Penn & Teller: Fool Us (2011–…): Season 7, Episode 3 - The Home Game - full transcript

- From the Penn & Teller Theater

at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,

here's our host,
Alyson Hannigan!

- Tonight, our magicians
will climb into the ring

and try to drop
the flying elbow of illusion

right between the eyes
of our magic ring masters.

Can they body slam their way
to a "Fool Us" trophy?

Or, will they be stopped
by a pile driver of proof?

Now, give it up for our
enchanted tag team champions,

Penn and Teller!

Wow.



Remember, if Penn and Teller
get fooled,

they give away a slot in their
world-famous magic show,

a classy trophy, and
international bragging rights.

With that in mind,
let's meet our first performer.

- I heard the saying that
nothing makes math sexier

than a board game
or a magic trick,

and I completely agree.

I do a show called "Super Nerd,"

which features magic, mystery,

and recreational mathematics.

Yeah, I'm definitely
a super nerd.

I love all things nerdy.

I'm not a full-time magician,

and I've never
actually wanted to be.



Because I don't rely on magic
for my income,

my friend and I
started a charity

which allows us to perform
the shows we want to perform,

but all the money goes to
charities we want to support.

Creating the trick
I'm here to do tonight

has been a bit like playing
a "Fool Us" board game.

Hopefully, Penn and Teller
like board games

as much as I do,

because tonight, I came to play.

- Please welcome Caleb Wiles!

- I've been preparing
for this show

in an interesting way.

Every night, I sit in my room
and I play a board game.

A very specific board game,

one that I actually
created myself.

And I brought that game
along with me tonight

to share with all of you.

Fool Us, Home Edition."

Alyson, would you like to play?
- Sure!

- Let's give her a round
of applause!

Thank you, Alyson!

Now, Alyson, the set up
to this game is very simple.

We just need to decide
on a target playing card.

Now if you're playing at home,
you can do this at random,

but since we have
Penn and Teller here,

I thought maybe they could help
us decide on the target card.

So, Teller, in a moment,

I'm gonna ask you
to choose a value.

Penn, you will choose a suit,

and together,
we will combine your choices

to create a card that no one
could've possibly known.

Teller, what value
would you like?

A king?
A king, and Penn, the suit.

- Spades.
- The king of spades,

that will be our target card.

Now, Alyson, the object
of this game is to find that

target card in a magic trick,
that's how you win.

- Okay.
- Okay, and in fact

if you find
the King of spades tonight,

I guarantee, you will go home
with the trophy.

- Hey, I like it.
- Yeah.

- Well, that's because
I 3-D printed

one "Fool Us" trophy myself.

- Aww, that's pretty cute.

I'd take it.

I would definitely take it.

- Now, Alyson, inside this box

is literally everything we need

to play a game
of "Fool Us" at home.

For example, I have the official

Fool Us, Home Edition"

deck of playing cards. - Aw.

- And inside this deck
of playing cards,

I have two very special jokers.

These are jokers
you'll actually recognize.

As we spread the pack,
you'll see there's Penn.

- Mm, Big joker.

- And there's Teller.
- Aww.

- Now if we have
Penn and Teller,

you know what else
we need, Alyson.

- What?
- We need the official

Fool Us,
Home Edition" judges' chairs.

- Aww.

- You see, this is
where Penn and Teller

will sit to watch your trick.

And at the end, maybe, they'll
tell us what they think.

My favorite component
is actually the official

Fool Us, Home Edition" stage.

- Ohh.

- Yes, 'cause this is where
we display the trophy, yes.

And just like in the real show,
the trophy...

- Oh, yeah.
- Hangs high up in the air.

- Aww.

- And remember, Alyson,

if you find that King of spades,

that trophy belongs to you.

- Well, I'm going home
with that trophy.

- Now that the stage is set.

Now that the stage is set,

it's time to introduce our
performers for this evening.

Ladies and gentlemen,
it's Caleb and Alyson!

- Hey!

Now, Alyson, that is
everything we need to play

a game of "Fool Us."

- Great!
- Now, Alyson, remember,

the object of this game
is to find the King of spades,

wherever it happens
to be in the deck.

And we'll do this with a little
help from Penn and Teller.

Alyson, would you lift off
about half of those cards.

And I'll place Penn and Teller
in at that exact location.

You can actually drop the whole
pile right back on top.

- Oh.

- We'll sort of bury them
in the middle

and hold it face
down in your hands.

- Easier said than done.

- You're doing great.

Now, earlier, we had the real
Penn and Teller work together

to create a playing card.

That's how they chose
their card,

and in a moment,
miniature Penn and Teller

are gonna do the same thing.

All you have to do is give the
cards a little shake like this.

Perfect, a professional.

Now you can spread the cards
face down across the table.

- Aw, man.

- You're doing good.
You're doing good.

- I should really practice
during the down season.

- We are hunting for those
Penn and Teller cards,

I think I see one of them
poking out here.

- I do too.
- There's Teller.

- I see Teller!
- Keep spreading,

I think there's Penn. - Hey!

- Something has happened,
Alyson!

There is now one card
face down in between.

That's the card
that they picked.

And wouldn't it be amazing
if they picked the same card

as the real Penn and Teller.
- Yeah.

- Do you remember
what we're looking for?

- The king of spades.
- The king of spades.

Go ahead and turn it
over yourself.

- What?
- You did it!

Now, you are right, Alyson,
you won the game,

so you win the trophy.

- Yay!
- And let's give it up

for Alyson Hannigan!

- Ah.

- Now, Alyson, I'm very happy
you won the game.

- Me too.

- And I'm glad
you earned the trophy.

But I have to admit, I'm hoping
that maybe I can go home

with the trophy tonight as well.

That's why there's one
more phase to this game.

You see, when I was designing
all of these components

for the game,
I tried to simulate

this "Fool Us" experience
as closely as possible.

But I don't just mean
"Fool Us" in general,

I mean this specific
"Fool Us" experience.

You see, even though
Penn and Teller

could have worked together

to select any one of these
52 playing cards,

I knew that Teller
would want to go for a king.

And that Penn would want
to go for the spades.

And that together, they would
create the king of spades.

- Ahh.

Yay. - And that's how you play

Fool Us, Home Edition."

- Aww.

Caleb Wiles!

This is so creative. - Yes.

My two passions in life
are magic and board games,

so I thought I had
to combine the two

if I was gonna
come on "Fool Us."

It was many weekends
up late at night.

It was a lot of work,
but I wouldn't have been able

to do it without all my family
and friends helping me out.

- And is it designed
to always win?

- Yes, it was rigged
in your favor, Alyson.

- That's my favorite type
of magic trick.

Hopefully it's rigged
in your favor too.

- We'll see.

- All right, it's time to put
Penn and Teller on the spot.

Guys!

- Oh, we're so flattered.
What a lot of work.

- Yes.
- That's beautiful.

We don't even wanna talk
about your trick.

We just wanna talk
about the home game.

- Yes.

- The home game seems
like such a great idea.

It wouldn't only be
this trick, right?

There would be other tricks.
- Sure, yeah.

- So there would be
a whole index in there

of how you pick which trick

you're gonna do and all of that,

and is this a durable home game?

I mean, once you've played
with the deck for a while,

would you have another deck
you could bring in after that,

so it would never wear out?

Just keep going,
playing the home game forever?

- Yeah, yeah.
- Now, you'd been working

on this for a while, right?
- Yeah.

- So all the directions
that are in there,

you have them memorized,
I'm sure.

- I do.
- This is a great,

great idea for "Fool Us."

We'd be playing at home.

I think you've worked out
absolutely all the problems,

and as far as the trick,
we had a couple ideas in there.

- Okay.
- About how you did it.

- So based on those clues,
did they figure out your trick?

- I have to say,
I was really hoping

to go home
with a trophy tonight,

so it's a good thing
I printed extras.

- Done.
- Yay.

Cheers. - Yes.

Aw, Caleb Wiles.

- Thank you so much!

Thank you!

- More magicians take the stage
when we come back.

And later on, Penn and Teller
perform too.

Stick around.

- We're back with more
"Fool Us" fun.

Let's meet our next magician.

- Hi, I'm D.K. from South Korea.

The way he plays
with shadow intrigues me.

- Please welcome the
mind-bending magic of D.K.!

D.K! Aw.

That was so beautiful.

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah, how does it feel
to perform in Vegas?

- Well, it's such an honor to me

for having this amazing night
with Penn and Teller

and all of you guys
here in Vegas.

I don't know what to say,
but it feels like I'm dreaming.

- Aww.
- Yeah.

- Well, that's lovely.

All right, Penn and Teller

have had enough time
to think it over,

so let's see if you fooled them.

Guys!

- D.K., what a great routine.

Just loved it. Really loved it.

And, you know...

with that kind of

high-concept, beautiful thing,

you're almost guaranteed
for Teller to like it.

That's the kind
of thing Teller loves.

Teller's the kind of child
that walked around his room

with a flashlight, and objects
and looking at them.

I'm not that kind of child.

That's the kind of stuff
that you were doing,

kind of stuff that
categorically I don't like.

I love this.

And you're able to do
something that thoughtful,

that perfectly laid out,

and still not
have it feel pretentious,

and that is a huge
magic trick in itself.

It's not precious.

It's just beautiful.

And that line is hard to draw.

And, um...

the routine used
mechanical stuff,

it used science,
it used raw sleight-of-hand,

it used this genius move
of having the screen

being necessary
to cause the magic,

and also necessary
to accomplish the magic.

We've seen a lot of
beautiful acts on this show,

and this is my favorite,

'cause of your humility
and your raw skill.

Having said all that,
it's very difficult

to speak in code,
although in this case,

maybe speaking English
really fast would work.

But, um...

because there were
so many different beats,

I'd like to sum it up
to say it was beautiful.

I don't think it fooled us,
and I don't care.

It's gorgeous.

- So do you believe
that they know

how you did your trick?

They figured it out?

- No matter if Penn and Teller
actually got it or not,

my intention wasn't
to really fool you guys,

but to perform my own.

- You did it beautifully.
- You did it beautifully.

Thank you so much.

D.K.!

- Don't go anywhere.

That's an order
from the top, me!

Stick around.

- Welcome back.

I promised more magic
was coming up,

and I'm a woman of my word.

Check out our next
potential fooler.

- I went to my dad's work
one summer, and some guy said

"Come here, kid."
He reached behind my ear,

pulled out a quarter,
he gave it to me,

and I said
"Dad, who was that guy?"

He said, "Oh, it's
a magician friend of mine."

Magicians can make money
appear out of thin air?

I want that job.

After graduating college,

I got a regular job
working at a bank.

I couldn't help
but do magic all the time.

Just trying to get customers
to open accounts,

showing them magic tricks.

Now I do 400 shows a year

and I get to travel
with my wife and daughter.

I love it so much.

I lost my dad
to Parkinson's Disease

when I was 25 years old.

Now that we've had
some success in our career,

we work with a Parkinson's
Disease Charity

in memory of my dad.

If my dad could see my career
now, he would be so proud,

'cause I know
he still taking care of me.

- Please welcome
Virginia's own Wes Iseli!

- Wow. Wow.

I can't believe
I'm here tonight.

Thank you guys so much
for having me on.

I'm gonna try to fool
Penn and Teller

with nothing more than
a half dollar and a prediction.

Alyson, can I borrow you
for one second?

Do you have a pocket
you can slip this into?

- Yes.
- Yes, perfect.

So just, that's a prediction.

I gave it to you
before the trick started.

Just remember that, okay?
- Okay.

- I also need you to examine
this half dollar.

Check it out, make sure
nothing tricky is going on.

In a second, we're gonna play
the world's largest game

of heads and tails.

I need everyone in the room
to go ahead and stand up.

Penn and Teller, you too please,

if you could also stand up.

Now in playing the world's

largest game of heads and tails,

if everybody just yells out
"heads and tails,"

there's no way
I would know who said what.

- Right.

- So you're gonna have
to give me a sign or signal.

So the signal I made up
for "heads" looks like this.

So go ahead,
everybody show me heads.

Okay, and tails his hands
by your side.

Perfect, perfect.

How's the coin, everything good?

- It's a coin.
- You're gonna be the eyes

and ears of the audience,
so when I flip the coin

in the air
and throw it on my hand,

you have to tell everyone
how it landed,

like right now, it is...

- Heads.
- And this way would be?

- Tails.
- I had a lady say "Eagle side"

the other day, you're already
doing better than her.

You're doing great,
you're doing great.

Now, I have to
trust you on this,

because I'm gonna be looking
at the audience.

- Okay.
- All right, here we go.

Round one, you guys ready?
Here we go, ready?

One, two, three, choose.

Perfect.

- Heads!
- Heads.

Now, all the tails, have a seat.

See how quickly I eliminate
the audience?

- Ohh.

- Penn and Teller.
Okay, all right, here we go.

They're already out.
This is good, this is good.

I think I've already fooled
them, I think it's great.

All right, ready?
You guys can relax

between the rounds,
relax between rounds.

Round two, here we go.
One, two, three, choose.

- Tails.
- All the heads have a seat.

- Perfect.

Here we go.

Choose.

- Tails.

- Whoo!
- All the heads have a seat.

- I think they think
they're gonna win the coin.

- Okay, now here's the thing,
guys, here's the thing.

You are gonna win a grand prize,

I promise you, you're gonna
win a grand prize for playing.

Here we go, ready?
One, two, three, choose.

- Heads.
- Tails have a seat.

All right, we're trying
to eliminate these people.

Here we go. Ready, choose.

- Heads.
- Tails have a seat.

Okay, winner gets
a grand prize, here we go.

One, two, three, choose.

- Tails.

- Down to three.

- Final three.
- Here we go.

He's already going up.

Man, wait for the coin flip,
man, ready?

One, two, three, choose.

- Tails! Ahh!

- All right,
all right, all right.

It's you, sir, against you.
- Oh, boy.

- Don't pick the same thing.

So far in the game,
you guys picked the same thing

every round.

Here we go. Choose.

- Tails.

This guy just won!

Give this guy
a big round of applause!

Come on up here, sir,
come on up.

All right.

Good job, good job.

You're gonna stand right here
for me, sir, right here.

Face the audience, perfect.
I like the... I like purple, man.

That's my favorite color,
I like it. It looks good.

I have a prediction over here.

Alyson, for the first time,
can you open that up?

- Okay.
- Read that out loud, it says...

- It says "the luckiest person
will be wearing a black jacket,

purple shirt, glasses,
and has a beard."

- Come on, guys!

You're awesome, thank you.

If everyone could give this guy
a big round of applause.

You were awesome, man.
Go back to your seat.

Thank you very much.
- Wes Iseli, everyone!

Wow.

So, what's the best
part of magic for you?

- Just the fact that I get
to do it with my family.

- Your daughter
performs as well?

- Yeah, I have
an eight-year-old daughter,

and she's on the road with us,
my wife and daughter and I.

- Wow, and when did
she start performing?

- When she was four days old.

- Four days.
- Four days old.

So my wife was told
that we were gonna have a baby

December 31st.

That's great,
but that's New Year's Eve.

That's a big night
for magicians.

So I'm like if I'm not
at this show, I could get sued.

If I'm not there
for the birth of my child,

my wife's gonna kill me.

- Yeah.
- Dude, what can we do?

