After a season première full of impressive tricks, the
second season of Penn and Teller: Fool
Us is in full swing, with Johnathan
Ross still hosting and Penn and
Teller still trying to figure out the secrets behind the performances they
see. This week, another four magicians competed to fool Penn and Teller and
thus win the opportunity to be the opening act at one of their Las Vegas shows.
They were:
Leon & Romy -
Leon & Romy were previously on America's Got Talent in 2013, where
they reached the Semifinals. Whilst they were energetic and enjoyable to watch,
they relied too heavily on traditional illusions that were easy to figure out
(their most unique performance was a version of Lance Burton’s Backstage
illusion) and I wrote in my countdown of Americas Got Talent magicians that “I
would have liked to see them take a few more risks, even if those risks didn't
pay off.” Fortunately, the trick they performed for Penn and Teller was definitely
risky in more ways than one. Leon & Romy got Johnathan to choose one of 20
different decks of cards (with Teller’s help), pick a chosen card from his chosen
deck, and sign it. They then promised to find the cards in a unique and
dangerous way. After a joke about getting Johnathan to wear a Vegas-style
showgirl headdress as a safety helmet, Leon & Romy lay underneath a ramp
and got a local skateboarder to jump over them. They threw the chosen deck into
the air whilst the skateboarder was directly above them, claiming he would
catch the signed card in midair, but he wasn’t able to do this. Instead, the
signed card was found attached to the bottom of the skateboard. It goes without
saying that if they had performed a trick like this on Americas Got Talent,
Leon & Romy would have fared much better on that show. Penn initially
believed that Romy’s skills at misdirection were key to the trick, but when
Leon stated that this was incorrect, Penn and Teller admitted that Leon &
Romy had fooled them.
Mike Hammer – Mike Hammer promised a trick that was “brand
new, unless you’ve seen me before”. He showed a volunteer a line drawing of a woman,
then told him to choose five markers to colour it in. After blindfolding
himself with duct tape, he told the volunteer to pick one of his markers and
colour in the woman’s shirt, before discarding it and using up the other four
markers on the belt, hair, skirt and socks. After the volunteer had done this, Mike
had removed the tape from his eyes and then unveiled his blind date, a blow-up
doll. He inflated it with a bicycle pump to reveal that its clothing and hair
were in the exact colours chosen by the volunteer. Mike had some good lines,
but I wasn’t a fan of his “Pick-up Artist” persona, and I’ve seen a version of
this trick on America’s Got Talent in the past, where it was performed by Eric Dittelman. Due to the fact that he
was doing a relatively conventional mentalism routine, and the only twists he
put on it were based on presentation, Mike did
not fool Penn and Teller.
Shin Lim – A former
concert pianist with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Shin Lim performed a dazzling array of card tricks without speaking
once during the entire routine. Using two random audience members as
volunteers, Shin got one of them to pick a card and sign it before vanishing
the pen and making the face of the chosen card disappear in a puff of smoke. He
then made the chosen card appear in his mouth before putting it in a clear
plastic bag. The second volunteer was then instructed to pick and sign another
card (it is worth mentioning again that he did not speak AT ALL when doing
this, and instead used miming and visual indicators to aid his volunteers).
Shin then made the deck vanish from his hands and reappear inside the pack, and
swapped the deck and card between his hands before making the card appear in
his pocket, then behind his back. Shin then switched the signed card with a
blank one, and made it vanish and reappear in his mouth again. After switching
the second signed card with the one in the plastic bag, he finished by making
both cards vanish from the plastic bag, then vanishing the deck in a puff of
smoke (if you find it hard to follow my outline of the routine, you can watch
it here). The only problem with this
routine was that it was a little too long. If it was a few seconds shorter, it
would probably be the greatest card routine I have ever seen. As it was, Shin’s
performance was brilliant, and Penn hit the nail on the head when he said it
was “sincerely beautiful”. Although they were able to figure out certain parts
of the routine, Penn and Teller had no idea how other tricks were done, so they
decided that overall, Shin had fooled
them.
Peter Boie – Peter Boie performed a
spiritualist-themed routine with two volunteers, one female and one male. He
begun by getting the female volunteer to sit down whilst holding two slate
boards sandwiched together in her hands, with a piece of chalk between them.
Peter then told the volunteer to close her eyes and remember any sensations she
would experience over the next minute. He then tapped the male volunteer, who
was sitting on the other side of the stage, twice on the right shoulder, before
telling the female volunteer to reveal what she had felt. She stated that she
had felt two taps on her right shoulder, in spite of the fact that Peter had
not touched her. Peter finished his routine by separating the slate boards to
reveal that a message (“I’m Here”) had appeared on them. It was hard to figure
out and interesting to watch, but I prefer more spectacular types of paranormal
magic. Although Penn and Teller enjoyed the routine, Penn noted that Peter was
performing an effect they referred to the “Invisible Touch”, also done by the
mentalist Steve Shaw. Though he was praised
for not using a gimmick in the method, Peter did not fool Penn and Teller.
For Penn and Teller’s performance, we went from “Invisible Touch”
to “Invisible Thread” as Penn introduced their routine by openly revealing the
secret behind it, saying “The next trick is done with a piece of thread”. The
ensuing performance was conducted almost entirely by Teller, as he performed a
number of tricks centred on a beach ball which appeared to have a life of its
own. During the routine, it appeared to move up and down a table of its own
accord, fly through the air, get stuck to Teller’s fingers, and leap through a
hoop twice. The performance concluded with Penn appearing to cut off the thread
used throughout the trick, returning the beach ball to normal. This trick
epitomises the way in which Penn and Teller are able to expose tricks without
ruining them for a second, because most levitation effects (and other tricks
involving inanimate objects appearing to move by magic) rely on similar methods,
and if you know the secrets behind them, the emphasis is not on how the trick
was done, but how skilfully the magician is able to conceal the method, how
creative the performance is, and how entertaining it is to watch. When Penn and Teller reveal secrets during a
routine, they shift the focus from the trick itself to how well it is
performed, and this demonstrates just how talented and innovative they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment