Original subtitles

[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]

♪ ♪

- Tonight, our magicians will climb into the ring

and try to drop the flying elbow of illusion

right between the eyes of our magic ring masters.

Can they body slam their way to a "Fool Us" trophy?

Or, will they be stopped by a pile driver of proof?

Now, give it up for our enchanted tag team champions,

Penn and Teller!

[cheers and applause]

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

Wow.

Remember, if Penn and Teller get fooled,

they give away a slot in their world-famous magic show,

a classy trophy, and international bragging rights.

With that in mind, let's meet our first performer.

- I heard the saying that nothing makes math sexier

than a board game or a magic trick,

and I completely agree.

I do a show called "Super Nerd,"

which features magic, mystery,

and recreational mathematics.

Yeah, I'm definitely a super nerd.

I love all things nerdy.

I'm not a full-time magician,

and I've never actually wanted to be.

Because I don't rely on magic for my income,

my friend and I started a charity

which allows us to perform the shows we want to perform,

but all the money goes to charities we want to support.

Creating the trick I'm here to do tonight

has been a bit like playing a "Fool Us" board game.

Hopefully, Penn and Teller like board games

as much as I do,

because tonight, I came to play.

[cheers and applause]

- Please welcome Caleb Wiles!

- I've been preparing for this show

in an interesting way.

Every night, I sit in my room and I play a board game.

A very specific board game,

one that I actually created myself.

And I brought that game along with me tonight

to share with all of you.

I call it "Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Home Edition."

[laughter]

Alyson, would you like to play? - Sure!

- Let's give her a round of applause!

[cheers and applause] Thank you, Alyson!

Now, Alyson, the set up to this game is very simple.

We just need to decide on a target playing card.

Now if you're playing at home, you can do this at random,

but since we have Penn and Teller here,

I thought maybe they could help us decide on the target card.

So, Teller, in a moment,

I'm gonna ask you to choose a value.

Penn, you will choose a suit,

and together, we will combine your choices

to create a card that no one could've possibly known.

Teller, what value would you like?

A king? A king, and Penn, the suit.

- Spades. - The king of spades,

that will be our target card.

Now, Alyson, the object of this game is to find that

target card in a magic trick, that's how you win.

- Okay. - Okay, and in fact

if you find the King of spades tonight,

I guarantee, you will go home with the trophy.

- Hey, I like it. - Yeah.

[cheers and applause]

- Well, that's because I 3-D printed

one "Fool Us" trophy myself.

- Aww, that's pretty cute.

I'd take it.

I would definitely take it.

- Now, Alyson, inside this box

is literally everything we need

to play a game of "Fool Us" at home.

For example, I have the official

"Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Home Edition"

deck of playing cards. - Aw.

- And inside this deck of playing cards,

I have two very special jokers.

These are jokers you'll actually recognize.

As we spread the pack, you'll see there's Penn.

- Mm, Big joker.

- And there's Teller. - Aww.

- Now if we have Penn and Teller,

you know what else we need, Alyson.

- What? - We need the official

"Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Home Edition" judges' chairs.

- Aww.

- You see, this is where Penn and Teller

will sit to watch your trick.

And at the end, maybe, they'll tell us what they think.

My favorite component is actually the official

"Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Home Edition" stage.

- Ohh.

- Yes, 'cause this is where we display the trophy, yes.

And just like in the real show, the trophy...

- Oh, yeah. - Hangs high up in the air.

- Aww.

- And remember, Alyson,

if you find that King of spades,

that trophy belongs to you.

- Well, I'm going home with that trophy.

- Now that the stage is set. [chuckles]

Now that the stage is set,

it's time to introduce our performers for this evening.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Caleb and Alyson!

- Hey!

[cheers and applause]

Now, Alyson, that is everything we need to play

a game of "Fool Us."

- Great! - Now, Alyson, remember,

the object of this game is to find the King of spades,

wherever it happens to be in the deck.

And we'll do this with a little help from Penn and Teller.

