Penn & Teller: Fool Us - S01E01

[Music] [Music] his TV's very own Mr Magic Jonathan Ross [Applause] thank you let's get out of the way hello everybody and welcome to pen and Teller fool us where magicians must fool the greatest trick masters of the age and I can promise you absolutely no camera tricks are used on this show it's like a nudy speech good bad or ugly we're going to let you see it all the challenge facing act tonight is huge they must perform in front of the true greats of their craft they are of course pen andella Gentlemen let's get right

to it go take your seats let's go let's go hope you work out a few I'm Keen to see some magic let's get amongst it let's meet tonight's first wannab be foer sha Fara I'm Sean farer I come from a little place called Maple Ridge British Columbia Canada population about the same as heo airport I've been doing magic all my life my mom says when I was born the doctor slapped me and I said pick a card my father was a magician my grandfather my great grandfather I'm like the fourth generation without a real [Music]

job in 2009 I went into Beijing China the world Olympics of magic and in front of 3200 of my peers I won the World Championship card magic it's an amazing title and gives me an opportunity to see the world Showtime time to have some fun can you please welcome the reigning world champion of card magic Mr sha [Music] [Applause] Fara wow thank you so much for that warm welcome it's a real pleasure to come across the pond to share with you one of my magic tricks I'm going to do a card trick uh but it's

a special one and it's going to use a brand new deck of cards pen would you mind helping me I I'll I'll try ladies gentlemen pen Jette please come and join me thank you sir I would have picked teller but I think the conversation might have been very one-sided I have a brand new deck of cards hermetically sealed inside of this deck of cards is the little paper seal says United States playing card company it confirms that it's a brand new deck of cards and not Canadian that's true look not much is look I'm going

to pop it open inside a brand new deck of cards never touched by human hands would you cup your hands together like that for me I'm going to drop the cards on your hand now I know you know cards but they don't I just want to point out that if you look at the brand new deck there are two premium cards here right these uh they're advertise things the other end of the deck has two jokers one is like the traditional one and the other is like a guaranteed Joker we're not going to use those

but we're going to keep the one Joker in can you kind of fan them out so the audience can see what new deck Corridor looks like you can see it runs Ace through King see the two kings in the middle folks these are what we call the kissing Kings I call them the brokeback Kings so do me a favor and Shuffle up the cards when you feel they're completely shuffled they let me know I believe Percy diaconus said you have to do 12 shuffles say but I'm I'll just do a four or five I believe

that's okay we'll give them a cut and we'll let see the bottom Bo you do me a favor touch a on the back just kind of plunk your finger take a look at it it's all right if I see it I've seen this trick before okay what card did you get it's one of my favorites I got the seven of di seriously you could not have picked a more perfect card write your name right on the face of the card I will perfect once the card's been signed we'll recap okay that's the pen why it's

the joke if I go just explain it to everybody else would you hold your hand just flat like that I'll place the cards here place your other hand on top trapping the cards in between will fully and effectively and I'll remove one card okay if I removed your card would that be impressive that would be very impressive no it wouldn't I got a joker it's okay it's okay how about this I can do better than that okay if I could reach in between your hands and straighten one card up uhhuh so it's the opposite direction

and it was your card the seven of diamonds would that be that'd be pretty good okay I can do better how about this would I fool you if I were to put those cards back in new deck order and put the one card reversed yeah that'd be pretty good okay I'm not going to say you're going to fool me I don't want to say that yet good good how about how about if I took the cards and put them in new deck order reverse the one card put them in the cardboard box put the paper

seal and wrap them up in the plastic oh that would be a fine trick I just did it take a look it's a brand new deck of [Applause] cards because you're the closest I want you to see is there a cutter slit in the top of the box there is not cutter slit in the bottom of the Box well not that I can see how about the side not that I can see the other side not that I can see or back nope it's a brand new deck of cards I believe so I'm going to

