Penn & Teller: Fool Us (2011–…): Season 7, Episode 13 - Jaws of Death - full transcript

- From the Penn & Teller Theater

at the Rio Hotel in Vegas,

here's our host,
Alyson Hannigan!

- Welcome to "Fool Us."

Tonight, we are on the hunt

for that rare and elusive
creature, the fooler.

There have been
several sightings

on this show in the past,
but no one knows for sure

when a fooler
might next be seen.

If we're lucky,
we may catch a glance

of that rarest of beasts



holding the equally
rare fooler's trophy!

But before any
of that can happen,

we need to bring out
our own pair

of legendary creatures,

Penn and Teller!

- Any performer who fools
Penn and Teller

wins a slot on
their Vegas Magic Spectacular

and, of course,
the "Fool Us" trophy.

Let's meet our first magician.

- My first day of high school,

I got diagnosed
with Crohn's disease.

It was pretty miserable.

I was always sick in bed,

but whenever I picked up
a deck of cards,



I felt healthy, normal.
I felt like a superhero.

I tried to perform as often
as I could to take my mind

off of the pain and the stress,
but I was really curious.

You know, are my friends
just being nice,

or is my magic really good?

I'm going to put one card
in one spot.

I started walking up
to random people

and performing for them,
and then this one couple

asked me to write down
my phone number

on a playing card, and that
ended up being my first gig.

So I had seen Shin Lim
on "Fool Us," and we met,

and we hit it off and started
wanting to work together.

He's one of my best friends.

I'm learning so much
every single day

that I get to work with him.

I'm really excited for Penn
and Teller to see this act.

I wanted to create something

that I think that
they haven't seen before.

I wanted to make something
that felt like me.

- Please welcome one of
card magic's

up-and-coming stars,
Blaise Serra.

- Hello, everyone.

Thank you so much
for that warm welcome.

Penn and Teller, before I begin,

I just wanted to thank you both

not just for having me
on the show today

but for having this show
in the first place

because
if it wasn't for "Fool Us,"

there's a very good chance
I wouldn't have become

a magician at all.

It was really
watching your show,

season one back in the day,

that made me want to give
this magic stuff a shot,

so thank you for making
this incredible platform.

And, Alyson, would you like

to join me over here? - Sure.

- You can take a seat.
- Thank you.

- Nice to meet you, Alyson.
- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.
You've picked more cards

than any human being
should ever have to endure,

so today,
I wanted to give you a break.

- Oh, thanks.

- You don't have
to pick the card.

Instead,
all I'd like for you to do

is pick the person
that will pick the card.

- Ooh.
- Okay?

- Okay.
- So here we have...

- Right now? No.

- ...a joker.
- Okay.

- And can you hold this
to your heart?

- To my heart? I can.

- Now, everybody
in the audience,

can you imagine
that you're holding a card

at your fingertips?
Really do it.

Imagine that you're holding
a card at your fingertips,

and now imagine that you're
holding it to your heart.

Now that we have
a lot of options, Alyson,

you can check out that joker.

It's just a regular
piece of paper, right?

- Yes.
- But we're going to use it

as a real wild card,
so you now get to decide.

Can you point to anybody
and let us know?

- Oh, that guy that just waved.
Yes.

- Okay.
Can you let everybody know

what was the card
that you were thinking of?

- Queen of hearts.
- The queen of hearts, okay.

Everybody, you can relax,

so imagine you're actually
looking through it,

and instead of just seeing
what meets the eye,

you're actually seeing
a queen of hearts

across the face of the card,

two Qs in either corner.
You have it in mind?

- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.

Now, can you hold out
your left hand,

and can you take your right hand

and put it on top of the deck?
Lock it in.

Feel the weight of the cards
in between your hands

and where that joker
is touching your bottom hand.

Now just visualize
it starting to change,

as though it's changing
into the queen of hearts.

Would you believe me if I said
it was done right now?

- Sure?
- In your hands, I'm not going

to touch anything,
can you square up that deck,

see the queen of hearts
in your mind,

and now pick up everything and
take a look at the bottom card

where that joker once was?

Do you see the queen of hearts?

- Thank you so much, Alyson.
- Thank you.

- You can hold onto that deck.

We'll get back to that card
in a moment,

but in the meantime, Penn and
Teller, now it's your turn.

Now, for most people,
a playing card will never have

any real sentimental,
meaningful value,

unlike, say, a photograph.