Alyson, would you lift off about half of those cards.

And I'll place Penn and Teller in at that exact location.

You can actually drop the whole pile right back on top.

- Oh.

- We'll sort of bury them in the middle

and hold it face down in your hands.

- Easier said than done.

- You're doing great.

Now, earlier, we had the real Penn and Teller work together

to create a playing card.

That's how they chose their card,

and in a moment, miniature Penn and Teller

are gonna do the same thing.

All you have to do is give the cards a little shake like this.

Perfect, a professional.

Now you can spread the cards face down across the table.

- Aw, man.

- You're doing good. You're doing good.

- I should really practice during the down season.

- We are hunting for those Penn and Teller cards,

I think I see one of them poking out here.

- I do too. - There's Teller.

- I see Teller! - Keep spreading,

I think there's Penn. - Hey!

- Something has happened, Alyson!

There is now one card face down in between.

That's the card that they picked.

And wouldn't it be amazing if they picked the same card

as the real Penn and Teller. - Yeah.

- Do you remember what we're looking for?

- The king of spades. - The king of spades.

Go ahead and turn it over yourself.

- What? - You did it!

[cheers and applause]

Now, you are right, Alyson, you won the game,

so you win the trophy.

- Yay! - And let's give it up

for Alyson Hannigan!

[cheers and applause]

- Ah.

- Now, Alyson, I'm very happy you won the game.

- Me too.

- And I'm glad you earned the trophy.

But I have to admit, I'm hoping that maybe I can go home

with the trophy tonight as well.

That's why there's one more phase to this game.

You see, when I was designing all of these components

for the game, I tried to simulate

this "Fool Us" experience as closely as possible.

But I don't just mean "Fool Us" in general,

I mean this specific "Fool Us" experience.

You see, even though Penn and Teller

could have worked together

to select any one of these 52 playing cards,

I knew that Teller would want to go for a king.

And that Penn would want to go for the spades.

And that together, they would create the king of spades.

- Ahh.

Yay. - And that's how you play

"Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Home Edition."

- Aww.

Caleb Wiles!

[cheers and applause]

This is so creative. - Yes.

My two passions in life are magic and board games,

so I thought I had to combine the two

if I was gonna come on "Fool Us."

It was many weekends up late at night.

It was a lot of work, but I wouldn't have been able

to do it without all my family and friends helping me out.

- And is it designed to always win?

- Yes, it was rigged in your favor, Alyson.

- That's my favorite type of magic trick.

Hopefully it's rigged in your favor too.

- We'll see.

- All right, it's time to put Penn and Teller on the spot.

Guys!

- Oh, we're so flattered. What a lot of work.

- Yes. - That's beautiful.

We don't even wanna talk about your trick.

We just wanna talk about the home game.

- Yes.

- The home game seems like such a great idea.

It wouldn't only be this trick, right?

There would be other tricks. - Sure, yeah.

- So there would be a whole index in there

of how you pick which trick

you're gonna do and all of that,

and is this a durable home game?

I mean, once you've played with the deck for a while,

would you have another deck you could bring in after that,

so it would never wear out?

Just keep going, playing the home game forever?

- Yeah, yeah. - Now, you'd been working

on this for a while, right? - Yeah.

- So all the directions that are in there,

you have them memorized, I'm sure.

- I do. - This is a great,

great idea for "Fool Us."

We'd be playing at home.

I think you've worked out absolutely all the problems,

and as far as the trick, we had a couple ideas in there.

- Okay. - About how you did it.

- So based on those clues, did they figure out your trick?

- I have to say, I was really hoping

to go home with a trophy tonight,

so it's a good thing I printed extras.

- Done. - Yay.

Cheers. - Yes.

Aw, Caleb Wiles.

- Thank you so much!

Thank you!

[cheers and applause]

- More magicians take the stage when we come back.

And later on, Penn and Teller perform too.

Stick around.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

[jazz music]

[cheers and applause]

- We're back with more "Fool Us" fun.

Let's meet our next magician.

