07x25 - Penn & Tarot

[bunniefuu]

From the Penn and Teller Theater

at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,

here's our host, Alyson Hannigan.

Welcome to "Fool Us."

The Emmys, Oscars and Grammys

have nothing on what I'm holding in my hand.

They practically give those awards out at bus stops.

The academy behind this award has only two members,

and there's no guarantee

that anyone's gonna to get this one tonight.

Here to possibly present this trophy are Penn and Teller.

Not only do winners on this show get this trophy,

they also get to perform in Penn and Teller's

Las Vegas "Magic Spectacular."

Let's meet our first potential award winner.

Hi, I'm Simon Coronel,

and I'm an illusionist from Melbourne, Australia.

My apartment is kind of a magic mad science lab

that I also happen to live in.

Its primary function is a workshop,

secondary function, living space.

Good for business, questionable for personal life.

I hold a kind of unique spot in "Fool Us" history.

When it came time for the judging,

I interpreted Penn's codes to mean they figured it out.

- They know how you did--
- Oh, yeah. They know.

So I walked away empty-handed.

A couple of years later,

I get an unexpected call to come back on the show.

So these are the actual chips.

Yep. These are them.

Turns out Penn and Teller realized

I had fooled them.

We were wrong. You fooled us.

So they gave me a trophy!

You've gotta respect that.

Two magic masters making things right.

So let's hope I can fool them again tonight,

but if I can't, Penn and Teller,

you know I'm available to come back and pick up the trophy.

Vying for a second "Fool Us" trophy,

welcome back, Simon Coronel.

I want to show you a trick that's performed

by nearly every magician on Earth.

In fact, so many tens of thousands of magicians

have performed this trick

that there's literally an encyclopedia someone wrote

of hundreds of different methods and approaches

to just this one trick,

and it's a simple trick.

It doesn't use much, just an empty stage,

no distractions, nowhere to hide,

just me, my hands and a bill,

and if you look at this image, remember this image, $5 bill.

You can see the front of it. You can see the back of it,

and as I start to fold it up, big enough

so that you can still see it clearly

but small enough that I can do what I need to do,

you can also see my empty hands and my short sleeves,

but if you watch the bill, you see the illusion

of it transforming

into what looks a heck of a lot like a $50 bill.

But when I say the word illusion,

I mean that literally, right? Everyone in this room

knows I didn't just make $45 out of thin air.

It's an illusion.

It's done through craft and skill and ingenuity,

not supernatural abilities,

but because it is an illusion,

like every other version of this,

eventually the illusion has to fade, sadly,

which sucks financially.

But before it fades away,

if what push that craft and skill far enough,

we can temporarily take the illusion further

into something more incredible.

And I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence

by pretending I somehow actually transformed that.

It's a series of switches, but the question is,

particularly for Penn and Teller,

switches of exactly what,

and from exactly where and exactly how?

And some people might say

that that somehow diminishes the trick,

expressing that it's not magic, but, no, to me,

that's what makes it amazing, the fact that we can create

these illusions through craft and skill.

That points to a much deeper truth

that a lot of the time

the only thing that is real is the illusion.

Simon Coronel. Whoo!

I mean, I just want to give you a bunch of money.

- I mean, I'll take it.
- But wait,

if I gave you a hundred, would it come back as a five?

I mean, there's only one way to find out.

So how long have you been performing this trick?

Since about 2000, 2001,

and I've kept working on it and improving it

and refining it and tweaking it,

and it's still changing to this day.

- That's so incredible.
- Yeah.

Does it change how you do it when the money changes?

Oh, actually, yeah. It really does.

Because the texture of the money changes.

Absolutely, and it's every country I do this in,

the handling totally changes because the bills

are bigger or taller or shorter

or some of them are made of plastic.

- Yes. Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.

Can you do this in Australia?

- I can, but it's much harder.
- Yeah.

So writers will get writer's block.

- Yeah.
- Do you ever get

- magician block?
- Yeah, massively.

You've got an idea for a trick. You're like,

"All right. This is gonna be the trick.

- It's gonna be great."
- Yeah.

