[jazz music]
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- From the Penn & Teller theater
at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,
here's our host, Alyson Hannigan.
- Welcome to "Fool Us,"
where the best magicians in the world
try to fool two of the greatest minds in magic,
as if performing for millions
of people wasn't pressure enough.
And what about Penn and Teller?
It's not a cakewalk for them either.
Plus, no one likes walking on cakes.
Why do they all do it?
Because it's the best magic show on TV.
So let's begin as we bring out our dapper duo
with icing on their shoes,
Penn and Teller.
♪ ♪
- Penn and Teller welcome each winner as a guest
in their live Las Vegas spectacular,
and they give them the famous "Fool Us" trophy too.
Boys, here's your first magician.
- I'm Damien James,
and I'm one of Penn's least favorite things,
a ventriloquist.
I came to "Fool Us" last time
with two rather recognizable assistants.
Well, you're a lousy impersonator.
Together, we not only fooled Penn and Teller,
those puppets are actually now on display
now on display at the world's only ventriloquist museum.
How's that, Penn? [laughs]
[coughs]
Is something burning back there?
[coughs]
Creating lifelike puppets
is the result of years of work and study.
Some people are scared of puppets,
which is silly, right?
They're just puppets.
- [growls]
- I will admit, it may sound crazy,
but sometimes, I have nightmares
about my puppets coming to life.
My latest puppet is my greatest creation yet.
Penn, you think you hate puppets now.
[chuckles] Just wait.
[dramatic music]
[screams]
♪ ♪
- Things are gonna get weird.
We're about to hand the stage over to Mr. Cuddles.
- Hello, humans.
My name is Mr. Cuddles the evil octopus.
And I'm here today on "Fool Us" to win the money.
I'll tell you what I'm gonna do with it.
I'm gonna use it to rule the world.
♪ ♪
As you might've guessed,
I love to perform lobotomies.
As such, I've learned a lot of secrets
about the human brain.
For example, did you know that the average human brain
is delicious on toast?
[laughter]
- Also, did you know that the human brain
is very easy to control and manipulate?
Just ask Mark Zuckerberg.
I need a human test subject.
Eh...
you.
The girl who never changes her outfit.
What's your name? - Alyson.
- Al-Alyson. Alyson?
No. [groans]
I'll never remember that.
Can I call you something easier?
How about human test subject 6B778?
- All right. - Let's go with that.
Human test subject 6B778, please step forward.
I'm now going to take control of your brain.
♪ ♪
I'll be right with you.
Hey, moron, get that bag of all
those dead people's socks.
♪ ♪
As you can see, I have a large collection of trophies
from past human victims that did not follow directions.
- Oh. - [clears throat]
I'm now going to implant a thought into your mind.
- [laughs] - [clears throat]
Human test subject 6B778,
grab onto my tentacles.
- All of them? - Sure.
- Oh. - And look into my eyes.
- [groans] Well, that's four of them.
- Concentrate.
Allow my thoughts to become your thoughts.
Do not resist.
Comply and no harm will come to you.
Now, don't worry.
Uh, you're safe.
The neurotoxin from holding onto my tentacles
won't cause full body paralysis for another couple of hours.
All right, you can let go.
What I want you to do now is reach in and grab one sock.
Just grab one sock.
That's the one you want? - Mm-hmm.
- [laughs] It worked.
I, Mr. Cuddles the evil octopus,
was successfully able to implant a thought
into your mind:
That sock.
And to prove it,
earlier today I implanted the same thought
into my dimwitted assistant's mind.
Quite literally. Let's check it out, shall we?
Do you mind helping out?
There's a little bit of a bandage hanging off.
Just give a little pull. - Okay.
- Open it up like Christmas. - Oh, boy.
- There you go.
- [groans] - Don't worry.
Don't worry. He feels pain.
But I had his voice box removed.
♪ ♪
- [groans] - Just unwrap it, yup.
There you go. - That's--
- Now, reach in and grab what's inside.
- [groans]
- Don't worry. He's had his shots.
- Ew. Ew!
[groans] - Pull it out.
- Okay. [groans]
- It matches. Ta-da!
♪ ♪
Ta-da! - Ta-da.
- Now, where's my prize money?
- [laughs]
- I think you're on the wrong show.
