!

"You've been fiddling
with that deck of cards

"since I began speaking.

"Do you find me so dull
that you have to amuse yourself

"with trivial tricks and manipulations?"

Teller stood up and addressed Lawrence
and the entire audience.

"Not at all, Dr. Krauss..."

Teller began.

"I'm listening
to every word you're saying.

"I don't carry a pad of paper
or a cell phone,

"but as a magician, I always have
my deck of cards with me.

"I use that deck and my knowledge
of magic to take notes.

"Please allow me to recap
what you've covered so far."

And Teller fanned the cards out.

"You know, Lawrence,
you're a very well-known atheist.

"As I look over the faces of the cards,
I notice there's no God among them.

"The universe of my deck,
like the universe of your speech,

"contains kings, queens...

"...millions of number combinations
and, well, even a couple of jokers,

"but no God can be found."

Teller motioned to the professor

and Lawrence Krauss,
he stood up right there in the audience.

Teller explained
that he would riffle down the deck

and the professor should yell, "Stop,"

then select a random particle
from the universe of Teller's deck.

Well, Teller riffled. Professor yelled...

Stop!

Teller showed the card to the professor
and to the entire audience.

It was a 3 of Clubs

that we all promised ourselves
we'd remember.

Teller returned the card to the deck

and handed the deck
to Lawrence to shuffle.

Teller took the fully-shuffled cards
back from the professor

and took a quick look
at the random order of the faces.

"You know, every random order
contains some intrinsic qualities.

"The four aces always remind me

"of the four fundamental
interactions in nature.

"The Ace of Diamonds?
That reminds me of electromagnetism.

"And electromagnetism
is a force responsible

"for practically all the phenomena
encountered in daily life.

"Ordinary matter takes its form

"as a result of intermolecular forces
for individual molecules.

"The Ace of Diamonds, electromagnetism,

"well, that holds our world together.

"The other force you encounter
in daily life is gravity.

"The Ace of Hearts,

"which individual particles attract
with a force proportional to their masses.

"And that leaves the strong interaction
and the weak interaction.

"Well, the strong force,

"to me, that's the Ace of Spades..."

"...and that binds protons
and neutrons together

"and the nucleus to the atom.

"That leaves the good old weak force,

"the Ace of Clubs...

"...which is responsible
for radioactive decay of the nuclei

"and hydrogen fusion of the stars.

"Now, some day, they may accept
the unified field theory,

"and all these cards would be of one suit,
but until then,

"the four suits remind me of the four
fundamental interactions in nature."

And with that,

Teller had thrown most of the cards
in the audience.

He said, "These few cards remaining
remind me of the cosmological constant.

"Oh, it's an amazing constant!

"Even as space gets bigger,
the energy density remains the same.

"Let's measure.
One, two, three, four, five, six.

"You ever try to change that density
by throwing out one, two, three cards,

"the energy density,
well, it still remains.

"One, two, three, four, five, six,

"and it keeps working, you know.

"I could throw out one, two, three cards,

"Still have one, two,
three, four, five, six.

"It's counter-intuitive.

"How can that be,
to throw one, two, three cards,

"still have one, two, three,
four, five, six, yeah.

"I can just throw out
one, two, three cards,

"still have one, two, three,
four, five, six.

"I can do this forever, man.

"Throw out one, two, three cards.

"Still have one, two, three,
four, five, six!"

"Now to do this trick with cards,
I need sleight of hand.

"But the cosmological constant
is really the way

"energy density through the universe works

"and, more amazingly,
fiction or magic trick?"

Teller reached in his pocket.

He pulled out a balloon
and began blowing it up

as he explained, "This brings us
to the forefront of science.

"The Higgs boson.

"Now, the theory was
that particles only have mass

"because of an unmeasured,
theoretical field that they move through.

"This may seem like an invisible God,

"but the difference is,
it could be tested.

"The Large Hadron Collider tested it,
and it sure looked like they predicted

"Higgs lasted for a billionth
of a billionth of a billionth of a second

"before going poof and leaving behind
the tell-tale signature

"of our freely selected 3 of Clubs!

"Which lasted just as long as
they measured before vanishing."

Teller took a breath.

He said, "Let my hands represent
quantum nothingness."

Professor Lawrence Krauss looked
and he said, "Teller!

"Please.

"Just sit down and shut up."

Praise physics!
Penn and Teller, ladies and gentlemen.

- Thank you. Thank you.
- Fantastic.

Penn and Teller, that's all the magic
we have for you tonight.

Join us again because
we'll have more amazing tricks

and, of course, more Penn and Teller.
Good night from Las Vegas.