Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

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AJM
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Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby AJM » January 7th, 2011, 5:57 pm

Now that's what I call a great magic show.

Great performances from Messrs Vincent, Archer and Earl.

Cheers

Andrew

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby IrishMagicNews » January 7th, 2011, 6:25 pm

Have to whole heartedly agree. Had heard on the grapevine that it would not be up to much. How glad I was to be proved wrong.

For anyone reading this who wasn't able to view the broadcast both John Archer and Ben Earl "fooled" P&T.

Not to take away from those two (I know John quite well and am a huge fan of his) but the real winner here was magic. It was really super to see a good, honest and well produced show with strong acts and no [censored].

Kudos to everyone involved.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby IrishMagicNews » January 7th, 2011, 6:32 pm

And for those who missed it and can get ITV player in their region

http://bit.ly/foolus
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby John McDonald » January 7th, 2011, 6:55 pm

Penn and Tellar are perfect for this and this was amsuperb magic show.
Best John

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby AMCabral » January 7th, 2011, 6:55 pm

IrishMagicNews wrote:And for those who missed it and can get ITV player in their region

http://bit.ly/foolus


Dagnabbit! Blocked outside the UK.

-T

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Richard Stokes » January 7th, 2011, 6:57 pm

Yeah, this was entertaining stuff.
Much better than the messy BBC show last week!
Good to see Earl and Archer get wider recognition.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby IrishMagicNews » January 7th, 2011, 6:59 pm

I can think of no one more poised to shoot to stardom then John. In my humble opinion he has it all.

And importantly he works bloody hard for it. He has more then served his time.

John, when you read this, sincerely hope it flies for you now fella.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Angelo Carbone » January 7th, 2011, 7:40 pm

Totally agree. John is a wonderful performer and more importantly (I feel) - entertaining. I could watch him perform all day and would love for him to have his own TV show.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Francesca Moffet » January 8th, 2011, 9:44 am

It's a great pity this was a one off special as I really enjoyed it.

I hope it was so successful that ITV decide to give it a 6 episode series later this year, that would be great.
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby El Mystico » January 8th, 2011, 10:22 am

Lovely show.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby IrishMagicNews » January 8th, 2011, 7:03 pm

Great review/comparison with BBC's Magicians at http://bit.ly/gngRBE

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Daniel Bain » January 9th, 2011, 12:06 am

Really enjoyable show. Would be great to see this air in the USA with more episodes.

Also would be great to see Michael Vincent tour the USA. He's really brilliant and always a pleasure to watch perform.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Paul Gordon » January 9th, 2011, 2:45 am

Much better than BBC's "Magicians", but still don't like the format of "fool us" etc. I'd much rather just watch a good magic show without the angle/spin. It's as if the producers think that the magic alone isn't good enough...

Mind you, I was once asked to be on a TV magic show where one had to perform for a semi-naked Kelly Brook. (I guess the "angle" was to see if she could distract you.) I declined. Fool... :)

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 9th, 2011, 10:34 am

The second episode of The Magicians had higher ratings than the first, i.e., more people watching.

ITV's show with Penn & Teller, which was a one-off, had 4.5 million viewers (2 million less than The Magicians' first episode).
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 9th, 2011, 11:09 am

Over on magicweek.co.uk, Duncan Trillo has a photo in the green room of all nine magicians:

Noel Qaulter, James More, Mike Vincent, Benjamin Earl, Damien, John Archer, Ali Cook, Richard Bellars, Morgan (of Morgan & West).

Which three didn't make it on the show?
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby IrishMagicNews » January 9th, 2011, 11:42 am

The third tweet down in the grab below might explain the reason for at least one of them.

[img:left]http://irishmagicnews.squarespace.com/storage/noeltwitter.jpg[/img]
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby El Mystico » January 9th, 2011, 12:26 pm

The point about audience ratings being far more important than the views of a few jaded magicians is a fair one.

But it is worth pointing out that The Magicians is prime time Saturday night; Penn and Teller was at 9 pm on a Friday.

Also The Magicians is still up against rubbish.

But it is interesting that it got higher ratings than last week. That surprises me. Personally, I enjoyed show 2 more than show 1; but still far preferred the Penn and Teller show.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Ian Kendall » January 9th, 2011, 1:00 pm

Noel, Damian and Rhys (Morgan) didn't make the cut.

Ian

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Dick Koornwinder » January 9th, 2011, 4:12 pm

This link worked for me in the Netherlands: http://www.novamov.com/video/iyua07uqyxz16

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Don Hendrix » January 9th, 2011, 4:44 pm

I tried the above link and found a Trojan virus instead of P and T. Fortunately, my virus protection detected it. Be very careful.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby IrishMagicNews » January 9th, 2011, 8:26 pm

Worked fine for me on a mac.
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Nathan Allen » January 10th, 2011, 2:48 pm

Worked fine for me, too.
And I'm a PC.
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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 11th, 2011, 9:25 am

Worked for me here in the US on a Mac but it was very very slow to load.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Travis » January 11th, 2011, 4:28 pm

Worked on my mac.

