Penn & Teller: Fool Us (2011–…): Season 7, Episode 28 - Penn & Teller Double Down - full transcript
Featured magicians include Tattoo, Siegfried Tieber, Rick Wilcox and Willi Auerbach.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
- From the Penn & Teller Theater
at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,
here's our host,
Alyson Hannigan!
- Welcome to a very
special episode of "Fool Us."
Normally, Penn and
Teller perform a trick
at the end of every episode,
but tonight, they're also
gonna start our show
with some of their
amazing magic.
So without further ado,
give it up for our titans of
trickery, Penn and Teller.
Joining them for
tonight's finale
is Grammy Award-winning
music legend Gloria Estefan.
- Yeah, hell, Gloria.
- Yay. Hi.
- What Teller is doing is
what I call a tattoo of blood.
He's got a tattoo
needle. It's all sterilized.
But he is not using ink.
So he's just
carving into my skin.
It'll go away in three years.
We've... ow. We've done it before.
And he is predicting,
with the tattoo you're
gonna choose for me,
he's predicting
magically on my arm.
Now, I should point
out to you that ink
is a lubricant and a coagulant,
so this does bleed
a little more than
a... ow... bleed a little
more than a regular tattoo.
- Ooh.
- And it also hurts
just a little more as the
needle drags through.
But he is predicting the...
damn it!
He's the predicting that tattoo
that you will... are
you almost done?
, it doesn't have to be perfect.
- You're a brave man.
- Ow. Yes.
The tattoo... I mean, thank you.
Yeah. You got it?
You got it there?
Clean off a little bit
of the blood there.
- You let him loose with
a needle on your flesh?
That's... - There
we go, there we go.
- You're a brave man.
- Now, he has your tattoo here.
Now, we're gonna give
you the choices. We've got...
- Okay.
- A bunch of good
choices for you here.
We've got banana from the
Velvet Underground album cover.
Narwhal for no reason.
I don't know what that is.
But Teller's gonna go
through them one by one,
and you just say "stop,"
and he will predict your tattoo.
So what have we got here now?
Oh, we got the "Penn
& Teller: Fool Us" logo.
That could be your tattoo.
- Okay.
- We've got... oh,
this is my favorite
Bob Dylan quote.
You may know this, Gloria.
"It frightens me,
the awful truth of
how sweet life can be."
Worthy of a Nobel Prize winner.
- Beautiful quote.
- Beautiful quote.
Oh, a puffin 'cause my
people are from Newfoundland,
so the puffin is kind of
the unofficial logo there.
- I've seen them.
Beautiful birds.
- Oh, Moxie and Zolten,
the name of my children.
I could have
gotten that on there.
Whenever you want to
say "stop," just say "stop."
Oh, a peace sign.
- Okay.
- I love peace signs. And...
- All right.
- Oh, this is "Born to lose,
run, be wild, whatever."
- All right. So don't stop.
- And what have you got
here? What did you pick?
He picked... oh, yeah, that's
Tony Fitzpatrick, my friend.
- Okay.
- And artist in Chicago that
was real close to my mom.
He did this for me. It's
a snake with my mom.
And let's see if we predicted...
- That's nice.
- Your tattoo. Here we go.
In my blood, it says,
"your tattoo," Gloria.
- Very interesting.
- Yeah.
But you might have
expected this, Gloria.
Oh
My gosh. That's my tattoo!
- Here's the tattoo you picked.
Thank you, Gloria.
Oh, oh!
Oh, oh.
- Thank you, Gloria.
When we come back,
Penn and Teller
will take their seats
and take on tonight's magicians,
so stay close.
- "Fool Us" has returned,
and so has this
next familiar face.
- I'm from Ecuador... literally
the middle of the world.
In Ecuador, the magic
community is very, very tiny.
Not most people's career choice.
I got my degree in
mechanical engineering
and I decided I wanted
to do magic for a living.
Took a plane to Los
Angeles to study acting,
not to become a movie
star... I never intended to.
I would take it, but
not my main goal.
The goal was to use
those skills as a magician.
Nice!
Being on "Fool
Us" for the first time
was one of the most
terrifying yet exciting
experiences of my life.
Penn and Teller have
been two of my heroes.
When I fooled them,
I was probably the most
surprised person in that room.
Now, I will see Penn
and Teller again.
I'm terrified, but also
extremely excited.
- Please welcome back the
unforgettable Siegfried Tieber.
- It's very, very
exciting to be here.
It's exciting to be
anywhere outside home.
Like all of us, I've
been spending
a lot of time home lately,
and I've got so used to it
that I brought my
living room with me.
When lockdown orders were
announced all around the world,
some people
started baking bread,
some people started
brewing their own beer.
That day, I shuffled
a deck of cards
and attempted to
memorize its order.
This is Thursday, March 19,
lockdown day number one for
me in Los Angeles, California.
That's the month of
March, April, May, June,
July, August. And September.
These are my first six months.
185 days of lockdown.
Every day, I shuffled
and memorized
a different deck of
cards in a different order.
They are all in my mind.
Alyson, name any
card in the deck, please.
- Ace of hearts.
- The ace of hearts.
That's a pretty
card. Ace of hearts.
Thursday, May 7,
lockdown day number 50.
On this particular day,
the ace of hearts
happened to be the top,
the very first card in the deck.
See? Of course, every
deck is in a different order.
The next day, the ace of
hearts was in position 27.
And the day after that,
it was in position 38
from the top of the deck.
But wait, there's more.
Alyson, name a
different date at random
between March 19
and September 19.
- Uh, May 23rd.
- May 23rd.
That is the 23rd day
of the fifth month of the year,
lockdown day...
That was a Saturday,
lockdown day number 66.
This day, my alarm
went off at 6:31 a.m.
I did not hit the snooze button.
First thing in the morning,
I brewed a cup of coffee
and attempted to
memorize this deck of cards.
On this particular
day, the ace of hearts...
Was in position
35 from the top of the deck.
I hope.
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
card number 35?
- That's the ace of hearts.
- Yes.
At this point,
many might suspect
that maybe I'm
wearing an earpiece
and someone is
feeding me information.
I'll be upfront about this.
I'll gladly admit that
I'm using showmanship
to create the illusion
that I memorized
more than I actually did.
However, that's it.
I'm only using my mind.
Penn, please name
a different date
between March 19
and September 19.
- March 20.
- March 20. Ha-ha.
That was a Friday,
lockdown day number two.
That day, I did
not week up early.
My alarm went off,
I did hit the snooze
button a couple times,
I went for my morning walk,
It was cloudy in Los Angeles.
That's the day the squirrel
followed me on my morning walk.
Anyway, at 9:37 a.m., I
brewed a cup of coffee
and attempted to
memorize this deck of cards.
Teller, let's look at this
from a different direction.