- Hi, I'm D.K. from South Korea.

The way he plays with shadow intrigues me.

- Please welcome the mind-bending magic of D.K.!

[cheers and applause]

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

[applause]

♪ ♪

[metallic clinking]

[applause]

[applause]

[applause]

[hollow thud]

[audience oohs]

[applause]

[applause]

[applause]

♪ ♪

[audience oohs]

[applause]

[applause]

D.K! Aw.

That was so beautiful. - [speaking Korean]

- Thank you so much.

- Yeah, how does it feel to perform in Vegas?

- [speaking Korean]

- Well, it's such an honor to me

for having this amazing night with Penn and Teller

and all of you guys here in Vegas.

I don't know what to say, but it feels like I'm dreaming.

- Aww. - Yeah.

- Well, that's lovely.

All right, Penn and Teller

have had enough time to think it over,

so let's see if you fooled them.

Guys!

- D.K., what a great routine.

Just loved it. Really loved it.

And, you know... [applause]

with that kind of

high-concept, beautiful thing,

you're almost guaranteed for Teller to like it.

That's the kind of thing Teller loves.

Teller's the kind of child that walked around his room

with a flashlight, and objects and looking at them.

I'm not that kind of child.

That's the kind of stuff that you were doing,

kind of stuff that categorically I don't like.

I love this.

And you're able to do something that thoughtful,

that perfectly laid out,

and still not have it feel pretentious,

and that is a huge magic trick in itself.

It's not precious.

It's just beautiful.

And that line is hard to draw.

[applause]

And, um...

the routine used mechanical stuff,

it used science, it used raw sleight-of-hand,

it used this genius move of having the screen

being necessary to cause the magic,

and also necessary to accomplish the magic.

We've seen a lot of beautiful acts on this show,

and this is my favorite,

'cause of your humility and your raw skill.

Having said all that, it's very difficult

to speak in code, although in this case,

maybe speaking English really fast would work.

But, um...

because there were so many different beats,

I'd like to sum it up to say it was beautiful.

I don't think it fooled us, and I don't care.

It's gorgeous.

- So do you believe that they know

how you did your trick?

They figured it out?

- [speaking Korean]

[speaking Korean]

- No matter if Penn and Teller actually got it or not,

my intention wasn't to really fool you guys,

but to perform my own.

- You did it beautifully. - You did it beautifully.

[applause]

Thank you so much.

D.K.!

[cheers and applause]

- Don't go anywhere.

That's an order from the top, me!

Stick around.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

[jazz music]

[cheers and applause]

- Welcome back.

I promised more magic was coming up,

and I'm a woman of my word.

Check out our next potential fooler.

- I went to my dad's work one summer, and some guy said

"Come here, kid." He reached behind my ear,

pulled out a quarter, he gave it to me,

and I said "Dad, who was that guy?"

He said, "Oh, it's a magician friend of mine."

Magicians can make money appear out of thin air?

I want that job.

After graduating college,

I got a regular job working at a bank.

I couldn't help but do magic all the time.

Just trying to get customers to open accounts,

showing them magic tricks.

Now I do 400 shows a year

and I get to travel with my wife and daughter.

I love it so much.

I lost my dad to Parkinson's Disease

when I was 25 years old.

Now that we've had some success in our career,

we work with a Parkinson's Disease Charity

in memory of my dad.

If my dad could see my career now, he would be so proud,

'cause I know he still taking care of me.

[cheers and applause]

- Please welcome Virginia's own Wes Iseli!

[cheers and applause]

- Wow. Wow.

I can't believe I'm here tonight.

Thank you guys so much for having me on.

I'm gonna try to fool Penn and Teller

with nothing more than a half dollar and a prediction.

Alyson, can I borrow you for one second?

Do you have a pocket you can slip this into?

- Yes. - Yes, perfect.

So just, that's a prediction.

I gave it to you before the trick started.

Just remember that, okay? - Okay.

- I also need you to examine this half dollar.

Check it out, make sure nothing tricky is going on.

