Original subtitles

(air whooshing)

- [Narrator] Illusion, the art of tricking the brain,

distorting the senses, challenging perception.

You can't trust what you see, even with your own eyes.

Meet the Masters of Illusion.

(audience applauding)

- Hello, good evening everyone

I'm Dean Cain and welcome to Masters of Illusion.

How would you describe an illusion?

You might say it's the impression or the perception

of something that in reality is not as it seems.

So I wonder, are they real

or are they just bending our minds?

Well, I have a feeling we're about to find out,

are you ready?

- Yeah.

(audience applauding)

- These wavy lines seem to jump out of this illustration.

They create motion while actually nothing is moving.

Creating something that only exists in your mind

is exactly the intent of our Masters of Illusion.

You'll find out.

(audience applauding)

Our next performer comes from Seattle Washington

and has a very unique ability to surprise his targets,

catching them completely off-guard.

Watch the very clever manipulations of Louis Foxx.

(audience applauding)

- Oh, oh, thank you.

So I'm gonna show you the oldest card trick in the world.

This trick is so old, dinosaurs did this to cave man.

Now I need someone from the audience.

Someone wanna help out.

You do?

What hand I like to?

Oh, what's your name?

- Anthony. Anthony, would you come up?

Will y'all give Anthony a big round of applause.

(audience applauding) Alright,

Anthony, you're gonna take any one of these you like.

Do not let me see it.

You're gonna show it to the audience.

Go for it.

Grab one.

Oh, alright.

Got it.

Show it to them, show it to them, show it to them.

Perfect.

Show it back here.

Excellent, perfect.

Hang on to it.

I'm going to go grab my dinosaur, all right.

Slip that in your pocket.

I'm gonna step backstage, while I do that,

you're welcome to tell a joke or dance, whatever.

(upbeat music)

(audience applauding)

One card, what was your card?

Show it to everyone.

That's exactly what I have.

(chiming bells)

(audience applauding)

Thank you all.

- Originally from England,

please welcome the very funny,

and pretty talented, Nick Lewin.

(upbeat music) (audience applauding)

- How y'all doing?

It is so nice to be here.

Today's copy of the Utter Today.

This fine piece of journalism.

This is what people used to get their news from

before they had smartphones.

Watch it closely.

You can't argue with hands like these.

I've studied the martial arts,

I have a black belt in origami.

(audience laughing)

Now watch, I'm gonna create an illusion.

The illusion of tearing this newspaper in half.

(paper tearing)

Now, I'm not really gonna do it,

I'm just gonna create the illusion.

Felt pretty convincing,

I'm tearing it in half or half, if you say, I'm English.

(audience laughing)

I'm not gonna rip another tear, torn into little pieces.

He's got the strength of Hulk Hogan,

Huh, the body of Fred Flintstone

Watch the actual pieces of paper,

torn like that, ripped

into perfectly even,

(tearing) pieces.

Now you might've seen a magician

who could take a newspaper like that,

and they really look torn up, don't they?

That's kind of scary.

He could just do this and instantly they restore.

I can't do that.

(audience laughing)

Actually, I can.

I wanna do it for you.

I'm gonna do it in slow motion.

And that is the toughest way to fool any audience

with any kind of magic,

because it's the quickness of the hand

that deceives the eye.

Now watch.

In slow motion you really may believe

that you see that newspaper getting bigger.

In fact, if you're watching that closely,

you might even think you see those torn edges

start to blend together.

In fact you might even think

you see that newspaper totally restored.

But that could never happen.

That would be just an illusion.

And this is just today's copy

of the Utter Today.

Thank you very much indeed. (audience applauding)

There you go, thank you.

- [Narrator] amazing

is the only way to describe Richard Turner.

(audience applauding)

- Sometimes we see a performance that is so impressive.

It takes magic to a whole nother level.

Our next performer is an inspiration to everyone.

At age seven, he began losing his eyesight,

but it never stopped him from becoming

one of the world's most skillful card technicians.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Richard Turner.

- Hey, hey, hey! (audience applauding)

How many of you've ever played my favorite game,

seven-card stud?

Say yes.

- Yes.

- I want you to see,

I have a pack of playing cards

what you see it's called a casino wash.

And, would you please tell everybody your name?

- Hi, I'm Alexis.

