Season 6 Penn And Teller: Fool Us

[Guest]

Discuss!

[Amarsir]

I don't know if anyone saw the April Fools special. It was definitely filler (no new contestants, one trick stretched over the hour) but I enjoyed it. I've always enjoyed April Fools and good-natured pranks, and to me that's very true to Penn & Teller's nature as well.

[theatremouse]

I especially enjoyed the never before seen footage with the French lady. But otherwise, yeah this was 'meh.

The Hardwick stuff did not amuse me. I'm not into that kind of trick even though it's very on theme with April Fools. It's just kind of boring? He thinks he's doing magic but it's planted magicians that make it work. Ha ha. So what?

Possibly this lands poorly with me because on regular Fool Us the tricks cannot be dependent on stooges, but the whole bit with Hardwick was. I guess it was supposed to be funny to see his reaction at the end but I didn't really care.

[Latverian Diplomat]

19 hours ago, theatremouse said:

The Hardwick stuff did not amuse me.

I'm not a big fan of Hardwick in general, so I tuned out after a couple minutes. Sounds like that was the right choice for me.

[Amarsir]

Season 6 Premiere! Magicians were Jan Reinder, Ondrej Psenicka and Giancarlo Bernini, with David Copperfield helping them out on their own trick.

Reinder's rat traps weren't that amazing, but big stage magic is hard to do so I don't expect to be fooled on top of it. Alyson's reactions really helped sell it.

Psenicka certainly fooled me, unless he got lucky and Alyson randomly selected an Ace. (Which does happen but not usually on television.) The trick had a little too much filler time though which IMHO distracted rather than improving.

Bernini fooled me although Penn's clues cleared it up. I liked the trick a lot.

I'm sort of with Copperfield on the last trick, where I know most of the trick and am suspicious about the last bit but don't quite know it. It was a little awkward having that much back and forth but it does sell the idea that Copperfield wasn't there to be a patsy. Also he looks really good for 62.

[Dowel Jones]

Props to Penn for his shout out to the old Firesign Theater - "Mr. Smartypants Communist!"

[Taeolas]

Just got around to watching it, and I enjoyed it. 

I suspect that Psenicka may have had multiple ways he could have done it, and P&T couldn't figure out which way it was done. Clearly he identified which card Allison had when he did the fan through the deck, but the speed he did it clearly astounded Penn. 

When P&T had a full forum we had a spoiler thread to speculate on how tricks were done; is there a general thread for that somewhere now?

I think for P&T's trick to David, it may have all been prearranged, but assuming it is a legit Fool Us challenge, I suspect David did get everything, but he missed a key part of the trick.

Speculation on P&T's trick:

Spoiler

I suspect he missed Teller manipulating the deck while he was turned away. They distracted him by having him check out Teller's pocket, and gave Teller more time with the brass knuckles. While the pocket check was going on, Teller was turned away with the deck and could do things to the deck at that point. 

The deck was ordered, but only the first 3 cards or so were key. Teller 'demoed' what they wanted to do, and moved the third card to the top of the deck. David then put that new top card at the bottom of the pile, so it would be on top of his card. I suspect that top card was either sticky (so it stuck to David's card) or could mark David's card, giving Teller something to find after the deck was riffledx2 and cut. (A sticky card might be obvious during the riffling, but a marker card might risk marking multiples; but I could see it done either way, or some third way I can't even imagine)

Then Teller just needs to peek at the card to know what it is, and maybe move it to the top/bottom of the deck, and draw random cards until they reach the second S in spades.

Edited June 24, 2019 by Taeolas

[theatremouse]

Please feel free to discuss both actual show spoilers or "how the trick was done" spoilers by using spoiler tags in this topic.

[Amarsir]

Matt Donnelly, Penn's friend and Alyson's writer for Fool Us, has a podcast with behind-the-scenes info about the show. Normally you have to be a Patreon supporter but they made the first one for this season free to everyone. 

Regarding Copperfield

Spoiler

Using the pocket has to mean something. First, those are special jackets and it's very easy to have multiple pockets from one opening. But also as @Taeolas points out it's easy to do something with the deck during the inspection. So a deck switch is very plausible and then it's just a matter of stacking the deck mathematically.

However, Copperfield's guess was nothing like this and he was apparently pretty close. So maybe that isn't really it and there had to be some way to identify where the cut was and skip over the cards riffled in.

Quote

I suspect that Psenicka may have had multiple ways he could have done it, and P&T couldn't figure out which way it was done. Clearly he identified which card Allison had when he did the fan through the deck, but the speed he did it clearly astounded Penn. 

Spoiler

I don't think he identified the card from looking through. That's Rainman levels of calculation that would astound anyone. Maybe he could narrow it down from 2 or 3, but for the most part it would have been difficult enough to remember the positions of the 3 "identifier" cards he pulls out.

Also, randomly landing on an Ace is a 1 in 13 chance, and a reveal method that pulls out the other cards of the same value is a lot less impressive when the card is a 6. That's the kind of reveal you do with an Ace or at least a face card.

So I think the deck was gimmicked to force a cut and Alyson is the perfect volunteer to play into that without messing it up.

[LikeManu]

Hi!

I really love the show and remember an act where Penn is invited to the stage and at some point the magician shows him something (I don't really remember if it was a card, or a whiteboard), Penn grabs it and sees it. Then the magician tells him to show it to the camera, that's when Penn says something around these lines: "If I would have been a performer for 30 years I would have done that naturally".

I really want to remember what act that was to watch it again. 

Thanks a lot!

[dabbrusc]

6 hours ago, LikeManu said:

Hi!

I really love the show and remember an act where Penn is invited to the stage and at some point the magician shows him something (I don't really remember if it was a card, or a whiteboard), Penn grabs it and sees it. Then the magician tells him to show it to the camera, that's when Penn says something around these lines: "If I would have been a performer for 30 years I would have done that naturally".

I really want to remember what act that was to watch it again. 

Thanks a lot!

Shawn Farquhar's first appearance on the show.

[rmontro]

S06:  E07:  Are You Better Magicians Than a 6th Grader?

Thought it was kind of interesting that in two separate tricks, the card chosen was a five of hearts.  Just a coincidence, I'm sure, but it looks kind of suspicious.

On the act with the 6th grader, I thought she did a move, and Penn and Teller both looked at each other and smiled.

[MsTree]

16 hours ago, rmontro said:

Thought it was kind of interesting that in two separate tricks, the card chosen was a five of hearts.  Just a coincidence, I'm sure, but it looks kind of suspicious.

I noticed that too.  Could any of our resident experts on this subject tell us if the 5❤️ has any significance to card tricks?

[lynxfx]

23 hours ago, MsTree said:

I noticed that too.  Could any of our resident experts on this subject tell us if the 5❤️ has any significance to card tricks?

They have been airing tricks completely out of order. The acts I saw during the taping I went to have shown up in 5 different episodes so far including the only P&T trick they taped for us. So just a coincidence. 

With P&T the 3 of clubs is really the only card with significance. They almost always use it when they force a card. I remember Penn mentioning once that they like it because it reads well on camera. 

Edited August 1, 2019 by lynxfx
Typo

[Amarsir]

Moxie did a good job. The tricks are all very old but bundling them together was different, and using Penn's daughter was fun. 

How do people feel about "Magic Meatballs"? (The cup & balls trick where Penn voices a dog.) That was a beautiful dog and the patter was fun, but how many variations on cups & balls can we really see?

[theatremouse]

I think I am now maxed out on variations of cups and balls. I wasn't before. But now I am at my limit.

I know the show likes to showcase people they just like to showcase with really good executions of tricks...but it seems like they're maybe running out of people who are really trying to fool them? And I really prefer genuine attempts at fooling. Some of these folks had to know that P&T are going to recognize their method even if it's executed very well.

[Amarsir]

40 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

I know the show likes to showcase people they just like to showcase with really good executions of tricks...but it seems like they're maybe running out of people who are really trying to fool them? And I really prefer genuine attempts at fooling. Some of these folks had to know that P&T are going to recognize their method even if it's executed very well.

I’m sure they’re no worse than season 1. To fill 13 episodes per season takes a lot of performers and there can’t really be *that* many people with new methods and the willingness to show them off. As long as a few are really working and everyone wants to give a good performance, the overall show still works.

[theatremouse]

I guess what I mean was moreso that I don't really follow magic much, but this episode in particular, not only were there no foolers, but I had an idea of the method and could tell I was right from Penn's vagueness. So if even I managed to recognize this stuff they definitely went into it knowing they had no chance in hell of fooling and that's a bit disappointing.

[Totale]

We had been thinking that part of the show's formula (along with Alyson's stunning wardrobe) was one fooler every episode and I believe the last two in a row have had none. They all fool me, but maybe P&T thought they were looking too easy and decided to toughen up.

[Amarsir]

This last episode was pretty weak and it wouldn't surprise me if that's why they left it for so late in the season. Nester Hato, the French card magician who fooled them, was solid. But Lucy Darling* did a very short one-note trick. The coin magic ended with a nice surprise but had some sloppiness along the way. And the British duo were less entertaining than the ventriloquist guest they had to make the choices. Even P&T's trick was weak, since the rope trick doesn't become new just by pausing for a mime.

