6 ms·

Well according to the rules, if their first guess is wrong, they are considered fooled. I'm pretty sure they have the right guess for all of them somewhere on t

by zwily 10y ago

Well according to the rules, if their first guess is wrong, they are considered fooled. I'm pretty sure they have the right guess for all of them somewhere on their list of possibilities. There have been a couple where they very convincingly look fooled though.

lisper 10y ago
There was one episode where they didn't even make a guess. Penn got really pissed off and said something to the effect of, "Fuck you, I have no fucking idea how you fucking did that!" Not sure if the anger was real or a put-on but it was a lot of fun to watch. Just thinking about it is making me smile :-)
- fenomas 10y ago
  That was real! I mean he wasn't really angry but he really did have his mind blown. The backstory is that the magician in question (Kostya Kimlat) did a trick that Penn & Teller also do, and he did it more or less the same way they do it - except that at the end, at the part where P&T do the sleights that make the trick work, in Kimlat's version the effect was already done because he'd done a different sleight, earlier, about five inches under P&T's noses. It was pretty glorious. The trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCFXV6o7cro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCFXV6o7cro Penn talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKail7Jwwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKail7Jwwg
  - lisper 10y ago
    Yep, that's the one. Wow, what an awesome trick! And the back story is great. Penn's reaction now makes a lot more sense.
  - drostie 10y ago
    Oh man, that is devious. You can just barely see the finger-work from the camera's perspective; but Penn and Teller didn't stand a chance.
    - mistermann 10y ago
      Can you tell me the timestamp in the video where something happens? I'm at a complete loss.
      - spc476 10y ago
        I think his move is at 4:04 in the video, when he cuts the deck, saying some cards are face up, some face down, and Penn groans at his patter. Edit: I think the actual trick starts at 3:49, when he asks Teller to insert his card, either face up or face down. The move at 4:04 finishes the trick and it's done.
        etcet 10y ago
        This is great, I love watching magic at 1/4 speed. I think he's sorting the cards into a face up and face down half and puts the two picked cards in the opposite half. It looks like he sorts faces up on the top half and faces down on the bottom. He might even have left the top card face down so the deck looks more unsorted because he flips it during the 4:04 move. Then he flips the halves which results in a sorted deck with the picked cards flipped.
        drostie 10y ago
        Yep, you got it. The trick happens entirely during that fan-out of cards that Penn and Teller are inserting into. The trick is that Kostya's bottom hand is not a passive receptacle but is actively reaching out underneath the deck to grab any face-down cards and pull them onto the bottom, but he's practiced it so well that it doesn't look unnatural or jerky. The "into" hand is holding in order: 1. a few face-down cards on top to make it look like it's still mixed, 2. all the face-up cards plus Penn's card, which went in face-down, 3. all the face-down cards plus Teller's card, which went in face-up. At 4:04 Kostya does a simple move which Penn and Teller are totally allowed to see which reorients these; indeed, Penn's bellow at 4:06 is apparently because he was 100% convinced that this was going to be a "blink and you'll miss it" trick: maybe swapping out the deck, maybe the cards are not perfect rectangles and he can separate them at will, maybe a dozen other ways he knows to get the same illusion -- but instead he just saw the guy turn half of the cards over, meaning that they were already split into face-up and face-down: and he had totally missed it because the cards seemed to move so naturally and the hand underneath was 100% totally hidden from him.
jobigoud 10y ago
Yeah, in one episode the contestants optimized for the benchmark and purposedly faked a sloppy move that could explain the trick, but wasn't the real method they employed. P&T went for the obvious move and got fooled.
- munificent 10y ago
  That's brilliant. Misdirection within misdirection.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- jaredandrews 10y ago
  I think you are referring to Jay Sankey's appearance on the show. He has a YouTube channel where he teaches magic in a manner that I think any engineer would respect. I first discovered him watching the video where he discusses his appearance on the P&T show [0]. I have been watching a lot of his videos since then. I doubt I'll ever learn to do any of his tricks 100% but I find his commentary on the social aspect of magic very interesting. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSIijZf2GiQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSIijZf2GiQ
tzs 10y ago
A very good and memorable one where they were very fooled was Shin Lim's card act [1]. As is common with card acts that have someone from the audience pick a card, he has them sign their card. Before moving on with the amazing card manipulation, he makes the pen disappear. According to Teller (as reported by Penn), "We didn't even know how you vanished the motherfucking marker". [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAN-PwRfJcA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAN-PwRfJcA
- btym 10y ago
  That may be the most impressive magic performance I've ever seen.
  - tormeh 10y ago
    Yeah, sitting here rewinding dozens of times on Youtube I can see a couple of his tricks. But they all require insane dexterity and coordination. We see in the intro that he's capable of that, which I guess he could have skipped if he wanted to conceal that for us. And that vest of his is clearly not ordinary at all. But I think almost getting it makes it even more impressive really, which is why I think he hints at some of it. It's pretty beautiful.
    - sytelus 10y ago
      Can you elaborate on some secrets you found?
      - tormeh 10y ago
        Every time he's making the marker disappear he's making small movements with lots of energy in them - he's clearly throwing the marker, and he's throwing the marker so that it's path is obscured by his hands. I'm speculating that it lands inside his vest. That must have taken an insane amount of practice. He's also moving a card from one side of his body to another. Later he's moving a card back the other way. My bet is that his vest has some sort of mechanism for moving cards. He moves very awkwardly while doing it, so he's certainly doing some complicated procedure we can't see. He could of course be throwing the card, deflecting it with the insides of his hands or otherwise creating a very curved path, but that's just barely plausible. Anyway, this guy's Dex score is insane.
vacri 10y ago
> Well according to the rules, if their first guess is wrong, they are considered fooled That plus they only get half a minute (usually less) of discussion time to figure it out.

