(explosion sound effect)
- [Host] Illusion: the art of tricking the brain,
distorting the senses, challenging perception.
You can't trust what you see,
even with your own eyes.
Meet the Masters of Illusion.
(explosion sound effect, audience cheering)
Hello everyone, I'm Dean Cain
and welcome to Masters of Illusion.
Do you think you can tell the difference
between reality and illusion?
Don't bet on it.
If our Masters of Illusion do their jobs correctly,
it might not be so easy,
but it's gonna be a lot of fun
trying to figure it out. That..
Oh, hey, uh Rudy..
Rudy Coby, ladies and gentlemen.
- That's right.
- We were just, uh-
- Yeah.
- Starting the show.
- Yeah, I wanna do a uh,
I'm gonna show them a secret experiment,
that means I'm gonna do the experiment,
and I'll teach you the secret so you can do it at home.
Okay?
- Okay.
- So imagine you're with your friends. You say,
"Ow! I think I hurt my hand.
Let me see if I can
snap it back into place."
(cracking sound)
Ah!
(audience laughs)
Now, two very important things about the arm..
Are you okay, Dean?
- No!
- Two very important.
First of all, make sure you have a plastic drinking cup
under your arm before you begin.
Okay. And make sure it's a plastic drinking cup.
- Oh.
(audience laughs and applauds)
Rudy Coby.
(audience applauds)
- It's time to change things up with our next performer.
Let's give a big round of applause for none other
than Naathan Phan.
- Hello! Hello!
(audience applauds)
Excuse me, you see here on Masters of Illusion,
we have so many incredibly talented magicians
coming from all over the world,
we often don't have enough dressing rooms for all of us.
So some of us get relegated to these, you know
changing tents I'm sure you've seen these around,
so I haven't had chance to even change
into my show clothes yet.
So if you just give me one moment,
I'm gonna step in here and quickly change.
It won't, it won't be a tick,
so just hold on two seconds
and hopefully I'll be able to have something
that's a little bit more show-worthy for you all,
because really you fine folks have been here,
and you really deserve a much better outfit.
So I think that's,
I think that's much better.
There it is.
That's the nice thing about being a magician,
you know, sometimes being a magician really comes in handy.
Of course we can't do it
without a little bit of help from our friends.
(audience applauds)
(indistinct) everybody!
Thank you very much!
- This illusionist is about to attempt a physical feat
that I have never seen before.
It's bound to make your head spin.
Let's hear it for Meir Yedid.
(audience applauds)
- Thank you for volunteering.
Thank you to helping out.
What's your name by the way?
- My name is Jim.
- Nice to meet you, Jim.
- Nice to meet you, too.
- Jim, in magic, there's something known as
"do as I do" or "follow the leader".
Basically, it's very simple, all you have to do
is everything I do.
- Okay.
- No, that's good, that's good, that's good.
No, I'm kidding, it's just a gag.
It's just a gag, it's much simpler than that.
All I really want you to do, Jim,
is I want you to put your left hand down on the table
like that with the thumb towards yourself,
but to make this easier for you,
because I've done this before,
what I want you to do
is put both legs together and get as close
to the table as you can and lean forward,
this will make it a lot easier.
Now the two of us, and they're in the exact same position,
I want you to move your hand so the fingers are
pointing towards yourself.
Keep your hand flat on the table,
it makes it easier.
That's good, that's good.
Does it hurt a little bit up here?
- Of course it does.
- It does, me too, that's normal,
but keep the hand flat, it'll be easier.
Watch this.
(audience laughs)
(audience applauds)
Jim!
- If I do that, I think I'll need a doctor.
- I'm c- (audience laughs)
Jim, I'm catching up. I'm catching up.
Okay, Jim, you and I are in the exact same position.
- Yes, sir.
- But you know what the difference is between you and I?
I'll give you a little tip,
because I've done this many times.
Some tips.
I don't know if you noticed,
but my arm was here when I was twisting.
If you kind of massage your arm,
like up here, up here,
and when you do it,
you can move it a little bit more,
so you can go ahead,
move it a little bit more.
No, you could.
You know what?
Take, take your other hand,
take your other hand,
and like grab your thumb.
Like go around to the-
No, no, around the other way.
And like, twist.
(audience laughs)
(Jim mumbles)
- No, no watch this.
I don't know if I can go much further than this.
(cracking sound effect)
(audience gasps)
(cracking sound effect)
(audience gasps)
I hope they like it, it hurts like hell to do.
Really look, I mean, it's a mess!
But you know, Jim,
I could do this all night long.
- I couldn't.
(audience laughs)
- But they'd only get bored,
so I think I'll stop right here right now.
Oh, thank you for your help, Jim.
I need to unwind, but you're done, yes.
(audience applauds)
- Magicians are true masters of a deck of cards,
able to maneuver and manipulate them however they see fit.
Remind me never to play cards with this one.
It's Joshua Jay.
(audience applauds)
- Everybody's always asking me,
as a close up magician,
"Ooh. I'd hate to play cards with you,
because you could cheat in casinos!"
And the truth is, I don't know if I can cheat in casinos,
I've never tried.
So I developed a way to test this out.
It's a game in a sort of way.
And this game will test out how I would do
if I was to try and cheat in a game of cards.
So the game is this: I will try and shuffle and cut,
and in one shuffle and four cuts,
I'll try and cut to the best poker hand
I can possibly locate.
Now, this is extremely difficult.
It looks a little something like this.
That's my one shuffle.
And this is my 1,
2,
3,
4 cuts.
Let's see how I did.
That's one ace.
That's two aces.
That's three aces.
Woops, uh,
(crowd laughs)
that's a five.
Okay. Well, three aces isn't bad,
I mean you get dealt three aces in a game of poker,
you're probably gonna win.
But we're not here to do "probably"
That's a five.
If I deal exactly 1, 2, 3,
4,
5,
that is the last ace.
(audience applauds)
But, I said I would cut
to the best poker hand I can possibly locate.
I didn't say I'd cut to four aces.
That's why I cut to the 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace,
a Royal Flush.
That really is the best poker hand.
(audience applauds)
- [Announcer] The always amazing slight of hand
of Murray SawChuck, when we return.
(explosion sound effect and opening music plays)
(audience cheers)
(opening music plays)
(audience cheers)
- This performer is blending his love
for magic and music together.
Here's Murray SawChuck.
(audience applauds)
- Hey guys, how you doing?
I'm with dear friend Charlie,
we just picked from the audience,
thanks for being here, sir, I appreciate it.
Um- people like doing card tricks,
but I'd like to change his things up a little bit.
So, I work with a lot of musicians,
so I collect a lot of guitar picks.
So I want you to pick any guitar pick you wish,
take one out.
Happy with that?
Green? Cool, all right.
And then I want you to take, uh- and then on this side,
I'm gonna write my initials, which is M.S.
for Murray Sawchuck, like that.
And then on this side, I want you to write your initials.
That way you know it's the only guitar pick
we're ever gonna use.
Got it? Excellent.
Very nice, show the cameras like that.
So we have my initials on this side
and of course your initials on that side,
so it identifies the only pick we're ever gonna use.
Cool? All right.
Also I have a box of cards and I got a glass.
So I want you to put your hand out
just like that for me, I'm taking this glass,
place the cards right there,
place the box right on top,
just like that.
So we got the glass, the box of cards, right?
Nothing's rearranged, obviously.
Got the pick.
This is the trick I always do with all my musician friends,
they find it kind of interesting.
I want you to watch very carefully.
I'm gonna throw this up and watch it.
Here we go. Watch.
(guitar pick plinks into glass)
Check it out.
Isn't that cool? Don't do anything, hold on-
(audience applauding)
Here, take it out, have a look.
Yeah, have a look, show the audience.
Is that it? Show the other side.
That's it! Big hand for Charlie, everybody!
Charlie, thanks for being here, you can keep that,
that's your present.
Thanks again. See ya later.
(audience applauding)
- She came all the way from France just to amaze
all of us here, and you at home.
So let's welcome to the stage Alexandra Duvivier.
(audience applauds)
- Mwa! I am so thrilled to be here
with all these amazing crowd,
and I have here two members of the audience
coming here to help me.
Thank you so much, thank you so much.
If I ask you now, what do I have in my sock?
What would you answer?
- Your feet?
- No, I mean this sock!
(audience laughs)
French style. Okay,
No, I have
(coins jingle in sock)
of course, money, money, money.
That's it. You can have a look.
There are four dollars,
please, please, please have a look.
And you can also check my sock,
which is clean.
(audience laughs)
- Okay.
- I can handle it.
You can put it on the table.
Thank you, sweetheart.
You can see, can you please testify that you see four coins?
- Yes.
- Of course, yes.
Can you please testify yourself
that you see four coins as well?
- Yep, there's four.
- Of course, yes.
Here, let's try it.
(coins jingle into cup)
Ooh!
- Whoa!
- I'm telling you it's working pretty well,
because now I have one here,
and watch three left,
of course this is pretty normal, isn't it?
You have three times to understand what I'm doing,
because I will do it three times in a row.
So can you please confirm you see three coins in Spanish?
- Tres coins.
(audience laughs)
- That was a wild explanation in Spanish, but that's okay.
You see three in Spanish?
- (affirms Spanish)
(volunteer in blue laughs)
- A bit better maybe, but that's fine.
Sorry. So let's do it and oh-
(coin jingles into glass)
Yeah, that was painful, but you know-
Yeah. One and two, two to go and two to go!
Can you confirm that you can see two in French.
(audience laughs)
Don't bother only me speaks French here, so don't bother.
So two.
- (affirms in French)
- I'm so impressed!
Whoa. That's exactly!
(affirms in French)
Exactly!
So now- oh wait-
(coin jingles into glass)
That's it.
And now I have three here and only one left
for the last one- for the last one,
maybe I can use your hand.
Would you mind?
- Sure.
- All right, great.
So let's try it, let's try it. Okay.
1, 2, 3, and of course four.
- Of course.
- So now the goal of the game for me is to try to, no,
I will take one coin and you will close your hand
as fast as possible, because I am able to
steal one more from you.
This is my job.
So I take one, oh that's so good.
And now I will try, try.
I know I don't promise,
but I will try to make that coin
travel to inside of your hand without you opening it.
I know it's a wager, but you know, I'm here to do so.
So let's try it.
Let's try to do
I don't, I didn't do well.
I think I did not aim more correctly, but anyway
now it's done.
Can you please open your hands slowly?
I think you've done it so well.
One, (counting in other languages)
This is amazing, you can applaud!
(audience applauding)
Thank you so much for this,
thank you so much for that, that feels so good!
Thank you for your help!
- [Announcer] "Amazing" is the only way
to describe The Conjurors. Next.
(explosion sound effect and music plays)
(audience cheers)
(opening music plays and audience cheers)
- We have a couple of Brits coming all the way
across the pond to this very stage,
and just in time for tea.
Let's hear it for The Conjurors.
(audience cheers)
- So we're here tonight with a member of the audience.
What's your name?
- Andrea.
- Andrea, a beautiful name.
I thought tonight, I'll show you my favorite trick.
- And I'll make a lovely cup of tea.
- My favorite card in the world is the Jack of Hearts.
This one just here,
and I'm gonna show you that it really is
in the middle-ish. Ish.
Now probably more cards on this side than that,
but would you agree, it's lost randomly
somewhere in the center?
- Yes.
- Good, thank you so much.
Look momentarily, I'm gonna ask for you
to have a favorite card as well.
So let me give them a little mix up like this.
You know, they're not in any predetermined order,
which I promise they are not,
whenever you want, I'll run my thumb down the side,
just say stop.
- Stop.
- Oh, right there, good.
Now, up to you, that one or another one?
Whatever you like, completely your choice.
- Um, this one.
- Ooh, normally they go from the top, not tonight.
Okay, good. Take up the card for me,
let everyone see: the camera, everybody at home,
I will not look, I'll turn away.
Let everybody see the card, and then once you've done that,
put it back on top for me.
Lovely. And I'll put these on here.
So now, would you be happy that I don't know
what your card is?
- Yeah.
- All right. So I would estimate it's probably
about a third of the way down.
Now look, if I cut the cards,
it gets lost more, obviously,
but you might sit there and think, "But you're a magician.
So you know where the cards are,
you control the cards at all times."
Cheers for nodding.
Don't trust me at all.
Will you cut them for me?
Lift off some cards,
big packet, small packet, put them here.
- Okay.
- Points to the neatness.
Wow, they were very neat.
Very good. All right. Now look, it's your trick,
so it's your choice.
Do you wanna cut them again or do we stop there?
- We can stop.
- Okay. I'll half the cards, but I won't change the order.
Do you know how many cards are in a pack?
- Um?
- 52.
(audience laughs)
All right. You can cut again if you want.
- Yes. Sorry.
- No, that's fine. It's my fault.
52.
(audience laughs)
If this doesn't work,
it's my fault we chose you.
So look, lean in for me.
26 cards, exactly half.
(counts by twos to 26)
Exactly half from where you cut.
You look impressed already,
if you like this, this will love the end.
Now look, so at the start you remember
I said you, my favorite card.
