[jazz music]
♪ ♪
[applause]
- From the Penn and Teller Theater
at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Here's our host, Brooke Burke.
[cheering]
- Welcome to "Fool Us."
This is what it's all about right here.
The "Fool Us" trophy is what draws the greatest magicians
from every corner of the globe to our Las Vegas stage.
But if they want to leave with one of these bad boys,
they have to fool our bad boys.
Penn and Teller.
[cheering]
- And it's not just the trophy.
Anyone who fools Penn and Teller also gets a spot
performing in their world famous magic show.
So let's meet tonight's first potential fooler.
- When we came on the show the first time,
Stacy was just beginning to step up as a magician.
- Here we go.
Jason did most of the magic heavy lifting.
Prediction.
And then Penn said something that changed our act forever.
- A lot of times two person acts don't really use both people.
You did that really beautifully.
- That was a light bulb moment for us because
who knows more about how to do a double act
than Penn and Teller?
- Since then, Stacy and I have built out
the magic into a full partnership.
So basically, we're very grateful to Penn and Teller.
- Right, but you know how magicians are.
We're also going to use their advice against them.
- Because if they're not used to magic duos
who can both do magic...
That means if you really go for it,
- We can overwhelm them... in theory.
- And that's a theory we're looking forward
to putting in to practice.
- Please welcome back Ohio's favorite magic couple,
Jason and Stacy Alan.
[applause]
- We came on "Fool Us" for two reasons and two reasons only.
To win ourselves a trophy.
- And so Jason can get his picture with Teller.
- Huge fan.
- Now, we put a lot of thought into how we might
get ourselves a trophy.
And we came up with two key strategies.
Number one, suck up.
Throw our dignity aside and go straight for their egos.
- Number two, we're going to double our chances
of fooling them by doing two tricks at once.
I'm going to do a trick with the world's
greatest magician, Teller.
- And I'm going to do a trick with
the other world's greatest magician, Penn.
Penn, Teller, do you mind joining us on stage?
- No, no, love to.
- Nice to see you, Penn. - Okay, here I am.
- Now, Penn, for our trick,
we are going to be using your amazing new party game.
- Oh, good, thank you.
- Now, this is the sack from the game.
And inside are two game pieces.
We have the red triangle called "the bad thing."
And the blue block called "the good thing."
Penn, your job is to reach inside the bag
and come out holding either one in a closed fist.
Go ahead and make your choice.
- Okay, this is like the game.
- Yeah, it is your game.
Now, we're going to be playing this game three times tonight.
And believe it or not, with 100% accuracy,
each and every time
I'm going to tell you what he has in his hand.
Right now, he either has the red bad thing
or the blue good thing.
But no matter what he has,
he will always say, I'm holding the bad thing.
And it's my job to tell if he's lying or not.
Penn, tell me you're holding the bad thing.
- I'm holding the bad thing.
- One more time, Penn.
- I'm holding the bad thing.
You are actually telling the truth, Penn,
because you do have the red bad thing.
If I'm right, open your hand and show everyone.
Yes, one for one.
Penn, amazing job.
Jason, you're up.
- Oh, hi, Teller.
Our trick involves you making choices
from amazing things from your amazing career.
And if I can influence you to make the choices
that I predicted,
this is going to turn out wonderfully for us in the end.
So we're going to start with what I consider to be
the two greatest magic tricks of all time,
created by you, of course.
I'm talking about shadows represented by this rose.
And I'm also talking about goldfish
represented by this goldfish.
Whichever one you choose, I'll stick on the board.
Which one would you like?
This one? Oh, yes.
I am so excited that you went with this one and not that one.
That's one for one. So far, so good.
Stacy, you're up.
- All right, Penn, go ahead and make another choice.
- Okay.
- This time, I'm going to ask Penn
a bunch of random questions.
But no matter what I ask him,
Penn will always answer with a simple yes.
Penn, are you ready?
- Yes.
- Good so far.
Do you have an object in your hand?
- Yes.
- I love the enthusiasm.
- Am I the better half of the Alans?
- Yes.
- Seriously? - Did you hear that?