pop this open inside there is a paper seal says United States playing card company not Canadian deja vu deja vu deja vu sometimes it takes four look I'm going to pop open the paper seal inside a brand new deck of cards never touched by human hands yeah that's perfect I remember last time yeah I want to point something out if you look at the deck there isn't a premium card on the end do you know why why is that they're in my pocket remember mhm get them out there's a lot of them there's the Jokers

and the premium card all of them are in here that means that this should be a new deck order deck take a look and see if they run Ace through King oh maybe you could turn this way so the camera can see someone who was a professional in Show Business would have done that animatic now when you get to the diamonds do you notice one card is reverse between the eight and the six of diamonds be where the exactly where my selected card should be and would you like me to remove it to make it

easier for you I'll just kind of pull it like that lightly and turn it around like that so you can see it really [Applause] do so [Applause] [Music] much that was incredible thanks okay so I know you're not going to tell us say you did it but that was unique does anyone else do that job but then does anyone else you can't share but does anyone else do that particular technique no there was not not the similar technique the same effect was a gentleman by name of George Schindler many years ago now the dean of

American Magicians he inspired me but I came up with a completely different method and that would be the key I guess this evening to fool those guys if it's a new method and they haven't seen it before and they can't put their finger on it we'll get away with it and by by we I mean you of course although I'd like some of the reflec Your Glory um that's awesome I'll share and is that one of the most technically difficult ones in your in your routine to do it is in fact not the most technically

difficult uh but it's probably the most fun to present because most of it takes place in the spectator's hands and I think magic that takes place in somebody else's hands so much more powerful than magic that takes place in our own that's what I tell my wife all the time that's true I'm learning some tricks that's all it is I think we have given you enough time this is a real really tough call for us I think anybody has to know that at some point you had to do a deck switch unfortunately there was uh

a moment when uh we both saw it when you were pulling the pen out yes and we had all these discussions and meetings about this which we've talked for hours with the producers about what would constitute fooling us we said over and over again if we actually saw a move it would at the whole thing but all that having been said and the feeling that we saw a move that we should not have seen we have no idea how you got the I think that to be honest and fair I think right out of the

deck that's incredible I say it out on me that you absolutely did on the most important part of the trick I think you did fool us speaking as someone who just you done no idea how we got there son of a gun can I ask you can I ask you to make us one promise what's that never tell them I won't there you go never tell them Sean far ladies and gentlemen [Applause] well what a start it's time for a break but we'll be right back with more contenders and pen and tell themselves performing right

here on this stage don't go away [Music] [Music] welcome back to fool us where the best current magicians perform to try and win a spot in Vegas by fooling pen andella so let's meet our next Contender Manuel Martinez my name is Manuel Martinez and I originate from Cuba I have a lovely little place in Guantanamo overlooking the bay [Music] there oh I love to visit all the local shops here in Margate they have many unusual and unique things in the stores in fact oh look there's me I've been performing magic now for almost 25 years

come to me little bear before me in front of pen and Teller is going to be a little frightening to be honest I'm going to be terrified because I've never done the trick before anyway come to me it's a little dangerous in fact there's a lot of danger I win not so much for me but for the other people involved say hello to my little friend playing Vegas would be fantastic because I owe a lot of money to some very powerful people back in cu so I really need this chance please welcome Mr Manuel [Applause]

M even me Amigos and welcome to my show ladies and gentlemen I can't believe these words are going to come out of my mouth now would you please welcome my guest Jonathan Ros nice to meet you hello Jonathan I will also need quite a good-looking assistant so um someone quite glad uh mad name do you see anyone suitable um actually you'll be fine will you please what is your name my love s is Sarah give Sarah a big one of Applause ladies and gentlemen I have here ladies and gentlemen one solid wooden board okay which

