09x11 - Full Frontal Magic

[bunniefuu]

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

- From the Penn & Teller Theater

at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,

here's our host,
Alyson Hannigan!

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- Welcome to "Fool Us."
Tonight's show is mm-mm good.

You'll meet the greatest
magic minds among mortals

who will move mountains

to mystify our two masters
of misdirection,

Penn and Teller!

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

Each magician who
fools Penn and Teller

wins the coveted, and
possibly only, trophy in magic.

They also get to perform in the
boys' Las Vegas spectacular.

And our first winner might
be tonight's first act.

- I have to say that I am not
that good magician, you know?

I won the World Champion
of Magic,

but actually, I don't
know how it happened.

[chuckles] I don't know.

I am fireman for 18 years.

You know, when it's a fire,
nobody wants to see magic.

But the fireman is a kind
of magician, you know?

Because make the fire disappear.

[chuckles]
It's a good trick.

At home, I'm like anyone else.

I love to play video games
and I love superhero movies.

I can watch superhero movies
every day, all the time.

But I figured out that my
hands have mind of their owns.

They do things
without I notice, you know?

I... they do tricks
all the... all the time,

and I want to stop.

[groans]
You see?

That's why tonight,
my hands will be put here.

I will do nothing,
nothing, nothing,

and someone else
will fool Penn and Teller.

Not me.

[bell rings]

[cheers and applause]

- Put your hands together

for one of Spain's finest,
Hector Mancha.

[cheers and applause]

- Hello, hello.
Hi, Penn. Hi, Teller.

I'm a big fan, I'm a big fan.

OK, I have to fool you.

I think now I have to fool them.

[laughter]

And then... I am not
a great magician,

but I will fool you, OK?

♪ [imitating dramatic music] ♪

♪ ♪

[laughter]

♪ [imitates
dramatic flourish] ♪

Thank you very much.
Thank you.

Did that fool you?
- Not yet, no.

- Not yet. You have to talk
each other to maybe...

- I think he just pulled
his thumb down in his hand.

- Oh.

- [stuttering] I mean, I take...

I look like I take,
but this is here.

This hide it.
And...

You figured it out?

- Yeah.

- That's... you too?
[laughter]

OK.

Then we're going... we are
going to find someone else,

and I could fool you.

OK Alyson,
please come here with me.

A big applause to Alyson,
big applause.

Nice shoes, Alyson.

- Thank you.

- I'm going to prepare a trick.

- OK.
- With the cards.

All the cards are different,
right?

- Yes.

- All the cards are
different... different cards.

Different, ah?
Not the same card.

The same, no.

It's clever, it's clever.
[laughter]

OK.
Point one card.

- Uh, that one.
- That one.

OK, look, I'm going to put
this card in the glass.

- A-ha.

- There, there.
Now it's a mystery card.

- Mystery.

- We have a mystery card,
and we need a magician.

Do you know any magician?

Not them, not them.

- Not them?
- Yeah.

- I think I have somebody...
Not quite a magician,

but he's great to call.

- Oh, you are going to call?
OK.

- Yeah, why not?

Oh.

- Oh, wow.
- This is...

- Who...
- Alex... hey, no way.

- Awakes me
from my off-season slumber?

[laughter]

- Well, I'll just
introduce you to Alex

from "Superman and Lois."
- Yes!

- It's Alex Garfin.
- Hello!

- Alex Garfin is...
I am a big fan, big fan.

- I cannot wait to see

what you have in store
for us today.

- [chuckles] OK, Alex.
- Hi boys, hi boys.

- Are you are a great magician
to fool them?

- I think you and me together,
I think we could do it.

- Let's go.
- [claps and grunts]

- OK, Alyson, talk with Alex
and ask for a card, any card.

- All right, Alex.
Pick a card, any card.

- But concentrate.
Concentrate yourself.

- I'm going with
the six of clubs.

Both: The six of clubs.

- This is... this is interesting.
The six of clubs.

The six of clubs.

[laughter]

Do you want to change maybe
for another card, maybe?

Because there's a lot of cards
in the deck... a lot of cards.

There's maybe the five, the...
There's a lot of cards in here.

You want to change, maybe?

- No, I'll check,
I'll check, I'll check.

- OK, cool. I'm going
to show the card to you,

only to you, but really,
really slow, really slow.

I don't do nothing
with the hand.

Really, nothing.

Look these... their faces.

They are thinking,
what are you going to do?