You've got a method, and then you build the thing

and you test it out, and it doesn't really work,

and you can work on something for months or years

and just hit this block of, like, "I've got this vision.

It's going to be so great when it works,

and I can't freaking get it there."

And any magician who's creative has a bunch of things

in that stage always.

Every now and then one of them gets across the line,

- and it's just glorious.
- Ah. All right.

Let's see if you fooled your way to a second trophy.

- Let's find out.
- All right. Penn, Teller.

Simon, we have to be very careful with you

because last time you embarrassed us

in the strangest way anyone could ever embarrass us.

You came out and did a trick with poker chips,

and it was, like, a year later talking to a prop person

we found out the poker chips weren't gimmicked.

So therefore we had been so deeply fooled

it took us a year to realize that we had been fooled.

So we had to call you back on the show

and do a public apology

that said that you had won a trophy a year before,

so we're going to start right now in a very different place

than we start with anybody else.

Anybody else doing that routine we would start with

there's a bill that's gimmicked.

There's some sort of gimmick built into the bill.

It's beautiful craftsmanship.

We'd go that way, and we're going to assume

you're not using a cheating bill

because we don't want to be embarrassed in the future

by you fooling us so bad

we don't even know we're fooled,

so we're protecting ourselves.

That's what we're doing right now.

Now, let's get to this trick.

Your patter is beautiful. Your style is beautiful.

You don't do anything unnecessary

to obscure the moves.

You lay it out there right in our faces,

and then your patter says that we know what you're doing.

We know the maneuvers you must be doing.

You use words like switch. I would bury them in there.

You just lay them out there all pink and naked

and then just ask us,

did we know when and what you were doing?

That was the simple question you asked with a simple bill

that is not gimmicked.

So if you ask us a simple question,

we'll give you a simple answer. No, we do not know,

and you fooled us, Simon, for the second time.

Oh, we have another fooler!

Yay!

Here is your trophy at the right time!

We will not be embarrassed.

Simon Coronel!

Congratulations.

Simon Coronel just fooled Penn and Teller for a second time.

Will anyone else fool them tonight?

Sick around and find out.

Welcome back to "Fool Us," your one-stop shop

for all things mystifying and magical,

like this next performer.

And now magic spoken in the queen's English

by none other than UK's John Morton.

Hi, everyone. It's great to be here.

So this year has been a bit of a challenging year

for all of us, so at the start of it

I challenged myself to learn something new,

and now, thanks to my little girl

Eleanor, I'm now a black belt in Lego.

I'm an expert in "My Little Pony."

Oh, yeah, and I'm a veteran of this,

the "Can You Find" book for ages nine months and up.

Let me show you how it works.

So basically, the child turns to any page.

They look at the main item on top,

and they have to point to the matching item below,

and this is the same for every page of the book.

It's not exactly "The Da Vinci Code."

Now, I played this game with my little girl

so much I know this book inside out.

For example, there are 28 pages,

each one has a different main image.

Below that, nine other images, one of which is the main item.

The other eight are different pictures from out the book.

It's probably the most innocent book in the world,

so of course when my little girl didn't need it anymore,

I kept it.

I made it into a mentalism trick.

So basically, it comes down to this.

Two of the biggest names in magic versus a book

for 1-year-olds.

So I know you guys like to break a few rules in magic,

so I'm gonna break one, too, because I'm going to know

you're going to need some help busting this trick.

So the first rule, never let them examine the props.

So I've sent you the props.

You should have the books with you now.

Okay. Penn, we're going to do this with you, if I may.

- Okay.
- So if you would,

would you turn to any page.

Look at the main item on top, and then when you're ready,

call out left to right,

top to bottom the nine images below.

Now, at some point,

obviously you're going to call out the main image.

When you do, make sure you keep your voice the same

because if you sort of go up, I'm going to know about it.

So when you're ready, call out the images now.

A dog, a teddy,

Moon, rainbow, butterfly, kite,

tree, tractor, soccer ball, ball.

Okay. What image did you go for?

Tractor.

And tractor was what I went for as well.

Fantastic. So rule breaking number two,

never give them a clue of how the trick is done.