I'm going to give to you Jonathan to have a look at and you feel free to give it a thumb it's fine it's definitely solid definitely solid okay you can actually hung the Rope over your neck Jonathan okay now Sarah have you ever thrown a knife before you look a little worried there I have a little wor yes now there's no lives ladies and gentlemen but what there is is one industrial strength staple gun I have here this balloon okay I want you just to hold the balloon okay between your two hands like this top

and bottom nice and tight okay that's perfect okay so ladies and gentlemen I want you now to imagine that this latex skin of the balloon is much like your own fragile [Applause] skin now of course we need further proof okay and that is where Jonathan Ross will come in you know what I don't need any more proof I'm fine Jonathan Rose I need you to hold your hand up in front of you like this okay now ladies and gentlemen another statistic about the gun is that when I push the trigger this typle coming out is

flying out at over just 10 meters per second okay and hold on you're going to do I want to use that cuz that's my business head let's you're going to fire at me I'd rather that a you you hit me with the staple I half here ladies and gentlemen I brought especially some special promotional uh coasters I'm going to actually staple these to the wooden board so that you can see the Staples and Jonathan if you watch down you will see the Staples okay coming out okay they genely going in I put another one here

so you can see without any doubt and you should be able to feel the Staples I certainly felt that it was not entirely unpleasant Sarah I would like you to have a go as well so please take the gun from me here okay we have another one of these beer marks just com down over here so the audience can see and I don't know if I said this you have a very kind F just of course mind my fingers now things are going to get a little more interesting Sarah would you join me please over

here I want you to stand behind this plin here with the green cloth because ladies and gentlemen four more industrial strand staple guns okay now these staple guns are identical to the one the Sarah is holding her hand the only difference is ladies and gentlemen that these staple guns are empty they are not loaded with staples and therefore are completely safe I want you to take the guns out of the slots and put them in different random slots to really mix them up and you are going to do this while I'm blindfolded I have a

special blindfold here ladies and gentlemen that I keep in the boot of my car in case you're just tuning in now this is not a remake of the Elephant Man this me okay so will you begin to mix up the guns now and when you're happy with that you can give it a spin oh you're still here okay so are you confident now that the gun mixed up you you genuinely don't know which one is loaded now okay perfect because now we're going to play a game you know it by the name of Russian Roulette

Cuban style okay so you're happy that these are mixed up okay you can't possibly know which one is real which one is uh loaded okay that's perfect reach out with your left hand and just pick up one of the guns you happy with this one okay I'd like you to put this down on the ples here keep it in full view of the Audi just stand it up so everyone can still see it perfect if Sarah chose correctly ladies and gentlemen there is nothing to worry about Okay because I'm going to take each one of

these four guns that are left now and fire them into various parts of my body Sarah if you please choose one of the first guns there okay perfect this one ladies and gentlemen I'm going to take and fire into my hand well I know that's not pleasant so knock yourself out here we go ah it's completely safe and nothing okay uh three left how me another one Sarah how me another one not that one not that I'm just kidding I'm just kidding this one ladies and gentlemen I'm going to take and fire into my face

[Applause] now kids if you're out there please don't try this until you get home okay no if you do it here I'm going to get in a little trouble okay ah it's ladies who Okay Sarah how me another one how me another one how me another one that's perfect okay we're going to take this one ladies and gentlemen and this looks far more dangerous okay I'm going to fire this one into my throat [Applause] it's fine it's empty nothing there only two guns Remain the gun that you chose at the beginning and the one left

in the turntable are you happy with your decision that you made I want you to be confident because this L gun we're going to take and fire into the face of Jonathan Ross I'm just kidding Jonathan Ross I'm not going to fire into the face okay but I would like you s to hand this gun to Jonathan Ross because I do want Jonathan Ross to fire it so if you just take it from the turntable bring it over to Jonathan Ross just hand him the gun okay and Jonathan Ross is going to fire this last

gun ladies and gentlemen into another one of our special promotional uh B coasters except this time is going to be against my head what's the worst thing can happen we'll have a walking billboard for the program that's not going to be a better okay so push it against and do that right against the head touch it right against it anywhere you like quite hard yeah okay she chose [Applause] Right congratulations ladies and gentlemen I know you want to see Dusty dun contain Staples we're going to take that last one we're going to prove Jonathan if

you just stand right still we're going to just there's another one L gentlemen and of course oh you may remember him from earlier say hello to my little friend we're going to put him on as well okay no no no no before we go any further would you take the gun and Jonathan would you just step around to Sarah's right hand side I'm just going to pull the chamber this is the chamber where the Staples are contained Jonathan will you confirm are there inde Staples inside there are Staples inside I'm going to ask you to

tip the one to the hand ladies and gentlemen there they are nice job Manuel Martinez ladies and gentlemen and beautiful sah thank you Sarah nice job well that was very impressive and a tiny bit painful early on come and stand up fun here we let pen andella talk about this here how close do you think you are going to get to foing them do you think you're going to go all the way you think you wind up in Vegas or do you think they'll know how to do it well these guys are pretty smart so

one of them is one of them is you know that you ever been to Vegas before you ever perform there I I've never been to Las Vegas okay so this will be a big thing for you this will be a big thing for me I yeah this would be life-changing pen teller I don't know who wants to speak first how did he do it did he fool you one way you could have done it is things that look identical can have a hero tag you could have spotted that stapler moved it to the left had

her use her left hand gambled that she was going to reach for that and then done another out adjusting she didn't but you got lucky that could be the way she was most likely to reach it however that's not the way you did it um the smart guy has it so that when that thing spins none of those staplers will fire in which case you need to have some way to have that be approver pulling out the Staples at the end you could have all of them with that and it wouldn't change the firing so

the question is how do you get the card to staple onto the board and we believe that the card that you stapled on afterward was actually not stapled but stuck to the board with an adhesive or in some sort of other way and on top of that your accent is phony your accent is you did not even fool us with your accent oh you're good they they they they I would say they nailed it but they stapled you right to the they they did yet uh um yeah I'm actually from Margate my name's Gary um

you know what you didn't fall P you didn't fall with the ACC other you fooled me with the accent initially and the ACT I think he fooled everyone we had a great show didn't we Mar thank you it was really good wasn't it we've got some other great performers though for you so don't go away we'll see you after the bike [Music] okay it's time now to meet our next Contender ladies and gentlemen Chris dugdale hi I'm Chris dugdale my magic has taken me around the world many times including performances for her majesty the Queen

the queen just looked at me at one point and just said it's impossible I develop my ideas and then take them to my director Tony it's great because Chris has got such an enthusiastic presence and that's so important for any performer really I'll pay you later right thank you this idea is absolutely original as far as we know nobody has ever done it before in the world I strongly believe that deep down every magician loves to be fooled and I'm sure it's the same with pen andella please welcome from backstage Mr Chris dugdale thanks Jonathan

it's great to be with you or should I say almost with you I'm talking to you from the backstage area because tonight we're trying to present a brand new way of doing magic in other words you guys you can see me but I cannot see you in front of you there's a bowl of numbers I need you to check them out make sure that each and every number is different oh that's going to take a while now pen when I clap my hands I'd like you to dive into the bowl and grab any number you

like and announce it to the studio audience this evening here we go I got one 48 under every single one of your seats tonight you'll find an envelope please lean forward grab your envelope and rip it open inside every single one of you has a different number please check your numbers right now now Whoever has the chosen number I need you to join me on stage right now and as you're coming up I need you to grab a second volunteer somebody you don't know somebody you've never met before it can be anyone at all grab

that person and both of you join me on stage immediately you'll be greeted by my stage director Tony Middleton who will guide you through the routine tonight thanks Chris hi hi your name is Le please to meet you Le hi hello your name is Lay pleased to meet you as well thank you very much indeed for helping Chris back to you thanks Tony now tonight we've got some travel brochures for you to have a look at take a good close look at them make sure they're all different make sure the prices are all different when

you're finished I need one of you to take a seat and I need my other volunteer to go over to the board tonight I'm planning to go on a holiday of a lifetime but I need you volunteers to help me decide how much it's going to cost and where on Earth I'm going I need a cost for a flight upgrade a car rental a hotel and some time in the spa and whilst you're doing that we need to find out where on Earth you're sending me now on the back of everyone's number card in the