Please gesture a number
between one and 52.
Is that 15? 15.
On this particular day...
the nine of hearts
was in position 15.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, card number 15?
The nine of hearts.
Yes.
This is going way
better than expected.
Let's try something a
little more ambitious.
This might not work, but
we might as well try, right?
Penn, name any card
in the deck, please.
- Um, four of spades.
- The four of spades.
Teller, gesture a different
number between one and 52.
30. I've seen it. Four
of spades in position 30.
That was early lockdown
in the month of
April, I believe.
Four of spades.
In position... that
was early on, March.
Four of spaces in
position 30. I think this is it.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20...
The suspense is killing me.
That's 20, 21, 22, 23,
24, 25, 26, 27, 28,
29.
Teller, you gestured
number 30. Penn, you said?
- Four of spades.
- Four of spades.
That is the four of spades. Yes!
Wow. Siegfried Tieber!
Oh! Oh, my goodness.
Most people just learned how to
make bread during the lockdown.
That's very impressive.
- Thank you so much.
It kept me busy
for quite some time.
- Yeah. I would say so.
Do you always have a
photographic memory now?
- Photographic memory is a myth.
I wish I could say yes, I
have a photographic memory,
but it's something
anyone could do.
Memory is like a
muscle that you can train
and the more you're training,
the more you
can retain in there.
- So how did you develop
your stage character?
- The stage character
is a stretch for me.
This is who I am in real life.
- Mm.
- People ask me after
seeing me on a stage,
they ask me how I
came up with the accent.
I go, "What? No.
This is what I talk.
This is just me."
- All right.
Well, let's see if
your amazing memory
has earned you another trophy.
- Ay-ay-ay.
- Oh, Siegfried,
what a great trick.
And you're such
a good performer.
So different, so surprising.
Such a wonderful thing.
And this trick
is... is annoying us...
tremendously.
- Good.
- Because we think we know
the basic mechanism of this
and we could have been doing it.
And although there's so
much mental stuff involved,
I should tell people at
home that we believe
that there's no accomplice
and there's no sleight of hand.
You're really
doing it in your head
exactly as you'd think.
And you've got all
those days there,
and, you know, as every day,
the earth rotates just a little
bit more and spins around.
And it's amazing, I
think, to people at home,
that you are doing
incredible mental gymnastics.
And we think we have a
pretty good idea how you did it.
But we have to ask you one
question: when's your birthday?
- January 8.
- January 8?
- Yep.
- We're gonna
make a note of that,
because on January 8, we
want to send you a birthday book.
That's what we'd
like to send you
as a little bit of a present.
Could we do that for you?
- I would be thrilled.
I'll be waiting for it.
- Okay, did they figure it out?
- They did, and it makes
me immensely happy.
Yes, they did.
- Okay. Well, you
didn't fool them,
but you're gonna
get a birthday book.
- I will. I'm very
excited about it.
Thank you for having me here.
Siegfried Tieber.
You still have that trophy.
- And I still have one.
Yeah.
Stay right where you are.
We've got more
magnificent magic coming up.
- Welcome back to "Fool Us."
Remember, any act
that fools Penn and Teller
wins a spot performing
in their Las Vegas show
and a "Fool Us" trophy.
With that in mind, let's meet
our next potential Fooler.
- You know, when I was a kid,
my dad's company used to
throw a picnic each summer.
There were sack races and stuff.
But if you looked for me,
I was with the
strolling magician.
I didn't know it,
but I'd already discovered
who I was gonna be.
I went pro doing close-up magic.
I traveled like crazy and
I never said no to a job.
If I booked two gigs at once,
I'd hire another magician
and pretend he was me.
People started asking
if I did bigger effects.
I said sure even when I didn't.
Pretty soon, I was doing
spectacle magic, too.
That's how I met my wife.
She was in real estate.
I went looked for a bigger
a garage for my props
and I found a wife instead.
We saw this broken-down theater
in Wisconsin where we're from
and we turned it into a
spectacular magic theater.
For "Fool Us," working
up a close-up magic trick
has been like a
vacation, in a way.
I get to focus totally on the
magic and not ticket sales.
It's just pure magic, the
way it was meant to be.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Rick Wilcox.
- Hi, Penn, hi, Teller.
Really glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Alyson, would you
please join me for this?
We're gonna have some fun.
- Okay.
- Now, I wanted to make
this a little bit more interesting,
so I'm gonna add
a little bit of danger.
Is that okay?
- Okay.
- Let me show you why.
- Uh-oh.
What we're gonna do
is we're gonna use eggs.
- Hmm.
- They're real eggs.
They're not hard-boiled
and I'll prove it to you.
I'll just break one of
them, so you can see that.
- Okay.
- There we go.
- All right.
- Okay.
And here's what we're gonna
do. I'm gonna take one of the eggs
and place it in one of
these holders like this.
- Okay.
- Put the rest of them away.
And then I'm gonna cover
up the coasters like this.
And one will have the egg.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna cover
that up as well.
So now they all look the same.
- Yeah.
- Then I'm gonna
grab the coasters
and mix these up like
this. Do you see that?
- Uh-huh.
- So we don't know
where the egg is.
- Okay.
- Neither of us.
So I'll mix it up first.
You turn around quickly.
Yeah, just turn around...
- Right now?
- So you can't see.
I'll mix these
up just a little bit.
And then you come over
here and mix them up as well.
- Okay.
- So that way, I
won't know where it is.
All right, Alyson, come on over.
Do you know where
the egg is right now?
- No.
- Good.
All right, so you come
over, grab the coasters,
and mix them up however
you want, and I'll turn around.
- Okay.
- That way, neither of
us will know where this is
and that's why it'll be fun.
Oh, okay.
Now, we have to
work together on this
even though neither of
us will know where it is.
- Okay.
- You ready?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna go over the
cups like this, with my hand.
- Okay.
- And whenever you want,
you just say "stop."
- Stop.
- Here?
- Yes.
- Okay.
And then this is what you do.
- What I do?
- Easy.
- I do that?
- No, I did it.
- Oh. Whew.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Yes. Now, it's your turn.
- Wait.
- Yeah, come on over here.
You just go over
the cups like I did.
I'll tell you when to stop.
- Okay?
- I don't know
if this is still fun.
Don't worry.
Stop.
- Ah. I like that.
Oh
No. Just kidding.
- No, I like it.
- Yeah, keep going. Keep going.
- Hmm.
- Stop.
- Hmm.
- Right there.
Okay, now you need
to hit it with confidence.
Don't worry. It'll be okay.
Good
job. Good job. Okay.
My turn, my turn. All right.
Again, whenever you're ready.
Mm...
Mm...
Stop.
- Here?
- Yeah.
- It's kind of like
Russian roulette, isn't it?
- It is.
- Okay.
Your turn.
- Hmm.
- Stop.
Oh my gosh. okay. The
odds are getting worse.
All right, Alyson.
Whenever you're
ready, you say stop.
- Hmm.
S-s-s - Sometime tonight.
Stop.
- We did it. Look!
There's the egg.
- Okay, that's... that's good.
And usually, it
would stop there.
But you're so good at this, I
think we should up the ante.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Let's make it more dangerous.
- I mean, we don't have to.
- Yeah.
We're gonna add more eggs.
- Hmm.
- Okay.
How about... now, look.
This is a recipe for disaster.
- Definitely.
- Scrambled eggs. 100%, right?
- Yes.
- So let's do this.
Let's remove one of them,
but you decide which
one you want to remove.
We'll number these. Look.
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
Which number do you
want me to remove?
- Three.
- Three.
Right here?
- Yes.
- Okay, we'll remove that one.
- Okay.
- And we'll cover
up all the eggs
just like we did before.
But this time...
This time, one of
them will be blank.
Okay.
Again, I'm gonna mix these
up so you don't know where it is.
So turn around so you
can't see where it is.
There we go. All right.
Alyson, take a look.
Do you know
where it is right now?
- No.
- Okay. Now you mix them up.
That way, I won't
know where it is.
And then we'll try
this one more time.
You all set?
- Not yet.
Okay.
- Okay. Great.
Got them all in a line?
- Sort of.
- Good job. All right.
Now, do you know where
the egg is at this point?
- No.
- Okay. Me, neither.
This is where it
gets a little dicey.
Now, Alyson,
take a deep breath, relax,
and whenever you're
ready, you just say "stop."
I'll just keep going
until you're ready.
- Stop.
- Okay.
Now, if I smash this cup
and there's an egg under there,
the chances are pretty
good that there is...
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's gonna explode
everywhere and make a mess.
- I'm just gonna
back up a little.
- And it'll be your fault.
- Your fault.
- Well, I don't want to
put you in that situation.
So come a little closer.
- I don't want to.
- How about if we
leave this up to chance?
Okay? Here's what
we're gonna do.
Look, there are all...
We numbered these
earlier from one to six.
I'll take a die.
Since we're in
Vegas, we'll roll the die
and we'll put it in the glass.
Whatever it is,
in this case three,
we would smash
this cup, all right?
I'll shake it up like this
and roll it in the glass.
In that case, it would be six.
Whatever it is,
you just roll it.
There we go, just like
that. And that would be one.
All right, but I'm gonna
let you do this. So here.
You take the die, shake it
up, and see what happens.
Come over. Yeah. No
here. Just come a little closer.
- Okay.
- There you go.
Just drop that in
there. Good job.
All right, let me take a
look. What'd you get?
- Six.
- Six.
Okay, so that would be
one, two, three, four, five, six.
Right?
- Closer to me.
- Alyson?
- Hmm?
- I just remembered.
It's your turn to smash the cup.
I think I went last.
- No, no. I think
it is your turn.
I... I...
- We're doing good,
we're doing good.
- I...
- Real hard.
- Ee!
- Let me take a look.
- Ah.
- We did it!
- Ah.
- Awesome.
- Whoo!
- Thank you. You
did a nice job, Alyson.
Rick Wilcox.
- You were a good helper.
- Aww, thank you. I'm glad.
I'm glad it worked out.
- Me too.
- What do you do if
it doesn't work out?
Then you have egg
all over your face.
- Exactly. Uh...
I clean it up.
- Must be wonderful to
have your own theater.
- It is. It's awesome.
1999, we bought it.
We had no idea what
we were getting into,
but it's been a lot of fun.
And I couldn't have
done it without my wife.
- Aww.
- She's such a hard worker.
- Yay. Is your wife
your secret to success?
- She's a big part
of it, yes. Absolutely.
- How about your kids?
Are they supportive?
- Oh, absolutely. My
daughter, she helps out.
She runs... well, right
now, she runs the lights,
the camera, and then
she runs backstage,
and is continually
running the lights
and helping out in the show.
So she's running back and forth
and she also sells
concessions, sells the tickets.
- Wow.
- I mean, she does everything.
- That's incredible.
- Great experience.
- That's a true family business.
- It is.
- All right, Rick.
Let's see if they know
how your trick is done.
- Okay, sounds good.
- Hey, Rick.
What a nice routine.
You know, what I
really like about it
is you've got the
stakes really high,
but not in an unpleasant,
anti-human way, you know?
When that trick's done,
versions of like that
not the same trick,
but done with spikes...
- Yeah.
- People think they
increase the risk
and how much people
are invested in it,
but they don't really. They
just make it distasteful.
And this leaves it a
wonderful level of fun.
You have this wonderful,
forceful performance,
your timing is great,
you just hit the
mark with everything.
It's wonderful. And I also
love that you changed it up.
You know, you went from
spikes and then it's eggs,
which is nice and safe.
Like, when people make a change,
and they're not doing
well at blackjack for a while,
so they go to the
dice, you know.
- Yeah.
- And it's just a
wonderful routine.
And we think we have a
pretty good idea how you did it.
And what I love
about it is a lot of it,
you just really do.
And that's a really
nice part of it.
You know, a lot of your
method, as we understand it,
comes down to pure
showbiz and being a pro,
and I love that about it.
We really enjoy that
about it very much.
- Did they figure it out or do
they have egg on their face?
Or do I have egg on my face?
No, I think they have a
pretty good idea how it works.
- Okay.
- But it sure is a lot of fun.
And it's different every
time. You never know.
- Yes. Well, you
didn't fool them,
but it was an egg-cellent trick.
- Oh, that's great!
Awesome. Thank you, Alyson.
- Thank you so much.
- Thanks, guys.
- Rick Wilcox.
- Thank you so much. Goodbye.
- I'm not gonna sugarcoat this.
We have some sweet acts
for you when we come back.
- Welcome back.
Need a dose of magic? I
prescribe this next magician.
- I'm a grand illusionist.
I build stage machinery
for my own effects
and for other magicians too.
When I started,
I was an industrial
mechanic by day
and a magician by night.
I used the tools of my day
job to build magical devices
that came to me as dreams.
I met my wife on stage.
She was dancing in a
show with another magician.
We started dating and presto.
Now she performs with me.
The piece I will perform tonight
is an example of lucid dreaming
because in magic, the rules
of physics are suspended.
Things float, they vanish,
and they change colors
or they become something
else. It's like a waking dream.
Dreaming has always
been important to me.
As a child, I was obsessed
with suspending gravity.
This dream led me to magic.
I'm doing a classic
of magic tonight,
part of a long tradition
for stage illusionists.
My dream was to fly.
Tonight, I'm going to try to
make that dream into a reality.
- Let's head out to Europe for
The Magic Man, Willi Auerbach.