So I'm going to break that rule too.

I'm going to give you a clue how it's not done.

So maybe you're thinking I'm so in tune with Penn's voice,

I know exactly when he goes up a slight octave

when he says the main item.

So this time we're going to use Alyson.

Alyson, get ready with a page.

Okay.

Maybe you think I can see where you're looking.

So help you out, I'm going to blindfold myself.

Also my daughter's.

Okay. So, Alyson,

the other thing that people often think with this

is maybe the order that you call them out in

gives me a clue of what the item is.

So call them out in any order you like,

the nine images below,

and when you're ready, go for it.

Okay. Telephone, chair, clock, key, umbrella,

tractor, butterfly, house, pencil.

Okay. I'm going to take this off

just so I can see what I'm drawing,

and I'm going to go--

Now, to explain what I'm doing here,

basically what I have to do for this

is I have to mentally picture every single image

sort of in my mind and play, like, a game of mental bingo,

ticking off the images as you call them

until I'm left with one image, this image.

So what image did you go for?

Butterfly.

Butterfly is what I got as well.

Excellent. So rule breaking number three,

the last one: never do a trick more than once.

Well, I've already done it twice, so let's do it again.

This time I would use you, Teller.

So I'm not gonna use the blindfold for this.

Now, Teller, if you would, choose a page.

Okay, so you don't get to be on one of the biggest shows

in Las Vegas on the Strip

without speaking, without being able to emote yourself,

so what I want you to do is I want you to mime the items.

Now, to make it easier for you,

you're only going to have to mime four of them.

Okay. Obviously one of them has to be the main item.

The other three can be any of the other items on there.

When you're ready, go for it.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

Teller, if you would, would you show everybody

what it is you went for?

The dog. So the question is, did I fool you?

I went for the dog, too.

- Thank you very much.
- Wow. John Morton!

That was fantastic. If you can fool them

with a kid's book, I mean, what can't you do?

Exactly. I mean, it is literally just a kid's book,

and my little girl still loves it to this day.

Yeah. You've said

that you don't care much about being a star.

I'm just as happy if somebody else is creating

the wonder as much as if I am.

I really am.

It's all about how the audience

feel at the end of it.

It's not about who's presenting it.

Creating that moment of wonder,

that's what's important to me.

I have actually had one of my tricks already on "Fool Us"

presented by another magician.

Okay, John. Well, let's see if your childish magic

has earned you a grown-up trophy.

- We can only hope.
- All right. Boys.

John. It's a good trick. It's a really good trick.

Really nice style.

Really good all the way through.

Really entertaining.

You made Teller do stupid mime, humiliate himself.

I enjoyed that very much.

This is not your child's book, lying rat b*stard.

There's no author on it. There's no publisher.

You made this book. You made this book special.

Let me tell you something else.

We know it's a code,

but everybody watching knows it's a code.

Seems like we should figure out the code.

Now, this would take us, like,

two weeks to learn this code, right?

To perform this, you had to memorize it.

- What do you mean?
- No.

How long does it take you to learn this code?

About 30 seconds I could teach you it.

Well, 30 seconds is time enough to learn this trick,

and in 30 seconds,

I can tell you that you fooled us,

and I have 30 seconds left over.

- Whoo! We have a fooler!
- Wow!

- 30 seconds?
- 30 seconds.

- Yay!
- Yay!

Fantastic.

My little girl will be so proud.

- Great book.
- Give it up for John Morton!

Penn and Teller have been fooled,

and they might get fooled again.

We still have more magicians on deck when "Fool Us" returns.

Welcome back. If you're just joining us,

you missed Penn and Teller getting fooled.

Don't worry. You might see it happen again right now.

I'm in the mood for Italian. Magic, not food.

Luckily, here is Alberto Giorgi.

Oh!

Alberto Giorgi!

- Hello.
- Hello. Nice to meet you.

Is your goal in your magic performance

to transport the audience back in time?

Yes. I love to bring the audience like they

are watching a magician of many, many years ago

and to feel the same emotion that could feel the people

who saw the magic in this period.

Oh, it was so beautiful.

All right, Alberto.

Let's see if Penn and Teller know your secrets.

Well, Alberto, you know, a lot of magicians

try that mad scientist atmospheric thing,

and they go part of the way.

You've really gone all the way.

The tone of that, the texture of that was just gorgeous,

and, you know, so often with big illusions,

you don't have a magical cause or a plot that you can follow,

but that you really had her essence moving from one box

to another and with lights and with movement

and showing the condensed body in the box

was really a kind of intellectual detail

that nobody seems to bother with,

and you can see when you do bother with it,

it really pays off.

I mean, it's heavily based on traditional magic,

but really had a whole different feel,

and we loved the ambidextrous daylight seance.

That was something that really made it so clever

and so nice and so convincing,

and just loved every moment of it.

We feel like other people have tried to do things like that

with that style and illusions,

and they're pikers compared to you.

You really did it full out and beautifully,

but we don't think you fooled us.

Yes. Thank you anyway,

and thank you for what you are doing for the magic community,

and I'm very happy to be here with you today.

- We're very happy to have you.
- Thank you very much.

Just wonderful.

Your Victorian magic was a wonder.

Thank you, Alberto Giorgi.

We've got to give Penn and Teller a quick break.

They'll have to figure out more magic routines

and perform a trick of their own when we come back.

Welcome back. You're in luck.

I've found the perfect magic trick for you. Check it out.

Hi, I'm Makoto Halverson, a street magician.

When I was younger, I watched "Fool Us"

with my grandparents.

I loved Penn and Teller's passion for magic,

and I saved up all my allowance

to buy their magic books.

I learned the art if misdirection from them.

I'm fascinated by how magicians

use language and psychology to influence people,

exploits the way people see and hear things.

You can make them believe they saw something

that was never there.

My grandparents are still my biggest fans

and encouraged me to get started as a street magician.

I'm out there working 10 to 12-hour days.

There's no better way to master your magic.

This is my first time to perform on national TV,

and it's a whole new ball game.

Hopefully my street smarts

will be enough to outsmart Penn and Teller tonight.

Ladies and gentleman, give it up for Makoto Halverson.

Thank you.

Have you ever walked down a busy street,

thought you recognized a friend, went up to say, "Hi,"

but it turned out to be somebody else?

I have. It can be embarrassing.

I've hugged the wrong person before.

- Aw.
- Called a random lady mom.

That's really awkward.

I learned on the Internet that there's a word

for this phenomenon of mistaken identities.

They're called dopplestrangers.

It's like a doppleganger, but a stranger.

Instead of being a double of a person,

it just kind of looks like them.

Basically what happens is your brain sees a few key details,

like the person's hair or the way they walk,

and it fills in the gaps

creating a very compelling hallucination.

We can actually recreate that experience

using a pack of cards.

Alyson, in a moment I'm going to have you name

a playing card from the pack, but before I do,

I'd like to clarify something for everybody watching.

I didn't meet you backstage secretly before the show

and ask you name a particular card

to help out with my demonstration, did I?

No.

I asked the wrong person.

Why does this keep happening?

It's okay. This should still work.

Would you please name a card for us anyway?

- Three of clubs.
- The three of clubs.

Do you want to change your mind?

That is Penn and Teller's card after all.

- Yes.
- Oh, cute. No.

Okay. The three of clubs. Works perfectly for me.

There it is, the three of clubs.

Now, just like the person who isn't there

when you think you recognize them,

we're going to isolate the three of clubs away

from the other cards in the pack

by placing it inside--

no, actually before I put it in my pocket

I should show you guys the pocket is empty and ordinary.

No slits, no extra compartments to help me out.

Now, we're going to isolate the three of clubs

from the pack in the pocket out of sight,

but in our minds. Now, Alyson,

would you please touch any card you like from the pack?

That one there. You touched the two of clubs.

- Oh.
- Very, very similar to

the three of clubs, naturally.

Just missing the pip in the center there.

It's pretty much the same card, so if you saw the two of clubs

in a glass elevator on the other side of the mall

perhaps as it was ascending for a moment,

you might think it looked like just like the three of clubs.

That was a lot of fun.