So last year, I got one
of those instant cameras,

and I started taking photos
at all of the different places

that I've performed at,

and I wanted to take
this photo with me

as a bit of a good-luck charm
as well as a reminder

of how far
I've come to get here,

but I'm less interested
in my memory,

and I'm more interested in one

that's really important
to both of you.

So can both of you get in mind
one performance experience,

one memory somewhere in America,

let's say outside of Nevada,
though,

somewhere from the road,
and just get one

really memorable performance
experience in mind.

Do you both have one?

- Yes.
- All right.

- Do you both have one? Okay.

Now, can you both,
just like everybody else did,

imagine that you're holding
a photo of yourselves

from that moment,
okay, in your hand,

and now imagine that you're
holding it to your heart.

And now I'm curious, Penn,

just what state was it in that
felt right to you?

- California.
- California.

Okay. Now, I'm curious, Teller,

do you have any idea
what happened in California

that made that pop
into Penn's mind?

No? No. Okay.
Penn, can you enlighten us?

What happened in California

that made that
so memorable to you?

- I did a straitjacket escape
and a celebrity,

who has become
rather well-known,

tied me in that straitjacket.

- Wow. Okay.

This was a really
memorable experience

that popped into your mind.
I wasn't there with you...

- You weren't.
- ...in California that day.

I couldn't have known
about that memory.

- You were not born.
- I wasn't born back then.

Okay, so this was really
long ago.

Wouldn't it be crazy
if right now in this moment,

the memories that popped
into our mind

that we both held dear
were somehow in sync?

- Yes.
- Okay.

Alyson, can you help me
out really quick?

- Yes.
- Can you let everybody know,

what does it say right here,

written right at
the very bottom of this photo?

- California 2019.
- See, this is actually a photo

that I took in California
last year,

and I took it
for a very specific reason.

I was on my way over to a gig,

and just as I was
getting into the state,

I got a phone call.
I got the call I was

going to have the opportunity
to be on this show,

so I jumped out of my car,
and I took that photo,

and I can't believe out
of all of the places

that you could've thought of,
you thought of California,

but I also had a feeling
that day as well,

and, Alyson, do you happen to
remember the card from earlier?

- Yeah.
- What was it?

- The queen of hearts.

- I had a feeling, and I
grabbed something that day.

Did you happen to notice what I
was holding in that photo here?

- Ah.
- I was actually holding

the queen of hearts,

the one card that
you were thinking of,

in California
right at the county line,

and I can't believe out
of all of the states

that you could've thought of,
you thought of California.

Out of all of the cards that
we could've been envisioning,

you were thinking
of the queen of hearts.

But here's the thing.

Every time I look back
at this photo,

I feel like I'll have a totally
new memory attached to it,

the feeling of being here
on this stage with all of you

and how grateful
I feel to be here.

Alyson, do you want
to join me over here?

- Sure.

- Every time I look
at this photo,

all I'll be able to see
is myself standing right here

on the Penn and Teller stage.
Do you see it too?

- I do.

- See, this really is
a photo of me now here

in Las Vegas
on the Penn and Teller stage.

Thank you so much, everyone.
I now have a new favorite

magic memory here
in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thank you for making today
so memorable.

- Blaise Serra!

Wow. That is an incredible,
one-of-a-kind trick.

- Thank you so much.
- Yeah.

- I appreciate it.

- Did you create it
all yourself?

- Yeah. It was kind of building
it from the ground up,

and I feel like because some of
my first exposure to magic

was watching "Fool Us,"

every time I worked on
developing a routine,

I would always wonder, you know,

"What would they think of this?"

- That's really cool.
You watched the show,

and now here you are
performing on the show.

- Yes. Yes.
Yeah, and I think that

my parents are pretty happy
that this was the show

inspired me instead of, like,

trying out for "American Ninja
Warrior" or something.

- Yeah, so you're 20 years old,

and you're
a magic consultant already.

- Yes. Yeah, so I've been
working a lot recently,

especially with Shin Lim
on his show

"Limitless" at the Mirage.

- Oh, that's cool.
- Yeah, especially because,

I mean,
he was one of the first people

that I saw on this show,
you know, back in the day.

- Yeah. Okay.

It looks like it's time
to go to Penn and Teller.

- Oh, boy.
- Guys, did he fool you?

- I'll tell you, Blaise,
if you were

one of the up-and-comers
of magic,

magic is in very good hands.