So we induced her,
she was born on the 28th

and four days later,

we took a final bow with her
at the end of the show, so.

- Aww, that's fantastic.
- There you go, yeah.

- Aww. Is she here tonight?

- Yes, my wife and daughter
are in the audience.

Wave, girls, wave.

- Hi.
- There they are.

- Aww.

All right,
well let's go to the guys

and to see if you fooled them.

- All right.
- Penn, Teller.

- I got to tell you, Wes.

First thing Teller said to me,

"That is the most Penn trick
we've ever had on the show."

That is a trick
I have been trying to do

for about ten years.

I always want
the entire audience

to be voting and be eliminated.

I'm always looking for that.

As soon as you started it,
started the premise,

I was just crazy in love
with this routine.

I don't care
what Teller thinks of it.

Although Teller liked it,
I liked it more.

We also loved the fact that you
traveled here with just a coin.

Now, here's where we come down
to where the game

is actually played, okay?

We first thought that you were
taking a glimpse of the coin

before you decided
head or tails.

We decided you didn't do that.

We know you did not
get a glimpse.

We think there's a switch there
after she examined it

and you're using a gaffed coin.

We're trusting you on your
honor, is the coin gaffed?

Not a gaffed coin at all?

- No, sir.

- Shut up!

- I think that was his wife.

- No, no, we're not done...
We're not done yet.

Okay, there's nothing
I like more than chance.

We're in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Uh-oh.

- Pull out the damn coin,
pull out the coin.

Put it in your hand.

You flip it in the air,

you catch it, I'm gonna call it.

If I call it correctly,
you didn't fool us.

- Ohh.

- If I call it wrong,
you fooled it.

Same way you did it.

- Well, stand up
and play the game.

- I will play the game.

- Ohh.

- Here we go.
- Okay.

- You're gonna get it wrong.
- I don't think so.

- Ohh.

- Choose.

- Tails!

- Oh, my gosh. No way.

- So good. So good.

- Whoo!

Wes Iseli!

His wife and kid.

Penn and Teller got knocked out
by this last trick.

We'll send them back
into their corner

and have them ready
for another round,

when we come back.

- Welcome back to "Fool Us."

Curious about our next act?

I'll let you take
a peek right now.

- I grew up with
a family of magicians.

My dad and my mom
worked together.

I was my dad's little assistant,

starting when
I was five years old.

Bringing props on stage,
bringing tables on stage,

and just getting used to being
in front of an audience.

Since I was a little girl,

I loved to read
fashion magazines.

Fashion for me was always life.

Fashion just expresses
your personality.

Then I thought I could use
fashion to do some magic.

There aren't any books
about how to do fashion magic,

so I had to invent
all by myself.

I cannot show you
a single card trick,

but I can show you
a thousand things

with fashion.

It's something quite new
in the world of magic,

because not that
many magicians do it.

Penn, Teller, you've seen
magicians with amazing hands,

but not like this.

- Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Alana!

- Hello.

- Alana!

Wow, hi.

That was incredible.

- Thank you very much.

- I kept going back and forth
between watching you,

and then watching
Teller's face watching you.

- Oh, good, good.
- 'Cause he was so entertained.

- That's great, yeah.

- And how long have you
been performing this?

- This is been performing
for quite a few years now.

It's like my signature piece
that I love to do,

that I'm doing
all over the world.

And I just love fashion,
so I thought I would combine

these two passions,
magic and fashion,

and make it into
one big weird thing, you know?

And that's what
I just love to do.

- Okay, looks like
they're ready.

Boys? - Boys?

- Alana, we've seen a lot more
than just your act here.

We really feel like this
is a major change in magic.

You know,
we have ranted and raved

about how the boys club
has never let women in.

And magicians are stuck

using the techniques of people

that wore tuxedos with tails.

And all of that had
this stuff built in.

And I've never seen an act
like this before.

Neither of us have.