by zwily 10y ago

lisper 10y ago

There was one episode where they didn't even make a guess. Penn got really pissed off and said something to the effect of, "Fuck you, I have no fucking idea how you fucking did that!" Not sure if the anger was real or a put-on but it was a lot of fun to watch. Just thinking about it is making me smile :-)

fenomas 10y ago
That was real! I mean he wasn't really angry but he really did have his mind blown. The backstory is that the magician in question (Kostya Kimlat) did a trick that Penn & Teller also do, and he did it more or less the same way they do it - except that at the end, at the part where P&T do the sleights that make the trick work, in Kimlat's version the effect was already done because he'd done a different sleight, earlier, about five inches under P&T's noses. It was pretty glorious. The trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCFXV6o7cro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCFXV6o7cro Penn talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKail7Jwwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuKail7Jwwg
- lisper 10y ago
  Yep, that's the one. Wow, what an awesome trick! And the back story is great. Penn's reaction now makes a lot more sense.
- drostie 10y ago
  Oh man, that is devious. You can just barely see the finger-work from the camera's perspective; but Penn and Teller didn't stand a chance.
  - mistermann 10y ago
    Can you tell me the timestamp in the video where something happens? I'm at a complete loss.
    - spc476 10y ago
      I think his move is at 4:04 in the video, when he cuts the deck, saying some cards are face up, some face down, and Penn groans at his patter. Edit: I think the actual trick starts at 3:49, when he asks Teller to insert his card, either face up or face down. The move at 4:04 finishes the trick and it's done.
      - etcet 10y ago
        This is great, I love watching magic at 1/4 speed. I think he's sorting the cards into a face up and face down half and puts the two picked cards in the opposite half. It looks like he sorts faces up on the top half and faces down on the bottom. He might even have left the top card face down so the deck looks more unsorted because he flips it during the 4:04 move. Then he flips the halves which results in a sorted deck with the picked cards flipped.
        drostie 10y ago
        Yep, you got it. The trick happens entirely during that fan-out of cards that Penn and Teller are inserting into. The trick is that Kostya's bottom hand is not a passive receptacle but is actively reaching out underneath the deck to grab any face-down cards and pull them onto the bottom, but he's practiced it so well that it doesn't look unnatural or jerky. The "into" hand is holding in order: 1. a few face-down cards on top to make it look like it's still mixed, 2. all the face-up cards plus Penn's card, which went in face-down, 3. all the face-down cards plus Teller's card, which went in face-up. At 4:04 Kostya does a simple move which Penn and Teller are totally allowed to see which reorients these; indeed, Penn's bellow at 4:06 is apparently because he was 100% convinced that this was going to be a "blink and you'll miss it" trick: maybe swapping out the deck, maybe the cards are not perfect rectangles and he can separate them at will, maybe a dozen other ways he knows to get the same illusion -- but instead he just saw the guy turn half of the cards over, meaning that they were already split into face-up and face-down: and he had totally missed it because the cards seemed to move so naturally and the hand underneath was 100% totally hidden from him.

jobigoud 10y ago

Yeah, in one episode the contestants optimized for the benchmark and purposedly faked a sloppy move that could explain the trick, but wasn't the real method they employed. P&T went for the obvious move and got fooled.

munificent 10y ago
That's brilliant. Misdirection within misdirection.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jaredandrews 10y ago
I think you are referring to Jay Sankey's appearance on the show. He has a YouTube channel where he teaches magic in a manner that I think any engineer would respect. I first discovered him watching the video where he discusses his appearance on the P&T show [0]. I have been watching a lot of his videos since then. I doubt I'll ever learn to do any of his tricks 100% but I find his commentary on the social aspect of magic very interesting. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSIijZf2GiQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSIijZf2GiQ

tzs 10y ago

A very good and memorable one where they were very fooled was Shin Lim's card act [1]. As is common with card acts that have someone from the audience pick a card, he has them sign their card. Before moving on with the amazing card manipulation, he makes the pen disappear. According to Teller (as reported by Penn), "We didn't even know how you vanished the motherfucking marker". [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAN-PwRfJcA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAN-PwRfJcA

btym 10y ago
That may be the most impressive magic performance I've ever seen.
- tormeh 10y ago
  Yeah, sitting here rewinding dozens of times on Youtube I can see a couple of his tricks. But they all require insane dexterity and coordination. We see in the intro that he's capable of that, which I guess he could have skipped if he wanted to conceal that for us. And that vest of his is clearly not ordinary at all. But I think almost getting it makes it even more impressive really, which is why I think he hints at some of it. It's pretty beautiful.
  - sytelus 10y ago
    Can you elaborate on some secrets you found?
    - tormeh 10y ago
      Every time he's making the marker disappear he's making small movements with lots of energy in them - he's clearly throwing the marker, and he's throwing the marker so that it's path is obscured by his hands. I'm speculating that it lands inside his vest. That must have taken an insane amount of practice. He's also moving a card from one side of his body to another. Later he's moving a card back the other way. My bet is that his vest has some sort of mechanism for moving cards. He moves very awkwardly while doing it, so he's certainly doing some complicated procedure we can't see. He could of course be throwing the card, deflecting it with the insides of his hands or otherwise creating a very curved path, but that's just barely plausible. Anyway, this guy's Dex score is insane.

vacri 10y ago

> Well according to the rules, if their first guess is wrong, they are considered fooled That plus they only get half a minute (usually less) of discussion time to figure it out.