- Thank you so much.
- That's a really

wonderful routine.
It just felt charming.

- I really appreciate it.
Thank you.

- And, you know,

the first trick you did
was just pure, raw,

skill, sleight of hand,
just a deck

and a person who knows
how to handle it beautifully.

- Thank you.
- That was just great

and perfectly done.

Now, you're friends...
We saw in your package,

you're friends with
our friend Shin Lim, right?

- Mm-hmm. Yes.
- Yeah,

and is it Shin Lim or Shim?

- Shin, with an n. Yeah.

- I always think it's Shim, so,
you know,

I had Shim in my head
watching this whole thing.

- Isn't that, like, a piece
of metal, I think?

- Yeah, it is.

It's something like that,
a magnetic shim.

Shin is just fabulous,
and he can get all sorts

of things
to be accomplished, you know?

He just has an index in his head

of all sorts of things
that the magnetic shim can do.

He's fabulous.
He's just wonderful.

One of my favorite
performers anywhere.

- Yes.
- I just really,

really dig him.

Let's talk some sports.

- Okay.

- You know, when you are
playing baseball...

Now, I know about sports enough
to fit on the head of this pen.

I know almost nothing,

but I do know that baseball
is a lot of multiple outs.

There's, like, what,
three on an innings?

And there's nine innings.

- Yeah.
- There's two teams.

There's a lot of outs,

and I also know in tennis
that when you're tied,

you have to win by two points,
so you can have ad in.

You can have an ad in
if you have an advantage.

It means the advantage is in,
so I just wanted...

I don't know what it is
you bring out in me,

but I want to talk about sports
and Shim Lin.

Shin Lim, sorry, but that was
a fabulous performance.

- Does any of that make
sense to you?

- It makes a lot of sense
to me. Yeah. Yes.

They know.
They are very smart guys,

and I am so grateful that I had
the opportunity to be here.

- Oh, you're great.
You're great.

Future of magic
is in good hands.

Oh, you're delightful.

- Thank you.
- Blaise Serra!

- Thank you, everyone.

- Thank you so much.
- Thank you, everybody.

Thank you so much.

- You want to see Penn and
Teller take on more magicians?

You got it. You want to see
them perform later too?

Sounds like a plan.
Stick around.

- Welcome back.
Let's meet the next magician

who's trying to deceive our duo.

- I started out as a normal kid,

and when I was 13 years old,

I was physically struck
by lightning,

and that's when the magic
started to happen.

After you're struck
by lightning,

it's pretty pointless not
to live life to the fullest,

so ever since then, I've been
taking a lot of risks,

and tonight
is going to be no different.

My show has been described
as if David Copperfield

and Van Halen had a baby.

You get a rock-and-roll
magic show.

The excitement level goes up.
The energy goes up.

It really is where I come alive.

The appeal with danger magic is,

it's not a deck of cards, right?

People get on the edge
of their seats

when they think
there's some danger involved.

Tonight, I'm really putting
my neck on the line.

Penn, Teller, this is not
something you see every day.

- Joined by our very own
Penn Jillette,

please welcome back
Leon Etienne.

- It is an honor and a pleasure
to be back on your stage,

and I'm grateful to be here,

and now that I'm back,
let's predict the future.

- Good thinking.
- Yeah.

I brought a deck
of tarot cards with me.

- Good.
- And they say

that by reading the tarot,

you can gain a glimpse
into the future,

but since we're here, let's
have some fun together, okay?

- Okay.

- We'll do a traditional
two-card reading.

Hold out your left hand.
I'm going to cut one,

two cards from the packet,
and let's see what we got.

- Oh, jeez.

- The first one is not
looking too good.

- No.
- It's actually...

- Death.
- The Death Card.

Yes, audience.
Most people would read

negatively into that.
However, it is my objective

to kill it here
onstage for you tonight.

- Okay. I see.

- And, ladies and gentlemen,
spoiler alert:

I'm going to be doing something
that's death-defying.

Penn, what is
the second you have?

- Second card is The Fool...
- The Fool.

- Which is why I thought you
should've had Teller up here.

Sorry, just a joke.
It's just a joke, nothing more.

- Penn, The Fool actually
represents surprise,

and I hope to surprise

you and Teller here tonight.
- Okay.

- So we're going to make
that your official card.

- Okay.
- We'll have you sign it.

- Oh, I'm going to sign it?

- Please take the marker
and put your name

as big as you can on that card.
- Okay.

- Beautiful. I'll take
the pen from you.

- Okay.
- And this

is a miniature straitjacket.

- Oh.
- I don't know

if you've ever seen
one of these before,

but you got to admit,
it's pretty cute.

- Very cute.
- Very cute.

- Agree.

- Penn, I'm going to
give that to you.

- Thank you.
- And if you wouldn't mind,

please give me your card back.
Signed,

it is the only one in the world
that looks like this, yes?

- I would think so.

- And check it out. Please
watch this very carefully.

- Mm-hmm.

- I know you're going
to be interested.

- I am.
- It goes right back...

- It does.

- Into the middle of the deck,

and we close the box up.

- Sometimes
that's the hardest part.

- Yes. Penn, that is the bottom
of the mini straitjacket.

Can you please open it,
look inside,

make sure
there's nothing in there.

- Yes.
- Yes.

Hold it open because
we're going to slide the deck

and put it
into the mini straitjacket.

- There it is.
- And we'll then secure it...

- With a zip tie.
- With a zip tie.

- Wow.

- Penn, listen to this sound as
we secure your card in place.

- That's a very romantic sound.
- It is.

Penn, the reason we used
a straitjacket to secure

the deck and your card
is because this trick is crazy.

- I see.
- And thank you so much

for your help to this point.
You may go back to your seat.

Give it up for Penn!

Now that Penn's card
is secured in a straitjacket,

it's only fair that I get
secured in a straitjacket,

as well.

Penn, Teller,
this is the real deal.

Also, Chelsea is going to place
the deck right there,

so you can keep an eye on it
this entire time.

It will not leave this stage.

Folks, this is a regulation
straitjacket made out

of military-grade canvas
and stainless-steel hardware.

These things are designed

to restrain people
who need restraining.

Right now, Chelsea is securing

all four buckles
that go across the back,

and if you ask me,
in my opinion,

she's doing
some rather aggressively.

And there's a bottom one here,
and we also agreed

she'll be very careful with
this one for obvious reasons.

And last but not least,
she will secure my arms

in place.
Now, ladies and gentlemen,

we've had some fun,
but here's the serious part.

It is now my job
to escape this straitjacket,

and then, Penn, your card will
escape the mini straitjacket.

That's pretty cool,
audience, yeah?

- Yeah.

- But it's not cool enough!

I'm going to make
all that happen

while suspended upside down
from these...

jaws of death!

I will have approximately
60 seconds

to get out of this straitjacket

and find Penn's card before
that saw cuts that chain,

which will release those jaws.

Chelsea, please put the mini
straitjacket in my mouth.

Ten, nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four, three,
two, one!

- Penn, you signed the fool,

and the fool represents
surprise.

And, surprise, man.

I didn't find your card.
But the jaws did.

There is one card
impaled on that tooth.

And with any lucky, Penn,
this is your card, the fool,

With your name on it.

- Leon Etienne!

Hi!

- Hello.
- Hi.

- Hi.
- Wow.

Whoo.

That was crazy.

- Thank you, I think. Yes.
- Yes.

You must have nerves of steel.

- Yeah. It's not something
you're used to.

I remember the first time
I hung upside-down

was when I was about
18 years old at a circus,

and I went down
to the circus master,

and I said, "Hey.
I've got this idea.

I'm a magician. Can I...

You know,
like the iconic Houdini?"

And he said, "Absolutely.
We can do that."

- So have you had
any magic accidents?

- Yeah.

There's a thing in the business
we call flash paper,

and it's a very combustible
piece of paper,

and it just bursts into flame.

It's a special effect, right,
and one day,

I had a piece of that
in my pocket,

and I had a sparker effect

going on over here in this hand,

and I must have
ignited the paper.

It went all the way up the side
of my face, a slight burn here,

but all the hair on this side
was completely gone.

The best part is,
the audience just went, "Whoa!"

- It was incredible.
- And then the next night,

you had to do the other side
to get the hair.

- And now the hair...

Here's how we got the look,
yes, exactly.

- It's good. Let's find out
if you fooled Penn and Teller.

- I'll tell you, Leon, we share
your joy and your pain.

We have spent a lot of years

trying to make card tricks
exciting and dangerous.

We've gone underwater.
We've done knives.

We've stabbed them,
but I got to tell you,

this is the most elaborate
card sword we have ever seen.

It's just beautiful.

