[jazz music]
♪ ♪
[applause]
- From the Penn and Teller Theater
at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Here's our host, Brooke Burke.
[cheering]
- Welcome to Fool Us.
Brace yourselves for a night of electrifying performances
because tonight's magicians
are ready to rock you like a hurricane.
So let's crank up the volume
and bring out the Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of Magic,
Penn and Teller.
[cheering]
- That was my Keith Richards.
That's all I give for Keith Richards.
[cheering]
- Every magician tonight has a chance to fool Penn and Teller,
and if they do, they get a famous "Fool Us" trophy
and a slot in P&T's Las Vegas Spectacular.
Let's meet our first magician right now.
- I am Emily Robinson-Hardy, and I am 20 years old.
When I finished school, I did not know what I wanted to do.
Then I saw an ad for the next TV stunt magician.
Yeah.
So I applied because I love fast cars.
I love high speed driving.
I've jetskied and I've even got the scars to prove it.
I even had a lesson flying a helicopter.
So when I got the stunt magician job,
and I was told I was going to be jumping out of the helicopter,
I was so excited. I was completely all over it.
Or an act where I might end up pouring acid all over myself.
Yes, sign me up.
Danger does not deter me.
Here in Las Vegas, there's all sorts of danger and excitement.
Every magician knows that the card trick that
I'm going to be doing is a very big risk.
It is a very scary trick to perform live
in front of two legends as well.
But like I said, I love taking risks.
Wish me luck.
[applause]
- Here's a fresh face from the UK.
Give it up for Emily Robinson-Hardy.
[applause]
- What you're about to witness is said to be impossible.
This particular card trick is a version of plot
within magic known as "any card at any number."
Or as we magicians know it, ACAN.
The idea of the trick is very simple.
A spectator would name a playing card,
so let's say the two of hearts.
Another spectator would then name a position
within the deck, so let's say 24.
The magician would then pick up the deck
and count down to the 24th card,
and at that position would then be the chosen card,
the two of hearts.
Now, ACAN has been around since the 1700s,
and magicians have created
thousands of versions of this effect.
But they all have one thing in common.
At some point within the routine,
the magician will always touch the cards.
Now, the perfect ACAN is one
where the magician never touches the cards,
where the spectators have a free choice,
where the deck is a normal deck of playing cards,
and there are no stooges in play.
And that's why what you're about to witness is impossible.
Or is it?
Now, I need some volunteers from the audience,
so if you don't mind helping out,
can you please pop your hand up just so I can choose someone?
Okay, so can I have the front row down there,
and let's go glasses.
Yes, please, come on up.
So a round of applause for our volunteers, please.
[applause]
Just either side of the table. Thank you.
So hello, and welcome to what I like to call
the Emily Robinson-Hardy Experience.
[laughing]
So for this miracle, we are going to be using
this jumbo deck of playing cards,
which makes any sleight of hand incredibly difficult.
So in a moment, I'm going to be asking you
to name a playing card for me.
So please get one ready in your mind,
and I will be back to you shortly.
I'm going to be asking you to name a position in the deck.
So that's a number between 1 and 52.
So again, if you could please get that ready in your mind,
and I'll be back to you in a moment.
Now, the last time I demonstrated this effect,
my volunteers got a little bit freaked out.
So one of them fell off their chair,
and the other almost choked on a peanut.
So I would like to ask you both
to please not react as you experience this.
So you are thinking of a playing card.
Please state that playing card now.
- Six of spades.
- Six of spades, and that was a free choice.
- Yes.
- No one's primed you to say that beforehand.
- No. - Fabulous.
And you are thinking of a number.
Please state that number now.
- 47. - Perfect.
Now, what I want you to both do is keep your eyes
fixed on that deck.
Ensure that these hands do not touch the deck at any point.
So turning the cards face up one at a time.
We are going to count to the 47th position.
Now, as 47 is quite far in the deck,
going to ask you to go quite quick at the beginning.
I'll count with you as you go so we don't lose track,
and I'm sure the audience will join in with us.
You ready? - Yes.
Please begin.
One... Two... Three...
[audience counts] Four... Five...
Six... Seven...
Eight... Nine...
10... 11...
12... 13...
14... 15...
16... 17...
18... 19...
20... 21...
22... 23...
24... 25...
26... 27...
28... 29...
30... 31...
32... 33...
34... 35...
36... 37...
38... 39...
40... 41...
42... 43...
44... 45...
46.
Okay, stop.
So before you turn over this 47th card,
could you please just remind everyone what the card was?
- Six of spades. - The six of spades. Okay.
So I just want to say that if it is not the six of spades,
then it is not my fault.
I have no say in the card that was chosen
or its position in the deck.
There's no one hiding underneath the table
making sneaky things happen.
And although I admit I supplied the cards myself,
they hide no mechanical parts and they're not haunted.
So with that said, please turn over this 47th card.
Show everyone what it is.
[audience gasps]
- It is the six of spades.
Thank you both so much.
You can return to your seats. Thank you.
- All right. Emily Robinson-Hardy everyone.
So how do you prepare for a performance like this?
- Quite honestly, the night before, I'll do
a nice face mask and probably then just
jamming out to some like incredibly heavy like
Rob Zombie, Motley Crue, Black Sabbath.
That's the routine.
- Do you prep for stunt work in the same way?
- Not always.
It's basically just making sure that I still
remember how to stick shift.
Apart from that, I'm sorted.
[laughing]
- Have you ever combined stunt work and magic?
- Not yet.
- Let's imagine for a moment the greatest stunt magic trick ever.
What does that look like?
- Me on fire. Anything like that.
- You on fire? - Yeah.
I mean, whatever.
I want to be set on fire, but everyone keeps telling me no.
- Okay, Emily. Let's see if Penn and Teller are going
to send you back to England with a "Fool Us" trophy.
- Hey, Emily. - Hi.
- Really nice. Really good performance.
We know an awful lot about "any card any number."
Everything that Emily said about that is true.
It is a classic trick in magic.
It is kind of the holy grail in magic
to get a perfect version of it
where you don't touch the deck
and you don't do pre-show,
which we believe you didn't do, right?
- Yeah.
- You promise us there's no pre-show.
- I promise. - And you promise us
there's no stooge, right? - Correct.
- Because if this were pre-show or there was a stooge,
there's no trick at all. - Yeah.
- But there's none of that.
So there is a trick and there's
a really, really good trick.
- Thank you so much.
- And we've gone through the list of all that we know
of ways to do this. We've been checking them out.
And as far as we can tell, there are two choices.
One is it was supernatural
and two is you fooled us.
- [cheering] - Did you hear that, Emily?
Oh my goodness.
You fooled, them, Emily.
- Oh my God! - Well done.
- Congratulations. - Thank you very much.
- Congratulations.
Amazing.
Emily Robinson-Hardy, everyone.
[applause]
- A girl with sequins gets a trophy in my book.
[laughing]
So much fun.
Congratulations to our latest fooler,
Emily Robinson-Hardy.
Are Penn and Teller ready for more?
We'll come back and find out when "Fool Us" returns.
[applause]
♪ ♪
Welcome back.
The next magician attempting to leave
Penn and Teller spellbound is right here.
[applause]
- Make way for the magic of C.Y.
[birds chirping]
♪ ♪
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[birds chirping]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[bell tolls]
[audience gasps]
♪ ♪
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[cheering]
- C.Y., everyone!
Are you always a one-man show
with the exception of the animals?
[speaking Korean]
- It's always just him and the birds.
- What was your parents first reaction when you decided
to be a magician, were they supportive?
- Did you practice at home for them
or did you have to hide?
- And did they catch you?
- Oh, no.
[laughing]
- All right, C.Y., you ready?
Let's see if you fooled Penn and Teller.
- Yes. - Shall we?
Boys?
C.Y.
Translator, please tell C.Y. that
we're a little scared of him
and we mean no harm.
[laughing]
Very very intense act.
Really wonderful
and has those two great movements
going from the white to the red.
The change in the color of the doves,
The vanish in plain sight.
That's always done covered in some way.
The dove in the smoke vanishing all of those
are just beautiful and real innovations.
Dove magic is, as Teller knows,
among the hardest kinds of magic to do
because you're dealing with living things
that have to be dealt with with with compassion
and respect and that's very difficult to do.
You don't have to worry about killing a card.
You do have to worry about killing a dove
and making sure they are treated well.
We know Lance Burton very well.
We know Johnny Thompson very well,
and they do those traditional dove acts
and it's very very hard to innovate in a form
that's that difficult
and is dealing with living things.
And you have absolutely done that.
The change in colors the glove change at the end,
after you've established so clearly
that everything is white,
the hands going to red is just beautiful.
It really is an innovative very intense,
very wonderful act.
We don't think you fooled us and please don't hurt us.
[laughing]
- Okay. Thank you.
- Just wonderful.
- Well, you didn't fool Penn and Teller
but we enjoyed that so much
and we hope that you come back to America
and perform for us again.
- Thank you.
- C.Y. everyone. Thank you so much.
[cheering]
We are taking a quick break,
but we'll have a fantastic magician
waiting for you when we come back.
[cheering]
♪ ♪
- Welcome back, everyone.
It's time for our next magician to step up
and try to fool Penn and Teller.
- I've been fortunate enough to be constantly working
and in high demand for the last number of years.
Overall, I'm a pretty happy guy,
except for my social circles.
This is Matt King. This is Eric Mead.
This is Vinnie Grosso. Magicians.
You may not have noticed, but they have "Fool Us" trophies.
And you also may have noticed, I do not.
And trust me, not five minutes go by
without them rubbing my nose in it.
Every week, we play cutthroat croquet.
Off cars, in the street, off pool toys, trees.
- Play it where it lies.
- If I don't come away with a trophy of my own,
the ridicule will be ruthless and never-ending.
This is in no way facetious.
The pressure that I'm under is unbearable.
This is my one shot to shut them up.
Penn, Teller, the stakes could not be higher.
[applause]
- Give it up for the comedy magic of Nick Diffatte.
- Thank you so much. Thank you, Brooke.
Hi, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you as well.
Before the show, I made a prediction.
Rolled it up, wrote something down,
rolled it up, taped it to the mic stand.
No one's touched it since before the show started.
- Okay.
- The staff has been guarding it.
- Ooh. - And we've never met before.
- We have not.
You didn't write down any personal information
that could have been secreted to me?
- I know nothing as usual.
- Brooke, in your loudest, most clear voice,
all you have to say is yes or no.
- Be honest. - Okay.
Is your phone number
909-334-29?
- No.
[laughing]
Sorry.
- That's because it's mine.
- Oh, it's yours? Oh, thank you.
And the rest of the ladies are thanking you, too.
- Look, people come up to me after shows.
They see me do magic. They come up to me.
They go, how much of this is real and how much of it is fake?
How much of it's just to put on?
And the answer is all of it.
All of it. It's all fake.
I don't have any real... Well, I have one superpower.
I can tell the expiration date of any item.
- Really?
- So does anyone have a gallon of milk I could borrow?
We've been sitting here for a minute.
Tell you what, let's use...
I don't do pets anymore, but I do...
I can do relationships like how long
have you folks worked together?
- 48 years. - 48 years?
What's the date?
[laughing]
You know, we'll move on. Never mind.
Tell you what, do you...
Brooke, do you have anything government issue on you?
Do you have, like, your ID?
- I do have my ID on me.
- Could you pull out your ID?
Don't show it to me.
- Okay.
I don't have any pockets, so I actually do have my ID.
I won't look.
I will use this blindfold of modesty.
Okay.
And would you take a look at the expiration date on your ID?
Don't show it to me.
- Okay. Shh.
- And remember it. - Okay.
- I know that's kind of the tough part.
And would you hold it face down?
Hold it face down so I can't see it.
I will take your ID.
I'm going to cover it up so that neither of us can get to it.
And would you hold out your right hand?
Kind of like a crab claw?
- Like this? - Like this?