My favorite card is the Jack of Hearts.
Then at random, you had a card.
A card that you chose, not from the top, from the middle,
a random position in the pack.
And then you returned it to an even more random position.
And then you cut them.
Normally it's twice,
today we went rogue and did it three times.
That's fine.
So look, the objective is simple.
Hopefully, somehow, even though you cut the cards,
mixed them, shuffled them, changed the order,
our cards should have
potentially, maybe, possibly landed side by side.
If that happened, would that be a good trick?
- Yes!
- Good! So for the first time, what was your card?
- King.
- Of?
- Spades.
- That one?
Oh good. So, now that's not bad,
that's okay, but I said that all the best tricks
have three paths.
It's kind of a motto, an ethos that I live by.
So look, that's not bad.
You mixed and shuffled.
What's better than that is this:
that ace, that ace, that ace, and that ace.
- Oh my God.
- Thank you, but look, even better than that.
Under the Ace of Diamonds, check this out.
You did everything. This should be the
2, 3,
4, 5,
6, 7,
8, 9
and the 10. That's perfect.
You did amazingly well.
Under the spade, I think you know where it's going,
look, every single one is there
and in order all the way through.
We'll do it again with the hearts.
This time faster, everyone is there
leading into the diamonds, which of course are there.
And lastly, that's the ace, the two, the three, the four
you get the idea, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, et cetera.
Everybody give Andrea a massive round applause.
(audience cheers)
But look, we said, and it's true,
that we do tricks all over the world.
We're very blessed, very privileged, very honored
to go to many cafe shops and the thing is this:
when I was younger, the reason I love the Jack of Hearts,
it's a magical card.
Well, that may sound silly, but look
you've just seen everything that we've done.
And if you watch, and watch closely, my card
the Jack in front of your eyes should have um-
vanished.
So if you have a look through, and you really can,
there's a Jack of Diamonds,
but you'll notice that all the way through,
there is no Jack of Hearts.
Your card has, as we magicians say, vanished.
- But the amazing thing is, when something vanishes,
we can always make it re-appear.
- And that is magic.
(audience applauding)
- [Announcer] The impossible is made possible
by Eric Eaton next.
(explosion sound effect and music plays)
(audience cheers)
(opening music plays and audience cheers)
- Now for an artist's approach
to a masterful illusion,
we have Eric Eaton.
- What's up guys.
(audience applauds)
So, I have my volunteer from the audience,
what's your name?
- (inaudible).
- Kara.
Today, we are going to do something fun.
Kara, what do you like to do in your free time?
- Watch movies.
- Paint? Do you like to paint?
- Yeah.
- Paint? All right, good.
We're gonna go with paint.
Kara likes to paint.
All right, Kara, what do you like to paint?
- Sunsets
- Cars?
- I like cars.
- Yeah, cars. Good choice, Kara.
So today I thought we'd paint a car.
Ladies, if I can get you to raise this for me.
Kara, we have four different paints here,
so for painting purposes,
let's do the mirrors, the stripes,
the grill, and the body of the car.
Okay? All right.
I want you to pick any one of those paints you want.
Perfect. Now, if I can get you to paint
either the body, stripes, grill, or mirrors,
I'll let you pick.
Perfect.
I'll take that one, we don't need it anymore.
If I can get you to grab another one for me.
Good. I was worried you were gonna pick the headlights.
(audience laughs)
Good choice, I'll take that from you.
And if I can get you to grab another one.
This one's pretty easy, just straight up and down.
It's just like you learned in school.
And then lastly is the red.
Oh, you, you missed a spot.
Perfect. Thank you Kara.
- Mm-hmm.
- All right, ladies and gentlemen, you can see
we have completely painted this car
perfectly by Kara.
Give her a round of applause.
(audience applauding)
Now, Kara, you had a free choice, correct?
- Yes.
- How cool would that be if we made a car
appear behind here that would look just like that.
- Pretty cool.
- Pretty cool?
Ladies and gentlemen, watch.
1,
2,
3.
(audience cheers)
I know, it's not as big as you thought,
but we have a green mirror,
yellow stripes, blue grill, and a red base.
Everyone give Kara a round of applause!
(audience applauds)
- Well, that's our show for now.
We have lots more magic coming up
in the next edition of Masters of Illusion,
Don't you miss it!
'Til then, I'm Dean Cain,
thank you for watching.
(audience cheers)
And thank you guys!
Thank you guys for being a great audience!
(rock music)