Willi Auerbach!
Hello. Welcome
to Vegas, sort of.
- Hi, there.
- Hi, there.
It must be exhausting to fly.
Does it take a lot of strength?
- Yeah, it's hard work.
But she does the
work. I'm just flying.
So she's making the magic,
and the rest is just happening.
- Did you always want to
fly when you were a kid?
- Yeah, it was a dream
which I had really
all of the time, till now.
I love to dream about flying.
- And you also perform
magic for charity?
- That's true. Yeah.
Over the years, we
got over 40,000 euro
for this project.
I think it's really important
that we do something
in the countries
where the people don't
have that much money
like we have here in
Europe or in the U.S.
- Well, I think it's wonderful
you use your magic
powers for good.
- That's really
important, I think.
- Okay, Willi and Elena,
let's find out if
Penn and Teller
know how you did your trick.
- Yeah.
- Hey, Willi. Hey, Elena.
Boy, you know, this
is one of the things
that magicians
always want to do.
From Kellar all the way
back, is they always want to fly.
That's always... well,
I don't.
But other magicians
seem to want to fly.
And the first thing you
think about is our friend,
and the world's greatest
and most famous magician,
David Copperfield.
Whenever you think
of a magician flying,
you think of David Copperfield.
He did all the
pioneering work on that.
And he has been kind
enough to give us permission
to show your take
on what he did.
So having said
that David Copperfield
kind of owns flying,
I think that you
know that we know
the, um, the lineage of flying
and where it goes and
where it comes back.
But boy, thanks for almost
making it look like Elena's
doing a zombie ball with you.
Although different method.
Although I'd like to see
it with the other method.
- All right. So are
you guys clear
that they know how
you did your trick?
Yeah. Probably yes.
- Well, you didn't fool them,
but it was a wonderful act.
Thank you. Willi Auerbach!
After this quick break,
you'll witness the greatest
magic duo of all time
perform a trick of
their own. Don't miss it.
- Welcome back to "Fool Us."
And now, performing
tonight's finale,
the Las Vegas legends
themselves, Penn and Teller.
- When does an
event become magic?
Teller is shuffling a
standard deck of 52 cards.
Joining him on the other side
of a protective plexiglass
safety shield is Crystal,
who is one of crew people.
She does hair and
makeup for the Foolers.
Now, she didn't watch rehearsals
and knows nothing
about this trick.
The plexi shield
will also make sure
there's no magic hanky-panky.
Teller, give Crystal
about half the deck.
Crystal, take that
half of the deck
and take a look at them,
make sure they're all mixed up.
But just to make sure,
give them a shuffle.
Give them a few
shuffles yourself.
Yeah, just shuffle them up.
And then stop shuffling
whenever you
want there, Crystal,
and just take the top card,
whatever it happens to be,
and hand it through to Teller.
Hand it all the way
through the shield.
He'll trade you
for his top card.
Take the top card you've
got and just hold it up.
What have you got
there? Six of diamonds.
And Teller shuffled to the mate
for that card,
the six of hearts.
Same value and
color, but the other suit.
Now, is that magic?
I don't think so.
First of all, we didn't tell you
what we were trying to do.
Maybe I just
exploited a coincidence
and not even that much of one.
Once one card is picked,
the other card has a 1
in 51 chance of matching.
1 in 51 is not magic,
just a little lucky.
We have about 50 people
working with us on "Fool Us."
If we all tried that trick once,
it wouldn't be surprising
at all for one of us to hit it.
Like Crystal. No
big deal. Not magic.
Good, Crystal.
You've been shuffling.
Stop again and again trade
the top cards with Teller.
Just hand one card across.
Now you have the five of clubs.
Teller has the five of spades.
So it happened twice in a row.
The chances of that happening
twice in a row is 51 squared...
One in 2,601.
Is that magic?
Well, when we tour,
that's about the average
size of the theaters we play,
so if everyone in
one of our audiences
tried to match cards
like that twice in a row
and someone hit it, we
wouldn't be all that surprised.
That's luckier, but
that's not magic.
You've been
shuffling. Stop. Switch.
What have you
got there, Crystal?
You got the king of clubs.
Teller got the king of spades.
Wow. Three times in a row.
Chances of that happening
by luck if 51 cubed,
or one in 132,651.
Is that magic?
Gainesville, Fla.
Has a population of 132,249.
That means if we got everyone
in Gainesville organized...
which would
be magic in itself...
And they all tried to match
the cards three times in a row,
someone is
very likely to hit it.
Not magic, just Florida.
Switch again, switch
again. switch again.
What do you got? What
do you got, Crystal?
Oh, got the jack of hearts.
And Teller's got the
jack of diamonds.
Starting to get wicked
amazing. Four matches in a row.
That's 51 to the fourth power,
one in 6,765,201,
just shy of 7 million. Magic?
No way.
If every person in Los Angeles
tried that whole sequence twice,
that'd be pretty likely.
Of course, once you've
gotten everyone in L.A.
to do anything twice,
you've already gotten lucky.
But it's not magic. But
it's starting to get fishy.
You might think
Teller's being sneaky
and doing some sleight of
hand to help out his odds.
So Crystal, switch decks.
Crystal, take Teller's.
Teller takes Crystal's.
Yeah, just shuffle them up.
There's no way he can cheat now.
You shuffle his,
he'll shuffle yours.
Good. Okay.
Hand your top card
across. Just hand it across.
You've got the nine of diamonds.
Teller get the nine
of hearts. Magic?
Five times in a row.
51 to the power of five.
1 chance in
345,024,251.
To get that lucky, we'd
need everyone... everyone
in the United States of America
to try that whole sequence,
the whole five-step sequence,
They'd have to each try
that five times in a row.
And we still aren't quite there.
So everyone in Texas
would have to do the
whole sequence ten times.
But people in Texas would
do that just to spite you.
You'd probably get
lucky. So still not magic.
Hand the top one
across. Hand it across.
You've got the...
What did you get?
Nine of spades. Teller
has the nine of clubs.
Now, I know you're all way
ahead of me on the math.
51 to the sixth power, or...
If every single human
being of any age
or any gender tried that
whole trick sequence twice,
and everyone in China
all did it three times,
just for fun, that would
give us 18 billion tries.
So we don't need magic.
We could do that with luck.
Hand him across, Crystal.
Hand it across, hand it across.
Oh, now you've got
the three of spades.
And Teller has
the three of clubs.
That's the Penn and Teller
card, and that is magic.
No one could ever get
all 107 billion people
who have ever
lived on Planet Earth
to try that whole sequence
nine times in a row.
51 to the seventh. That's...
I call that magic.
Thank you, Crystal.
And thank you.
Nicely done. Beautifully done.
- Oh!
Looks like we've
run out of show.
We'll restock and return
with more top-shelf magic
next time on "Fool
Us." Good night.
I didn't know you
were so good at math.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.
- From the Penn & Teller Theater
at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,
here's our host,
Alyson Hannigan!
- Welcome to a very
special episode of "Fool Us."
Normally, Penn and
Teller perform a trick
at the end of every episode,
but tonight, they're also
gonna start our show
with some of their
amazing magic.
So without further ado,
give it up for our titans of
trickery, Penn and Teller.
Joining them for
tonight's finale
is Grammy Award-winning
music legend Gloria Estefan.
- Yeah, hell, Gloria.
- Yay. Hi.
- What Teller is doing is
what I call a tattoo of blood.
He's got a tattoo
needle. It's all sterilized.
But he is not using ink.
So he's just
carving into my skin.
It'll go away in three years.
We've... ow. We've done it before.
And he is predicting,
with the tattoo you're
gonna choose for me,
he's predicting
magically on my arm.
Now, I should point
out to you that ink
is a lubricant and a coagulant,
so this does bleed
a little more than
a... ow... bleed a little
more than a regular tattoo.
- Ooh.
- And it also hurts
just a little more as the
needle drags through.
But he is predicting the...
damn it!
He's the predicting that tattoo
that you will... are
you almost done?
, it doesn't have to be perfect.
- You're a brave man.
- Ow. Yes.
The tattoo... I mean, thank you.
Yeah. You got it?
You got it there?
Clean off a little bit
of the blood there.
- You let him loose with
a needle on your flesh?
That's... - There
we go, there we go.
- You're a brave man.
- Now, he has your tattoo here.
Now, we're gonna give
you the choices. We've got...
- Okay.
- A bunch of good
choices for you here.
We've got banana from the
Velvet Underground album cover.
Narwhal for no reason.
I don't know what that is.
But Teller's gonna go
through them one by one,
and you just say "stop,"
and he will predict your tattoo.
So what have we got here now?
Oh, we got the "Penn
& Teller: Fool Us" logo.
That could be your tattoo.
- Okay.
- We've got... oh,
this is my favorite
Bob Dylan quote.
You may know this, Gloria.
"It frightens me,
the awful truth of
how sweet life can be."
Worthy of a Nobel Prize winner.
- Beautiful quote.
- Beautiful quote.
Oh, a puffin 'cause my
people are from Newfoundland,
so the puffin is kind of
the unofficial logo there.
- I've seen them.
Beautiful birds.
- Oh, Moxie and Zolten,
the name of my children.
I could have
gotten that on there.
Whenever you want to
say "stop," just say "stop."
Oh, a peace sign.
- Okay.
- I love peace signs. And...
- All right.
- Oh, this is "Born to lose,
run, be wild, whatever."
- All right. So don't stop.
- And what have you got
here? What did you pick?
He picked... oh, yeah, that's
Tony Fitzpatrick, my friend.
- Okay.
- And artist in Chicago that
was real close to my mom.
He did this for me. It's
a snake with my mom.
And let's see if we predicted...
- That's nice.
- Your tattoo. Here we go.
In my blood, it says,
"your tattoo," Gloria.
- Very interesting.
- Yeah.
But you might have
expected this, Gloria.
Oh
My gosh. That's my tattoo!
- Here's the tattoo you picked.
Thank you, Gloria.
Oh, oh!
Oh, oh.
- Thank you, Gloria.
When we come back,
Penn and Teller
will take their seats
and take on tonight's magicians,
so stay close.
- "Fool Us" has returned,
and so has this
next familiar face.
- I'm from Ecuador... literally
the middle of the world.
In Ecuador, the magic
community is very, very tiny.
Not most people's career choice.
I got my degree in
mechanical engineering
and I decided I wanted
to do magic for a living.
Took a plane to Los
Angeles to study acting,
not to become a movie
star... I never intended to.
I would take it, but
not my main goal.
The goal was to use
those skills as a magician.
Nice!
Being on "Fool
Us" for the first time
was one of the most
terrifying yet exciting
experiences of my life.
Penn and Teller have
been two of my heroes.
When I fooled them,
I was probably the most
surprised person in that room.
Now, I will see Penn
and Teller again.
I'm terrified, but also
extremely excited.
- Please welcome back the
unforgettable Siegfried Tieber.
- It's very, very
exciting to be here.
It's exciting to be
anywhere outside home.
Like all of us, I've
been spending
a lot of time home lately,
and I've got so used to it
that I brought my
living room with me.
When lockdown orders were
announced all around the world,
some people
started baking bread,
some people started
brewing their own beer.
That day, I shuffled
a deck of cards
and attempted to
memorize its order.
This is Thursday, March 19,
lockdown day number one for
me in Los Angeles, California.
That's the month of
March, April, May, June,
July, August. And September.
These are my first six months.
185 days of lockdown.
Every day, I shuffled
and memorized
a different deck of
cards in a different order.
They are all in my mind.
Alyson, name any
card in the deck, please.
- Ace of hearts.
- The ace of hearts.
That's a pretty
card. Ace of hearts.
Thursday, May 7,
lockdown day number 50.
On this particular day,
the ace of hearts
happened to be the top,
the very first card in the deck.
See? Of course, every
deck is in a different order.
The next day, the ace of
hearts was in position 27.
And the day after that,
it was in position 38
from the top of the deck.
But wait, there's more.
Alyson, name a
different date at random
between March 19
and September 19.
- Uh, May 23rd.
- May 23rd.
That is the 23rd day
of the fifth month of the year,
lockdown day...
That was a Saturday,
lockdown day number 66.
This day, my alarm
went off at 6:31 a.m.
I did not hit the snooze button.
First thing in the morning,
I brewed a cup of coffee
and attempted to
memorize this deck of cards.
On this particular
day, the ace of hearts...
Was in position
35 from the top of the deck.
I hope.
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 33, 34,
card number 35?
- That's the ace of hearts.
- Yes.
At this point,
many might suspect
that maybe I'm
wearing an earpiece
and someone is
feeding me information.
I'll be upfront about this.
I'll gladly admit that
I'm using showmanship
to create the illusion
that I memorized
more than I actually did.
However, that's it.
I'm only using my mind.
Penn, please name
a different date
between March 19
and September 19.
- March 20.
- March 20. Ha-ha.
That was a Friday,
lockdown day number two.
That day, I did
not week up early.
My alarm went off,
I did hit the snooze
button a couple times,
I went for my morning walk,
It was cloudy in Los Angeles.
That's the day the squirrel
followed me on my morning walk.
Anyway, at 9:37 a.m., I
brewed a cup of coffee
and attempted to
memorize this deck of cards.
Teller, let's look at this
from a different direction.
Please gesture a number
between one and 52.
Is that 15? 15.
On this particular day...
the nine of hearts
was in position 15.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, card number 15?
The nine of hearts.
Yes.
This is going way
better than expected.
Let's try something a
little more ambitious.
This might not work, but
we might as well try, right?
Penn, name any card
in the deck, please.
- Um, four of spades.
- The four of spades.
Teller, gesture a different
number between one and 52.
30. I've seen it. Four
of spades in position 30.
That was early lockdown
in the month of
April, I believe.
Four of spades.
In position... that
was early on, March.
Four of spaces in
position 30. I think this is it.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20...
The suspense is killing me.
That's 20, 21, 22, 23,
24, 25, 26, 27, 28,
29.
Teller, you gestured
number 30. Penn, you said?
- Four of spades.
- Four of spades.
That is the four of spades. Yes!
Wow. Siegfried Tieber!
Oh! Oh, my goodness.
Most people just learned how to
make bread during the lockdown.
That's very impressive.
- Thank you so much.
It kept me busy
for quite some time.
- Yeah. I would say so.
Do you always have a
photographic memory now?
- Photographic memory is a myth.
I wish I could say yes, I
have a photographic memory,
but it's something
anyone could do.
Memory is like a
muscle that you can train
and the more you're training,
the more you
can retain in there.
- So how did you develop
your stage character?
- The stage character
is a stretch for me.
This is who I am in real life.
- Mm.
- People ask me after
seeing me on a stage,
they ask me how I
came up with the accent.
I go, "What? No.
This is what I talk.
This is just me."
- All right.
Well, let's see if
your amazing memory
has earned you another trophy.
- Ay-ay-ay.
- Oh, Siegfried,
what a great trick.
And you're such
a good performer.
So different, so surprising.
Such a wonderful thing.
And this trick
is... is annoying us...
tremendously.
- Good.
- Because we think we know
the basic mechanism of this
and we could have been doing it.
And although there's so
much mental stuff involved,
I should tell people at
home that we believe
that there's no accomplice
and there's no sleight of hand.
You're really
doing it in your head
exactly as you'd think.
And you've got all
those days there,
and, you know, as every day,
the earth rotates just a little
bit more and spins around.
And it's amazing, I
think, to people at home,
that you are doing
incredible mental gymnastics.
And we think we have a
pretty good idea how you did it.
But we have to ask you one
question: when's your birthday?
- January 8.
- January 8?
- Yep.
- We're gonna
make a note of that,
because on January 8, we
want to send you a birthday book.
That's what we'd
like to send you
as a little bit of a present.
Could we do that for you?
- I would be thrilled.
I'll be waiting for it.
- Okay, did they figure it out?
- They did, and it makes
me immensely happy.
Yes, they did.
- Okay. Well, you
didn't fool them,
but you're gonna
get a birthday book.
- I will. I'm very
excited about it.
Thank you for having me here.
Siegfried Tieber.
You still have that trophy.
- And I still have one.
Yeah.
Stay right where you are.
We've got more
magnificent magic coming up.
- Welcome back to "Fool Us."
Remember, any act
that fools Penn and Teller
wins a spot performing
in their Las Vegas show
and a "Fool Us" trophy.
With that in mind, let's meet
our next potential Fooler.
- You know, when I was a kid,
my dad's company used to
throw a picnic each summer.
There were sack races and stuff.
But if you looked for me,
I was with the
strolling magician.
I didn't know it,
but I'd already discovered
who I was gonna be.
I went pro doing close-up magic.
I traveled like crazy and
I never said no to a job.
If I booked two gigs at once,
I'd hire another magician
and pretend he was me.
People started asking
if I did bigger effects.
I said sure even when I didn't.
Pretty soon, I was doing
spectacle magic, too.
That's how I met my wife.
She was in real estate.
I went looked for a bigger
a garage for my props
and I found a wife instead.
We saw this broken-down theater
in Wisconsin where we're from
and we turned it into a
spectacular magic theater.
For "Fool Us," working
up a close-up magic trick
has been like a
vacation, in a way.
I get to focus totally on the
magic and not ticket sales.
It's just pure magic, the
way it was meant to be.
- Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Rick Wilcox.
- Hi, Penn, hi, Teller.
Really glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Alyson, would you
please join me for this?
We're gonna have some fun.
- Okay.
- Now, I wanted to make
this a little bit more interesting,
so I'm gonna add
a little bit of danger.
Is that okay?
- Okay.
- Let me show you why.
- Uh-oh.
What we're gonna do
is we're gonna use eggs.
- Hmm.
- They're real eggs.
They're not hard-boiled
and I'll prove it to you.
I'll just break one of
them, so you can see that.
- Okay.
- There we go.
- All right.
- Okay.
And here's what we're gonna
do. I'm gonna take one of the eggs
and place it in one of
these holders like this.
- Okay.
- Put the rest of them away.
And then I'm gonna cover
up the coasters like this.
And one will have the egg.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna cover
that up as well.
So now they all look the same.
- Yeah.
- Then I'm gonna
grab the coasters
and mix these up like
this. Do you see that?
- Uh-huh.
- So we don't know
where the egg is.
- Okay.
- Neither of us.
So I'll mix it up first.
You turn around quickly.
Yeah, just turn around...
- Right now?
- So you can't see.
I'll mix these
up just a little bit.
And then you come over
here and mix them up as well.
- Okay.
- So that way, I
won't know where it is.
All right, Alyson, come on over.
Do you know where
the egg is right now?
- No.
- Good.
All right, so you come
over, grab the coasters,
and mix them up however
you want, and I'll turn around.
- Okay.
- That way, neither of
us will know where this is
and that's why it'll be fun.
Oh, okay.
Now, we have to
work together on this
even though neither of
us will know where it is.
- Okay.
- You ready?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna go over the
cups like this, with my hand.
- Okay.
- And whenever you want,
you just say "stop."
- Stop.
- Here?
- Yes.
- Okay.
And then this is what you do.
- What I do?
- Easy.
- I do that?
- No, I did it.
- Oh. Whew.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Yes. Now, it's your turn.
- Wait.
- Yeah, come on over here.
You just go over
the cups like I did.
I'll tell you when to stop.
- Okay?
- I don't know
if this is still fun.
Don't worry.
Stop.
- Ah. I like that.
Oh
No. Just kidding.
- No, I like it.
- Yeah, keep going. Keep going.
- Hmm.
- Stop.
- Hmm.
- Right there.
Okay, now you need
to hit it with confidence.
Don't worry. It'll be okay.
Good
job. Good job. Okay.
My turn, my turn. All right.
Again, whenever you're ready.
Mm...
Mm...
Stop.
- Here?
- Yeah.
- It's kind of like
Russian roulette, isn't it?
- It is.
- Okay.
Your turn.
- Hmm.
- Stop.
Oh my gosh. okay. The
odds are getting worse.