Really, really slow,
I take the card,

and I'm going to show to you.

One card, Alex.

You said one card,
any card in the world.


this six of clubs.

And this is not only

the six of clubs.

[cheers and applause]

Look at the faces!
- I did it!

- A big applause, big applause!

- Alex, you're amazing.
- I did it!

- Very well, very good.
Thank you to Alex.

- Thank you, Alex Garfin.
Woo-hoo!

[Alex giggling]
- And Hector Mancha!

- Thank you.

- All right.
Thank you.

- Wow, this is amazing trick.
- Oh!

- I don't know how he do that.
- [laughs]

- It's crazy, I don't know.
It's...

- So does Alex get the trophy
if you fool him?

- No, no, for sure.

- So what do you love most
about being a fireman?

- The most lovely part
of being a fireman

is that you don't
know what will happen.

Someday it's a fire maybe,
someday it's a cat.

Maybe someday
it's a fire with a cat.

[laughter]
- Oh, no.

You seem very laid back.

Like, I hope that
as a firefighter,

you get to the fires a little,
like, more intense.

- Yeah.

When we work,
me and my partners,

we are not like,
oh, come on, go!

Come on!
[laughter]

- I guess it's good
that you're calm.

I just hope you're fast.

- It's better, it is better.

Like a stage, you know?

- Yeah.

- On a stage,
you have to be calm.

Even you throw cards
to the floor...

- [laughing]
- You have to be calm.

- OK, Hector.

Let's find out if Alex Garfin
fooled Penn and Teller.

- Yeah, let's find.
- Hola, Hector.

- Qué tal?
[laughter]

- We're just talking
to you about Alex, right?

Because you didn't do the trick.

You did nothing.
- No, I did nothing.

- I'll just tell you,
as soon as you

say you're Spanish,
we pretty much just

bring down the trophy.
[laughter]

Every person from Spain
fools us.

It's as simple as that.

You guys are the best,
and your style

is just one of the funniest
people we've had on here.

But it's an amazing routine,
and we didn't catch anything,

but we think that it was
a free choice that Alyson had.

There's no words there
about a force.

We don't think
there was a force.

It looked clean to us.

But we noticed that
after Alex picked a card,

which we know from
the rules of the show

could not be set up in advance.

After he picked a card,
you went and said

you could have picked another,

and you pulled the deck out
and looked through it.

Now, since you were
looking through the cards

and had them in your hand
after he said the name of it,

you could have copped
the six of clubs.

Now, here's what befuddled
us so badly,

is you kept, you son of a b*tch,

showing your hands empty,
conspicuously,

over and over again.

So if you palmed out the six of
clubs, where did you have it?

And we think... [laughs]

And as I'm about to say this,

it sounds stupider and stupider.

But if we're right,
it's going to be great.

We think you were
standing kind of behind Alyson,

and we think maybe you had
like a little piece of tape

or a wax or something,

and you stuck the card
to Alyson's back,

showed your hands empty a lot,
and...

- The back of her?
- Yeah.

[laughter]
- No, I... no.

- You had nothing on your back?

- I... no.
I didn't feel anything.

He was close to me,
but I didn't feel him touch...

- He was very close to close.

- He was touch... he was
not touching me, that I felt.

- Did you put anything her?

- On the back on there? No.
- No.

And you didn't...
When you showed the cards,

you didn't... [sighs]

We should have just
stuck with you're Spanish,

because once you're Spanish,
you fool us.

It's as easy as that.
[audience exclaiming]

Yeah.
- We have a fooler!

- Whoa! No way!
Oh!

Alex will be so happy!
- Alex gets the trophy!

- Alex, this is for you, Alex!

- Oh, Alex.
- Oh, let me do it!

Let me do it!
- Yay.

- Thank you very much,
Thank you very much.

Oh, thank you.
Oh.

Very good... oh, no way.

- Hector Mancha and Alex Garfin
fooled Penn and Teller!

- Thank you all.
Thank you very much.

- Oh, thank you so much.

- Thank you, man.
Thank you. Bye-bye.

- We'll trust you're going
to give that to Alex.

Yeah.
[cheers and applause]

[sighs] It looks like
our boys have been busted,

and another Fooler's Trophy
leaves the theater.

Come back after the break,
and see if it can happen again.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

- Welcome back to "Fool Us."

We already have one Fooler
in the house,

but for Feng Shui purposes,
it feels like this house

could use a second one.

I hope our next magician
can help us out.