Mr. Cuddles.
- Thank you. - [groans]
- Hello. - Hi.
Is your plan to take over the world?
- Well, that's the goal.
You know, with my five-year plan.
World domination. - Oh, I see.
And what will you do with it when it's yours?
- I think the first thing I will do is make cheese illegal.
- Oh, really? Are you lactose intolerant?
- No.
- Not to tell you what to do,
but shouldn't you start with, like, calamari first?
- Uh, that's a good idea. Are you up for a job?
I could use a sidekick. - [laughs]
- You know, like, an evil villain sidekick.
- [laughs] I don't think I'm your girl.
- Oh. - Oh.
- Well, think about it.
- Okay, Mr. Cuddles, let's go to the boys.
- Hello, boys. - Hello, Mr. Cuddles.
You know, when we first saw you come out,
we were kind of hoping for some sleight of tentacle,
but we didn't get to see that.
- [chuckles]
- But I want to say
that your puppetry is excellent.
You run that human beautifully.
You know that lobotomized human next to you
moves in almost a lifelike way, Mr. Cuddles.
It's a really nice job on that.
- Well, I thank you.
- And you have a wonderful look.
We've never had anyone on "Fool Us"
who looks quite like you, Mr. Cuddles.
- Well, they say they broke the mold.
[laughter]
- I guess--I suppose they did.
Do you have a lot of those dead people's socks
from doing the lobotomies?
- I have quite a few bags of them, yes.
- So you fill up a bag, and then you change bags.
You got that bag of dead people's socks.
When it fills up, you change it for another.
- Uh-- - How many bags you have?
- You know, I got just the one back there.
- Okay. [laughs]
But they're fillin' up.
They're fillin' up. - Yup.
- Well, Mr. Cuddles,
you did a great job, especially your puppetry,
but I don't think that you fooled us.
- Can I get a ticket to the buffet?
- Yeah. Got you covered on that.
- Thank you.
- Well, Mr. Cuddles, it doesn't look like you fooled them.
- Well, darn it. [laughter]
- Well, thank you. Mr. Cuddles!
- Thanks.
- Don't forget, Penn and Teller will perform tonight's finale,
but they'll take on a few more magicians first.
"Fool Us" will be right back.
[jazz music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome back to "Fool Us." Breaking news.
This next magician is attempting to fool
Penn and Teller.
We take you to them now.
- My name is Mantas, and I am from Lithuania.
I played around with magic as a kid,
not very seriously.
Back then, my country was just becoming free
after decades of Russian occupation.
We had nothing, just to hope for democracy.
Then I saw on TV,
the great magicians from Las Vegas.
I was 12, and at that moment,
Las Vegas and magic became synonymous to me.
I dedicated myself to magic,
so a little piece of Vegas could live inside me.
Magic reminds people that in life,
we can expect miracles.
We should remember to be amazed.
The very first magic I learned, I tried out on my brother.
I was 7, he was 3 1/2,
and of course, he was astonished.
From that day until now, my brother is the first person
who sees every one of my tricks.
He's in the military,
and it's a dangerous time to be a soldier
because we are close to the Russian war.
I dedicate my performance to my brother.
My greatest supporter who means so much to me.
- All the way from Lithuania,
give it up for Mantas.
- When I was a boy,
I wanted a magic kit I saw in the store.
My father said I didn't need a kit to learn magic.
"Magic isn't something you buy," he said.
Magic is taking ordinary objects
and making them do extraordinary things.
And what objects did I have to do magic with?
Well, an ordinary wooden chair
and a cardboard box.
[George Georgia's "Mountain Kings"]
♪ ♪
[applause]
♪ ♪
[applause]
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- Hello.
- Hi, Alyson. Good to see you.
- You too.
All those chairs, and you're standing up.
- Well, you know, I have to rest from sitting down.
- [laughs]
We had another magician from Lithuania on our show.
Do all magicians know each other in Lithuania?
- Yes, unfortunately,
we have only 3 million people living here
and only a few professional magicians performing,
so we know each other.
We're like a little family here.
- Aww, that's so wonderful.
So what loves do you have besides magic?
- I have a degree in psychology,
I have a degree in philosophy,
and my passions are reading books,
gaining knowledge, understanding human psychology.