In a second, we're gonna play the world's largest game

of heads and tails.

I need everyone in the room to go ahead and stand up.

Penn and Teller, you too please,

if you could also stand up.

Now in playing the world's

largest game of heads and tails,

if everybody just yells out "heads and tails,"

there's no way I would know who said what.

- Right.

- So you're gonna have to give me a sign or signal.

So the signal I made up for "heads" looks like this.

So go ahead, everybody show me heads.

Okay, and tails his hands by your side.

Perfect, perfect.

How's the coin, everything good?

- It's a coin. - You're gonna be the eyes

and ears of the audience, so when I flip the coin

in the air and throw it on my hand,

you have to tell everyone how it landed,

like right now, it is...

- Heads. - And this way would be?

- Tails. - I had a lady say "Eagle side"

the other day, you're already doing better than her.

You're doing great, you're doing great.

Now, I have to trust you on this,

because I'm gonna be looking at the audience.

- Okay. - All right, here we go.

Round one, you guys ready? Here we go, ready?

One, two, three, choose.

Perfect.

- Heads! - Heads.

Now, all the tails, have a seat.

See how quickly I eliminate the audience?

- Ohh.

- Penn and Teller. Okay, all right, here we go.

They're already out. This is good, this is good.

I think I've already fooled them, I think it's great.

All right, ready? You guys can relax

between the rounds, relax between rounds.

Round two, here we go. One, two, three, choose.

- Tails. - All the heads have a seat.

- [chuckles]

- Perfect.

Here we go.

Choose.

- Tails.

- Whoo! - All the heads have a seat.

- I think they think they're gonna win the coin.

- Okay, now here's the thing, guys, here's the thing.

You are gonna win a grand prize,

I promise you, you're gonna win a grand prize for playing.

Here we go, ready? One, two, three, choose.

- Heads. - Tails have a seat.

All right, we're trying to eliminate these people.

Here we go. Ready, choose.

- Heads. - Tails have a seat.

Okay, winner gets a grand prize, here we go.

One, two, three, choose.

- Tails. [chuckles]

- Down to three.

- Final three. - Here we go.

He's already going up.

Man, wait for the coin flip, man, ready?

One, two, three, choose.

- Tails! Ahh!

- All right, all right, all right.

It's you, sir, against you. - Oh, boy.

- Don't pick the same thing.

So far in the game, you guys picked the same thing

every round.

Here we go. Choose.

- Tails.

[cheers and applause] - This guy just won!

Give this guy a big round of applause!

Come on up here, sir, come on up.

All right.

Good job, good job.

You're gonna stand right here for me, sir, right here.

Face the audience, perfect. I like the--I like purple, man.

That's my favorite color, I like it. It looks good.

I have a prediction over here.

Alyson, for the first time, can you open that up?

- Okay. - Read that out loud, it says--

- It says "the luckiest person will be wearing a black jacket,

purple shirt, glasses, and has a beard."

- Come on, guys!

[cheers and applause]

You're awesome, thank you.

If everyone could give this guy a big round of applause.

You were awesome, man. Go back to your seat.

Thank you very much. - Wes Iseli, everyone!

[cheers and applause]

Wow.

So, what's the best part of magic for you?

- Just the fact that I get to do it with my family.

- Your daughter performs as well?

- Yeah, I have an eight-year-old daughter,

and she's on the road with us, my wife and daughter and I.

- Wow, and when did she start performing?

- When she was four days old.

- Four days. - Four days old.

So my wife was told that we were gonna have a baby

December 31st.

That's great, but that's New Year's Eve.

That's a big night for magicians.

So I'm like if I'm not at this show, I could get sued.

If I'm not there for the birth of my child,

my wife's gonna kill me.

- Yeah. - Dude, what can we do?

So we induced her, she was born on the 28th

and four days later,

we took a final bow with her at the end of the show, so.

- Aww, that's fantastic. - There you go, yeah.

- Aww. Is she here tonight?

- Yes, my wife and daughter are in the audience.

Wave, girls, wave.

- Hi. - There they are.

- Aww.

All right, well let's go to the guys

and to see if you fooled them.

- All right. - Penn, Teller.

- I got to tell you, Wes.

First thing Teller said to me,

"That is the most Penn trick we've ever had on the show."

That is a trick I have been trying to do

for about ten years.

I always want the entire audience

to be voting and be eliminated.

I'm always looking for that.

As soon as you started it, started the premise,

I was just crazy in love with this routine.

I don't care what Teller thinks of it.

Although Teller liked it, I liked it more.

[applause]

We also loved the fact that you traveled here with just a coin.

Now, here's where we come down to where the game

is actually played, okay?

We first thought that you were taking a glimpse of the coin

before you decided head or tails.

We decided you didn't do that.

We know you did not get a glimpse.

We think there's a switch there after she examined it

and you're using a gaffed coin.

We're trusting you on your honor, is the coin gaffed?

Not a gaffed coin at all?

- No, sir.

[scattered applause]

- Shut up!

[laughter]

- I think that was his wife.

- No, no, we're not done-- we're not done yet.

Okay, there's nothing I like more than chance.

We're in Las Vegas, Nevada. - Uh-oh.

- Pull out the damn coin, pull out the coin.

Put it in your hand.

You flip it in the air,

you catch it, I'm gonna call it.

If I call it correctly, you didn't fool us.

- Ohh.

- If I call it wrong, you fooled it.

Same way you did it.

- Well, stand up and play the game.

- I will play the game.

- Ohh. [cheers and applause]

- Here we go. - Okay.

- You're gonna get it wrong. - I don't think so.

- Ohh.

- Choose.

- Tails!

[wild cheering]

- Oh, my gosh. No way.

[cheers and applause]

- So good. So good.

[indistinct chatter]

- Whoo!

[cheers and applause] Wes Iseli!

His wife and kid.

Penn and Teller got knocked out by this last trick.

We'll send them back into their corner

and have them ready for another round,

when we come back.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

- Welcome back to "Fool Us."

Curious about our next act?

I'll let you take a peek right now.

- I grew up with a family of magicians.

My dad and my mom worked together.

I was my dad's little assistant,

starting when I was five years old.

Bringing props on stage, bringing tables on stage,

and just getting used to being in front of an audience.

Since I was a little girl,

I loved to read fashion magazines.

Fashion for me was always life.

Fashion just expresses your personality.

Then I thought I could use fashion to do some magic.

There aren't any books about how to do fashion magic,

so I had to invent all by myself.

I cannot show you a single card trick,

but I can show you a thousand things

with fashion.

It's something quite new in the world of magic,

because not that many magicians do it.

Penn, Teller, you've seen magicians with amazing hands,

but not like this.

[cheers and applause]

- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Alana!

[cheers and applause]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

[screaming]

♪ ♪

[laughter]

[audience oohs]

[applause]

[applause]

[cheers and applause]

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- Hello.

[cheers and applause]

- Alana!

Wow, hi.

That was incredible.

- Thank you very much.

- I kept going back and forth between watching you,

and then watching Teller's face watching you.

- Oh, good, good. - 'Cause he was so entertained.

- That's great, yeah.

- And how long have you been performing this?

- This is been performing for quite a few years now.

It's like my signature piece that I love to do,

that I'm doing all over the world.

And I just love fashion, so I thought I would combine

these two passions, magic and fashion,

and make it into one big weird thing, you know?

And that's what I just love to do.

- Okay, looks like they're ready.

Boys? - Boys?

- Alana, we've seen a lot more than just your act here.

We really feel like this is a major change in magic.

You know, we have ranted and raved

about how the boys club has never let women in.

And magicians are stuck

using the techniques of people

that wore tuxedos with tails.

And all of that had this stuff built in.

And I've never seen an act like this before.

Neither of us have.

Where you've taken clothes

that look contemporary and beautiful and natural,

and used all these wonderful manipulative techniques.

