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A great example of Teller's observation that "sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."
by lxgr 2y ago
A great example of Teller's observation that "sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."
- Terr_ 2y ago> Ninety per cent of most magic merely consists of knowing one extra fact. -- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
- shwouchk 2y agoThanks for this reference to one of my favorite books of all time, out of one of my favorite series of all time
- Dalewyn 2y agoSufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, as the saying goes.
- dhosek 2y agoMy favorite of these was a trick where someone picked a card out of a deck and then Teller revealed a large version of that same card in an unexpected area in the vicinity, It turns out that what he had done was hide a complete set of large cards in the area before the trick and memorized the location of every one of them so, e.g., the king of hearts would be at the top of a palm tree, the three of spades under a drink tray, etc.
- lxgr 2y agoThe best part is that that kind of trick usually becomes more, rather than less, impressive when its inner working is revealed. I recently got to see them perform live, and my favorite trick by far was one of that kind.
- js2 2y agoPenn only agreed to the "Red Ball" trick after Teller hit on the idea to tell the audience how it works at the start. https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-bench-and-alleged-thread-teller/ https://lasvegasweekly.com/news/2008/nov/20/man-ball-hoop-be... https://www.thisamericanlife.org/619/transcript https://www.thisamericanlife.org/619/transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhnATlPdG6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhnATlPdG6A Here they are showing how they do ball & cups by using clear cups and it's no less amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8osRaFTtgHo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8osRaFTtgHo
- dhosek 2y agoI love these and my kids who are a little obsessed with stage magic right now are at the perfect age for Penn & Teller videos so I need to stash these for the next time I have them. There’s definitely skill levels involved, even at the professional level (and Penn & Teller are definitely among the best out there). We’ve been to two professional magic shows in the last year, one in Wisconsin Dells, the other in Lake Geneva (both venues starring their owners) and it was apparent that the Dells guy was much better than the Lake Geneva guy (although the second magician the Lake Geneva guy had some impressive work to show).
- js2 2y agoRicky Jay (RIP) is also extraordinary and has a handful of videos on YouTube. His stuff is mostly with cards and his humor is more aimed at adults. One of my favorites is his appearance on Arsenio Hall (I wish this was better quality): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jKuHiY397U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jKuHiY397U You gotta watch to the end. Arsenio bends a card when Ricky looks away and thinks he can follow it that way but... well, just watch. :-) One of his shows (with some fancy card throwing): https://youtu.be/z7InE1zXAY4 https://youtu.be/z7InE1zXAY4 Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWM4qQWwnu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWM4qQWwnu0