Where you've taken clothes

that look contemporary
and beautiful and natural,

and used all these wonderful
manipulative techniques.

It's just incredible.

I mean, I would like to think
that this act will spawn

hundreds of women
ripping you off.

I mean, that's what
I'm hoping for.

- Thank you.

- The stuff you've built
into this, just beautiful.

And as we went by in real time,

there were... every move
we couldn't figure out.

And then we had to go back
and think a little bit.

We didn't know at the moment,

then we had to think back
and do the work.

We so wanna say you fooled us,

but I don't think you did,

but I do believe
that right now, on this stage,

you changed magic
for the future.

- Thank you, that's very
important for me.

- That's amazing.

So do you agree
that you didn't fool them?

- Yeah, I was sure,
I'm just very proud to be here,

presenting this to you,
my heart, my passion,

and I hope it can inspire
a lot of girls to do it.

- Oh, yeah, it's so good.
- Thank you very much.

- Beautiful.
- Thank you, Alana!

If you've been waiting
to see Penn and Teller

perform some magic
of their own, you're in luck.

Penn and Teller are up next.

Stick around.

- Joined by Jon and Owen
of The Passing Zone,

here to close out our show
is our own legendary duo,

Penn and Teller!

- Juggling and magic
are kind of siblings

in the variety arts,
and we usually do magic,

we all... both do
a little bit of juggling.

Teller's gonna do
some juggling for you now,

and he's gonna build
a card castle.

Now this is a kinda juggling
that's balanced juggling,

and very, very delicate.

So as he's doing this, please,
no sudden movements,

and certainly
no flash photography.

Be respectful as Teller builds
a card castle for you here.

You know, Teller,

The Passing Zone,
you know, Jon and Owen,

the great jugglers... probably
the best in the world.

They were on our show last year.

They're in town, and they love
juggling of all kinds.

I wonder if I can invite them
out to watch you.

Would that be okay?

Jon, Owen, come on out

and just watch
what Teller's doing.

It's really astonishing, it's
so, so delicate and careful.

The kind of juggling
you don't see often.

- Yes, Teller, that is great.

- I love that already.
- Oh, yeah.

- It's really nice.
- Yeah.

- Once again, be respectful,
no flash photography.

- Such great precision.
- Yeah.

- It's just really beautiful.
- Up.

- It's beautiful, Jon.

- Still going. Still going.

- Wow, that's incredible.
- Hey.

I got the saw. - Okay.

And I've got the stun guns.
- Start 'em up.

Look at that! Oh, hey!

- Here you go.
- Penn! Great idea!

- Take the middle ones there.
- Yeah.

- I love it.
- Yeah, this is nice.

- Very cool.
- Look at that.

No flash photography, please.
Teller's doing a beautiful job.

- Here we go, up, down.

Up.

There it is.
- Okay, there we go.

Nicely done, Penn.

- Nicely done, Penn.
Hey, one more thing.

- Oh, yeah, yeah,
let's go get it.

- Yeah, please, once again,
no flash photography,

Teller needs to focus
and concentrate.

- Are you guys ready?
- Ready.

- Let's do this.
- Here we go.

- Remember,
no flash photography.

Let Teller focus.

- I almost forgot the blindfold.

- Oh, yeah.
- I'm ready.

Penn, tell him where to throw.

Now.

- Higher!
- Now.

- Higher!

- Now.

- To the right!

- Now!

- To the left!

Beautiful.

Come on, look at this.

That's really amazing.

- Oh, man.
- Just glorious.

- Oh, you guys. You guys, look!

Look, he's done it!
Teller's done it.

Oh, that's incredible.
- So amazing.

- Let me just get that.

Oh.

- I thought I said no...

No...

There was supposed to be no...
- I'm so sorry, Teller.

- Aww.
- Sorry.

- Wow. Whoo!

Well. Hi!

That wraps it up
for us here at "Fool Us."

Don't be a stranger, come back
for another episode soon.

Good night from Las Vegas.