Facing down. Perfect.
Sorry, I know it's kind of...
- Pinch on top. - Okay. Okay.
I'll come over here just so they don't think we're in cahoots.
We're going to go for the month first, okay?
- Okay, you're going to guess the expiration date
of my license.
- Of your license, which I've never seen before.
- He has not.
- Um...
I'm going to say January?
- No. - No.
But it's a... eh, it's a cold month?
Colder month.
- Could be. It depends where you are.
- In several places.
We're going to also count that as a hit.
Listen, I don't need this, okay?
I babysit on the weekends. This isn't it for me, okay?
Stable income. Brooke.
- Yes?
- We're going to go for the year.
We're going full balls to the wall.
We're going to do it. - Okay.
- Go big. - Go.
- Is this expired?
- No. - No?
- No. - It's 2014.
2014 is expired, right?
- It's not 2014.
- Can you check?
I'm sorry. Is it even...
Here, could you turn your hand over?
- Sure. - Turn your hand over.
Is it even yours?
- That's not even my ID.
- Well, whose is it?
Shoot. How did you get that?
That's a little embarrassing. This is my fifth grade ID.
I'm not quite sure.
I'm sorry. It's not...
- It's expired. - It's kind of... Yeah.
I'm sorry.
And there's nothing else inside the handkerchief?
I'm a little freaked out, though.
How did you get...
Because I consider myself fairly muggable.
- I didn't do that.
- No, I'm actually freaked out about getting mugged.
I know a couple of you are chuckling, but that's...
I realize that I dressed today.
I looked in the mirror downstairs
and realized that I'm dressed like
I'm running for a student body president.
- [laughing] - But...
It's okay.
But I'm a little freaked out that you got this.
Only because I do...
If you were trying to get my ID,
where would you assume I kept my ID?
- In your wallet. - My wallet.
Do you want to see where I actually keep my ID?
- Sure. - It's a thing I came up with.
It's called a back wallet.
- Okay. - It's not a real thing.
I'm trying to pitch it.
But it's a wallet.
It's not a very clever title,
but it is duct taped onto my back.
This is not the most flattering look on the planet.
Not super easy to pay. Would you help me out?
- Sure. - Just peel the wallet off.
- Okay. - Perfect.
You can leave the tape where it's at.
Okay.
Inside the wallet.
We take a look inside.
I've taped it shut.
Inside of the overly secure snap fasten pocket.
- Would you pull that out? - Sure.
Show it around to everybody.
Your face, your personal information.
- It's my ID. - [audience gasps]
- You did it.
Thank you very much.
- Nick Diffatte, everyone. Woo.
Come on over. Let's chat.
That was confusing and amazing at the same time.
- Thank you very much. Thanks.
- You still look like your middle school ID.
- Yeah. At this point, I'm sure most people watching
don't know if I'm 14 or 40. I feel a little odd.
- Do you still have to show proper ID to get into clubs?
- I do.
I got IDed three times walking
through a casino in town the other day.
- You seem like the kind of guy that likes to make fun
and have fun. Is that right?
- Sure. Yeah.
I think the moment that I found being self-deprecating,
I kind of settled in.
- How important do you think humor is in magic?
- In certain cases, it can detract.
In certain cases, it can magnify the effect.
And I think if you're a funny person,
then it's cool to be able to express that through this.
- Well, all right, Nick.
Let's find out if you fooled Penn and Teller.
- Awesome. - You ready?
Ready, boys?
- Hey, Nick. - Hey.
- Boy, you got a great look and a great style.
- Thank you so much.
- Really, really nice all the way.
And this is a fascinating trick.
We've seen the card in the wallet before.
- For sure.
- The card in the back wallet we haven't seen.
We were a little stuck on that for a moment.
But what's interesting about this for those who study magic
is how important choreography is.
Everything you did looked completely natural
and more important than that, necessary.
You didn't do anything you didn't have to do
for the trick to be the way it was.
But we believe that was very, very carefully done
and very sneakily done and very well choreographed.
Thank you.
And you know, Nick, I have my phone right here in my pocket.