studio audience tonight you'll find that each and every one of you has a different destination studio audience will you please hold up your number cards turn them around and show us that you have a different destination every single one of you so would my volunteer at the board take out your number card and look at the destination on the back and write it up clearly on the board let me explain something really bizarre tonight under my jacket I'm wearing a t-shirt on the t-shirt is printed one word and one word only now bearing in mind

that I can't see anything that's going on in the studio tonight if I could guess the continent of the destination then that would be pretty good you give me some credit sure if I could guess exactly then that would be marvelous but if the one word on my t-shirt matched The Chosen destination precisely well then we'd raise the roof because tonight I had a funny feeling that you would send me to Malaysia okay so now we've got to determine how much my trip to Malaysia is going to cost Tony has my volunteer finished making all

the decisions with the brochures yes they have Chris okay so Tony will you please take the costs over to the volunteer at the board now you at the board when you take the variety of costs chosen by my other volunteer and fill in the board and as you're doing so will you add them up and in the meantime can I ask Jonathan Ross to come center stage now before the show tonight I gave Jonathan a prediction yes he's been watching it like a hawk but before you do anything with that prediction Jonathan I need to

ask the volunteer at the board to clearly announce the total cost tonight $1,475 now Jonathan Ross will you kindly open the prediction and announce it to the studio audience this evening so this is and by the way he gave me this before the show I haven't looked in it we haven't spoken at all I've got no idea I thought there might be a bribe I was tempted but no I haven't opened it I haven't looked inside so this is the first time I see it wow who never know $1,475 thank you very very much indeed

please give my two volunteers on stage a warm Round of Applause as they make their way back to their seats in the audience tonight and pantella don't ask yourselves if you're fooled at the end ask yourselves honestly if you're fooled before during or after [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] w [Applause] wow that's for you that that's quite certainly unexpected I thought leeo was getting nervous cuz I saw sweat up here on the back of his head so I don't know I did that that's uh most what I'm talking about Leo is if he's a different person

which is a horrible you were there the whole time then yeah I've been there the whole time sweaty sweaty it's really sweating heavy so sweaty was coming through the rubber mask um can I just ask do you ever wear that get up just to give your partner a treat at home okay gentlemen I think we've had enough time we've given you plenty of space to deliberate what do you think I don't think there's anything more powerful in Magic than a human being turning into another human being thank all right remember when you watch Mission Impossible

and they do that peel in the face off thing that is done with huge amounts of movie Magic and to see that done live is astonishing is there anybody in the room that said it was Chris when Leroy walked on stage unfortunately one of the people who said that and said it aloud to me was tell her uh when you walked onto the stage uh once you knew that whatever you wrote on there was not that hard to do because all you had to do do was have Malaysia on your card and that was done

so they rumbled you in the we haven't also solved this question here what we are figuring is that none of the numbers in here is actually under any of these seats except for the 48 which you had so if someone has the number 177 or the 181 we do not know how you got yourself on stage this is exciting will you check your numbers again please who has the number one 77 or 181 375 Chris can I check let's not go through all the numbers 185 can I check with you has he got that that

part you got right of all I think it's fair to say you kind of nailed it that is a trick that uh we would perform in our show and be very very proud to perform just beautiful thank you very much you didn't really fool them down ladies and gentlemen you guys thank you [Music] okay sign out to meet our next Contender ladies and gentlemen Martin [Music] Daniels I think my dad was probably an influence on me my first major national television appearance was was actually with my dad a lot of people try to compare the

Styles between myself and and my dad and I always say the the difference is that my dad is a a magician that does comedy and I'm a comedian that does magic I've always carried on doing magic Magic's always been a part of my life many many years ago I did a a theater to with my dad I used to do this particular illusion to close the show with because it was his favorite illusion it's going to be quite good to to to come back on television and do an illusion on this scale please welcome a

trick off the old block it's Martin Daniels Good Luck Martin thank you very much now the uh the trick I'm about to perform is is not just for for you guys here or or for you to either uh I'm doing this for my dad because the trick you're about to see is his favorite illusion and I'm pleased to say that uh he's in the audience tonight with his wife de McGee to me it's Dad it's Paul Daniels [Music] [Applause] [Music] go [Applause] all [Music] all [Music] w so great man great Paul and Martin Daniels they're

fabulous stuff wonderful just fabulous don't these guys do a good job great job cool thank you for joining us Martin great workk you great work indeed uh and that was just what a beautiful piece of theat as well great The Poetry of magic right there theater darling the um uh guys uh should we go through the full process or or was it more kind of like a oh no I just want to surprise the guys that all not the fool I know you know it would it's a lovely piece of magic and you know what

I'm sure you know of Paul Daniels we all know Paul Daniel but I suspect I'm safely saying this man did more to encourage magic in this country and more to get young people don't go away get more young people into that one there it's like cup and balls will be pleased I don't know but he did more for magic in this country than any other individual of Our Generation Mr Paul Daniels ladies and gentlemen the great Paul you're going to take another break but coming up pen andella will be performing a trick right here so

good it will have you running to Opticians for an urgent eye test don't go away [Music] welcome back to fo us so far tonight we have seen some tremendous acts and one person is going to Vegas that's incredible isn't it now they may have been working together for over 35 years but they've never stopped inventing New Tricks new acts and now we're going to see their very latest will you please show your appreciation for the Magnificent pen and Anella as Jonathan as Jonathan said this is a brand new trick for us we've never done it

over here we've also never done it anywhere on television it's an Escape trick and we haven't done a an escape act in years it's also a stupid trick um it it's really stupid but there's one moment in that that's kind of boss and we do the whole trick just for that one moment and I'm going to pick um somebody from the audience here let's see who we got uh how about you sir with the tats youever right up here what's your name please Steve come up here would you please Steve and just walk up here

on stage now when when you're brought on stage for an escape act it often turns into this kind of Macho competition thing cuz usually when you're brought on stage for an escape act you're essentially Steve you're like you're like tying a guy up you know like put rope on him or straight jacket or handcuffs or leg irons and there's telephone Boo and Niagara Falls and helicopter we're not doing any of that Steve what teller's going to do is he's going to escape from this trash bag that's the whole trick and escape from a trash bag

something any of you could do and we're also going to fill the bag with helium which makes the trick even stupider cuz helium is a deadly gas it displaces oxygen the amount of time you can stay in a helium environment is only the amount of time you can hold your breath it's a deadly gas but it's also a fun and happy gas when you think about helium you don't think about it being deadly you think about it blowing up balloons for children's birthday parties so it's really stupid to do a dangerous trick that looks happy

and fun we're going to fill this bag with helium and Teller will escape from the trash bag without letting the helium out Steve just cinch this shut would you please when you get it shut just let go for a second I'm just going to give this a talk and then uh if you would please Steve bring your hand in here yeah right in here left hand right up close so the gas doesn't get out very much and then you also be very careful of your rings and your watch cuz you don't want to puncture the

bag or you ruin the whole trick we're going to start filling this up now any of you could get out of this trash bag and that's another thing that makes it stupid we're filling it up there be real careful of that watch there Steve filling it up here I just want to check I want to check on Teller make sure he's doing okay in there you okay in there teller yes I am P well you've heard tell speak on stage this up a little more we go now just keep holding I know you're bending over

try not to hit it with your uh with your watch there and then let go for a second let me just get another tie now you're going to hold it a little bit differently take your left hand hold it near the end don't let go hold that tie keep it right there don't let go like I said it's a really stupid trick but there's one moment in it that's really boss we do it for this just one moment 1 2 3 and that's the moment right there when the sees that you're out of the bag

and theum is still in it that's right there thank you so much Steve watch watch the St there that's Steve right there that's Steve that's a brand new trip that's one of the noble gasses that's helium right up there helium pen and tell ladies and gentlemen fabulous thank you fa what AM ending you should have done it with hydrogen it should be hydrogen all the humanity join us next time as we try to fool them here on fool us good night everybody thanks for watching [Music] [Applause]