* "Lucy Darling" aka Carisa Hendrix does a podcast with Kayla Drescher. (Who you may remember from the torn & restored heart trick with Teller.) On it she mentioned having a one of her bags get lost by an airline with a lot of props in it so that might have happened around the time of filming. Or it's possible she thought this was her trickiest one, as she's more into unique presentation of classic trick than inventing whole cloth.

[theatremouse]

Hers was more about the spiel and the character than the trick. She wasn't trying to fool them. She was just getting herself some spotlight. I thought she was thoroughly entertaining, but was also a little "wait that was it" on the trick. It was 2 minutes of stand-up plus 20 seconds of trick...on principle that bugs me but in reality she was too delightful for me not to come away still liking this character a lot.

[Taeolas]

From 2 weeks back: 

The Card magician did wow me. I thought I might have seen something once or twice, but really it was so smooth that I'm not sure what I saw. And to fool P&T with them staring right there is impressive. Loved how Penn announced it too. "You showed us a block of cards.... and then we've got nothing."

The other duo's trick runs into the issue most digital tricks come into, and what Penn was getting at too. People will always suspect the screen. 

Spoiler

My very first thought with the trick was they did 6x#countries videos and uploaded them all. Then an associate or some other digital script trick they made the important video public and the rest remain private, so it would be findable. 

That's basically what Penn implied and was confirmed I think.

The other two were nice but I agree with the above.

This week's ep,

Going right to the Magic Square trick, I suspect he controlled their 'dice' choices a bit; probably to keep the total constrained. Had all 3 picked "1" or "6" he might have been in a bit of a bind, but 8 is probably a common total (I haven't looked at the totals yet to be sure). Getting teh right numbers on the tiles also probably wasn't difficult. 

Writing the total in chalk though, I can see why that would be amazing to them after some tought. First of all, you need to press fairly hard to get chalk to mark, and it isn't quiet. And it is obvious if you do multiple marks as opposed to 1 motion.

Him swiping the 8 at the end and rubbing it off was a good proof that probably helped with the fool; it made P&T focus on the board and try to figure that out. 

Spoiler

Suspicions: Can you have a rollup chalk board that still feels solid? That would let him pre-write the various numbers that are possible and then he just needs to roll out the chalk board to the right position. 

But if that was the case, Teller would have known it as soon as he started erasing the 8.

Otherwise he had to write it as he was picking up the tiles and had the smoke distraction (he was at the side of the board and one arm was somewhat hidden by his body, and the smoke from the stack of tiles and the Ooos of the audience could cover the 8 motion. 

The ripped card trick was okay, but pretty obvious, especially when the pieces stopped being ripped and became cut. 

The coin magician was interesting. Not sure how he pulls those off, but P&T certainly know. Seems like it's some way to move the coins under the table basically and to slip them back up under the pile of sugar basically. 

The 84$ dinner at Denny's was just a big force but entertaining to watch. 🙂

P&T's VR trick was neat.

Spoiler

The thing to remember is what they show on the screen isn't necessarily what he's seeing in the goggles. I suspect he was a forced stooge (or whatever the term is) and the googles screen told him to say the 7 of Diamonds to make it look like he 'wrecked' the trick. 

Is this the season finale?

[rmontro]

My guide says there is a new Christmas episode airing next week (11-29-19).  Anyone know if this is actually new or just a clip show?

[lynxfx]

On 11/22/2019 at 11:39 PM, rmontro said:

My guide says there is a new Christmas episode airing next week (11-29-19).  Anyone know if this is actually new or just a clip show?

It was new and some pretty good presentations.

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, lynxfx said:

It was new and some pretty good presentations.

Saw it, agree it was pretty good.  I liked that they didn't bother with the Fool Us stuff for a change, and just had a holiday show,  Even though the "Fool Us" premise is the main reason I watch the show.

[theatremouse]

I really enjoyed the guy with the table. I found the others underwhelming.

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, theatremouse said:

I really enjoyed the guy with the table. I found the others underwhelming.

Was that the guy with the box on the table with the fake decks underneath, the guy who "explained how his trick worked"?   I was really surprised Penn said they didn't see that coming, because it was the first thing I thought when I saw the decks.  And I know I don't know as much as Penn and Teller.

[theatremouse]

Yes, that's the one I enjoyed, but I think what P&T meant was that when he started the trick they didn't expect him to do any of the "explaining" bit, not implying they were necessarily "fooled" had it been a normal episode.

[rmontro]

22 hours ago, theatremouse said:

Yes, that's the one I enjoyed, but I think what P&T meant was that when he started the trick they didn't expect him to do any of the "explaining" bit, not implying they were necessarily "fooled" had it been a normal episode.

I see what you're saying, I suppose that is a possible explanation.