What a great routine.

But listen,
you've been on before.

- Mm-hmm.
- Also,

you fooled us last time.

Teller and I stay smiling.
We stay happy.

We stay kind,
but that means in our heart,

there's a little bit
of black hate for you...

Because, you know, like The Who,

we do not want
to get fooled again.

- Right. Mm-hmm.

- And this time,
we kept our eyes on you,

but we also kept our eyes
on your assistant

because sometimes
the assistants, we think,

are invisible, but Chelsea
is far from invisible.

- No.
- Now, you had me up onstage,

which might not have been
the best move

because you brought
the dumb one up onstage.

Meanwhile, the smart one
was sitting here

studying your assistant,
who was very, very helpful.

I mean, very, very helpful,

and I think I've given you
a few hints,

but I'll just tell you
right now.

If anything we've said
is not right,

you just tell me to zip it,
just like that.

- Everything you've said
is right. Yeah.

- Okay. Do you want more?

- No, no. You're... no,
you're... no.

You're Penn and Teller,
and I think we're good.

- Okay.

- All right. Thank you.

- Thank you!

- Right now,

I'm going to distract you
with this commercial

and then triumphantly produce
our next magician.

Check it out.

- Welcome back!

If you think
we're going to take it easy

on Penn and Teller, we are not.

Here is our next
heavyweight of magic.

- Five years ago, "Fool Us"
was my first American TV show,

and people still come up

and say it's where
they first heard of me.

I have my own theater
in Las Vegas now.

It's a lot more work,

but when it's yours, the sky
is the limit creatively.

For me, magic doesn't mean
anything without a story.

I always start
with the question,

"If I had real magical powers,
what would I do with them?"

Sometimes, I can be the victim
even of my magic.

Things happen,
and it's out of hand.

The trick I'm doing tonight,

I had the magic
in my head right away.

Then it took me 2 years
to figure out the story.

That's how important
storytelling is to me.

The effect I will rely on
in my performance

will fool most people
and maybe Penn and Teller.

We'll see.

- Welcome, fellow
Vegas headliner, Xavier!

Whoa!

- Xavier! Aw.

That was so lovely.

- Thank you.
- I didn't know I was going

to be part of
a love story tonight.

- Yes. Magic is about life,
and love is about life,

so I like to tell
these things with my magic.

- Aw. Do you always do magic
with everyday objects?

- Yes.

I rarely put boxes onstage
or take cards

unless there's
a specific occasion for that,

but, yes, I play with shadows,
with light, with the mirror,

with things like that, you know?

That's the magic I like.
That's what inspires me,

and that's what
I want to transmit.

- Yeah. Well, that's cool
because then the next time

somebody sees whatever object
you used, they think of you.

- That's a good point.
- No.

Next time I see a red balloon,
I'm going to think of you.

- Oh, thank you.
- All right.

Let's see if our love story
ends with a trophy.

Penn, Teller.

- Well, Xavier, we've known you
for years.

You're part of our family,

one of the siblings
of magic here,

and you've always got new ideas,

and they're a little different,

and we never see
hack stuff out of you.

We never see you do anything
other people have done.

It's just a fabulous thing.
Now, I want to say, Xavier,

I was watching
this routine carefully.

You hold hands with Alyson,
and the balloon goes up,

and then she spurns you
a little bit,

and the balloon goes back down.
I may be a little dense,

but is that a metaphor
for something?

Is there some sort of... - Yes.

- ...allegory there
that I'm missing?

- Yes.
- There seemed like

an up-and-down thing,
and I guess I'm just dense.

Well, we want to tell you
that the way you started out,

we know those things,
but let's throw the art aside,

all the French cleverness,
all the beauty.

We're throwing that out,

and we're getting down
to the hard-core stuff,

which is, how do you make
that balloon go up and down?

That's the question.

How do you make the balloon
go up and down?

We don't care how cute you are.

We just care about how you made
that balloon go up and down,

and Teller and I sat down,

and we talked it back and forth.

We talked about
neutral buoyancy.

We talked about how you could
move that up and down at will,

and what we came up with was,
we have no idea whatsoever.

You have fooled us.

- Fooler! Yay!

Aw.

Yay!

- Nicely done, sir.
Beautifully done.

- We have a fooler!

- Xavier! Whoo!

- Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

- One successful fooler,

and here
stand two fooled magicians.

- There we are.
- Shake it off, boys.