It's very helpful when you have
to choose a volunteer from the audience.
You can tell from the body language
or how the person reacts.
Some people are very open. They react openly.
Some people get, you know, this look and think,
"How did he do this?"
- [laughs] - So we can--
- That's the exact look that the boys have right now.
- [laughs]
I take it as a compliment. Hi, Penn and Teller.
- [chuckles] Okay, Mantas.
Let's see if you fooled Penn and Teller.
- Hey, Mantas, all the way from Lithuania, huh?
Really--
- Hi, good to see you. So happy to be here.
- Oh, so nice to have you. Such a nice trick, you know?
There's a version of this, and I'm sure you're aware of,
that Flip and Peter Pit both did,
but you've made it so much better.
Having the number four become the way--the orientation
of the chair is really, really smart.
We also love the combination of a classy chair
that fits in the room with just a cardboard box with it.
It's really nice. It really smart stuff.
And this is not the kind of trick I usually like,
and for some reason, I don't know what it is,
I loved this.
This is the kind of trick that Teller likes and I don't,
but I think I like this even more than Teller did.
It's really--it's really, really good.
And you know, Teller and I, we're having so much fun
talking about how great you were,
we then got into a competition
that we usually have.
'Cause I hear Teller talk all the time.
We're going back and forth,
so we often do tongue twisters, you know?
So Teller said, you know,
"She sells seashells by the seashore."
And I said, "You know, that's not
"the really, really hard one.
"The hardest one is supposed to be:
the sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick."
I still haven't done it right.
It's a really, really tough one.
And I guess, it had nothing to do with the trick,
but I think we snuck a few things in there.
And we just loved, loved the act.
And love that you're here from Lithuania.
And just love the whole room and the whole vibe
and everything, but I don't think you fooled us.
- What do you think, Mantas? Did you fool them?
- No, but the tongue twister was amazing.
- [laughs] - Thank you very much.
And I'm happy you enjoyed that.
- It was so good.
- I will work on my pronunciation as well.
- Aww, thank you so much.
Mantas!
We've got more magic coming down the pipe.
Don't be a drip. Stick around.
[jazz music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome back.
Play along and try to bust this next act
along with Penn and Teller and meet our next magician.
- I'm a New York actor, writer, director.
New York theater parties,
they're basically unofficial talent shows,
and I wasn't the guy that sang show tunes,
and I didn't want to be the guy
reciting "Hamlet" in the corner.
You don't want to be that dude,
so I used to take out my cards
and perform magic tricks.
So that was my genesis, really.
That's when I started to become pro-ish.
The truth is, I think acting is a lot like magic.
An actor transforms himself
into a completely different person.
A doting father or a drunk,
a business tycoon or a con man.
That's magic.
So I've always thought that in being an actor,
I've been performing a kind of magic all along.
Penn, Teller, to fool or not to fool,
tonight that is the question.
- Stepping into the "Fool Us" spotlight,
Andy Gershenzon.
- Penn, Teller,
thank you very much for having me.
I love playing cards
because for so many people,
a card trick is their first experience with conjuring.
Who among us hasn't had an uncle or a friend
who showed us our first card trick with our beat up,
old deck on a camping trip?
Or late at night
at the kitchen table.
Alyson,
you have no doubt been asked to pick hundreds of cards
over the many years you've hosted this show,
so tonight I won't bother you with flipping through the deck
or telling me when to stop shuffling.
I'll simply ask you to name a card.
Not your favorite card, I could know what that is.
I want you to name a card you've never named before.
- Nine of spades.
- The nine of spades. Thank you.
[soft music]
I snap.
♪ ♪
That's the magic moment.
And I don't want to be presumptuous, Alyson,
but I think this one could fool you.
Because watch as I spell "fooled you."
F-O-O-L-E-D.
Y-O and this is U.
For "fooled you."
And if this worked, here should be your card,
the nine of spades.
Thank you.
Another thing I love about cards is,
there's so many different ways to make the magic happen.
Penn,
would you do the honor of naming a different card?
- Sure. The eight of hearts.
- The eight of hearts. Thank you.
Now, Penn, if your card is on top,
that would be a miracle,
and I will take full credit.
No, but maybe it's second from the top.
That could be--I don't know, interesting or curious enough.
