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Penn & Teller: "Fool Us" and My Bragging Rights

Garrette

Penultimate Amazing
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Aug 7, 2001
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I get fooled occasionally by the performers on this show, including every time that P&T were fooled.

This is the first time that they were fooled and I was not. It means nothing, of course, except I get to obnoxiously say "Nyah nyah!" repeatedly.

Rick Lax and the Black and Red Memory Tick (my name, not his).
 
It fooled me, but honestly, I lost interest in the effect because the banter was so entertaining.
 
marplots said:
It fooled me, but honestly, I lost interest in the effect because the banter was so entertaining.
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Agreed, but that was part of the fun. As a strict memory demonstration it's fairly boring, but in the way Lax presented it it was quite entertaining. Frankly, the rapid fire recitation of the poem was more impressive than the mechanics of the effect.
 
Garrette said:
Agreed, but that was part of the fun. As a strict memory demonstration it's fairly boring, but in the way Lax presented it it was quite entertaining. Frankly, the rapid fire recitation of the poem was more impressive than the mechanics of the effect.
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I think it's for sale at Penguin for instant download if anyone is interested: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/3905
$10
 
Why learn complicated mnemonic effects when you could simply use a marked deck? Teller was checking for that so I know he didn't use that method (unless he had a hell of a sophisticated marking method).
 
Senex said:
Why learn complicated mnemonic effects when you could simply use a marked deck? Teller was checking for that so I know he didn't use that method (unless he had a hell of a sophisticated marking method).
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That's the point. It isn't really a memory effect; it just appears to be.

NB: The first bit with the 12 cards is a memory effect, but with a very simplified way of doing it. The bit with all the rest has nothing at all to do with memory.
 
There has been at least one case when Penn&Teller declared "you fooled us!" in spite they knew how the trick was done. It happened to be they knew it through a book the very same performer wrote, so they couldn't have known without that information, so "you fooled us!". This sounds pretty much the same, unless what is on offer is very old or an infringement of intellectual righs.
 
I think, perhaps I saw the one you're speaking of. David Roth, yes? And I agree, but I think it was an exception out of deference for a legend. They also didn't mention the rather shaky hands and slight slips due to age.
 
Kostya Kimlat was the "you fooled us" that annoyed the most. Unless Teller's view was completely obscured through the end, I don't see how he missed the cull.

The second most annoying "you fooled us" was the guy who ripped the telephone book in half. I don't remember his name, but the move was so obvious even Penn must have been sleeping.
 
The Kimlat routine was very amusing if only for Penn getting visibly angry as he was getting fooled. From very early on he knew how the trick had to end, but had no clue how it would get there.
 
The only "you fooled us!" that annoyed me was the couple who used a boy on a skate. Their move was pretty obvious even for me that am a first-class muggle, but they took advantage of being a couple and they feign a second less obvious move that proved to be a decoy. Even I can perform that trick, and thing are constantly slipping from my hands (I break a piece of dishware every two months)
 
aleCcowaN said:
The only "you fooled us!" that annoyed me was the couple who used a boy on a skate. Their move was pretty obvious even for me that am a first-class muggle, but they took advantage of being a couple and they feign a second less obvious move that proved to be a decoy. Even I can perform that trick, and thing are constantly slipping from my hands (I break a piece of dishware every two months)
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That one annoyed me, too, and I don't know why P&T let them get away with it. I didn't find the routine entertaining (but I recognize that that is subjective), but there were only one or two methods possible. The fact P&T guessed the wrong one shouldn't mean they were fooled.
 
aleCcowaN said:
The only "you fooled us!" that annoyed me was the couple who used a boy on a skate. Their move was pretty obvious even for me that am a first-class muggle, but they took advantage of being a couple and they feign a second less obvious move that proved to be a decoy. Even I can perform that trick, and thing are constantly slipping from my hands (I break a piece of dishware every two months)
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I forgotten about that one. It, too, annoyed, but for different reasons than the other two I mentioned. I don't like it when the the trick is acted out to mislead Penn and Teller as to method rather than to astonish them with the impossible. That's just gaming the system.
 
You are both right. The coarse routine of getting Ross to use a showgirl coif and finally placing the coif on a coach big enough to hide Laurel Hardy, Zero Mostel and Richard Burton at the same time; that was gross, and having that naive skate champion in the dark, used in such way, the sum of it went against everything magic stands for. That couple are not first class illusionist but first class swindlers.
 
I was a little annoyed with the Kimlat bit as well. If only because he's known for one thing only, and that's what fools them?

There is a slight real life chance that they simply were not aware that some people are that good at culling half a deck, not being move monkeys themselves, but it is stretching my credulity.

Not realizing Kimlat used a cull is like not guessing that Annemann uses a billet switch or that Aaronson might have memorized a deck...
 
Maurice Ledifficile said:
I was a little annoyed with the Kimlat bit as well. If only because he's known for one thing only, and that's what fools them?

There is a slight real life chance that they simply were not aware that some people are that good at culling half a deck, not being move monkeys themselves, but it is stretching my credulity.

Not realizing Kimlat used a cull is like not guessing that Annemann uses a billet switch or that Aaronson might have memorized a deck...
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That's funny because it is so true.
 
Garrette said:
I get fooled occasionally by the performers on this show, including every time that P&T were fooled.

This is the first time that they were fooled and I was not. It means nothing, of course, except I get to obnoxiously say "Nyah nyah!" repeatedly.

Rick Lax and the Black and Red Memory Tick (my name, not his).
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Does anyone else get the sense that season 2 is more about promoting magic. I get the show here back-to-back with Wizard Wars. Some of the same faces have been on both shows, but that's not solely why I feel it's more a promotional exercise. For certain insider "legends" they go by the letter of the rules. They're fooled by stuff that they would've allowed themselves the win in the first season, e.g. they know (because they know the persona or the signature moves of the persona) HOW it was done, but couldn't catch the actual moves. In season 1, those types were shuffled off with Jonathan's patented "So, you didn't fool them but wasn't that a marvelous performance, folks."

I don't remember names, but in one of the early episodes this season they had the son of a legendary couple. The tricks were standard fare, well executed, but nothing even amateur fans like myself haven't seen done (and explained) before. The big reveal at the end was that the parents were behind a curtain or in a box. And they were fooled? I sincerely doubt it. It was a "tribute". Ditto the dude what invented half the current "Coins" routines. He's great. But "fooled"? No. They were unable to spot some of the moves, but they surely didn't leave the theater scratching their heads.

I'm not saying that some of it is pre-ordained, but Kimlat has a mini-corporate empire going. Would he have agreed to show up on the chance of not fooling them? Or was the wrinkle on the known trick (Teller does a variation) going to puzzle them as to just how it was precisely executed, and they agreed that if they couldn't catch the move, they'd credit him. I don't believe Penn's comment that when Teller saw Kimlat's name when they arrived, he said, "We're screwed!" Sounds like fluff.

Wizard Wars, by the way, is fun. The prize is so low that the exposure is more important, but the rough (very rough) edges on the tricks is great. With no time to practice or figure out the camera angles, it's pretty raw sometimes.

Oh, and I'm giving a free piece of cake (we'll take it from Ron Tomkins) for the explanation to "the leaf stab gone bad and signed leaf in bottle of maple syrup" solution.
 
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