Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

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Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Dustin Stinett » June 27th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Here's the trailer for the second season of the CW network's "Penn & Teller: Fool Us" television program (premiering on July 6). With this and the return of "Masters of Illusion" also premiering on the CW (July 10), this is going to be a terrific summer of televised magic here in the USA!

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/penn-teller-f ... 7fe636ed9d

Note that the Genii's own John Lovick will be appearing. Congrats Handsome Jack!

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby erdnasephile » June 29th, 2015, 6:21 pm

For those interested, this month's MUM has an article on the production of Season 2 from an insider's (Michael Close's) point of view. Judging from some of the magic stars in the pictures accompanying the article, it's gonna be real good!

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » July 7th, 2015, 4:34 pm

The little plunger trick had my head scratching, but not Teller's. I loved the idea and presentation.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Dustin Stinett » July 7th, 2015, 4:45 pm

The first time I saw Jon do this (that's been several years ago now), it didn't "fool me," but it certainly delighted me. Such a clever and incredibly original premise.

At the time he wasn't selling it and everyone around was clamoring for it (it was at a convention in Las Vegas, but cannot recall which one). Since then, not only has he been selling it, he has held successful workshops at the Castle using it. With this exposure, he's probably going to sell a whole bunch more now. Good for Jon on many levels.

All around terrific show. I'm looking forward to more. What a great summer for American TV magic!

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby mr_goat » July 7th, 2015, 4:59 pm

P.T.Widdle wrote:The little plunger trick had my head scratching, but not Teller's. I loved the idea and presentation.


It's wonderful.

I've been doing it for a few years now and it's a highlight of my one msn show.

It's the personification of the plunger. It's about making the plunger the star not you. And, bonus, it's as good as self working allowing you to concentrate solely on the presentation.
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Brad Jeffers » July 7th, 2015, 5:07 pm

A new street magic show, Don't Blink, premieres this Thursday at 11:00 pm on the Pop network.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Brad Henderson » July 7th, 2015, 6:17 pm

a 'new' street magic special - isn't that an oxymoron by now?

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Ted M » July 7th, 2015, 6:52 pm

Brad H needs a hug.

Episode 1 of Fool Us is available for watching in its entirety:

http://www.cwtv.com/shows/penn-teller-fool-us/

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Doug Thornton » July 8th, 2015, 12:57 am

Xavier (Mortimer), who performed his mirror act on Fool Us, also had a brief appearance on America's Got Talent tonight. (I say brief, because only about 30 seconds of his French waiter act was shown. That's one thing I dislike about that show - the editing of the acts and the cuts to the judges and host; also when the acts, like dancers and acrobats, are shown in slow motion...and more. I enjoy seeing the variety acts because it's the closest we have to The Ed Sullivan Show.)

Xavier did, however, get voted through to the next round.

By the way, Neil Patrick Harris - who has a new variety show in the fall - will be a guest judge next week.
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Steve Mills » July 8th, 2015, 10:16 am

We got the Cubs in Chicago.....

Anyway, I see there is a IOS CW App to watch full episodes.

Any feedback on the Who's Line Is It Anyway show that followed?
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » July 13th, 2015, 7:34 pm

Reddit AMA with winner Steven Brundage (Rubik's Cube trick):

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3 ... ho_fooled/

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby erdnasephile » July 13th, 2015, 8:46 pm

Quick personal opinions on 2/1:

I thought that Mr. Armstrong was the class of the show. Very polished, professional, and likable. I had read all of the reviews of the routine when it first came out and thought it sounded boring--boy, was I wrong! I hope he sells a bunch of the plungers (although part of me shudders about how many hobbyists will be aping his commercial presentation).

Xavier is very talented, but this routine was my least favorite of those he performed at IBM/SAM. I admire the artistry and it's fun to watch, but it was not terribly fooling.

Sad to say, Mr. Dow's wrestler act just wasn't my cup of tea and I think the magic got lost (However, it was fun to see a Jack Dean routine I hadn't thought about for a long time--which is actually a real fooler).

I was intrigued by Mr. Brundage's act initially (and it fooled me), but I unfortunately grew a bit tired of watching the same power/ability demonstrated over and over again. P and T's secret message on the trophy was sly...

Looking forward to tonight's show!

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » July 15th, 2015, 12:42 pm

First time seeing Teller's red ball routine. Sublime.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » July 29th, 2015, 2:35 pm

Mac King was terrific. How much of the eating of the guinea pig was Mac, and how much was from others?

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Steve Bryant » July 29th, 2015, 2:50 pm

Loved Mac's turn on P&T. Interesting that both he and John Lovick are channeling Harry Anderson, with great new touches.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby erdnasephile » July 30th, 2015, 5:49 pm

Mac King was great (as usual). Really funny stuff, and his oatmeal tub routine is fine example of how a pro molds a standard to fit himself. Interestingly, at this point, I didn't think "Colonel Sanders" fit Mac quite as well as "Skippy" fit Harry. Mac's version was still super, but it's just that Harry has that edge that really carried the thing. (I would enjoy seeing this routine in a year or so to see where Mac takes it from here.)

The other highlight for me was the Amazing Allison--her personality really showed through and I was pleasantly surprised at the audience reaction to the magic square.

One thing that stands out is P & T's obvious respect for all the magicians and their magic. They and the Fool Us staff went out of their way to make everyone look good. Everything from the effusive praise/encouragement to the oblique references to methods ("Wheaton") to avoid needless exposure is evidence that the "bad boys of magic" (that so many vilified back in the day) clearly love magic deeply.

Very much enjoying this show!
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Jonathan Townsend » July 30th, 2015, 10:15 pm

This Friday on CW here in NY - looks like both magic shows (masters and P&T) happening
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Doug Thornton » July 31st, 2015, 12:16 am

It looks like Friday's Fool Us is a repeat of the premiere episode of this season.
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby David Nethery » July 31st, 2015, 9:38 am

erdnasephile wrote:
One thing that stands out is P & T's obvious respect for all the magicians and their magic. They and the Fool Us staff went out of their way to make everyone look good.

Everything from the effusive praise/encouragement to the oblique references to methods ("Wheaton") to avoid needless exposure is evidence that the "bad boys of magic" (that so many vilified back in the day) clearly love magic deeply.


Yes, I really appreciate how they handle discussing methods with Penn using certain carefully chosen code words that make sense to magicians only. (or Teller draws a diagram on his notebook to show the performer for confirmation , then Teller does something to magically destroy the paper with the evidence ) It's refreshing to see the emphasis they put on complimenting the performer's presentation and the entertainment value of the trick , even if they weren't necessarily fooled by the method.

Penn's flub in referencing "Wheaton" (instead of Wheatley) was a bit odd , but Mac rolled with it , obviously knowing what Penn was referring to.

An even better inside reference was Penn talking about taking Jonathan Ross out to lunch to discuss Norman Ng's trick and that was enough to communicate to Norman that he had not fooled them. https://youtu.be/xKPqN-B8kaE?t=166 This resulted in a funny moment , with Jonathan Ross exclaiming in exasperation: "what's wrong with you people ?!!" in reaction to the coded communication between Penn and Norman .

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby erdnasephile » July 31st, 2015, 2:46 pm

David Nethery wrote:
...Penn's flub in referencing "Wheaton" (instead of Wheatley) was a bit odd , but Mac rolled with it , obviously knowing what Penn was referring to.

An even better inside reference was Penn talking about taking Jonathan Ross out to lunch to discuss Norman Ng's trick and that was enough to communicate to Norman that he had not fooled them. https://youtu.be/xKPqN-B8kaE?t=166 This resulted in a funny moment , with Jonathan Ross exclaiming in exasperation: "what's wrong with you people ?!!" in reaction to the coded communication between Penn and Norman .


I interpreted Penn's Wheaton "flub" as being on purpose in order to keep the internet searching audience members from glomming on to the truth.

I agree with you: I thought the out to lunch bit was funny too, although I wish he didn't emphasize the words repeatedly since searching "out to lunch magic" gets the curious where they want to go.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Michael Close » July 31st, 2015, 3:05 pm

I'm not so sure that the Out to Lunch reference was that obvious, especially to the uninformed. If you check out The Magic Cafe, you'll find that someone asked where to find out how Norman bent the paper fork.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Frank Yuen » August 1st, 2015, 1:58 pm

Wasn't the effect Ng performed published in Genii? I think it might have been Hiro Sakai's?

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Joe Pecore » August 1st, 2015, 2:28 pm

Frank Yuen wrote:Wasn't the effect Ng performed published in Genii? I think it might have been Hiro Sakai's?

Close. See the 2-D spoon by Tomo Maeda in http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Genii_2003_July
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby petnard » August 4th, 2015, 4:02 pm

While I"m enjoying seeing the magic on P&T's Fool Us, is anyone else upset about the camera work? Too often it pulls away from the table, from the act, and show audience reactions rather than the magic. If someone knows the production team, tell them to keep the camera on the act!

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby erdnasephile » August 4th, 2015, 9:57 pm

Regal rules! One of the most entertaining sets by far (and that trick is a real fooler).
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 4th, 2015, 10:02 pm

Regal was great, but he didn't fool them. The routine was very clever, but I noticed the same thing that Teller did about that last group of cards.
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Doug Thornton » August 4th, 2015, 11:09 pm

The "Bad Boys" are on Fallon tonight, while the first guest is Don Rickles!
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » August 12th, 2015, 8:17 pm

What a delightful appearance by Greg Wilson and his family. You could easily see the appreciation and reverence shown by P&T towards the Wilson parents, and as a result, it communicated to the audience some of the living history of the art.

I also loved the new P&T Rabbit In Hat piece. Simple, subtle, and deceptive to the audience. A nice touch of misdirection for me was Teller's wearing of a hat. Throughout the routine I expected something to appear from inside it.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby erdnasephile » August 16th, 2015, 7:48 pm

P.T.Widdle wrote:What a delightful appearance by Greg Wilson and his family. You could easily see the appreciation and reverence shown by P&T towards the Wilson parents, and as a result, it communicated to the audience some of the living history of the art. .


I grew up on "Magic Circus" so I loved this segment. I had never seen Greg perform before and it's uncanny how much he sounds like Mark used to on those old shows.

For comparison, here's Mark Wilson's old school version of Alan Wakeling's brilliant creation:



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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » August 19th, 2015, 8:40 pm

A handy round up of this week's show:

http://community.ew.com/2015/08/18/penn ... ard-trick/

Magician Kostya Kimlat fooled P&T badly, but I imagine someone on this forum might have an idea.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Tom Frame » August 20th, 2015, 9:04 am

Kostya's Triumph was terrific! I loved Penn's bombastic reaction.

I noticed a one card displacement and a pass, but I still don't have a clue how he did it.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Michael Close » August 20th, 2015, 9:30 am

On another forum, a post was made that P&T had to have known how Kostya did his trick and that their reactions were faked. This is absolutely untrue.

I am very familiar with Kostya's techniques, but, during our initial meeting/run-through, he beat me on the first thirteen cards. He had done what he needed to do and it went right past me. It was very effective.

Penn overplayed his reaction for comedy purposes, but Kostya genuinely fooled them.

And he was a delight to work with.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby mr_goat » August 20th, 2015, 12:35 pm

Michael Close wrote:On another forum, a post was made that P&T had to have known how Kostya did his trick and that their reactions were faked. This is absolutely untrue.


I guess they were drunk then.

I mean, Kostya is known for one thing. His roadrunner cull. He has released it as a DVD. It got a lot of publicity.

Does he do it exceptionally well? Hell yes he does. Is it invisible? Yes it is.

Do I think Teller was unaware of culling, no, no I don't. Penn is a bit stupid, so it might have fooled him.

With this, and the Wilson thing, I really find it VERY hard to believe they aren't pretending to be fooled.

I mean, the premise of the show is fooling them. If every week Teller knows how every trick is done, there's no "triumph" in the show.

So it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the producer as for x number of tricks be agreed to be "foolers". I really doubt anything much would fool Teller.

I've not met you Mr Close, and I know you are a man with a stellar reputation, but you're also being paid by the production company.
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Smurf » August 20th, 2015, 12:50 pm

I don't have any of Kostya's work, but I assumed this was related to his Roadrunner Cull.

Generally, it reminded me of Lee Asher's Continental Divide. Lee's effect was to separate reds and blacks rather than face-up/face-down cards.

Added: Just noticed Mr. Goat's post about the cull. He was a little quicker than me.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Bill Mullins » August 20th, 2015, 1:04 pm

If P&T were looking for a cull, and it was done so well that they couldn't tell if it was done, does that count as "fooling"? If I were P&T, I might give the magician credit for that.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby P.T.Widdle » August 20th, 2015, 1:53 pm

I may be mistaken, but I don't believe Teller is considered a "card man" as they say. Would he have an encyclopedic knowledge of card moves available to him?

To Bill's point, which may be the likely scenario, how do you know the tree fell if you didn't hear it? Hence, how could you credit it?

For more perspective, here is Kimlat's very nice blog post on the appearance:

https://thinklikeamagician.wordpress.co ... 160f8d7e9d

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Michael Close » August 20th, 2015, 2:54 pm

Mr. Goat:

I just want to make sure I understand your post.

Are you calling me a liar?

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 20th, 2015, 3:04 pm

Yes, Mike, he is calling you a liar.

Having seen Kostya do his cull when he first showed up on the scene years ago, I couldn't believe he was doing it that quickly and with no hesitation. I knew what he was doing--the method was too perfect, and the cull was the only way it could be done--yet I could not see it.

It's more than possible that Teller knows nothing about culling cards and was fooled by Kostya's cull. If Mike tells me that they were fooled, then that's the reason why.
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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Michael Close » August 20th, 2015, 3:11 pm

P&T are not students of card magic. Although the segment in which P&T try to figure out what happened was edited for time, you can still see Teller reversing cards, trying to test if the cards were stripped.

The cull beat them completely. The head-on shot at the end showed a flop, but when you're on top of the trick (as P&T were and as Johnny and I were during the preliminary run-through) you don't see it.

They were fooled.

And I don't appreciate being called a liar.

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Re: Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 2

Postby Richard Kaufman » August 20th, 2015, 4:04 pm

We know you are not a liar, Mike. And thanks for the elaboration.
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