No again,
and that's fine because we're gonna use
these two random cards to find your card
somewhere within the center of the pack.
Penn, do me a favor.
I'm gonna run my finger down the deck.
You just say stop whenever you want.
- Stop. - Right here?
- Yup. - Or do you want to keep going?
- I'll stay there. - All right.
I'm gonna take the two cards, put them in that very spot,
and here's where things get very interesting.
Two random cards
exactly where you told me to put them.
They reach into the pack
and they pull out, they capture
a single card between them.
Now, that's fascinating,
but it's only magic if it's the card you wanted.
Penn, one more time. What card did you want?
- Eight of hearts.
- And there we have the eight of hearts.
Thank you.
Now, it is with honor
and humility that I invite Teller
to please join me on stage.
Teller,
I have been dreaming of performing for you
ever since I first started practicing magic as a child.
I don't have to sell you
on the beauty of magic with cards.
You understand better than anyone
how much wonder lives in these 52 pieces of paper.
Please observe that each of these cards is different,
and if you are satisfied, give them a fair shuffle
and a fair cut.
I made both Alyson and Penn's cards
appear in miraculous ways.
Teller, for your card, I made a prediction.
Please look at the top card you cut to,
but don't let us see it yet.
First, I want to show you my prediction.
"I have been dreaming of this day for so long,
"and in all my dreams, Teller cuts directly
to the king of clubs."
Teller, just like I dreamed,
please show everyone that your card is in fact
the king of clubs.
♪ ♪
The king of diamonds.
That's not in my dream,
but is in my reality.
♪ ♪
- Andy Gershenzon!
That was very impressive. - Thank you, thank you.
- You did it right under his nose.
- I know. It was intense.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
- And so was your dream a recurring dream?
- Yes.
- Or just a really significant once?
- It's recurrent and significant.
- And does he always pick the same card?
- He always picks the same card.
- And how does the dream end? Trophy?
- You know, I wake up right before it--
you know, I find out, I wake up.
- Oh, wow. - Yeah.
- Okay. So you're from New York.
Isn't that a great place to perform?
- It is a great place to perform.
You know, sometimes I'll step onto the subway,
take out the cards, see what happens.
It's sort of my Venus flytrap.
And, you know, by the next stop,
I'll--we're having a party.
- So what's the strangest show you've ever done?
- One time, I was hired to do
a performance in the back of a limousine
for a bachelorette party.
- [laughs] - It was a very long limousine.
I went up and down the limo and did magic
for each of the ladies.
- Wow. - Yeah.
- All right, Andy, you made your dream into a trick.
Let's see if your trick turns into a trophy.
- Well, Andy, what a nice, clean way of doing magic.
It looks just really beautiful, and really friendly,
and you did three tricks for us.
Three tricks for us. First one for Alyson.
A really, really nice trick. We knew it.
Then you did a trick for me
and it was a really, really good trick--
between the two cards.
Really nice, really clean, and we knew it.
And then I said as Teller was going up,
I said, "You know, Teller, when you're gonna go up there
"and you're gonna be sitting there,
"you're gonna be right on top of him.
And I'm not gonna be able to see as clearly."
You know, 'cause Teller was within feet of you
and I'm back here, yards and yards from you.
I just kept saying to myself,
"You know, this is all--this is all on Teller, you know?
This is no longer 'Fool Us', it's Teller."
And Teller was watching you like a hawk.
And I was kind of illin' and chillin'
like little Bobby Dylan.
I was just letting Teller take a--and some people say
he knows a lot more magic than I do, and he does.
He really does. - [chuckles]
- So it was really mano a mano, you and Teller.
That was it, and you did not, I will repeat,
you did not fool us.
You fooled Teller, and that's good enough.
- Wow. - What?
You fooled them. - Yes!
- [laughs] Yay.
- No way.
- We have a Fooler. - Oh, my God.
- I'm totally clean.
- Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much.
- We have a Fooler. - You fooled him.
- Andy Gershenzon!
Sweet dreams.
Penn and Teller took a swing and struck out.
See their next at bat when "Fool Us" returns.
[jazz music]
♪ ♪
- Welcome back.
We have one Fooler already,
flaunting their trophy for all to see.
Will another magician be joining them?
Let's find out now.
- I'm Alejandro Linian from Peru.
You can call me a dreamer.
From age 11 to 19,
I lived with my mom in Buffalo, New York.
I learned about magic in America.
I focused on close-up magic,
which is not something I could've learned in Peru.
By the time I was 18, anything seemed possible.
Mom had her working papers,
and she applied for U.S. residency,
but to work in the U.S., I needed papers of my own,
so I went back to Peru to apply for a visa.
That was 15 years ago.
I've never been allowed back into America since.
This was very hard for me,
and it completely changed my life.
But then I thought,
Peru is country full of culture and history,
and almost none of that has been used in magic.
This is something I can do.
I'm especially excited that I'm coming live from Peru
to the Penn & Teller theater.
It's like I'm coming back to the U.S. at last,
but with all of Peru by my side.
Whatever happens tonight,
that's an honor for me.
- Let's take the "Fool Us" teleporter direct to Peru
and beam in Alejandro Linian.
- Hello and thank you for having me on the show.
I'm so excited to get to share my magic with you
all the way from out here in Lima, Peru.
Now, today I want to talk to you about magic words.
I'm sure you are familiar with magic words
such as shazam or hocus pocus,
but today we're gonna be using some magic words from Peru,
and I happen to have them right over here.
These are words in Quechua.
Quechua is an ancient indigenous language from Peru,
and I have four words in Quechua right here.
We're gonna be using them one at a time
to materialize what
we often crave the most.
[soft music]
I'm talking about money.
Watch me carefully as I speak
this word right here.
I will reach in the air
and say huk.
And if I do,
I get a coin.
This is an old Peruvian coin,
and it's just one coin because the word huk
is actually the word in Quechua for the number one.
See, if I wanted to-- if I wanted more coins,
I have to continue speaking the rest of the words.
If I wanted to, and I do.
Watch me carefully. Watch my hand again.
I will make a fist and I will say the next word,
iskay.
That gets me a second coin.
Of course, that's because iskay is the word for the number two.
That's huk, and that's iskay. And that's one and that's two.
For coin number three, I will reach in the air here,
I'll say kimsa,
and that gets me coin number three.
Now, I want you to see the moment get coin number four
as I simply count, tawa.
And that gets me one, two,
three, and four coins.
Thank you.
All right, now, I don't want you just
watch me speak Quechua today.
I actually want to get all three
of you to do so as well.
So let's see.
First, I would like to go to Alyson.
Alyson, you're gonna help me out a little bit.
Can you do so? - Sure.
- In a moment, I am gonna say the word go.
When I say go,
I want you to say the word in Quechua for the number four.
- Okay.
- I want you to see that I'm clearly gonna
start out with four coins.
Can you see them?
- Yes.
- And again, when I say go, you say that word.
Here we go.
Ready? Go.
- Tawa.
- Perfect and this time when we say tawa,
the coin will actually disappear.
The reason for that is because when we're counting
four to one, we're counting backwards
and if we count backwards, this will happen backwards.
We're gonna do this again. I will now go to Penn.
Do you remember the word for the number three?
- No.
- It's kimsa.
Same thing, just like we did before, Penn.
I will say go. When I say go, you say kimsa.
Are you ready? - Yup.
- All I do is I make a fist around each coin.
I can get rid of everything else.
And Penn, go.
- Kimsa.
- Good, and again,
the coin goes.
Nothing left.
It leaves us with just two.
Okay, next I will go to Teller,
and I know this presents
a little bit of a problem, Teller,
but you're gonna go for the word for the number two.
Now, what I need you to do is I need you to just think of it.
Okay, you're gonna think of the word for the number two.
That would be iskay. Okay?
Yes, when I say go. Ready?
Go.
- [mouthing]
- That's perfect.
And that goes as well.
That leaves us with just one coin,
and of course, the word for the number one is huk.
However, we're not gonna use it.
I'm not gonna use this word.
I actually want to teach you all
one more word in Quechua.
A word possibly more powerful than these four,
and that word is rimaykamay.
That is the word for abracadabra in Quechua.
That's the word we're gonna use,
and I want all three of you to say or mouth
abracadabra, rimaykamay.
Okay? When I say go.
You will not say huk, you will say rimaykamay.
Ready? Go.
all: Rimaykamay.
- Good.
♪ ♪
- Rimaykamay not only makes those coins go away,
it also brings them right back.
But not here.
Here.
And here.
That's huk, that's iskay.
That's kimsa, that's tawa, that's rimaykamay,
and that's the magic of Quechua.
Thank you very much.
- Alejandro Linian.
I love that you're using magic to teach a new language.
- Yeah, you know, I like to share.
I like to combine Peru with magic.
You know, it's my native country,
and it's quite a mystical country,
so I like to incorporate
as much of it as I can in my work.
- Do you speak any more Quechua?
- So I have to say, I am also learning it myself.
I do like to say one word all the time,
and that word is munay.
It means absolute love, and hopefully,
I just manifested absolute love into your life
and everybody who's watching as well.
- That's beautiful.
All right, let's find out if we're gonna have to mail
a "Fool Us" trophy from Las Vegas to Peru.
Boys.
- Alejandro, that was just really wonderful.
You know, coin routines are so arbitrary.
And to add a layer on this that makes it
mean something is really, really wonderful.
But more important than that,
or maybe not more important than that, but certainly,
we noticed your handling is just beautiful.
Every vanish looked beautiful.
Every appearance looked beautiful.
I don't know what the Quechua word is
for beautiful sleight of hand.
How do you say that in Quechua?
- I will have to get back to you on that.
[laughter]
I have not learned the word for beautiful just yet.
- I was gonna ask you about aquatic creatures.
I'm gonna really push you and say, you know,
what is the Quechua word for snail?
What is the Quechua word for clam?
What are they in? What's the Que--
I was gonna say all that stuff,
but how much Quechua do you know?
- Very little.
I actually--I'm trying to make myself learn it through magic
and what motivates me to, also, just--I'm just so inspired
by getting to share magic with people.
- Well, we hope you open a Quechua theater
right here in Vegas.
It's what we're missing.
- I'd love to. - [laughs]
But it's just such a beautiful routine,
and so natural, and so nice.
And teaching the language is very, very good.
Or teaching that there is that language is probably
what you're doing for people like us.
And, boy, so clean and so nice. And such a nice routine.
- Thank you.
- But I don't think you fooled us.
- So, Alejandro, do they know your coin secrets?
- Of course. [laughter]
They're Penn and Teller.
- Oh, well, thank you so much.
Alejandro Linian!
- Thank you.
- Our show isn't vanishing.
We'll produce more amazing magic when "Fool Us" returns.
[jazz music]
- Welcome back to "Fool Us."
Penn and Teller have dazzled audiences
across the globe with no signs of stopping.
Here to show you just how unstoppable they really are,
here's Penn and Teller.
- In 1977, just two years
after Penn Jillette and Teller first met...
Hanging upside down, Penn & Teller were flown
over Mount Saint Helens, an active volcano
in Skamania County, Washington.
Dislocating both arms and his right hip,
Teller slithered from his straitjacket
then used the lock picks he had previously swallowed...
While clinging to the helicopter
in 100 mile per hour winds with one hand each,
they quickly assembled their matching paragliders.
Now, almost 50 years later, Penn & Teller will perform
their newest escape for you live.
Wish them luck and please welcome...
[upbeat electronic music]
[record scratch]
[soft piano music]
♪ ♪
- Want to get out of these things?
Yeah, okay, turn that way. [grunts]
♪ ♪
Come on back.
Hup.
Come on. I got you.
I got you, I got you, I got you.
[groans]
Just a sec. There are your arms.
Take the arms.
There we go. There we go.
Let me get the--
Get that and you're set. You ready?
Hup.
Good.
♪ ♪
You gonna pick that?
Okay.
It's gonna take you awhile, I think.
Why don't you-- why don't you use this?
Here you go.
Yeah. Open it up.
Yeah, perfect. Good.
There you go.
♪ ♪
What about me? What about me?
No, no, this.
Use that--use the-- get these off me.
There you go. Good thinking.
♪ ♪
Get that top off first.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Safety first. Safety first.
♪ ♪
The hard part is the bathrobe. Ha!
And that, Alyson, is our age appropriate escape.
- And now we have to make an escape of our own,
but we'll be back with more amazing magic
next time on "Fool Us."
Good night.