This is Alexis, and your name?

- Mark.

- Alexis, would you give that deck a shuffle

anyway you like?

Shuffle up.

Well, do the best you can.

You're gonna be doing a lot of shuffling,

so time to warm up.

- Oh, yeah. - Yeah.

(shuffling cards)

That's good, would you just set them here when you're happy.

- Perfect, there you go.

- How many have ever played cards for money?

Say yes.

- Yes

- Now we're gonna play my favorite game, seven-card stud.

Mark, pick a number of players four

or five, for time sake.

- Let's do four.

- Where do you want to sit, Mark?

One, two, three, or four, pick your position.

- Three

- Four and three, one, two.

Here's Mark right here, number three.

Now watch this.

Alexis, I want you to take these cards, mix them up.

Don't give me the whole deck back,

just pull out a random stack.

Just give the deck a quick mix or cut or whatever you want.

And put a stack of cards in my hand.

Alexis is gonna do everything she can

to screw things up for Mark.

- Oh, awesome.

- Oh, awesome.

We have player one to four.

Now we have player one, player two,

here's Mark, right here number three.

Take them back to Alexis,

mix them all together

and hand me any part of the deck you want.

Just hand me any random stack out of that deck.

That's three cards less than last time

and we are playing for it.

Now we have what are called the door cards,

that means the face-up cards.

Here's one, here's two, and here's Mark.

Mark, what's that card?

- It's the Queens of spade.

- The queens are wild,

mix them up, mix them up,

(laughing)

take them all.

-I love Queens. - Oh I love Queens too.

All right, and we have player four.

We have player one, player two, player Mark.

What was that card, Mark?

- The Queen of diamonds.

- How is she doing this?

Mix them up, take them back, mix them up, mix them up.

Hand me any part of that deck you want,

we're playing seven-card stud.

We're playing high spade in the hole splits the pot.

Hand me any random part of that deck.

Oh, that's four cards less than last time.

She getting stingy, stingy around this joint

and player one, two, here's Mark.

What's that card?

- The King of hearts.

- So, yeah, it's ripped Kings right now

because those Queens are wild.

Mix them up.

Hi, hand me a stack of cards.

- All right.

I've really mix them up.

- She's really mix, Ooh, she's getting generous too.

Player four, player one, player two,

you chose number three.

What's that card, Mark?

Ace of diamonds.

Oh, mix them up,

this'll be the last card, last card.

Mix up, once again, she's shuffling candidly.

And the point is, even if the deck was face up

and you could see every card coming off the deck,

or if they had a giant in-boxed,

A on the A and a K on the K,

to do anything under these conditions

would have been inconceivable.

It was just for the heck with this, (indistinct) with me.

You've mixed up those right before I deal

Mark's last card, right before I deal Mark's last card.

Player three, player four,

put that with the rest of the stack.

Once again, you shuffled cards, four players,

three to win, seven-card stud high spade splits a pot.

What's that card Mark?

- Two of diamonds.

- Now it's not a wild card, what's that?

- Ace of diamond

- Ace

- King of hearts. - King

- Queen of diamonds. - Queen.

We're gonna put it with the Ace because it's wild.

What's that? - Queen of spades.

- So that equals three ACEs.

What's that card?

- (laughing) ACE of spades.

- That's half the pot, ACE of spades,

high spade in the hole.

what's that?

- Jocker of.

- It doesn't matter because you have four ACEs,

high spade in the hole.

But you shuffled, you cut, you chose how many players,

you chose where you wanted to sit.

All I did was cheat.

(audience applauding)

- Let's turn our focus now on our audience camera

and the closeup manipulations of a Master from Tokyo.

Please, welcome, Japan's Shoot Ogawa.

(upbeat music) (audience applauding)

Hello, hello everyone.

I have a new friend here, hi, what's your name?

- My name is Carrie.

- Carrie, okay Carrie, nice to meet you.

My name is Shoot.

- Nice to meet you. (sighs deeply)

- Okay, nice to meet you.

All right, so we're gonna do magic together.

So it's very important.

So I use a whole deck of cards here

and I need your help.

Only take one card out, so just take one,

but don't face up, okay.

- Okay. - Yep, very good.

And don't show me and remember yourself, first.

You remember and show it to the camera.

