[Donbadabon]

Piff isn't using the same dog he used 10 years ago. He doesn't fool us.

 

[markb]

On the dice trick, I was able to catch him putting things under the hat every time, except the largest die. So I assumed the largest die was nested over the next largest die and they went under the hat at the same time. But at the very end, after the verdict, he picked up the dice and showed the previously hidden sides, as if to say, nope, these are solid. So I'm not really sure how he did that one part. Was there room under that hat for both, without nesting?

Piff was terrible. Not a good trick and not entertaining. The routine needs to have at least one of those things! I don't remember him being quite so bad before.

Why do P&T make such dumb guesses sometimes? Is it that they know they are fooled, but they don't want to give away their actual thought process? Like on the runway trick, they guessed there was a trap door in the runway. Seriously?

 

[kdmorse]

On the dice trick, I was able to catch him putting things under the hat every time, except the largest die. So I assumed the largest die was nested over the next largest die and they went under the hat at the same time. But at the very end, after the verdict, he picked up the dice and showed the previously hidden sides, as if to say, nope, these are solid. So I'm not really sure how he did that one part. Was there room under that hat for both, without nesting?

Watch again as Penn and Teller turn their backs and walk away. He literally swaps the larger shell die out for a real one in plain view (of the camera).

 

[cmontyburns]

I had to watch the episode in a couple of sittings. I had previously paused after Piff, who annoyed me as I mentioned. When I saw the next person was that Australian lady, I revolted. She is without question my least-favorite contestant that has ever been on -- and now she's been there four times? And she keeps fooling them? She has no stage presence, her personality is grating, her tricks are uninteresting... no thank you. I fast-forwarded over her segment here. Just didn't want to watch her again.

 

[markb]

Watch again as Penn and Teller turn their backs and walk away. He literally swaps the larger shell die out for a real one in plain view (of the camera).

Ha! You're right. I totally missed that. It was barely caught on camera, but it was indeed, plain as day! But he timed it so P&T couldn't see. Makes me think that's the part he wanted to fool them with, and him hitting the dice together after the verdict was a subtle way of pointing that out to P&T.

 

[windracer]

Ha! You're right. I totally missed that. It was barely caught on camera, but it was indeed, plain as day! But he timed it so P&T couldn't see. Makes me think that's the part he wanted to fool them with, and him hitting the dice together after the verdict was a subtle way of pointing that out to P&T.

Penn mentioned on his Sunday School podcast that multiple folks have tried the "swapping out the gimmicked objects for real ones while P&T's backs are turned" trick ... it's worked in once or twice in the past, but it wasn't going to work again regardless of how many times he banged those dice together.

 

[Hank]

Watch again as Penn and Teller turn their backs and walk away. He literally swaps the larger shell die out for a real one in plain view (of the camera).

Wow, what a great catch! Yeah, I could see every single one of his tucks (or ditches, or whatever it's called). Every single one. I'm growing really tired of the same sleight of hand and card tricks on this show. The banter changes, but the tricks don't.

I saw the next person was that Australian lady, I revolted. She is without question my least-favorite contestant that has ever been on -- and now she's been there four times? And she keeps fooling them? She has no stage presence, her personality is grating, her tricks are uninteresting... no thank you.

I could not agree with you more! She's horrible!

 

[Hank]

I thought this week's episode was so much better. The first wrestling act was really entertaining.. maybe it was just a simple force trick, but yeah, got my money's worth. Would like to see more of that on the show. The glass table trick was also awesome. Surely the table was gimmicked in some way and the thick glass hid a slot or something through refraction, but he was also just really good. The kid was OK, nothing surprising, but good to get young kids involved. The bookcase trick was also good, but a gimmicked phone app and possibly a green-screened bookshelf. But still a good trick (and not another sleight of hand/card trick).

I'm not sure how P&T did their trick, but it's probably something messy and simple, like most of their tricks.

 

[LoadStar]

When I saw the next person was that Australian lady, I revolted. She is without question my least-favorite contestant that has ever been on -- and now she's been there four times? And she keeps fooling them? She has no stage presence, her personality is grating, her tricks are uninteresting... no thank you. I fast-forwarded over her segment here. Just didn't want to watch her again.

I still enjoy watching her because she does some VERY challenging escape artist illusions. She keeps fooling them because they are very difficult illusions to figure out.

 

[getbak]

On this week's episode, I thought Penn's hints were enough to get a reasonable understanding of how the tricks were done in general.