Are Penn and Teller better than Criss Angel?
- Yes.
[cheering]
- Couldn't agree more, Penn.
Last question.
Do you have the red bad thing in your hand?
- Yes.
- Exactly. You've been honest this entire time, Penn,
because you do have the red bad thing.
Show everyone. Yes, two for two.
Amazing job, Penn. Great job.
Jason, back to you.
- Oh, hi, Teller. Long time no see.
A lot of people don't know this about you,
but you're an amazing theater director
and two of your greatest achievements
are "The Tempest" and "Macbeth."
Pick one, but try not to pick the one that I want you to pick.
Which one would you like?
You went with Macbeth?
Yes. - Yes.
- I am so excited that you picked this one
and not this one.
That's two for two. So far, so good.
So I should explain a little bit about these tricks.
We're using techniques that allow us to detect lies
and predict human behavior.
- That's right.
And knowing how much you two love mentalism,
I'm sure we can all agree that everything he just said
is complete and utter bullsh--.
[laughing]
- Fantastic show, by the way.
You both deserved Emmys for it.
But that's just me. - Yes, yes, yes.
- Okay, okay, last round. - Okay.
- Penn, this time we're going to make it even more interesting.
- Okay.
- You can come out holding the red bad thing,
the blue good thing, or nothing at all.
- Okay. - Make your final choice, Penn.
Now adding that third decision
makes this already so much more difficult.
But I'm going to make it almost impossible
by never looking at Penn again.
Penn. - Yes.
- Are you ready? - Yes.
And we're better than Criss Angel.
- Love it, love it, yes. - [cheering]
All right, Penn. Say this for me.
- Okay.
- Bad thing, good thing, nothing at all.
- I think I have all the information I need, Penn.
If I get this right, they're going to go crazy.
You have nothing in your hand.
Show everyone.
Yes! Three for three.
[applause]
Jason, back to you.
- All right, let's take this sucking up
to a whole nother level.
Teller, it's such an honor to be here in your presence.
Let alone on your beautiful stage.
So for this final round,
we're going to use what I consider to be
the two greatest magicians of all time.
I'm talking about Penn. And I'm talking about Teller.
So the question is, does Teller prefer Penn
or does he prefer Teller?
[laughing]
Teller, me too, me too.
Sorry, this just got awkward.
I am so excited that you picked this one
and not this one, because that is three for three.
And Teller, this has me super excited.
Let me show you what I mean.
Penn, you're going to want to see this.
Now, even if we didn't get our trophy,
Jason still gets his picture with Teller.
[audience gasps]
Thank you, gentlemen.
- Jason and Stacy Alan, everyone.
What's it like to share the stage
with two of magic's greats?
- It's fantastic. - It's amazing.
It's so amazing to be here.
- Yeah. It's an honor. They're legends.
And we can't tell you how much fun we've had so far.
- Do you think that a little sucking up
is going to help you fool these guys?
- Oh, that's the plan.
- That was the plan all along, yeah.
Absolutely, absolutely.
- Do you think you laid it on thick enough?
- I'm hoping that the comment about are they better
than Criss Angel gets his the trophy I was waiting for.
- Yeah, I hope that works.
- Jason and Stacy, you laid it on thick with that trick.
Let's see if it fooled Penn and Teller.
Boys?
- Stacy, Jason, all the flattery aside,
that was wonderful, the design of this trick.
Just for us, we really appreciated it.
But what Teller noticed right away,
I don't think we've ever seen a husband and wife team
in magic where both partners were equal,
where one was not subordinate to the other.
And that is really wonderful
and gives us hope for the future.
[applause]
We need to see more equal partners in every way.
And that's just the delightful thing about your presentation.
We love the way that you and Teller on one side
of the stage, how you stuck together.
But I got to say, Stacy really made us do the heavy lifting.
She was the one that made us really have
to think a lot about how that was done.
So we worked on both sides.
We worked separately and together.
And I like to think we also worked equally.
And even though Teller likes himself better.
I think we love the routine.
We love how you two work, but we don't think you fooled us.
[applause]
- Well, Jason and Stacey, did he reveal
how you made your magic happen?
- I think so. Thank you. - I think so.
- We love you both. - Thank you so much.
- Thanks so much. - Thank you.
- Thank you for being here with us.
Jason and Stacy Alan.
Hang tight.
We've got more fantastic magic coming your way.
Stick around, everyone.
[applause]
♪ ♪
Welcome back.
This next act needs no introduction, which is good,
because he was late getting here,
so we didn't have time to film one.
Give it up, everyone, for French world champion, Markobi.
[applause]
- Hi, I begin now?
I'm sorry. Just a little bit of time.
- How are you? - Good.
- Can I sit here?
- Absolutely. - Yes.
- So I'm going to show you a trick that I learned on YouTube.
I need someone to say, I need someone card,
to sign a card. Can someone say stop?
- Stop.
- It's like, can you sign the,
can you just sign the card or Brooke?
- I'll, sure.
- Just do something quick,
because there is a timing, all right?
Just something quick, like something that we can see.
Hello, audience.
[laughing]
So we need, I need someone to,
can you, Penn, put the card somewhere in the deck, please?
And yeah, yeah, here, yeah. It's funny, right?
[laughing]
So I just need to put the...
You want a candy bar?
- Yeah. - Yep.
[laughing]
You can...
Yep.
You can eat it if you want, you can eat it if you don't want.
- I'll take it with me.
- Diet? Yeah, that's very funny.
So I need someone to say, sorry, to say stop.
- Stop? - Stop.
So this is a magical moment because this is the card.
[applause]
- I'm just, Teller, I saw you like that,
so I do it again for you, yeah.
Thank you.
[applause]
It's a TV show, so for the audience,
maybe you don't see right, so close up, I show you.
[applause]
To be honest, it's "Fool Us," so I mean, I try to impress you,
it's very difficult, but I don't know,
so this is, you have to impress them. Yeah.
So maybe I could do it with that card,
but let's put somewhere.
For this one I don't have any jokes.
[applause]
My mom told me she loves royal flushes and we are in Vegas,
so let's, I mean, let's take a royal flush for,
I mean, now we have 10, no, it's a king, a queen,
ace, and ten and jacks.
Thank you.
Yeah, forget it, I'm not sure it was in this routine.
So my uncle...
My uncle told me how to find
the kings in the deck.
So this is a king of spades...
This is not really my uncle, it's only for the script, yeah.
And the last...
Yeah, just for you, from here to here,
and now we have one, two, three.
[applause]
Yeah, the...
We want the box? No, we don't.
So maybe the king is a little bit strange,
so maybe we change the cards,
so Penn, can you touch one other card?
This is the same, so can you just touch one other card?
This is the same, so I just need,
we don't need, yeah...
This is a king of...
[laughing, applause]
Touch one card?
This is the same, so we don't, yeah.
Especially I put it here for not to happen this,
so, because this is the king which I'm not really sure,
because in my souvenir it was in my back pocket.
I had one card, which is, actually this is all the cards,
because I have one card here.
As you want.
So my girlfriend just left me one week ago.
- Oh.
- Guys, it's only a joke, sorry.
It was two weeks ago.
Yeah.
So I will put back... what is the time?
Put back the king.
You can do it, but we don't have time,
it's a TV show, so I don't want to ruin it.
So this is a king, a king.
Sorry, and so we can shuffle,
I don't have any script for this part, I'm sorry.
And it's very shuffled.
[bleep]
And maybe we do a little break?
No, yeah. This is chips.
This is gluten free if someone is allergic, so...
This is the cheapest one,
because I don't have money anymore.
It's Las Vegas, so I'm really stressed,
so I didn't have breakfast here.
- These are real chips, guys.
- Good.
Hi audience.
So...
I suddenly want to do fives.
So I want to do fives, so let's do one five.
Let's do a second five.
I told you the script is [bleep].
So...
Let's do them.
One, two, three, oh wait, I didn't count me, we are four.
So let's do four fives, so we can put one here, and one,
we have place, this is the box,
so, can someone say stop?
- Stop. - Stop?
This is five, look there is a five.
Only coincidence.