Okay, I don't want to see it.

All right, you got it. - Yes.

- You remember? - Yes.

- Okay, put it back.

Good, alright.

I wanna find out your card with the suits.

Just tell me the suit, not number, the value.

- Heart.

- Heart, okay.

(shuffling cards)

Okay, just say yes or no.

Was your card, like, a three of hearts?

- No.

- Nope, okay.

But this card has the three of hearts.

- That's right.

- That's right, three of hearts.

Okay, so I hope we can see well, for the camera.

Can you see between my finger?

So they're the dots, right?

Like three hearts here.

You can see only two of them,

but I can say that this heart's closer to the number,

like almost cartoon, like animation,

little by little, like that way.

Do you know this is the smallest strick in this theater?

So now it's moved and now it becomes six of hearts.

Your card is six of hearts?

- Wow, no.

- No, also upside down six and nine is very similar.

(mumbles)

It's a nine?

- Yes. (audience applauding)

- Now you'll be happy, I'm happy.

Thank you for your help.

Thank you very much.

(audience applauding)

- [Narrator] The impossible

is made possible by Anna DeGuzman.

(audience applauding)

(upbeat music)

(air whooshing)

Our next performer is a young lady

who distracts her subjects with her sweetness.

But beware, her magic is very deceiving.

Here is Anna DeGuzman.

(audience applauding)

- I need the help of a very special, lucky gentlemen.

You sir, would you mind helping me?

Give him a round of applause?

(audience applauding)

Thank you, sir.

Hi, what's her name?

- Tim.

- Tim, Lovely to meet you.

You're gonna help me,

you're gonna be my lovely, beautiful assistant.

Can you take one of these cups please?

Thank you, we're going to cheers.

Okay, (water pouring)

what are we cheersing to?

(water pouring)

- A healthy life?

- A healthy life, a magical year, right?

Cheers, cheers everyone at home.

Thank you.

And so could you hold the cup over your head?

Yes.

We're gonna do a little magic incantation, okay.

- Okay.

- What are the magical words?

- Abracadabra.

- Okay, that's pretty basic.

We'll go with abracadabra.

Classic, okay, ready?

We're gonna do a one, two, three abracadabra,

and then turn the cup over, okay.

- Okay, nope, What?

- Just trust me, right?

If you believe in yourself, it'll work, okay.

I'll go first, ready?

Do you still feel the water?

- Yeah.

- Okay, ready? (audience laughing)

One, two, three, abracadabra.

(audience applauding)

one, two, three.

- Abracadabra.

(audience applauding)

(upbeat music)

Thank you so much Tim for trying .

Give it up for Tim, for being brave enough to come up here.

Thank you so much for your help, Tim, wow.

(audience applauding)

- Our next magician began performing

at the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood,

when he was 15.

His blend of comedy, magic and inventiveness

is more than an invitation to pick a card.

All grown ups, this is Eric Eaton.

(audience applauding)

- Let's get started.

Hi, beautiful young lady,

would you like to do a card trick?

Give her a round of applause.

(audience applauding)

I have a deck of cards now

whenever you're ready say stop.

- Stop.

- Right there? - Yeah.

- Perfect.

We'll try that again, ready?

- Stop. - Right there, perfect.

Take a look at your card.

Please, show everyone here your card.

Do not show me.

I'm pretty sure I've seen that card before.

Now I have a pen here.

Be careful, it's Sharpie.

Can I get you to mark that card

so you can identify it later?

Put maybe your name, your number, just something,

so we know it's truly yours.

(audience laughing)

Perfect, I'll take that.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're going to lose your card somewhere in this deck.

Now, over here, I have the fish

swimming in the aquarium, correct?

Slowly going, now, if I can get you to step aside,

I want you to watch right here.

I want you to imagine your card

being right here on the face of the aquarium.

Watch this, one, two.

(siren blaring)

Three, one card goes right thru the aquarium.

(audience applauding)

Now just to verify that we have one card,

can you verify it?

Is that your signature? - Yeah

- Everyone give her a round of applause.

(audience applauding)

Thank you so much.

- From Dallas, Texas,

please welcome, Trigg Watson.

(upbeat music) (audience applauding)

- Thank you it's Genelle, yes? -Yeah!