It's just incredible.

I mean, I would like to think that this act will spawn

hundreds of women ripping you off.

I mean, that's what I'm hoping for.

- Thank you.

- The stuff you've built into this, just beautiful.

And as we went by in real time,

there were--every move we couldn't figure out.

And then we had to go back and think a little bit.

We didn't know at the moment,

then we had to think back and do the work.

We so wanna say you fooled us,

but I don't think you did,

but I do believe that right now, on this stage,

you changed magic for the future.

- Thank you, that's very important for me.

[applause] - That's amazing.

So do you agree that you didn't fool them?

- Yeah, I was sure, I'm just very proud to be here,

presenting this to you, my heart, my passion,

and I hope it can inspire a lot of girls to do it.

- Oh, yeah, it's so good. - Thank you very much.

- Beautiful. - Thank you, Alana!

[cheers and applause]

If you've been waiting to see Penn and Teller

perform some magic of their own, you're in luck.

Penn and Teller are up next.

Stick around.

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

[jazz music]

[cheers and applause]

- Joined by Jon and Owen of The Passing Zone,

here to close out our show is our own legendary duo,

Penn and Teller!

[cheers and applause]

- Juggling and magic are kind of siblings

in the variety arts, and we usually do magic,

we all--both do a little bit of juggling.

Teller's gonna do some juggling for you now,

and he's gonna build a card castle.

Now this is a kinda juggling that's balanced juggling,

and very, very delicate.

So as he's doing this, please, no sudden movements,

and certainly no flash photography.

Be respectful as Teller builds a card castle for you here.

You know, Teller,

The Passing Zone, you know, Jon and Owen,

the great jugglers--probably the best in the world.

They were on our show last year.

They're in town, and they love juggling of all kinds.

I wonder if I can invite them out to watch you.

Would that be okay?

Jon, Owen, come on out

and just watch what Teller's doing.

It's really astonishing, it's so, so delicate and careful.

The kind of juggling you don't see often.

- Yes, Teller, that is great.

- I love that already. - Oh, yeah.

- It's really nice. - Yeah.

[laughter]

- Once again, be respectful, no flash photography.

[laughter]

- Such great precision. - Yeah.

- It's just really beautiful. - Up.

- It's beautiful, Jon.

- Still going. Still going.

- Wow, that's incredible. - Hey.

I got the saw. - Okay.

And I've got the stun guns. - [laughs] Start 'em up.

[stun guns crackling]

[chain saw revving]

[cheering and laughter]

Look at that! Oh, hey!

- Here you go. - Penn! Great idea!

- Take the middle ones there. - Yeah.

- I love it. - Yeah, this is nice.

- Very cool. - Look at that.

No flash photography, please. Teller's doing a beautiful job.

- Here we go, up, down.

[cheers and applause]

Up.

There it is. - Okay, there we go.

Nicely done, Penn.

- Nicely done, Penn. Hey, one more thing.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go get it.

- Yeah, please, once again, no flash photography,

Teller needs to focus and concentrate.

[laughter]

- Are you guys ready? - Ready.

- Let's do this. - Here we go.

- Remember, no flash photography.

Let Teller focus.

- I almost forgot the blindfold.

- Oh, yeah. - I'm ready.

Penn, tell him where to throw.

Now.

- Higher! - Now.

- Higher!

- Now.

- To the right!

- Now!

- To the left!

Beautiful.

Come on, look at this.

That's really amazing.

- Oh, man. - Just glorious.

- Oh, you guys. You guys, look!

Look, he's done it! Teller's done it.

Oh, that's incredible. - So amazing.

- Let me just get that.

- [stammering] - Oh.

- I thought I said no--

No...

There was supposed to be no-- - I'm so sorry, Teller.

- Aww. - Sorry.

- Wow. Whoo!

Well. Hi!

That wraps it up for us here at "Fool Us."

Don't be a stranger, come back for another episode soon.

Good night from Las Vegas.

[cheers and applause]