Season 8: Penn and Teller Fool Us

[rmontro]

New season of Fool Us started last night.  I was most impressed by the disappearance of the "two statues of liberty" trick, by Jandro.  He had sent the method to show Penn and Teller, and they laughed at how it was done.  From their discussion, I suspect they guessed aspects of it, but didn't quite have it figured out, so he got another trophy.  I'd kind of like to know how it was done myself, I was thinking about it and had a few guesses, but it was giving me a headache.

Alyson's attire for this season is both cute and kind of odd looking, if that's possible.

Piff the Magic Dragon was on too, he did a very long convoluted trick that I think took up about 1/3 of the show.  Entertaining, but I thought his life sized baby elephant looked like a giant mouse.

[Tango64]

I'm still trying to figure out the disappearance trick by Jandro. P&T seemed surprised and entertained when they saw how he did it, so I hope it's not just a variation on what they suspected and they gave him the win because they didn't say it with great specificity. What are your theories?

I generally like Piff but that trick was just long and boring. 

Also trying to figure out the Australian woman's box trick. I had the same theory as P&T, that the back wall was hinged.

[rmontro]

On 10/5/2021 at 11:44 AM, Tango64 said:

I'm still trying to figure out the disappearance trick by Jandro. P&T seemed surprised and entertained when they saw how he did it, so I hope it's not just a variation on what they suspected and they gave him the win because they didn't say it with great specificity. What are your theories?

Probably not worth mentioning, and as you said I thought it was a variation on what they said.  There was a ramp going up the back that Jandro walked up to get onto the stage.  I thought maybe the mirrors were under the ramp instead of under the stage and that's where the people went.  I don't know why that would make P&T laugh though, so it's probably off base.  The planes also made me suspicious, but I don't know how they could have been part of it.  Maybe they were just a distraction.

[Tango64]

The planes made me suspicious too, especially the fakey looking one with the slowly turning propeller. Plenty of room for people to hide in or behind the planes, I guess. But then the promise that the two observers would report anything they saw would have to be a lie. Magicians lie, of course, but I don't think P&T would be so pleasantly suprised if the solution card just said "I lied about the observers and the people hid in the planes."

Edited October 7, 2021 by Tango64
typo

[lynxfx]

The joke/trick is that the two observers are actually blind. The three people ran back to the plane, obscured by the camera angle. The 2nd part is one of the oldest methods but the two blind men is the gotcha. He specifically said, tell me if you SEE anything unusual. Pretty fun inside joke trick for P&T.

[Tango64]

21 hours ago, lynxfx said:

The joke/trick is that the two observers are actually blind. The three people ran back to the plane, obscured by the camera angle. The 2nd part is one of the oldest methods but the two blind men is the gotcha. He specifically said, tell me if you SEE anything unusual. Pretty fun inside joke trick for P&T.

That's clever, and I see why P&T would enjoy that. 

[rmontro]

On 10/7/2021 at 2:06 PM, lynxfx said:

The joke/trick is that the two observers are actually blind.

D'oh!  That explains it.  The planes, the observers, the laughter, everything.  

I was going to say that maybe P&T were laughing because maybe there was a slide and the people slide into the hidden area, and maybe P&T found that amusing, but you nailed it!

[Taeolas]

So the Happy Birthday ep aired, and I'm pretty sure the box catching on fire was a legit surprised reaction from Penn, and it was a hoot. :) Love these mixed "We see the bigger scene" tricks. 

The trophy went to the 16 year old that opened the show, and from the sounds of it, P&T caught MOST of her trick, but it was the last ending, switching to the printout at the very end that caught them off guard. Quite impressive. She doesn't quite have the Presentation skills (the patter) yet, but I suspect she's going to go far, probably more as a Trick designer than an actual magician on stage. 

The slight of hand purse trick was quite impressive. Teller walking back was obviously amazed, to have witnessed it about as close as you possibly can get. I'm not surprised they weren't fooled, but it did look great.

The other two tricks were pretty standard tricks, but still performed quite well and P&T clearly were amused by both of them. 

[Taeolas]

Watching "Rock Paper Magic" (Nov 19) now. 

I have no idea how the bound fingers trick is done. There has to be a way, but I can't imagine how it is done with what we see. But clearly P&T are familiar with it. 

 

The RPS trick I'm calling shenanigans on. Penn DID guess correctly, but probably went too far. 

 

His "guesses" were always forced. It didn't matter what they had, as long as the winning combos were set. And the way the exchanges were done, the wins were forced. I sorted that out after the first exchange, and the second worked out as well. (The math is a bit much for the third but I'm sure it's still forced.)

 

So he only needed 1 result per set of exchanges no matter what; no need to hide extra results anywhere. 

 

The third trick was pretty standard card manipulation. I'm not quite sure how it was done, but I'm pretty sure I could guess at most of the manipulations. 

 

And the Allyson and Teller trick, I think we've seen it many times before so I'm not surprised it isn't a fool. I don't know how it works but I'm sure there are forces involved. :)  

 

P&T's trick was entertaining, but somewhat obvious.

 

the bottom of the box wasn't covered, and got tilted to the side when all the movement was done (while never actually revealing that side of course). It looked solid at first when they set it up but there were too many camera cuts to really track it. Still, Teller probably had some way to slip into the box through the bottom (that was turned to the side) 

Entertaining nonetheless. 

 

Sorry for the wonky formatting. I can't seem to edit it to split the spoilers back apart. :( 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Taeolas

[lynxfx]

6 hours ago, Taeolas said:

have no idea how the bound fingers trick is done. There has to be a way, but I can't imagine how it is done with what we see. But clearly P&T are familiar with it. 

It is a pretty old trick with lots of variations. Mac King for example does it with twisty ties that you would find on bread. Very funny routine if you can find a video of it. This guy is most likely using a clear plastic around his fingers to tape over but allow him to easily slip out and back in. Even knowing a method, it is still impressive to watch.

 

[NeonDeon]

On 10/7/2021 at 11:06 AM, lynxfx said:

The joke/trick is that the two observers are actually blind. The three people ran back to the plane, obscured by the camera angle. The 2nd part is one of the oldest methods but the two blind men is the gotcha. He specifically said, tell me if you SEE anything unusual. Pretty fun inside joke trick for P&T.

This can't be the explanation.  The two other witnesses, the stand-ins for Penn and Teller, are given similar instructions.  They can see under the platform and would have seen the people walking away, and per his orders jumped up and yelled Cheater. 

I mean, it's pretty obvious that the people *had* to have run back to that plane, they can't have *actually* disappeared, but any theory needs to account for the two witnesses in front too. 

[Taeolas]

Interesting episode this week. They opened with a P&T trick and closed with Piff and Matt Fool Us. 

And the magicians they did have on didn't have a Fooler.

It makes me think that they had to pull an act for some reason so we had some filler put in. 

The first magician had a classic carny trick that probably would have sent Allison (and me) to the backstage if he was live. Those sword swallowers and needle tricks in general just gross me out, but I think it's just a standard palm and stage trick. 

Similarly the purse trick was pretty standard as well, thoguh I have no idea how it was done. 

I probably should have paid more attention to the card trick; I'm pretty sure it's done with gimmicked cards and/or half and half cards basically, though he did have a lot of trust in Allison's handling of the cards. 

 

And on a different note, Piff is going to be up in my neck of the woods next week. I'm tempted to go see him but not sure my budget will have room for him. Still a few tickets left so it's very tempting....