- Hi, I'm Adam Parisi,
and I'm a straight edge weirdo.

By day, I write software.

By night, it's a
slightly different story.

I traveled an unusual path
to get here.

My mom, she had a tough time
bringing us up.

We were homeless
for a little while there.

I remember watching my mom
and her friends play cards,

and I thought it was the
coolest thing in the world.

So I learned to shuffle
and deal when I was only five,

but I didn't get into magic
until my 20s.

Because of how I grew up and
the struggles I went through,

I don't want my kids to have
to go through that same thing.

So I went back to college at 25

to study computer engineering,

and that's how I got
my 9:00 to 5:00 job...

When I'm not moonlighting
as a crazy magician

in the weirdest venues
you've ever seen.

And now my path has led me here.

I don't know if I'm going
to fool Penn and Teller,

but I know my kids are
going to go crazy

when they see
this insane stunt on TV.

[cheers and applause]

- Give it up for Adam Parisi.

[cheers and applause]

- Thank you.

So my two daughters
absolutely love

having a magician for a dad.

That's not a joke.

They're not jaded teenagers yet.

I'm still cool.
[laughter]

But sometimes, being a magician

can make even normal family
activities a little strange,

and I will give
you the perfect example.

Last year, we decided
to get our first family pet.

Now, a normal family would
just go to a pet store

and pick one out,
but we are not normal.

We decided
if we're going to pick a pet,

we wanted to do it our way.

It was going to be fun, silly,
and weird, just like us.

So we picked our pet
completely randomly.

We just had our daughters
shout out the names

of different animals
that we could adopt,

and we wrote them down.

As they shouted out dog, cat...

Classics... sloth.

OK, that's my ten-year-old.

She absolutely loves sloths.
Her entire world.

Turtle, unicorn... and that
would be my six-year-old.

She not only loves unicorns,

but also doing everything
her older sister does.

We got to about three dozen
different animals

before they just started
shouting out weird stuff

like T-rex or hydra.
[laughter]

Now, a simple way of just
picking one of these animals

at random would be
to deal them down

and have one of my kids
just call out stop.

Penn, can you pretend
to be one of my kids?

- I sure can.
- Perfect.

I'm going to need you
to stare at a tablet,

and ignore everything I say.

[laughter]

Just go ahead and say
stop for me any time.

[soft suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Stop.
- Perfect.

That's going to be your animal.

I want you to remember that.

I don't want to see it.
Can you see it?

- I can.
- Perfect.

I'm going to mix those up now.

When I did this
with my daughters,

my six-year-old, she's the
least trusting of all of us.

She said, Dad,
you're a magician,

and you might try
to do something sneaky

with those cards
to get the animal you want.

I thought that was
a bold accusation

coming from somebody

who can't even put a straw
in her own juice box.

But to make it fair,
I had my wife help us out,

and asked her to get a bag
to put all the cards in.

And we'd mix them up blindly.

Alyson, can you pretend
to be my wife?

- Sure.
- Awesome.

I'm going to need you get
your phone and stare at it

and ignore everything I say.

- Perfect.
- No, no. I'm only kidding.

Alyson, ladies and gentlemen.
[applause]

Alyson, right over there
are some bags.

Can you just pick out any one
that you want and open it up?

- Sure.

♪ ♪

OK.
- And go ahead and open it.

Thank you so much.

♪ ♪

Perfect.

And you can see inside the bag,

there's no sticky stuff
or extra cards.

I took all of the cards
and I put them inside the bag

and then I gave it a good mix,

kind of like a zoo
in a hurricane.

[laughter]

Now, I didn't even
reach inside the bag

to take out the animal.

My daughters know
I'm the kind of magician

who makes his living walking
on fire and eating glass,

and they love that
kind of stuff.

So they knew this was
going to get super weird.

I went into our junk drawer
and I got a nail.

And then I sealed the top
of the bag closed.

[soft tense music]

Then I got a hammer,

and I nailed the whole thing
straight to my face.

- Oh, goodness!
- I know.

- In front of your children?

- Wait for it, Alyson.
- No, don't do it!

Don't, don't...

- Here we go.
- Ah!

Your children...

- Alyson,
is that going into my face?

- I don't... I trust... maybe.

Oh, my God.

- I have to admit
that this is probably

the weirdest way ever
to select a pet.

But Penn... Penn?

I... oh, there you...

Penn, do you remember the animal

you selected at the beginning?

- I sure do.
- What was it?

- Fish.