More potential foolers
right after this.

- Welcome back.
Keep your eyes peeled.

There might be another
successful fooler tonight.

- All the way from Luxembourg,
here is Sylvain Juzan.

- Well, thanks. Wow.
Thank you so much, guys.

Thank you. Wow.

Alyson, you did something
that very few people can do

on this side
of the Atlantic Ocean.

You pronounced
my name correctly.

- It took me a while.
- Okay.

But I've kept you the best seat
for you, for that.

- Thank you.
- I would like to talk

a little bit
about a friend of mind

who is very competitive,
very skeptical,

and last time I visited him
for a few coffees,

he grabbed a handful
of his kids' toys,

and he threw them on the table

because, obviously, no one
has a mat in the kitchen.

And he said, "Hey, Mr. Magic."
So that's me.

- Yeah.
- "I'm challenging you.

Do something with this,"
so, you know,

I looked at the bricks.
I thought for a while,

and I said,
"Challenge accepted,"

and I decided to do a classic
in magic where,

you know,
you take your two hands,

and you cover items like that
so that you can then

make them fly
or reappear or vanish at will.

And it looks
something like this.

First, you define your target,
so that would be this one,

and it goes from here to here.

- Wow.
- Yeah.

Olé.

And then we do it one more time
from here to here.

- Ooh.

- And one last time
from here to here.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

- But my friend, he did not
react the way you did.

- Ah.
- Yeah, because

he crossed his arms
like this, and he said,

"You know what?
I think you're cheating."

Of course I was, genius.

Because he said,
"You only have two hands.

You can only cover two bricks
at the same time,

but actually, you're using
the mug as an extra cover,

so you can cover three." See?

- Oh.
- He's clever.

So do the same thing,
two empty hands,

four bricks, but no more mug,

and he did not wait
for my answer. He removed it.

So I looked at the bricks.

I thought for a while,
and I said, "Challenge..."

- Accepted.

Because basically
the same thing,

you cover like this,
and you define a target, so...

Left or right? - Left.

- Left one from here. Yeah.
That's right.

- Wow!
- At your command. That's one.

That's two, and that's trois.

- Wow.
- Thank you so much.

- Thanks a lot.

But my friend, he didn't
react the way you did.

He said, "You know what?
I think it's too easy for you

because
they all have the same color."

- Oh.
- "So do the same thing

but with four different bricks,"

and he did not wait
for my answer.

He removed these,
and he gave me these instead.

- Oh.

- Yeah. I looked at the bricks.

I thought for a while,
and I said...

- Challenge acc... not.

- Something different this time.

No. Because it's impossible.
Well, let me explain.

Penn, Teller,
you should know that,

but there are many,
many variations of this effect.

They all require
identical objects.

If you do this
with different objects

and no shell,

it's impossible.

Almost. It would look
something like that.

The first one would be
the pink one from here

to here
through the super tunnel.

- Thank you.

So my friend started
to be really annoyed,

so I said,
"Hmm, let's have some fun,"

and I gave him the option,

and he said yellow.

So it goes from here to here.

The yellow one, see?

Because, already,
he really did something crazy.

He grabbed the bricks.
He grabbed the mug,

put it like this,
put the red brick in his fist,

and he said, "Now do it!"

So obviously, that's his fist,
not mine.

So you're right-handed
or left-handed?

You will be my friend?

- Sure.
- You hesitated.

- Well, I'm scared now.

- You right-handed
or left-handed?

Oh, no. Don't be.
Close, close, close,

close, close,
close, close, close.

That was my finger. Okay.
A little bit. That's good.

But first we have to say
the magic word.

It's going to be legend...

Wait for it. - Dary.

- I've been waiting for this
for so long. Open your hand.

From here to here. Thank you.

- Sylvain Juzan.

- Merci!

- Do you always
make magic with toys?

No. I'm more kind of a card guy.

This is a classic of magic,

but usually
it's done with coins,

and I adapted it
to these kind of toys.

- I love it.

So how did you become
a full-time magician?

- That was a decision
I and my former employer made.

- Oh.
- Yeah.

I got laid off, so I took this
as an opportunity.

I mean, you don't get fired
every day.

It doesn't happen a lot.
- Right.

- And so I took this opportunity

to create my magic company,
and now I've been doing

this full-time job
in Luxembourg since 2009.

- That's awesome. All right.

Can Penn and Teller
piece your trick together?

Let's find out
if you fooled them.