All right, Alyson.
Whenever you're
ready, you say stop.
- Hmm.
S-s-s - Sometime tonight.
Stop.
- We did it. Look!
There's the egg.
- Okay, that's... that's good.
And usually, it
would stop there.
But you're so good at this, I
think we should up the ante.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Let's make it more dangerous.
- I mean, we don't have to.
- Yeah.
We're gonna add more eggs.
- Hmm.
- Okay.
How about... now, look.
This is a recipe for disaster.
- Definitely.
- Scrambled eggs. 100%, right?
- Yes.
- So let's do this.
Let's remove one of them,
but you decide which
one you want to remove.
We'll number these. Look.
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
Which number do you
want me to remove?
- Three.
- Three.
Right here?
- Yes.
- Okay, we'll remove that one.
- Okay.
- And we'll cover
up all the eggs
just like we did before.
But this time...
This time, one of
them will be blank.
Okay.
Again, I'm gonna mix these
up so you don't know where it is.
So turn around so you
can't see where it is.
There we go. All right.
Alyson, take a look.
Do you know
where it is right now?
- No.
- Okay. Now you mix them up.
That way, I won't
know where it is.
And then we'll try
this one more time.
You all set?
- Not yet.
Okay.
- Okay. Great.
Got them all in a line?
- Sort of.
- Good job. All right.
Now, do you know where
the egg is at this point?
- No.
- Okay. Me, neither.
This is where it
gets a little dicey.
Now, Alyson,
take a deep breath, relax,
and whenever you're
ready, you just say "stop."
I'll just keep going
until you're ready.
- Stop.
- Okay.
Now, if I smash this cup
and there's an egg under there,
the chances are pretty
good that there is...
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's gonna explode
everywhere and make a mess.
- I'm just gonna
back up a little.
- And it'll be your fault.
- Your fault.
- Well, I don't want to
put you in that situation.
So come a little closer.
- I don't want to.
- How about if we
leave this up to chance?
Okay? Here's what
we're gonna do.
Look, there are all...
We numbered these
earlier from one to six.
I'll take a die.
Since we're in
Vegas, we'll roll the die
and we'll put it in the glass.
Whatever it is,
in this case three,
we would smash
this cup, all right?
I'll shake it up like this
and roll it in the glass.
In that case, it would be six.
Whatever it is,
you just roll it.
There we go, just like
that. And that would be one.
All right, but I'm gonna
let you do this. So here.
You take the die, shake it
up, and see what happens.
Come over. Yeah. No
here. Just come a little closer.
- Okay.
- There you go.
Just drop that in
there. Good job.
All right, let me take a
look. What'd you get?
- Six.
- Six.
Okay, so that would be
one, two, three, four, five, six.
Right?
- Closer to me.
- Alyson?
- Hmm?
- I just remembered.
It's your turn to smash the cup.
I think I went last.
- No, no. I think
it is your turn.
I... I...
- We're doing good,
we're doing good.
- I...
- Real hard.
- Ee!
- Let me take a look.
- Ah.
- We did it!
- Ah.
- Awesome.
- Whoo!
- Thank you. You
did a nice job, Alyson.
Rick Wilcox.
- You were a good helper.
- Aww, thank you. I'm glad.
I'm glad it worked out.
- Me too.
- What do you do if
it doesn't work out?
Then you have egg
all over your face.
- Exactly. Uh...
I clean it up.
- Must be wonderful to
have your own theater.
- It is. It's awesome.
1999, we bought it.
We had no idea what
we were getting into,
but it's been a lot of fun.
And I couldn't have
done it without my wife.
- Aww.
- She's such a hard worker.
- Yay. Is your wife
your secret to success?
- She's a big part
of it, yes. Absolutely.
- How about your kids?
Are they supportive?
- Oh, absolutely. My
daughter, she helps out.
She runs... well, right
now, she runs the lights,
the camera, and then
she runs backstage,
and is continually
running the lights
and helping out in the show.
So she's running back and forth
and she also sells
concessions, sells the tickets.
- Wow.
- I mean, she does everything.
- That's incredible.
- Great experience.
- That's a true family business.
- It is.
- All right, Rick.
Let's see if they know
how your trick is done.
- Okay, sounds good.
- Hey, Rick.
What a nice routine.
You know, what I
really like about it
is you've got the
stakes really high,
but not in an unpleasant,
anti-human way, you know?
When that trick's done,
versions of like that
not the same trick,
but done with spikes...
- Yeah.
- People think they
increase the risk
and how much people
are invested in it,
but they don't really. They
just make it distasteful.
And this leaves it a
wonderful level of fun.
You have this wonderful,
forceful performance,
your timing is great,
you just hit the
mark with everything.
It's wonderful. And I also
love that you changed it up.
You know, you went from
spikes and then it's eggs,
which is nice and safe.
Like, when people make a change,
and they're not doing
well at blackjack for a while,
so they go to the
dice, you know.
- Yeah.
- And it's just a
wonderful routine.
And we think we have a
pretty good idea how you did it.
And what I love
about it is a lot of it,
you just really do.
And that's a really
nice part of it.
You know, a lot of your
method, as we understand it,
comes down to pure
showbiz and being a pro,
and I love that about it.
We really enjoy that
about it very much.
- Did they figure it out or do
they have egg on their face?
Or do I have egg on my face?
No, I think they have a
pretty good idea how it works.
- Okay.
- But it sure is a lot of fun.
And it's different every
time. You never know.
- Yes. Well, you
didn't fool them,
but it was an egg-cellent trick.
- Oh, that's great!
Awesome. Thank you, Alyson.
- Thank you so much.
- Thanks, guys.
- Rick Wilcox.
- Thank you so much. Goodbye.
- I'm not gonna sugarcoat this.
We have some sweet acts
for you when we come back.
- Welcome back.
Need a dose of magic? I
prescribe this next magician.
- I'm a grand illusionist.
I build stage machinery
for my own effects
and for other magicians too.
When I started,
I was an industrial
mechanic by day
and a magician by night.
I used the tools of my day
job to build magical devices
that came to me as dreams.
I met my wife on stage.
She was dancing in a
show with another magician.
We started dating and presto.
Now she performs with me.
The piece I will perform tonight
is an example of lucid dreaming
because in magic, the rules
of physics are suspended.
Things float, they vanish,
and they change colors
or they become something
else. It's like a waking dream.
Dreaming has always
been important to me.
As a child, I was obsessed
with suspending gravity.
This dream led me to magic.
I'm doing a classic
of magic tonight,
part of a long tradition
for stage illusionists.
My dream was to fly.
Tonight, I'm going to try to
make that dream into a reality.
- Let's head out to Europe for
The Magic Man, Willi Auerbach.
Willi Auerbach!
Hello. Welcome
to Vegas, sort of.
- Hi, there.
