Penn & Teller - Fool Us

[davidhorman]

Been away a while...

Has anyone been watching Penn & Teller: Fool Us in the UK? For those who don't know, P&T sit in judgement of a few magic acts each week, and if they can't work out how it's done, the act gets to go to Vegas and perform on P&T's stage.

Anyway, last night they had a mentalist whose act consisted of the following:

1. He picked an audience member (apparently at random, but he did just point her out)
2. She was asked to decide which of 3 tables to place 3 covered meals at
3. Then she was asked to pick three men from the audience at random
4. Then she was asked to assign one of three coloured envelopes to each man, and at one point took the option of switching two of them
5. Then she was asked to assign each man to one of the tables
6. When each man opened his envelope, it correctly stated* his name (which had been asked for when they came on stage), the table he was sitting at, and the meal that was in front of him

* each man read his own card out; they were never shown to the audience. They read their cards before the meals were revealed.

P&T couldn't figure it out - and acted completely stumped - but as Penn walked back to his seat he did tell the chosen woman (with a smile on his face) that if she was in on it, he'd kill her. I would have at least made that my guess rather than nothing

So here's the thing... without revealing details (I don't want to know) can anyone tell me if they know of a way it could be done without audience collusion? Admittedly it's very hard to do from a third party of report of an edited broadcast, but...


(They also had another act who were very lucky to fool P&T last night - whether by poor staging or extreme sneakiness (he claimed it wasn't the latter) one of a pair of mentalists led Penn to believe he'd switched a deck, which he hadn't - Penn said he did figure it out later, but by then he'd already said they'd been fooled)

David

 

[Stray Cat]

I've been watching the series, but I had a gig last night so haven't watched it yet.
For anyone who wants to see what's being described above, it is available on the ITV player online (copyright issues may prevent people from outside the UK from being able to view, without one of the usual get arounds).

Available to watch here

 

[tomgv15]

You Tube comes through again.

 

[davidhorman]

The act in question starts at around 3m40 in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEunryjL1ZY

and P&T's judgement overflows into the next part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiszH6nJeVI

David

 

[Stray Cat]

I can't think of a way it could have been done without the girl being in on it.

As for the two guys with the really really boring silhouette trick... yawn!
Would I care how it was done? It was boring.

Got to say that the two French guys (and the girl) presented like top professionals... great stuff, best stage Illusion this series by far.

 

[davidhorman]

Oh yeah, that cube trick was great. I figured it after a little while, but it was still fascinating to watch, and still looks impossible.

I think Penn must have kicked himself after the silhouette trick, and there was really nothing to be impressed by there at all. I think you could tell the audience were pretty much clapping out of politeness.

David

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The cards all say, "Say your name out loud".

 

[Ray Brady]

The cards all say, "Say your name out loud".

That was my first thought. Perhaps the cards simply say "State your name", and everyone assumed they were reading their names off the card?

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

That was my first thought. Perhaps the cards simply say "State your name", and everyone assumed they were reading their names off the card?

I've seen the Toronto magician David Ben use a similar trick (with exposure) where someone from the audience is called to the stage and told the trick is very dangerous. She is asked to read a disclaimer from a card the Ben shows her. She reads the card. It says, "Sorry Dave I can't do that." Ben then sticks the swords in his assistant instead.

 

[Stray Cat]

The cards all say, "Say your name out loud".

See, I think the getting the names on the cards is the easy bit. He has plenty of time to do that in the traditional way. The colour coding of the envelopes doesn't make sense (it wasn't actually part of the trick) unless it's a signal to the woman to let her know which table to sit the people at. This seems a bit more obvious because the plates of food under their covers were already set up (presumably in the preordained order) and she chose where to put them.
Every choice in the trick was hers.

"I'm going to pick a woman at random" just doesn't cut it for me.

 

[Pup]

See, I think the getting the names on the cards is the easy bit.

What about swapping the envelopes when she changed her mind, though, without the magician touching them? Don't know if there's a standard trick to accomplish that, but it looked hard. (edited to add: unless it's the "say your name" trick of course.)