Great show. Cool concept. Benjamin Earl kicked my @ss! Loved Archer and Vincent, too.

I've got to believe the producers just wanted to have at least one big thing on the show, hence the performance of Andre Kole's "Squeeze Box". I appreciated all the positive comments. I would've expected that the guy who performed the Kole piece would realize that Copperfield does this same trick nightly for the last decade (at least) just around the corner from P&T. No doubt they're very familiar with it. In fact, his routine was almost exactly like Dave's, I thought. They pointed out that very few magicians give themselves something to do. Great point and something I've always said. It's also a point Jim Steinmeyer has made often. They also commented on the fact that he performed the effect on himself; also something rather popularized by David.

Too, I found it interesting that the first contestant's performance was almost identical (in props and choreography) to David Copperfield's performance of the same trick in the mid 80s. P&T said that they didn't think this had been performed by anyone in modern times. I'm surprised if they weren't familiar with Copperfield's version. Was this an available marketed item at one time (i.e., the particular apparatus, etc.)?

I found myself cringing a bit at the mention of gaffed decks, though I'm aware the public has general knowledge that such things exist (or, at least, some of them do). I was glad at other times they spoke in cloaked language and very happy that for the Squeeze Box Teller drew a picture which was only shown to the contestant.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Travis » January 12th, 2011, 11:52 am

Here's the clip of Copperfield performing the head-swapping bit with chicken and duck. The routine starts at the 5:20 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSoSs2RNPJM

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Jonathan Townsend » January 12th, 2011, 12:01 pm

advance to 5:20 for Poultry in Motion. :D
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Travis » January 12th, 2011, 12:20 pm

Thanks, Jonathan. Edited my post.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 13th, 2011, 12:01 pm

Here's the video of John Archer for anyone that hasn't seen the show yet: http://bit.ly/gykZxo

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 13th, 2011, 12:54 pm

In addition, I also found a clip of the other winner from the show, Benjamin Earl: http://bit.ly/gykZxo

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Andrew Martin Portala » January 13th, 2011, 9:53 pm

thanks dodd

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 14th, 2011, 10:25 am

My pleasure!

Here are some more:

Opening & P&T Perform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRw69htzQnU

Michael Vincent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phg5NSg0V_E

Closing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsP7D2XoL0A

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 14th, 2011, 10:37 am

Forgot to mention that Teller and Johnny Thompson talk a bit about Fool Us as well in my recent interview with them which you can find here: http://bit.ly/TTT201

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Jonathan Townsend » January 20th, 2011, 10:06 am

Magic Newswire wrote:My pleasure!

Here are some more:

Opening & P&T Perform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRw69htzQnU

Michael Vincent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phg5NSg0V_E

Closing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsP7D2XoL0A



earlier someone wrote:
There's a difference between downloading pirated material, and simply watching something that's been posted on the internet. Don't compare the two.


As best I recall, when one watches a video from YouTube the file is cached on your local PC - so it is in essence downloaded. So if the item is posted without permission of the copyright holder - the net effect is the same.

That said, I wish Mr. Archer the best and found the show an easier watch than the "behind the mischief" of Derren Brown - not being a fan of false/forced intimacy here.

Kudos to P&T for coming off as in-character while doing a fine job of a talent show format where all the contestants were fine performers.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Dustin Stinett » January 20th, 2011, 12:18 pm

John Archer fans can legally purchase his new DVD set, "Further Education," and see a GREAT performance that includes the piece from this show and you'll learn how to do it. (Full review coming in the March issue of Genii.)

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 20th, 2011, 12:31 pm

I shared this elsewhere, but he talks about the show with me here as well: http://bit.ly/MNW203

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Magic Newswire » January 20th, 2011, 5:58 pm

The problem with the audio drop out of John Archer's interview on the Magic Newswire has been fixed and you can find the revised file on The Magic Newswire or listen to it here via the MP3. Links Follow::

MNW #203 With John Archer

Direct MP3 Link

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby poboymagic » May 16th, 2011, 2:33 am

What a great show. I loved the cell phone over the head routine.

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby AJM » June 18th, 2011, 2:14 pm

P&T return to ITV this evening with a new series of 'Fool Us'.

Cheers

Andrew

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby AJM » June 20th, 2011, 3:52 pm

This weeks contestants were: -

High Jinx - young illusionists
Jon Allen - which paper bag has the sharp spike inside?
Graham Jolley - mentalism and card magic (this weeks winner)

Footage also of previous winners Ben Earl and Archer in Vegas

The show finished off with P&T performing the 'trash bag escape' for the first time on TV.

Compered once again by Jonathan Ross.

Cheers

Andrew

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Re: Penn & Teller 'Fool Us'

Postby Richard Kaufman » June 20th, 2011, 5:12 pm

And how was the show?
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