And when you exposed what I thought was going
to be Brooke's phone number, I took the, well...
[laughing]
I took the rather creepy liberty
of programming her number into my phone.
Just thinking it might be useful, maybe, in the future.
And then you can imagine my chagrin
when I found out it was actually your phone number.
- I apologize. - Yeah.
I'm going to call that now anyways, Nick.
Oh, it's going to your, it's going to your voicemail.
I'll just leave a message.
Hey, Nick, this is Penn. Penn and Teller.
Fool us.
I don't think you fooled us. What do you think?
[audience groans]
- I think you guys are hip to my jive.
- Oh. - Thank you so much.
- They're hip to your jive.
But you did a great job.
Thanks for letting me help you.
Thank you so much.
- Bye, guys. - Nick Diffatte, everyone.
Will our next magician be a fooler?
Come back and find out. We won't take long.
I promise.
♪ ♪
- You're just in time for me to produce our next magician,
Abra Kadabra.
- Hello, I'm Cody Stone, and I'm from Hanover, Germany.
I really love classics in magic,
and I'm really interested in smart devices
and the combination of both.
I call it classical smart magic.
My wife is a doctor. She's my best friend.
When I have a new trick, I come to her first,
and when it's possible to amaze her,
then I know, okay, it's good enough for my magic.
The idea for tonight's trick came to me
while I was working on a totally different routine.
Seeing how the trick is viewed
from different angles can be very helpful,
but sometimes the unexpected occurs.
This one in the mirror showed me
something that surprised and almost fooled me.
And hopefully tonight,
this surprise will fool Penn & Teller.
[applause]
- From Germany, put your hands together for
illusionist Cody Stone.
[applause]
♪ ♪
[cheering, whistling]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
- Cody Stone, everyone.
[applause]
- Wow. That was incredible.
- Thank you. - Wow.
Do magicians use mirrors a lot?
- Of course.
It starts right from the beginning
because we are practicing a lot
with the mirror to make this trick really perfect
because you see the view from the audience.
- What is the biggest challenge that you have faced
as a magician?
- I have too many ideas.
- Sounds like a good problem.
- Not enough time.
- Okay, it looks like they're ready.
- I'm excited.
- Boys, Penn and Teller.
- Cody, thank you. Thank you so much.
It was a wonderful act, but even more important
than a wonderful act it was,
you had a mirror on stage
and didn't do doubling stuff.
Everyone that brings a mirror on stage
has one card, then they have two cards,
then they have one coin, then they have two coins,
then they have one apple, then they have two apples.
You didn't do any of that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[applause]
- Something else to do with the mirror.
- My pleasure.
- Just brilliant, you know. It's so well lit on this stage.
It's like you were doing daylight séance
with a zombie who was rotating in space.
It was just terrific.
You know what I'm talking about?
- I have no idea. - He does.
- And I also want to say that
this principle that you use is a brilliant use of this.
Ladies looking glass by Alexander Herman,
use the same principle for a vanish,
but you use it for a penetration
in a wonderful, spooky way.
It's really, really a nice routine.
We really loved it.
And I think some of my
surrealistic acid trip words there
may have given you an idea we know what you're talking about.
- Does that mean anything to you, Cody?
Does that make sense?
- Yes, of course.
But I was really honored to perform in front of you.
- Wonderful having you, thanks.
- The language of magic.
Cody Stone, everyone, thank you so much.
[cheering]
- More unbelievable magic tricks on the way after the break.
Stay close.
♪ ♪
- Welcome back to Fool Us. -[piano playing]
So, Penn recently collaborated on a jazz album with his pal
and renowned piano player, Mike Jones.
So, what does jazz have to do with magic?
I'll let Penn and Jonesy take it from here.
[applause]
- We're playing jazz.
It's an American improvisational form of music.
We know our instruments, we know the form,
but we don't know exactly what we're going to do.
Well, you know, late 20th century,
some magicians started doing jazz with magic tricks.
And they would just make up the trick
based on how they were feeling at that moment
and what card happened to be picked.
We got two of the best.