Let's see if we can do that twice.

It's always better the second time,

so I've been told.

Watch. Alyson, would you please touch

another for us from the pack,

any one you like?

- Okay.
- Oh, that one there?

- Yes.
- You touched the 10 of hearts.

Now, the 10 of hearts

is quite a bit different than the three of clubs,

but it does have a lot of pips on there,

so maybe if it was dark and were in an escalator

and you pass them by

when they turn the corner you might think for a moment

that the 10 of hearts looked like the three of clubs,

and that's what looks like magic.

We can't do it more than three times, anyway.

Would you touch one more card for us?

- That.
- Oh, that one there?

- Yes.
- You touched the 10 of clubs.

Well, the 10 of clubs obviously looks like

the 10 of hearts from earlier,

and it's wearing the same suit as the three of clubs,

so if you saw the 10 of clubs behind a closing gate

perhaps at an airport you might think for a second it looked

just like the three of clubs.

- which is impossible.
- Wow.

So we've had three cards selected from the pack,

and they all looked like the three of clubs that you named,

but of that's impossible because the three of clubs

was in the pocket the entire time,

so these three cards could not have been the three of clubs,

and in fact, they never were.

Ah!

Makoto Halverson!

That was very impressive.

- Thank you, Alyson.
- Wow.

What's your favorite place to perform?

I really love Harvard Square.

I used to street perform over there.

It's right near Harvard University,

and because street performing was a part of the culture there

for 20, 30 years, people just stop,

watch, have fun and support the artists.

When I was a kid, I'd visit my grandparents around that area

and see people with huge 200, 300 crowd shows around them,

and now those people are my friends,

and I think it's really fun.

And so is hard to move from the street to the stage?

It's very different actually because on the street

no one show matters all that much,

so if I mess up then

I could just do another show, whereas here,

you know, you've got the one shot to fool the boys.

Well, let's see if the boys know how you did your trick.

Oh, absolutely.

- Boys.
- Hey, Makoto, really good.

Really, really nice.

It's a version, for people at home,

it's a takeoff of everywhere and nowhere,

which is a wonderful card routine,

and the choices that you had were all free choices.

You really were making completely free choices.

You were getting where you had to get while handling the deck,

which takes a great deal of skill to get there

without setups, without anything else.

You're just totally there, and the theme,

the theme was really nice about how you can mistake somebody.

You know, sometimes-- this isn't the same thing,

but sometimes people come up to me and say,

"Hey, are you Teller?"

they'll say to me even though I'm Penn,

and I've even heard that Teller has been mistaken for me

even though he's much shorter than me,

but he wears lifts and sometimes double lifts.

He gets him up really tall.

I guess we could kind of look similar then,

but it was a wonderful routine, and really just some really,

really nice card handling all done with sleight of hand,

and I think I probably slipped a couple things in there

that gave you some information on what we were thinking.

Does that code make any sense to you?

Do they know how you did your trick?

I didn't use a fully ordinary deck,

but I don't know what Mike's decision would be about that.

Fair enough. We want to make sure

we give you completely fair shot on this,

and once again for people at home, Mike Close, our judge,

is listening to everything we say.

He's heard us talk about everything you did.

So we'll go to Mike Close, let him decide

whether he believes that that's enough to be a fool.

Let's see what Close says. We're rooting for you.

Okay. He's talking to me now.

I'm sorry, Makoto, you did not fool Penn and Teller.

Well, that's to be expected.

- They're my heroes.
- Aw.

- Thanks, guys.
- Makoto Halverson.

Has it been too long since you've seen

Penn and Teller perform?

Don't worry. The legendary duo

will take the stage when we come back.

Don't miss it.

Welcome back.

Penn and Teller rarely dabble in the dark arts,

yet here they are with a deck of tarot cards,

and they're looking to mess with me.

Hmm. Seems suspicious.

Tell us what gives, Penn and Teller.

Well, you know, we're a little famous

for being skeptics.

We're so skeptical we can hardly believe it,

but there are two things we're not skeptical of:

tarot cards and fortune cookies.

They've been tested by science

and proven accurate in our own lives.