- Genelle I have here in this bandana,

some things that everyone is familiar with,

a magic prop that everyone can do magic with.

- Okay.

- Any guesses?

- No.

- It is candy. - Yeah.

- 'Cause everyone can make candy disappear.

That's an easy trick.

All right, I'm gonna try here.

We're gonna try it a little different way, though.

I want you to hold onto this, hold out your hand like that.

That's perfect, all right.

I'm going to try and make that candy there,

disappear out of your hand.

Hold on, good and tight.

Don't let go, all right.

That's perfect.

Imagine that candy just slowly disappearing.

Did you feel it disappear?

- No.

- Say yes.

- Yes.

- Good answer.

(audience laughing)

And now, to open up your hand again,

look, it's back again, that's so amazing. OMG!

That's incredible.

Squeeze it really tight, put your other hand on top.

See, now it's harder

'cause now I've got to get through two hands, right?

I'm gonna distract you with a different candy here.

I'm gonna pull out up, let's do this one.

All right, I don't want everyone to get a nice

close-up view of this here.

Check this out, one, don't look over that yellow one.

You still feel it in your hands?

One, two, three.

(audience applauding)

That is the yellow one inside my hand,

yours has the... open up your hands,

show the audience see.

(audience applauding)

(air whooshing)

- [Narrator] The impossible is easy

for the masterful manipulations of, Dan Sperry.

(audience applauding)

(upbeat music)

From the world of darkness comes our next performer.

He claims Minnesota as his home,

but he is from the land of intrigue.

Enjoy the very mysterious, Dan Sperry.

(audience applauding)

- Yay, magic show.

So I like to doodle you, who are you?

- Heather.

- Oh, hi Heather.

I like to doodle a lot.

I was told that, especially when I was young and growing up,

it helped to keep me calm and sort of like zone out.

You know what I mean?

So, I drew you a picture,

I'm not gonna show it to you yet

'cause it's more like a prediction.

You know what that is? - Yeah.

- Yeah, it's something that I think is gonna happen, right?

So I'm actually gonna not show it to you yet.

I wanna tear off the notepad.

I'm gonna fold it up

and I need you to hang on to it with one hand.

And the next thing that we're gonna do

is have you choose a playing card?

Okay, now we can do this the classic way, but I'm too lazy.

So instead, you can see all the different, right?

That's how it goes, all at different,

all the different, whatever.

Just gonna shuffle them up.

And I just need you to say stop

anywhere as I riffle, right?

- Okay.

Stop.

- There, okay, go ahead, look at it.

- I don't care.

You're gonna hold on to it, show it around,

show it to the camera.

And I need you to put it somewhere where

I can't get to it,

but you could get to it.

(audience laughing)

Now, remember I had been working on a doodle,

a drawing that was my prediction.

Now, I'm not a very good artist,

but hopefully what I doodled

and what I drew will make sense.

I need you right now, though,

do me a favor and just open the piece of paper.

Don't show it to anybody, but open it.

And there is a drawing on there, right,

of a playing card that I drew, right.

And what is it?

- Eight.

- Eight, yeah, an eight.

The eight of spades, the eight of spades, right?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

I know that's not it, I just made it my own.

I changed the lyrics a little bit.

You went some blue some,

but that's your card, right?

- Yeah, no.

- What? - No.

- No, are you sure?

Maybe it's the lighting.

Maybe it's you're not looking at it right.

Hang on a second.

Hold on to it.

Just like that.

Like I said, it might be the lighting.

So I'm gonna help with some matches.

If I light them, I want you to hold on to the matches.

I'm gonna trade that with you, just in case this goes out,

we might need more.

But I want you to look close

'cause as I actually hold it up to the paper,

you can see it actually more and change to the five

(blow out) of clubs.

(audience applauding)

Take out the card, show the five of clubs.

Put it out.

Now, that's your souvenir that you get to keep,

I know, get excited and you can keep the matches too.

- Awesome. - Go ahead,

take out a match really fast.

- Oh

- There never were matches the entire time.

(audience applauding) Magic show, pop.

Oh, let's go. - Very cool.

(air whooshing)

- We hope you enjoyed this edition

of Masters of Illusion.

I know I did.

And be sure to join us next time.

So until then I'm Dean Cain.

Good night.

(upbeat music)