- Hi, there.
It must be exhausting to fly.
Does it take a lot of strength?
- Yeah, it's hard work.
But she does the
work. I'm just flying.
So she's making the magic,
and the rest is just happening.
- Did you always want to
fly when you were a kid?
- Yeah, it was a dream
which I had really
all of the time, till now.
I love to dream about flying.
- And you also perform
magic for charity?
- That's true. Yeah.
Over the years, we
got over 40,000 euro
for this project.
I think it's really important
that we do something
in the countries
where the people don't
have that much money
like we have here in
Europe or in the U.S.
- Well, I think it's wonderful
you use your magic
powers for good.
- That's really
important, I think.
- Okay, Willi and Elena,
let's find out if
Penn and Teller
know how you did your trick.
- Yeah.
- Hey, Willi. Hey, Elena.
Boy, you know, this
is one of the things
that magicians
always want to do.
From Kellar all the way
back, is they always want to fly.
That's always... well,
I don't.
But other magicians
seem to want to fly.
And the first thing you
think about is our friend,
and the world's greatest
and most famous magician,
David Copperfield.
Whenever you think
of a magician flying,
you think of David Copperfield.
He did all the
pioneering work on that.
And he has been kind
enough to give us permission
to show your take
on what he did.
So having said
that David Copperfield
kind of owns flying,
I think that you
know that we know
the, um, the lineage of flying
and where it goes and
where it comes back.
But boy, thanks for almost
making it look like Elena's
doing a zombie ball with you.
Although different method.
Although I'd like to see
it with the other method.
- All right. So are
you guys clear
that they know how
you did your trick?
Yeah. Probably yes.
- Well, you didn't fool them,
but it was a wonderful act.
Thank you. Willi Auerbach!
After this quick break,
you'll witness the greatest
magic duo of all time
perform a trick of
their own. Don't miss it.
- Welcome back to "Fool Us."
And now, performing
tonight's finale,
the Las Vegas legends
themselves, Penn and Teller.
- When does an
event become magic?
Teller is shuffling a
standard deck of 52 cards.
Joining him on the other side
of a protective plexiglass
safety shield is Crystal,
who is one of crew people.
She does hair and
makeup for the Foolers.
Now, she didn't watch rehearsals
and knows nothing
about this trick.
The plexi shield
will also make sure
there's no magic hanky-panky.
Teller, give Crystal
about half the deck.
Crystal, take that
half of the deck
and take a look at them,
make sure they're all mixed up.
But just to make sure,
give them a shuffle.
Give them a few
shuffles yourself.
Yeah, just shuffle them up.
And then stop shuffling
whenever you
want there, Crystal,
and just take the top card,
whatever it happens to be,
and hand it through to Teller.
Hand it all the way
through the shield.
He'll trade you
for his top card.
Take the top card you've
got and just hold it up.
What have you got
there? Six of diamonds.
And Teller shuffled to the mate
for that card,
the six of hearts.
Same value and
color, but the other suit.
Now, is that magic?
I don't think so.
First of all, we didn't tell you
what we were trying to do.
Maybe I just
exploited a coincidence
and not even that much of one.
Once one card is picked,
the other card has a 1
in 51 chance of matching.
1 in 51 is not magic,
just a little lucky.
We have about 50 people
working with us on "Fool Us."
If we all tried that trick once,
it wouldn't be surprising
at all for one of us to hit it.
Like Crystal. No
big deal. Not magic.
Good, Crystal.
You've been shuffling.
Stop again and again trade
the top cards with Teller.
Just hand one card across.
Now you have the five of clubs.
Teller has the five of spades.
So it happened twice in a row.
The chances of that happening
twice in a row is 51 squared...
One in 2,601.
Is that magic?
Well, when we tour,
that's about the average
size of the theaters we play,
so if everyone in
one of our audiences
tried to match cards
like that twice in a row
and someone hit it, we
wouldn't be all that surprised.
That's luckier, but
that's not magic.
You've been
shuffling. Stop. Switch.
What have you
got there, Crystal?
You got the king of clubs.
Teller got the king of spades.
Wow. Three times in a row.
Chances of that happening
by luck if 51 cubed,
or one in 132,651.
Is that magic?
Gainesville, Fla.
Has a population of 132,249.
That means if we got everyone
in Gainesville organized...
which would
be magic in itself...
And they all tried to match
the cards three times in a row,
someone is
very likely to hit it.
Not magic, just Florida.
Switch again, switch
again. switch again.
What do you got? What
do you got, Crystal?
Oh, got the jack of hearts.
And Teller's got the
jack of diamonds.
Starting to get wicked
amazing. Four matches in a row.
That's 51 to the fourth power,
one in 6,765,201,
just shy of 7 million. Magic?
No way.
If every person in Los Angeles
tried that whole sequence twice,
that'd be pretty likely.
Of course, once you've
gotten everyone in L.A.
to do anything twice,
you've already gotten lucky.
But it's not magic. But
it's starting to get fishy.
You might think
Teller's being sneaky
and doing some sleight of
hand to help out his odds.
So Crystal, switch decks.
Crystal, take Teller's.
Teller takes Crystal's.
Yeah, just shuffle them up.
There's no way he can cheat now.
You shuffle his,
he'll shuffle yours.
Good. Okay.
Hand your top card
across. Just hand it across.
You've got the nine of diamonds.
Teller get the nine
of hearts. Magic?
Five times in a row.
51 to the power of five.
1 chance in
345,024,251.
To get that lucky, we'd
need everyone... everyone
in the United States of America
to try that whole sequence,
the whole five-step sequence,
They'd have to each try
that five times in a row.
And we still aren't quite there.
So everyone in Texas
would have to do the
whole sequence ten times.
But people in Texas would
do that just to spite you.
You'd probably get
lucky. So still not magic.
Hand the top one
across. Hand it across.
You've got the...
What did you get?
Nine of spades. Teller
has the nine of clubs.
Now, I know you're all way
ahead of me on the math.
51 to the sixth power, or...
If every single human
being of any age
or any gender tried that
whole trick sequence twice,
and everyone in China
all did it three times,
just for fun, that would
give us 18 billion tries.
So we don't need magic.
We could do that with luck.
Hand him across, Crystal.
Hand it across, hand it across.
Oh, now you've got
the three of spades.
And Teller has
the three of clubs.
That's the Penn and Teller
card, and that is magic.
No one could ever get
all 107 billion people
who have ever
lived on Planet Earth
to try that whole sequence
nine times in a row.
51 to the seventh. That's...
I call that magic.
Thank you, Crystal.
And thank you.
Nicely done. Beautifully done.
- Oh!
Looks like we've
run out of show.
We'll restock and return
with more top-shelf magic
next time on "Fool
Us." Good night.
I didn't know you
were so good at math.
Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.