- Nice one.
- First of all, we got to say,

we love a guy in a vest.

- Aw.
- Vests matter to us.

We love the vests,
and this is a classic of magic,

albeit done
with children's toys.

That was a very good way
to change that over.

You made a lot of our job easy,
not in terms of figuring out

how you did because pretty much
everything you said was true.

- Yep.
- That there were no shells

and that this is
a standard trick,

and it only really gets
something that we haven't seen

before when it gets
to different colors.

- Precisely.
- And then it gets amazing.

- Thank you.
- And it really was a beautiful

routine and so clean
and so comfortable,

but we're watching everything,
how you were sitting,

your clothes, the props,
the cup, everything.

We were watching very,
very carefully,

and we loved the routine,

and we think we have
a pretty good idea how you did.

- Thank you.
- Did they figure it out?

- Of course they did.
They're Penn and Teller.

Thank you. Sylvain Juzan!

- Thank you. Thanks a lot.

- We can't end our show
until we see the masters

whip out their magic wands.
Penn and Teller perform next!

- Welcome back.

I got to have me
some Teller time.

Whenever he and I hang out,
our favorite thing to do

is watch Penn perform
one of his rare solo routines,

so ladies and gentlemen,
give it up for Penn!

- You know, all magic
has intellectual content.

Even the silliest magic trick,
to be a magic trick,

has to exploit some logical
fallacy or underline

some shortcut in human thinking.

I've always wanted to add
pattern to a trick

that explains what the trick

is really dealing with,
so I've done that.

I've taken this silly
birthday-party trick,

and I want you to imagine

that you are at a 12-year-old's
birthday party.

- Hi, children.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

That's Latin for the common
logical fallacy,

"After this, therefore,
because of this."

You see, children,
when something happens,

and then something else happens,

we tend to think
the something else

was caused by the something.

Post hoc ergo reminds us

that correlation does not
necessarily imply causation.

Now, when studying crime
in the 1980s in New York City,

some no-kidding academics
discovered a strong correlation

between the amount
of serious crime committed

and the amount of ice cream
sold by street vendors.

Here is the thing.

Even though they're
clearly separated, children,

their still seems
to be some connection.

Now, in the case
of frozen treats and felonies,

there was obviously

some unobserved variable
causing both.

Oh!

- Summer!
Summer, right, children?

Summer is the time
of the most villainy,

and it's also the time
when Mister Softee

tells most his wares.

Now, we can't do this
in our real world

full of criminality
and confections.

With my correlation sticks,
we can get all science-y

and run the experiment.

If you would, please,
take these scissors

and cut away
the common variable.

Cut away the summer!

Well, you did that
with no concern whatsoever

for the sales of kiddie pools
or the fear of shark attacks,

but now that you've taken away
the common variables,

now that you've
taken away summer,

you monster,

there is no way
that the sale of Klondike Bars

can affect maleficence,

and yet, the correlation
still seems to be there.

Now, children, magicians never
give away their secrets,

but neither to statisticians
and philosophers.

It's called job security.

But I am about
to tell you everything.

Ice-cream lover
and Scottish smartypants

David Hume
pointed out that causation

can only be established
by experience,

but experience, in turn,
is based on the assumption

that the future
will be modeled on the past,

which in itself
is based on experience,

leading to a circular logic

that we can never prove
causation with pure reason,

but that doesn't mean
it's not there.

Here is the really
annoying thing.

Even though we can
never prove causation,

correlation is all around us.
As David Hume once said,

"Woo! Ain't that a buster."

I've got another
one of these things,

and it might not be a big deal

if this is lawlessness in
the disco era in the Big Apple

and this is the sale
of Choco Tacos.

But what if this were rising
autism rates or mercury

in the vaccines
or assault-rifle control

in Australia?

Then people can claim
to have proven

all sorts of things
that they can't prove.

Like, they can tell you that
they've proven that A causes B,

which they can't prove,
or that B causes A.

Then they'll tell you that A
and B have a common cause in C.

They may cause each other,
and they'll tell you

that A and B cause C implicitly
or explicitly, but, children,

if you only remember one thing
from this birthday party,

try to remember that sometimes,
just sometimes, C, B and A

are totally unrelated,
and it's all just coincidence,

and everybody
is always lying to you.

Happy birthday.

- Good night from Las Vegas,
where the party never stops!

Come back next time
for more of TV's best magic.

See you soon!