We got Eric Mead over here, one of the best jazz magicians.
[applause]
And then we have Shoji,
who is one of the newest jazz magicians.
Yeah, one name, that's all he needs.
[laughing]
And now, they'll make up some tricks right before your eyes.
Teller has a shuffled deck there.
He's going to pull one card out,
and Eric and Shoji are going to turn that into a magic trick.
What card you got?
- The Queen of Diamonds. - Queen of Diamonds.
- How are you feeling? - Good.
- Start thinking Queen of Diamonds.
- Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, little jazz.
So let's do, let's start a little walking bass like this.
Walking the cards up through each other and around.
And hopefully, if I've done it correctly right here on top,
- that's three of diamonds. - Ooh...
Of course, Miles Davis once said famously,
it's not a wrong note until you play the next one.
So I'll take that three,
and I just sort of toss it through the center of the pack.
And as it passes through there,
it changes into the Queen of Diamonds.
[audience gasps, applause]
Okay, Shoji, your turn.
- Queen of Diamonds is a kind of hard card,
so I'm going to use the help of the two jokers.
- Okay.
- All right.
Now, your card, the Queen of Diamonds,
is in between the two jokers, because there's one on top now.
Sorry, bad joke.
Now, if we give a riffle,
the two jokers vanish from top and bottom,
and go into the middle,
centering in on one card and one card only.
The Queen of Diamonds.
[applause]
- Nicely done.
- Nicely done, nicely done. - Nicely done, Shoji.
Brooke, why don't you give them a card?
- Okay.
Shoji, you go first this time. Any card you want.
Any card.
- How's that? - Six of diamonds.
- Six of diamonds.
- Let's try something. You know what?
We're going to mix the six of diamonds in my deck even more
by shuffling them in a very special way.
Face-up cards shuffled into face-down cards.
- You're really good at that. - Thank you.
[laughing]
- Surprising, right?
Do it a little more.
Now, you can see how this would create a total mess,
complete chaos, as you can see.
You have a ton
of face-up cards, face-down cards,
face-down cards, face-up cards,
face-to-face cards, back-to-back cards.
But if I snap,
every single card turns up except for one.
[audience gasps]
The six.
[laughing, applause]
- Nice.
- I was going to do something else,
but we thought it was the six of diamonds.
I noticed that I had the nine of diamonds on the face of my pack,
which is just an upside-down six.
So if I just turn it around like this,
it's suddenly become the six of diamonds.
[laughing]
- Now, I didn't just randomly mix up like this.
Let me have your six of diamonds or Brooke's.
- Sure.
- Six of diamonds, six of diamonds.
Into the air like this, and it comes down,
and it slices into the sideways,
into the side of the deck like this,
right at this location, next to
my six of diamonds.
[audience gasps]
- Now, let's do magic and music together,
and let's trade fours.
We'll play four bars that will give you each
a chance to do another trick.
Ready, Jonesy?
Well, if we're going to trade fours,
let's trade decks. - Okay.
- Shall we?
- Thank you. - Okay.
- Go. - Go.
Trading fours, fours,
four bars of music in jazz would sort of be like
four of a kind in cards, I think.
So let's start.
Oh, lucky me. Look, it's a four.
I'll give him a couple of cuts,
and hopefully, yes, a second four.
[audience gasps]
That leaves two more, fewer and fewer.
Brooke, one at a time or both at the same time?
Let's do both at the same time.
That's what I thought you'd say, yes.
Here we are. Fours.
[cheering]
♪ ♪
- Back to you, Shoji.
- All right.
We shuffle.
I'll go for the aces instead of the fours.
- Why not? Winning hand.
- Yep.
And I see you're using the Coltrane changes.
[laughing]
- All right.
See, I believe the first one is right about there.
Oh, right with the second one.
- I like the look away.
- And that's the third one. And fourth.
[audience gasps, applauds]
- Eric Mead and Shoji.
- Well, that's the show for tonight.
But we'll be back in the groove when we see you next time
on "Fool Us."
Penn, Jonesy, take us home.
Good night, everybody.
[cheering]