I was thinking the food looked like the easy part, since it's concealed and accessible from below.

"I'm going to pick a woman at random" just doesn't cut it for me.

Uh, yeah. Kinda makes all the other speculation moot.

 

[L The Detective]

I was pretty curious how this trick could have been done myself. However, it seems notable that the woman is not chosen at random, and that we don't actually see what the men are reading. I don't think audience plants are against the rules, and if the woman could truly have been anyone, you'd think he'd go to more effort to show the randomness, like allowing Penn to choose someone for example. But he didn't, he just went ahead and picked her himself. Pretty suspicious.

I guess we can't rule out some other form of extreme trickery, but I wish Penn would have just gone ahead and guessed audience plant, then we could have at least known for sure if that was the way it was done or not.

 

[Stray Cat]

What about swapping the envelopes when she changed her mind, though, without the magician touching them? Don't know if there's a standard trick to accomplish that, but it looked hard. (edited to add: unless it's the "say your name" trick of course.)

I hope this doesn't break the non disclosure rule because I must stress I'm guessing, not giving away a known secret.

The woman is in on it. The food is in an order that the magician and the woman know, therefore both know the order they go on the tables.
The woman can chose any random blokes, the magician has plenty of time to write the names in the traditional (secret gimmick) way. There is an obvious long edit here where the random blokes are given name badges and microphones. When the edit cuts back in, the magician already has the envelopes in his hand.
The magician and the woman have a colour code (the envelopes), so they both know which name is in which envelope, for instance; Bloke one (red), bloke 2 (blue) bloke 3 (yellow). She deliberately choose to give two the wrong envelope, so it looks more convincing when she apparently changes her mind. Then she chooses which table to sit each one at, which she already knows because she knows which food is at which table.

It's not rocket surgery and I'm surprised and a little disappointed that Penn & Teller didn't even have a guess at it, even though as stated in the OP Penn did hint at it afterwards.

 

[Pup]

It's not rocket surgery and I'm surprised and a little disappointed that Penn & Teller didn't even have a guess at it, even though as stated in the OP Penn did hint at it afterwards.

If the woman is in on it, absolutely. That seems the obvious answer.

If she's not, the magician should certainly have made a bigger deal out of that, like letting Penn pick her as L The Detective said.

If she is random, then there's the "say your name" possibility. Which also means there's the "say your table number" possibility too. The color coded envelopes could be that way to signal to an off-camera food swapper how to do his job. But then that doesn't require the long pause for name-tags and microphones, which seemed suspicious.

 

[davidhorman]

She is asked to read a disclaimer from a card the Ben shows her. She reads the card. It says, "Sorry Dave I can't do that."

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." would have gotten more geek points.

David

 

[Lothian]

If the woman is in on it, absolutely. That seems the obvious answer.

If that is the case I trust that they will not get the prize.

 

[Stray Cat]

If that is the case I trust that they will not get the prize.

Or regarding Penn's comment to her at the end of that segment, we'll see a headline in the Las Vegas Tribune: "English Woman Found Dead in Rio Casino Dumpster"

 

[Pup]

Or regarding Penn's comment to her at the end of that segment, we'll see a headline in the Las Vegas Tribune: "English Woman Found Dead in Rio Casino Dumpster"

"When questioned by police, Teller gave no comment."

 

[Bill Thompson]

I think if the woman was not in on it and the three men were not in on it, their reactions would have been more than just bored and unimpressed.

 

[L The Detective]

Although I can't think of an alternative way the trick is done, I was able to think of a good reason why the magician might choose to not make a big deal about the fact that his choice of audience member was random. Simply put, it could've been a red herring. In a show where you're supposed to fool some magicians, the best way to do that is to try to get them to guess the wrong method... so even if that choice of audience member was truly random, it would make sense to make it look not random.

If there is another method that doesn't involve audience plants, I think it must have something to do with the fact that we never see what's written inside the envelope.