We wanted to see how much truth and predictive power

we could personally squeeze

out of these two proven phenomenons.

We've made a special "Fool Us" tarot deck.

As you see, there's the fool in the proven tarot deck.

We've replaced that with the "Fool Us" trophy card.

There's a "Fool Us" trophy card

we're going to put right back there,

and we have a bunch of people from the "Fool Us" show.

We have Jonio. Remember Jonio

that you had pulling stuff out of his beard?

- Mm-hmm.
- Remember him?

And you also had Dan Sperry.

You loved Dan Sperry with his eyes

and the pulling blood out of his stomach.

- Yeah.
- And then we had,

oh, Riccardo Berdini. Remember him?

- Oh.
- Singing songs for you.

Yeah, we've got all your favorites here.

We've got Magical Katrina who did the relationship thing.

We've got Piff. Of course you know Piff well,

and we've got Ryan Stock who you loved

seeing suck milk up his nose.

None of these people fooled us,

so we've got the "Fool Us" trophy card,

and we have nine people here who did not fool us.

Now, we know, Alyson,

you've always wanted a "Fool Us" trophy,

and you've kind of shared one of two

with other magicians who have fooled us,

but you never got one of your own, so here is your chance.

We're going to play a little game.

We'll give you a chance to win a real

"Fool Us" trophy of your own.

It's not going to be easy, but you've got a one

in 10 chance of hitting the "Fool Us" trophy card.

If you hit it, the trophy is yours.

One in 10 is around the same odds

everyone comes on the show gets, and you can cheat.

You saw us put down the trophy cards.

If you were paying attention,

just remember where it is and you'll be all set.

All you've got to do is take your flashlight

and point to the trophy card and win.

Now, we're going to give you four times.

Okay.

So the first one is not your real choice.

Just to get a feel for it, point to one of those. Do this.

- All right.
- So we'll start out,

put the fortune cookie right here.

Now you can move it three more times.

Where would you like it to go?

Right there. Go ahead and move it over there, Teller.

Beautiful.

Now, you've got two more for-- okay, right there.

Now, this will be your final choice, Alyson.

This is the one. You can win a "Fool Us" trophy of your own.

Where do you want it to go?

- I'm going to go right there.
- You sure?

- Yeah.
- Right there?

Yeah.

I'm going to put it right there,

and if you get the "Fool Us" trophy you win.

Let's see. Did you win?

Turn it over here, and, oh, you got Piff.

You got Piff who did not fool us.

You did not win the trophy,

but remember at the beginning of this bit I said

there were two things that have been scientifically proven?

One is the tarot cards.

The other is the fortune cookies.

Well, we were lying.

They aren't scientifically proven,

and we don't believe in them.

We know they're bull.

Tarot cards and fortune cookies cannot predict the future,

but Penn and Teller can. Let us show you.

Inside this fortune cookie is a prediction.

I'll crack it open, and inside it says, "You weren't fooled.

You picked Piff the Magic Dragon."

So the fortune cookie did predict that,

but you had a one in 10 chance, but we were lying about that

because we really wanted you to win the trophy, we really did.

So we said you could pick any one of the cards.

The other nine cards,

well, they aren't people who didn't fool us.

They are all "Fool Us" trophies.

- Oh, man.
- So we stacked the deck

totally in your favor.

Don't know how you missed it.

You had nine in 10 chance of hitting it,

and you still picked the only card you missed,

but you know something, Alyson?

It's our show, and if we want Alyson Hannigan

to get a "Fool Us" trophy on "Penn and Teller Fool Us,"

then Alyson Hannigan gets a "Fool Us" trophy.

Bring it down. Bring it down. You get a "Fool Us" trophy.

Bring it down.

There you go, Alyson. We can make our own decision.

- What? What? For real?
- Take the right there.

- Here is your "Fool Us" trophy.
- Yay!

And I still have no idea how you missed it.

I have no idea how you missed nine out of 10.

I'm not going to let go of this.

It's been another impossibly great night of "Fool Us,"

but we'll try to outdo ourselves next time.

Until then, good night from Las Vegas.

- I'm not going to let go.
- Don't.

I'm not.