So what I like to do now is to put my finger
in magic moment, so if we count one, two, three, four, five.
Oh, this is a king.
[applause]
The climax is you're going to touch the signed card,
so I tell you before,
so one, two, three, four, and five,
and there is another king.
Yep.
One, two, three, four, five.
Next to the five, that's very funny,
so there is a king.
[applause]
And one, two, three, four, five.
And, [bleep].
Oh yeah, I told you the climax
is you touch the sign card.
- Sorry. - So...
So, um...
if you just can touch one card
and put it in my hand,
the one you want...
Do you want to change?
[laughing]
- Yeah, I'll change.
Want me to change it or no?
- I mean...
- Oh!
[cheering]
- Markobi, everyone.
I've never seen a card trick like that.
There was a lot going on. that was so much fun.
It's so fun to see Mr. P&T laughing so much.
- Oh, yes.
- I mean, like, how did you come up with this whole thing?
- I mean, it's my life.
- Are you? This is your life.
I kind of believe him.
- Shut up.
- He's fooled us. - He has? Already?
[cheering]
Already? Oh my goodness.
[cheering]
- Today is the best day of my week.
Thank you very much.
[laughing]
- Thank you so much.
Magnifique.
Ah, Fool Us World champion, Markobi, everyone.
Oh my gosh, huh? Yeah.
Penn and Teller just brought the famous Fool Us trophy
down from the rafters.
They might do it one more time when "Fool Us" returns.
♪ ♪
- Welcome back.
Penn and Teller were just fooled by our last act,
and now they've got to shake it off
because another magician is about to perform.
- I'm Luis Olmedo, I'm from Antequera, Spain,
a very good city.
I think that it's one of the most magical cities
in the world, and of course it's the city
where I started in magic.
I was the only magician in Antequera, and I was alone.
I taught myself magic for one year and a half,
and after this I started to meet more magicians.
Years ago, I was a professional handball player.
That was the key for me, because in sports
you have to learn discipline,
and that is the key of my magic.
Now this is where I work out.
I close the door and the time doesn't exist.
I exercise my magic here, 8 hours per day, no excuses.
Magic is my job.
This mindset keeps me focused, and I can do my best.
The act you are about to see won me
the world championship of magic.
First place there, and hopefully a Fool Us trophy here.
Watch closely.
[cheering]
- Please Welcome the award-winning magic
of Luis Olmedo.
[applause]
♪ ♪
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
[audience gasps]
[applause]
- Nice!
Wow!
Wow, wow, wow, Luis Olmedo, everyone!
[applause] - Bravo!
What is it about coin magic that intrigues you?
- It's my favorite object in magic
because I can express everything that I have inside.
- How many times do you think, in practice and on stage,
that you've performed this particular trick?
- Too much. - Too much.
We don't think so. We loved it.
[applause]
What do you hope that the audience
experiences through your performance?
- I hope that they are surprised,
they feel the magic, but I never know.
- Do we feel the magic tonight, everyone?
- [cheering] - Yeah!
Think they loved it.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- All right, let's check in with the boys.
Luis, are you ready to find out if you fooled them?
- Of course. - All right, let's do it.
Boys?
- Luis, this is a hard one for us.
This is a really, really hard one for us
because with all the music and with the leaves and all of that,
it's still a matrix.
It's still a matrix you're laying out
and we've seen a zillion matrices
and even if we don't see stuff,
we kind of sense it and we kind of know how that's done.
So we sit here battling with
knowing things we don't see
and knowing where things are going
and it leads us to say we know how it's done.
Without even seeing a move,
we kind of know and we feel how it's done.
So we sit here getting ready for that and then there's...
I don't even know how to say this,
but there's that moment when all four of them
appear in the upper right and
we didn't expect the four of them
to appear in the upper right.
We expected it to be somewhere else.
So that kind of takes that, we know how the matrix is done
and throws it out the window
because that move and a couple others,
you fooled us. It's as easy as that.
[cheering]
- You fooled them, you fooled them.
We got a fooler, everyone, you did it.
[cheering]
Oh my goodness, what an honor.
Luis Olmedo, everyone.
- Thank you. - Congratulations, Luis.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you very much.
Wasn't he amazing, everyone?
Beautiful.
Penn and Teller just got fooled
and they still have to take on more magicians
before they perform a trick of their own.
So stay close, everyone.
♪ ♪
- Welcome back.
Let me introduce you to our next fantastic act.
- Magic was supposed to be my side hustle.
I was performing when I was six,
but I didn't think I could do it as a job.
Then I went to college and I was poor, like most students.
So I started doing magic as a street performer.
I did 800 20 minute shows in a single summer,
and it changed me.
I was always shy, but somehow
as a performer, I became strong.
Now I actually support my family doing magic.
As a character called Alyx Frost,
I did Christmas magic at a Santa theme park for two years.
Now I'm just me, and I tour around the country.
Travel takes me away from my kids sometimes,
and that hurts a lot, honestly.
So I do what I can to include them in the process.
And that way, even when I can't be with them,
my magic brings them close to me.
It sounds weird to say it,
but there's a lot at stake tonight.
Fooling Penn and Teller,
it could mean a better life for us all.
- Give it up for the magic of Alyx Hilshey.
[applause]
- For the last 10 years, I have tried tirelessly
to impress my kids
with classic sleight of hand...
[whistles] ...magic.
[audience gasps]
[applause]
- My kids are entirely unimpressed,
even when I tell them that that wand will come back
out of the hat.
There it is. [whistles]
But my kids don't care.
I thought they'd flip.
They couldn't care less.
And for that reason, I've decided to use
my deep knowledge of magic for a higher calling
to let parents know that you can get your kids to eat better
if you just learn a little bit of sleight of hand.
I know.
We try to give our kids healthy options:
carrots, celery,
kale, seaweed.
Okay, I don't actually do those last two.
I should probably do those last two.
But still, our kids just want the delicious stuff.
You know, I scream, you scream.
We all scream for...
crackers.
[laughing]
Well, parents, don't worry, I figured it all out.
You're about to learn snack magic.
If you just imagine that you have an invisible shelf,
you can set your crackers there and your kids can't see them.
I know, your snacks are safe.
And if the dog wants one, just hide it in the hat.
Now, if your kids aren't around
and you're feeling a little bit hungry,
you can just reach out and grab your snacks.
[audience gasps]
Thank you. - [applause]
- Remember the one in the hat?
That one comes from the hat. - [audience gasps]
- [applause] - Thank you.
But if you notice that your kids are lurking nearby,
don't worry about it.
Just hang your snacks right back on that shelf
and your snacks are once again safe.
- [applause] - Thank you.
And actually, I don't even have a dog, so...
But I'm going to be leaving soon
and I might get kind of hungry,
so I think I might grab those back.
[applause]
But if your kids start to catch on, don't worry about it.
Just mix it up.
And your snacks...
are entirely safe.
Now, here's one just for Penn and Teller.
You guys know that if you take a little bit
of low sodium magician's dust,
you can actually make those crackers disappear.
- [laughing] - I know.
Figure that one out. Right?
Oh, that's actually a really big mess.
I got it. One second.
Actually, that looks pretty good.
I might save these for later.
[audience gasps]
Mmm.
Thank you guys. Thank you.
But I got to tell you, you can do this
with all kinds of snacks.
It doesn't have to be crackers.
You can even do it with, you know...
Cookies. Mmm.
[applause]
- That's really good.
But maybe your kids have been watching 75 hours
of a TV show about ponies.
And it's not that you don't like ponies.
It's just that's a lot of ponies.
And maybe you just feel like screaming.
But remember, you can always scream
for ice cream.
[audience gasps]
- But Penn, Teller, I don't want to influence you guys,
even though my kids would think it was super cool
if I came home with a trophy.
But I brought you something.
A bribe.
These are for you guys. Thank you so much.
I think you might like the container.
Thanks so much.
- Alyx Hilshey, everyone.
Great job.
Did your kids actually inspire this trick?
- My kids absolutely inspired this trick.
I homeschooled my kids for five years.
And we would sit around the table every single day at lunch.
And I made a lot of grapes disappear.
I made a lot of strawberries disappear.
The magic was really handy to get them
to eat their vegetables.
And why did you homeschool them?
- Well, I had been a college instructor
in electrical engineering.
And I really like teaching.
And I thought, if anybody is qualified to do this,
maybe it's me.
- It looks like Teller is loving your bribe.
Do you think it's going to work?
- I don't know.
- Well, I don't know either. But let's find out.
Boys, are you ready?
- I think we are.
Oh, Alex, you gave Teller ice cream.
Made him very, very happy.
It's great to see a new face in magic.
See it coming along.
We appreciate it being Max Malini ice cream.
We appreciate that very much.
We appreciate the Ramsey crackers.
That was really good, too.
Teller, whenever you're around Teller,
and I hope for your sake you never are,
he always, if he's at a diner or any place,
is always doing sleight of hand with crackers.
He just loves doing it.
So most of those moves I've seen before
done by Teller, unfortunately.
I like them much, much better by you.
It was beautifully done routine, beautifully put together.
You did a wonderful, wonderful job,
and I think I snuck a few things in there
as Teller finishes up your ice cream,
and we don't think you fooled us.
[audience groans]
- Does all that code make sense to you?
What do you think? Did they figure it out?
- They definitely got me. So, but thank you guys.
This was the honor of my life.
- We really enjoyed it.
Thank you for being here with us.
Come back. Alyx Hilshey, everyone.
More top notch tricks for you when fool us returns.
♪ ♪
- Welcome back.
It wouldn't be an episode of "Fool Us"
without a trick from the stars of our show,
so give it up for Penn and Teller.
[cheering]
- The late and very great Johnny Thompson
was our best friend.
He was our mentor, he was the original judge on this show,
"Penn & Teller Fool Us," and he knew all kinds of magic.
He was the greatest magician we've ever met,
he did every kind of magic.
He did doves of course, he did cards,
he did coins, all kinds of close-up.
He did mentalism, he did illusions,
stage illusions, full shows of stage illusions.
He did sword swallowing, fire-eating, carnival stuff,
and I once asked him, I was kind of out of questions,
I once asked him a stupid and obvious question.
I said, Johnny, what's the hardest magic trick
you ever learned?
And he said, to cut a tomato.
Turns out that John earlier in his life got a job
selling cheap knives on the street and at carnivals.
And the way you sold these cheap knives,
you demonstrated how good they were by cutting the tomato.
Now it turns out, doesn't matter how good the knife is,
if the person cutting the tomato is really, really good at it,
and Johnny was so good and so fast at cutting tomatoes,
he could do all the usual lines you do.
You can cut that tomato so thin,
you can feed your family for a week with one tomato.
And you can cut it so thin
that you can read the newspaper through it.
Now, I'm not claiming to be cutting this tomato well,
as a matter of fact, I'm not cutting this tomato well at all,
I'm just demonstrating that John...
You couldn't read through that at all.
I'm just demonstrating that Johnny,
it was beautiful to see him cut a tomato, he was perfect at it.
Now we thought we should do a trick for Johnny
based on cutting a tomato,
and so we're going to take this tomato,
clearly cut in half, and Teller will magically restore it.
That's a trick Johnny would have liked,
the cut and restored tomato.
And there it is in one piece,
a whole tomato that you actually saw cut in half.
Don't believe us?
Take a look at this.
When he puts it down here on the table,
you can see it's a whole tomato.
We made it into a whole tomato.
We took a tomato that was cut in half,
then into a whole tomato.
You can see it every angle there, it's a whole tomato.
Some of you would say, wait a minute,
that was all done with mirrors.
And it wasn't all done with mirrors,
that's a whole tomato.
[audience gasps]
A whole tomato for Johnny Thompson.
Okay, and now it looks like two tomatoes.
See Tell? It looks like two tomatoes.
Now it's because it's a mirror, it looks like two tomatoes.
[applause]
So that's for you, Johnny Thompson,
and I'm not going to practice the cutting anymore.
Two tomatoes.
- All right.
You say tomato,
I say goodnight everyone, we'll see you next time.
♪ ♪