- I think it'd be pretty cool
if I also got...

a fish.

[all groan]

[applause]
Nailed it!

[laughter]
- It's up his nose.

- Nailed it to my face.
[laughter]

OK. [laughs]

Alyson, this is for you.
A souvenir.

- No thanks.
- No? [laughs]

That is kind of weird.
I'll keep it.

Alyson, thank you so much.

Penn, Teller, thank you so much.

I have to admit that

this is exactly how we selected
our first family pet.

Yeah, the hammer,
the nails, my face.

My kids loved it.

- He's bleeding.

- To be honest, my kids
would have loved anything

as long as they got a pet.

And speaking of pets, Penn,

the pet that you selected
at the beginning, the fish,

that was our first family pet.

And I brought her along
to say hi.

[laughter]
- Aw!

[cheers and applause]

- Adam Parisi!
[cheers and applause]

- Thank you.
- Mm-hmm.

I think you should have gotten
a bigger fish bowl.

- That's just a travel bowl.
She has a much larger one.

She's a diva.

- You don't really do that
in front of your children,

do you?
- I do, yes.

They are so over it.

I could hammer a nail
into my face at dinner,

and they would just
be like, whatever.

- Wow.
- Yeah, I eat...

Swallow razor blades,
I walk on glass,

and they're just h*-hum.

- I mean, I was like this guy
is such a great dad,

and then you nailed your face.

And I was like,
I need to talk to his wife.

- Well, two things can be true.

I can still be a good dad,
and nail things to my face.

- OK. All right,
I'll give you that one.

- Yeah.

When I told my sisters that
I was coming on the show,

they're huge "Buffy" fans.
- Aw.

- And I was like,
if I make Alyson puke,

they're never going
to forgive me.

- I give them permission
to not forgive you.

[laughter]
- Nail, blood, eh.

- So could you see yourself
as a performer in a freak show?

- If I wasn't a magician,

if this was


most definitely.

I would have been touring
around with the freak show.

I would have loved it. Yes.
- Ah.

OK, Adam, let's go to the boys
and see if you fooled them.

- Hey there, Adam.
- Hey.

Nice, nice, nice, routine.

You know, I know how you feel
about having children,

and having them have to deal
with what their father

does for a living, you know?
- Right.

- Because you know
we love the sideshow,

we love the sideshow stuff.

And I'm sure the name
Melvin Burkhart

means a lot to you.
- Of course, yeah.

- It means a lot to me.
I got to meet him.

I officiated
Todd Robbins' wedding

along with Melvin Burkhart,

and saw him
hammer a nail up his nose.

That act, by the way, Alyson,
is called blockhead,

and that is not a magic trick.

He is hammering a damn nail
up his damn nose.

- [laughing]
- I saw the blood.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I can only do on my right,
because I

have a deviated septum...
- Ah, yeah.

- On the other side.

But that's not that
interesting, is it?

The problem with blockhead...

And I think you'll agree
with me on this...

Is it's very hard
to get a lot out of it.

So when you do blockhead,
you learn it, people like it,

but you're always forced to
add some sort of other trick,

and they have to have
some sort of second deal

to put in there with it.

So you have to do,
like, blockhead

with sword swallowing,
or blockhead with fire eating.

Or what you've
done in this case,

which is blockhead
with a really,

really nice magic trick.

And also love the
goldfish surprise at the end,

the very non-claustrophobic
goldfish,

I want to point out.

You want to give that fish
a nice big area

to kind of swim it off
after being in there.

- Oh, yeah.

- But it's a wonderful act,
and very close to my heart,

because it's all the carnival
stuff and you do all of that.

But I think in my little story
of Melvin Burkhart,

I might have slipped
in a word or two.

So I just have to know,
did we nail it?

- You nailed it.
[laughter]

- OK, so you didn't fool them,
but you grossed me out.

Thanks so much.
- Thank you so much.

- Adam Parisi.
[cheers and applause]

See Penn and Teller perform
later tonight.

See them take on another
magician right after this.

[cheers and applause]

[jazz music]

[jazz music]

[cheers and applause]

All aboard the Fooler's train.
Next stop is this magician.

- Hi.
I'm Ben Zabin.

I would say my shows are more
personal than anything else.

I like to base my act
around real events

that happened in my life.

I don't do any fancy illusions
or crazy props.

It's just me, and what you see
is what you get.

I've been lucky
to travel the world

performing at Navy bases.

I love performing
internationally,

because it's a real thrill
to use magic

as a way to connect with people.

In addition to magic,

I tried my hand at a bunch
of other ventures.

I published a book,
I launched a coffee company.

I had dabbled in... botany.

[coughs]

I currently live
in Portland, Oregon,

where I produce and tour
with the show Smokus Pocus.

The trick that
I'm going to do tonight

is just the tip of the iceberg
of what my full show is like.

Penn and Teller,
I don't know if I'll fool you,

but I hope you'll be impressed
by what you see.

[cheers and applause]

- Joined by six
randomly selected dudes,

here's Portland's own Ben Zabin.

[cheers and applause]

- Penn, Teller,
what I'm about to tell you guys

is not merely part
of a magic trick,

but it's a cautionary tale
about life in the digital age.

About a year and a half ago,

I got a text
from an unknown number.

And this text was a picture
of a dude wearing

nothing but his birthday suit.

I got a second text with
another picture of the dude

in his birthday suit,
and then a third picture.

Now, at this point,
I'm starting to panic

because the dude
in those pictures was me.

[laughter]
I was birthday suit dude.

I'm looking at these
pictures of myself.

And yes,

you could see my face
and privates in the same shot.

This unknown texter then
sends me the name and number

of everybody
in my contacts list,

and then tells me
to wire transfer them $500,

or else they would send the
pictures to everybody I know.

So I'm panicking.

I call the police station,

and I tell them
that I'm being blackmailed.

The officer tells me
that it's probably

just some hacker overseas that
they can't do anything about,

but that I should
not send any money,

or else they would just
come back asking for more.

So I said, OK, what should I do?

And the officer said,

cross your fingers
and hope for the best.

And I did.
You know what?

The pictures never got sent,
all ended well.

And why am I telling you this?

Well, first to remind
all the viewers

at home that digital media,
not always secure,

especially photos.

And second, as a magician,

I try to use everything in
my life as possible inspiration

for a trick.

And that's what
brought me here today.

We have six dudes on stage.
I've never met any of them.

They have no idea
what's about to happen.

Guys, thanks for being here.

That whole experience
with the hacker

taught me that
it's not the best idea

to keep digital photos
of privates,

which is why tonight
we're going to do things

the old-fashioned way...

with hard copies.

Guys, I have six folders here.

Each of these folders
has a picture of privates.

Now, five of these folders
have the same picture,

and that is a picture
of a private in the military,

like an army private dressed
in a camouflage uniform.

But one of these folders
has a picture

of my privates.
[laughter]

Guys, I have a folder
for each of you.

Hold them out in front of you,

and do not open up these
folders, not even to peek.

That's for you, that's for you,
and that's for you.

Alyson, will you
help me out with this?

- [groans] Do I have to?
[laughter]

- I don't see anybody else
up here.

- OK, All right.
- All right.

I want to leave what
we're about to do

totally up to fate.
- Oh, boy.

- I brought these six cards.

Each of these cards
have a number.

One, two, three, four,
five, and six.

Each of the guys have a number...

One, two, three, four,
five, and six.

Alyson, I want you
to take these cards,

hold them upside-down,
and mix them up in your hands.

- OK.

- Whenever you're
satisfied that they're

completely mixed up,
flip over the top card

and tell us that number.

- One.
- Number one.

Number one, I want you
to clasp the folder

up against your chest
and take a step back.

Hide the folder from the world.

If this worked, Alyson,
the number that you chose,

number one,
that should be the folder

that has the picture
of my privates.

- OK.

- Which means that
the other folders

should have pictures
of the army privates.

Now we get to see how we did.
[laughter]

Number two, open up your folder,

and show us your privates.

Yes, an army private!

We're off to... yeah, you too...
We're off to a good start.

Number three, open your folder.

Show us your privates.

Yes!
Another army private!

This is going well so far.

Number four, open your folder.

Yes.
So far you're on a roll.

- Oof.
- This is good.

Number five, open your folder.

Yes!

All right, you got one left.
How are you feeling?

- I mean, I'm glad
it's not a picture of me.

[laughter]

- I hope it's not going
to be a picture of me.

Let's see.
Number six, open your folder.

Yes!
Guys, we did it.

Alyson, excellent choice.
Thank you so much, guys.

I appreciate you all being here.

You guys can head on off,
except for you, number one.

Number one, thank you
for keeping that folder safe.

- You're welcome.

- You're actually
the only one that does

not get to keep the folder.
[laughter]

See, some of the
skeptics watching

this might be wondering,

what if they all had pictures
of military privates?

You can head off stage, too,
because I need the biggest

skeptic in the room
to prove that this folder

really is what I say it is.

Mr. Jillette,
would you please join me?

- Eagerly.
- Eagerly?

I love this.
- He's running.

- Should we do
a dinner date first?

- No, I want
to just go right to it.

[laughter]

- Who's this a picture of, Penn?

- It looks like
a picture of you.

- What am I wearing?
- Nothing.

[laughter]
Butt-a*s naked.

- What's that?
- It's your little Houdini.

- It's my little Houdini?
- Yep.

- It's all there?
- All there.

- Then before you go
back to your seat,

do we get that dinner date, or?

- Uh, yeah.
- Yeah? Yes!

Alyson, do you want to join?
- No.

- No?
Just us, Penn.

[cheers and applause]

- Ben Zabin, everyone.

Ah.

Pretty brave you were worried
about your contacts

seeing that photo, but instead,

you risked
the whole audience world.

- Why not?

- Tell me about some of
your greatest adventures.

- My greatest
adventures magic-wise,

I've almost made a tiger appear,

but almost messed up the trick.

And a bunch of people
in the audience

didn't know how
close they would be

to having an unexpected guest
in the audience.

- Oh, boy.
- Not here in Vegas.

I was chased out of a casino
in Atlantic City,

ran an underground poker ring
for a while.

Uh, it's been a wild ride.

- Did you go to college,

or did you go straight
into professional magic?

- I went to college
for one year.

This... I was doing so many
magic shows on the side

that the school kind of
gave me the ultimatum

to either lose all of my
credits or quit magic.

And I chose to pursue magic,
and I said goodbye to school,

and it's remained fun.

And that's what counts.
- [chuckles] Good.

- Yeah.
- All right, Ben.

Let's see if Penn knows
how you worked your magic.

- OK.
- Hey, Ben.

- Hi, Penn.

- I feel we're very
well-acquainted now.

- [chuckles]
- I hope we are.

- One of my favorite
things I've seen on "Fool Us"

was just tonight,
right up there.

I really liked it.

And you're right,
it is dangerous

to have naked pictures
of yourself up on the web.

And you've taken something
that's usually a little trick,

and making it big...

Which you can do whatever joke
you want with that.

And what's also interesting
about this is all the words

we have for the private parts.

You use privates,
you use birthday suit,

I used little Houdini.

And where I'm from,
in Western Massachusetts,

it was called the
limber himber timber.

It's just... [laughs]

Really good comedy,
really good magic,

and a trick that I think
fooled everybody on stage.

But I think we've
given you enough hints

that you did not fool us.

And if we didn't give
you enough hints,

we'll talk about it over dinner.

But I don't think you fooled us.

- So you didn't fool them,
but you got a date?

- Didn't fool them.

And I know that you
didn't get to see it,

but whether or not
I fooled them, Alyson,

I want you to have this.

[laughter]
- Aw, thank you.

- Thank for having me.
Thank you.

- Ben Zabin! Whoo!
[cheers and applause]

Enjoying this episode so far?

Just wait until
you see our next act

when "Fool Us" returns.

Stick around.
[cheers and applause]

[jazz music]

[jazz music]

[cheers and applause]

- Welcome back.

We need someone a little sneaky
to take down Penn and Teller.

It just might be
our next magician.

Let's meet them now.

- I'm a bit of a techie, and
I think it shows in my work.

I'm really into the
neuroscience of magic...

How our brains work
to deceive us.

[sighs]

That led to some
real adventures.

For instance, I'm the
unofficial Chief Magic Officer

at a big
internet search company.

Let's call it Foogle.

I teach magic
at Foogle headquarters

to stimulate creativity
in people who work there.

I do shows on-site, too.

Lots of cool things to play
with, many buttons to push.

The thing that
I'm most excited about

that I've been working on
for 15 months is a book.

It's creating
magical experiences

for your coworkers.

It's not for magicians,
it's for businesses.

I love "Fool Us."
[snaps fingers]

I felt like I had
to be on the show.

Penn and Teller
are tough to fool, though,

so I don't know what's going

to happen for me tonight.

But I like that challenge.

If anything happens
beyond that...

[snaps fingers]

I'll be as excited
as a human being gets.

[cheers and applause]

- Give it up for Bay Area
baffler Robert Strong.

[cheers and applause]

- My two favorite things
in the world

are magic tricks
and game shows...

so I decided to combine the two.

But since I'm not
a competitive person,

I decided to use magic
to create a game show

where you just can't lose.

It's like "Fool Us"
plus "Jeopardy!"

I call it "Fool Hardy,"
which is also

what some people
might call my attempt

to fool Penn and Teller.

Now, the rules are simple.

There's five questions,
and a total of 20 answers.

There are 15 answers
that match nothing at all,

and five that
match the questions.

And to make this
magical/impossible,

you won't see the answers or
the questions before you play.

Now, starting with Teller.

Teller, I will start
shuffling up the answers.

Would you please
signal when to stop?

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

Excellent. What position
would you like it in?

One, two, three, four, or five.

Four.
Well done, Teller.

Penn, what if...

- Stop.

- Where would you like it?
- Five.

- Five.

Penn, you're driving along
the streets of Las Vegas,

and you see a red
octagon-shaped street sign.

It tells you to do what?
- Stop.

- Well, actually,
where would you like it?

- Two.
- Two.

What should you do
in the name of love?

- Stop.
[laughter]

- Before you break my heart.

Where would you like it?
- One.

- One.

And the last one,
what should everyone do

before they smell the roses?

- Stop.

- Excellent, and
that's position three.

The answers are in
completely random positions,

but the questions.

Teller, please choose
one, and Penn choose one,

and we'll switch places.

Two and?

- Three.

- Excellent.

And now, the moment of truth.

Are you two smart
enough and/or magical enough

to win Fool Hardy?

We do answers first.

The first answer,
the answer is Elon Musk.

The question, what's the name
of the Tesla new car smell?

That is correct.
[laughter]

Off to a fantastic start.

Answer number two,
the answer is reading glasses,

car keys, and the unmute button.

The question is

name three things my parents'
generation can never find.

That is correct.

[suspenseful music]

Answer number three.

They both do cavity searches.

What do dentists and TSA agents
have in common?

That is correct.
[laughter]

This is incredible.

The next one is FitBitCoin...

Or FitBitCoin.

The question is
what device counts

the calories you burn as you
stress about cryptocurrency?

Now, it all comes down
to this last one.

There's no guarantee
there's a match,

because we had 15 extra answers.

Now, the moment of truth.

And the answer
is my Netflix password...

My Netflix password.

And the question is,

what do my friends and family
have in common?

Correct.
[bell ringing]

We did it, everyone.
[cheers and applause]

We did it.
- Robert Strong.

[cheers and applause]

That was fun.
- Yes.

- Have you always wanted
to be a game show host?

- I think that my magic style,
at some point,

was in line with
the game show host,

but I kind of pivot
that into trade shows.

- [laughs] OK. What is
your favorite game show?

- What is my favorite...
Of course, "Fool Us."

It's not a trick question.
- Ah, good answer.

Do all of your magic tricks
involve a game show element?

- No, they all actually involve
kind of an improv element.

What I do is I write
the structure of the script,

and then I allow myself
to let the structure go

and play with what's
in the room.

That way everybody
feels like the experience

is just for them.

- And it probably makes it more
exciting for you, too, right?

- Oh, no two shows
are ever the same.

- Which do you prefer?

When it goes right
or when it goes wrong?

- When it goes wrong,
it's a gift from the gods,

from the performance gods.

That's when you can discover
miracles and moments of joy

and all that.

And every once in a while,

you just have to leave with
your tail between your leg

and say, nope, that wasn't it.
- All right, Robert.

Let's see if your magic game
show fooled our magic experts.

- Hey.
- Boys.

- Hey, Robert.
How are you doing?

You're really good.
- Yeah.

- Really, really pleasant.
Really, really sweet.

And also it's shown
in this routine

that you set it up
so the spectator wins,

which is really nice.

It makes it so it's
not mean-spirited at all,

it's got nice jokes at the end.

It's no... no unkindness to the
people you're performing for,

and I really, really like that.

And as I was watching this,
I was thinking about...

I was back in New York City,
and there was an art show there

of all African American art,
which I just love.

I just love all the contemporary

African American artists.

And although I loved it,

there was a lot of controversy
over it.

There was a big flap
over the African American art.

And I don't know
why that popped into my mind,

but it did.

It just popped into my mind.

And I want to play
the game that you played.

You played a game
where you gave the answer,

and then there
was the question afterwards.

- OK.
- We had to see if it matched.

Kind of a homage to Carnac
way back on "The Tonight Show"

when Johnny Carson was the host.

So here's the answer,

and see if you can come up
with a question.

We loved it,
but we don't think so.

- Correct.

- [laughs] And what would
be the question to that?

- Did Robert Strong fool
Penn and Teller today?

- [laughs] Aw.
- Thanks so much, Robert.

- Thank you so much.
We loved it.

- Thank you.
- Robert Strong!

[cheers and applause]

Grab a snack
and come right back.

More magic after this.

[cheers and applause]

[jazz music]

[cheers and applause]

- Welcome back.

We don't wrap the show without
adding a Penn and Teller trick

to the total package.

Here to put a bow on tonight's
show, Penn and Teller.

[cheers and applause]

- You know, a lot of magicians

make the joke that this show
should not be called

"Penn & Teller: Fool Us."

It should be called
"Penn & Teller: Fool Teller."

And the reason is
it's well-known

in the magic community
and probably well-known

if you watch the show often

that I know less about magic
than Teller does.

But now,
we're coming on a decade.

It's a decade that I've
been hosting a magic show,

and I don't really
do that much magic.

So I'm changing my ways.

And Teller... I got the
best teacher in the world...

Is teaching me magic.

And Teller said
the first thing I should learn

is a false shuffle.

It's used in almost
all card tricks.

The idea is you've got
a deck that's in order,

you know where the card is,

and then you look
like you're shuffling them.

But when you're done, the
cards are in the same order

they started in,
so you've got a false shuffle.

It's a shuffle that's false.

See, it's very simple.
And it's one of the basics.

If you're studying magic
at home, if you're a child,

you're learning
a false shuffle right away.

So we've got a brand-new deck
of cards here

where they are all in order.

So this is a good way
to learn a false shuffle.

So we're getting rid
of the advertising cards

and the jokers...
Come right out of there...

And now we have a deck
in perfect order, ace to king,

ace to king, ace to king,
ace to king,

spades, diamonds, clubs, hearts.

And the idea is that
you shuffle the deck.

The audience goes, whoa,
that deck is shuffled,

and yet, it is not shuffled, OK?

So I've been studying the magic.

It's so hard to...

I mean, I'm not afraid
at all of the TV cameras,

but I'm afraid of Teller.

Teller's watching.

You know, when you're
in front of your teacher,

you want to do it right.

So OK, here we go.
Ah.

So the cards
are in perfect order.

And when I am done,

the cards will also be
in perfect order.

So first of all,
Teller says cut the cards.

OK, so I've cut the cards.

What'd I do wrong?

[laughter]

Now, that's not
part of the trick.

That's just aesthetics, right?
I mean... or is it?

OK, OK, all right.

And now I'm supposed
to bring my thumb down,

and the sound of the shuffle
is the first thing you learn.

It's the sound.

So I want to make this sound
like a perfect shuffle.

So my hands come in,
my hands can be like this,

and they go like this.

[shuffling]

Was that good or...

Good, good.

I'll do it one more time.

[shuffling]

- [gasps]

- Now I banged off the sound
of the shuffle.

And I'll put them back together.

Right, just like that.

OK.

And now when I lay them out,

they'll be in the same order
we started.

And there's a lot of tricks
I can do with that

once I lay them out.

They're in... they're...
They're not...

They're not...
They're not ace to king!

They're... they're just
in a random order!

They're in a random order!

I didn't even touch them!

There was a set...
You said build a wall,

build a wall!

You said that!
To have build the wall!

I built the wall,
I made the sound,

and they're in a random...
[laughter]

[jazz music]

Show me again.

Show me again.

I built the wall, Teller.

It was... they didn't even cross.

OK, same thing, same thing.

That's the way I started, right?

And then you cut them.

Good.

And then you had...

I had them closer together,
but that...

OK, that's
just the way I did it.

That's exactly the way.

Now I'm going to watch.

♪ ♪

[shuffling]

You made the sound.

Put it back.

And then he fans them out,
and then...

In perfect order.
[cheers and applause]

They're in perfect order.

The ace the king, ace to king,
ace to king,

spades, diamonds, clubs, hearts.

[applause]
I watched you!

I was this close to you,
and look, I did the same thing!

I did the same...

Alyson!
I did the same thing.

Did you see that?
I did the same thing, Alyson.

- We hate to say goodbye,
but we have to.

We'll have a brand new episode
for you when "Fool Us" returns.

See you soon.

- There's no way.
I did the same thing.

[cheers and applause]
[indistinct chatter]