For the wrestler, he said something about facing the tag team of "Applique" and "Magneto". That would mean he had different magnets with all the possible combinations. There were three 50/50 choices, so there were only 8 possible outcomes. He just needs to have the 8 magnets hidden somewhere, either on his body or around the ring, and make sure the right one is applied to the belt before it's revealed. It seems like the actual move was edited out of the show. At the start of the performance, he places the belt on the small table with the cups and balls. After he's attacked, the table gets broken and the belt ends up on the ground. We never see it get picked up, but at the end of the performance, the table is sort-of repaired and the belt is sitting on top of it. That likely means the actual move where the magnet was put onto the belt was edited out of the show.

For the card trick, Penn mentions both being one step ahead of the audience and he talks about angles a number of times. I don't know exactly what he does, but "one ahead" is a pretty common magic technique where the magician sets up the next move while the audience thinks he's doing a different move (which he set up during the previous move). I believe the angle comment has to do with the beveled edge of the table disguising some things and he's able to hide the moves with the angle of the bevel.

For the book selection, Penn makes a comment about seeing the magician in his flat, which is an odd choice of words for an American to say to another American when neither one is in a location where "flat" means apartment. However, as a code word to explain that most of the books on his bookshelf were just a flat façade, it's the perfect choice of words. He also mentioned that the magician was "laid back", which I believe is a coded way of saying when he covered the camera, the magician (or an off-camera assistant) pulled something that caused the flat fake books to all fall down. Penn also says that the magician was "not forced". This would be in reference to the book choice, where Penn did truly have a free choice --- of those three books. The "Instagram" app he showed, was almost-certainly fake and when he stopped scrolling, it triggered an ending animation that finished on the generic image which forced Penn to choose which way to scroll. I assume whichever direction Penn had chosen, we would have seen the same three books. He gave himself three out with the book. On one side of the dust jacket, he had the first book; on the other side of the dust jacket was the second book; and the third book was inside the dust jacket.

 

[markb]

We never see it get picked up, but at the end of the performance, the table is sort-of repaired and the belt is sitting on top of it. That likely means the actual move where the magnet was put onto the belt was edited out of the show.

I noticed this, too. Super lame on the part of the editors! Don't edit out the core of the trick!

 

[bobfrank]

I noticed this, too. Super lame on the part of the editors! Don't edit out the core of the trick!

Just a wild guess here why the did it that way. Since the "judge" knows how the trick was done, and Penn & Teller were watching live, it may have been determined that the magician didn't make any kind of switch when the table was put back, so editing that part out had no affect on what the audience saw.

 

[Hank]

I noticed this, too. Super lame on the part of the editors! Don't edit out the core of the trick!

Maybe that was the magic trick! That the table magically reset itself.

 

[cmontyburns]

They do those edits a lot. When things were more live and P&T used to go up on the stage after being fooled, you'd often see the stage had been cleared of whatever mess the magician had made in their act. I remember one where they went up there, gave the trophy, cut away to the magician celebrating, and then cut back to a wide shot of all of them and Penn was no longer wearing his jacket.

 

[markb]

They do those edits a lot. When things were more live and P&T used to go up on the stage after being fooled, you'd often see the stage had been cleared of whatever mess the magician had made in their act. I remember one where they went up there, gave the trophy, cut away to the magician celebrating, and then cut back to a wide shot of all of them and Penn was no longer wearing his jacket.

Those sorts of edits aren't the problem though. It's when they edit out a pivotal part of the trick, it's a problem.

 

[MikeMar]

yes, deleted

 

[lew]

Those sorts of edits aren't the problem though. It's when they edit out a pivotal part of the trick, it's a problem.

Many tricks can be exposed when we're watching in HD and have the ability to pause and watch in slow motion. It's kind of necessary to either edit or not show closeups at certain times of the performance. Some magic acts AGT camera shots are favorable to the magician and some make it clear what is being done.

 

[markb]

Many tricks can be exposed when we're watching in HD and have the ability to pause and watch in slow motion. It's kind of necessary to either edit or not show closeups at certain times of the performance. Some magic acts AGT camera shots are favorable to the magician and some make it clear what is being done.

I think that's something for the magicians to consider, not the editors. The way this was edited, I can't even tell if it was a good trick or not. It was an entertaining routine, but the trick might have been pretty lame. (Or not, I can't tell!) If performing the trick on TV, without favorable editing, exposes the method, then the magician either needs to be ok with that, or perform something else. Especially for this show.

I don't watch AGT much, but I think they are much worse at editing magic routines than Fool Us. Is it a different sort of show though.

 

[mattack]

OK, it was an "obvious" joke, but I admittedly laughed at it..

on a show from the last month or so at most I think (I have a couple new eps recorded that I started watching), one of the on Zoom (or whatever) magicians asked Penn something, then asked Teller something, and said (approx)
"Teller, I think you're on mute".

again, obvious joke, but I still thought it was good!

 

[Turtleboy]

From last year, but a fascinating podcast on the behind the scenes of the show.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/abrac...urce=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare