Penn and Teller - Fool Us - Lee Hathaway Fools Them & Wins

[SPACKlick]

Ok, what do we know?

The deck is ungimmicked, the card is unforced.

What does that leave? Spotting the cut card somehow, be it confederacy (unlikely) cameras (risky) or just a mirror somewhere clever. problem is, with the low res and the edits, I'm not sure there are enough clues to pin a method down.

[Kannichiwa]

He never showed all the cards from the deck, so they were all 10 of spades, but the one that HE PERSONALLY cut was the only card that was not the 10 of spade....it was a 9 of spade, point is, he knew where to cut to show us the non-10 of spade card, while rest were 10 of spades.

[fewger1]

He's a British David Blaine

[TheJoshuabrazil]

potato cam



[TwistedPhayte89]

The trick starts when he offers the guy the decks to pick, they're all rigged decks. Every card in every deck is the 10 of Spades so no matter what happens he's got a 10 of Spades in his pocket to produce it.

[Lovesickdope]

@TwistedPhayte89 he clearly said the deck is NOT rigged. guess again

[oaaserud]

she can pick whatever card she likes, when he showes to the audience he knows what card she picked.. several ways to know, the fastest and "best" way is to have someone in the audience tell you, when taking out a specific card is not hard. rest is ofcourse showman ship

[bob18robert]

lol, penn and teller's first reaction is like "is he really cutting his belly?"

[julesgemini]

You are totally wrong! This is Penn n Teller not amateur stuff!

[jikos93]

"where are you from sam?"

"im from america"

[mshhatfield]

Svengali deck? Someone please tell me i'm wrong. I think he sold it better than anyone else has, but still uses the classic fool deck. I'm sure i'm wrong tho.

[maxway9]

did you record this on a potato ?

[PhysalisGundam]

My thought is that he had some way of seeing what card she pulled and had an extra deck that he pulled a fresh Ten of Spades out of. Unfortunately, the camera work makes it difficult to tell... well, anything.

[julesgemini]

U r very wrong! Lee has just come back from V ! Unless you read more deeply. Some things in life can be so simple and also right in your face, that's Lee's creative genius darlings!

[wingedarr0w]

Well at 3:20, the card he chose looks like a ten of spades, at roughly half the deck, at 3:35, Adele choose a spot quite close to the bottom.

[GypsyLeah]

Magician: "I'm being very genuine with this."

Are you kidding me?

[weckar]

@GypsyLeah Genuine as in not faking other methods.

[GypsyLeah]

@weckar That's almost (but not entirely) beside the point.

[weckar]

@GypsyLeah perhaps, but exactly how he meant it.

[kopesh]

babe!!

[MofoWoW]

I'm pretty sure that in the trick, there are 2 10 of spades because he didn't have her sign it.

[gdogvibes1]

240p and shes still hot

[SolaceIX]

You can fool anybody... with 240p.

[BigD4ddyWarbux]

was this recorded with a potatoe?

[5Qwerty1234]

Every card in the deck is a ten of spades

[HellsMaverick]

@5Qwerty1234 He gave P&T the option to look through all the decks. 

[quintopia]

since everyone is guessing anyway, i'm just gonna throw the most obvious idea out there (which for some reason no one has suggested, so maybe it's only obvious to me): The guy right at the beginning who chooses the deck is a stooge put there to pick the deck that Lee wants him to pick. Of course, I don't actually believe this is how it is done (since that would mean Lee is lying about the fact that they are all normal decks) but it is just about the simplest way to reproduce this trick.

[archenemies32]

0:20 what the fuck is behind him???

[mjw5288]

penn and teller are in on this one too,the blonde woman the teller chose blew it,she picked up all the cards to put them all in before she was instructed to do so.witch in turn means there was a deck switch and all those cards are 10s of spades.how likely is it that the woman when she shuffles and when she puts the cards in,she happens to put them all in without showing any of them....

[slaughtz]

@mjw5288 There's a cut... So anything could have happened between those scenes. So maybe.

[iFistedFlipper113]

So... What brand of potato did you use to film this?

[pixartist]

why did the "random" member of the audience a wireless mic including the radio in her backpocket ?

[sjkopite94]

@pixartist because the show is not live, and TV editing removes the mic-ing of the selected audience members.

[redhotchilimagician]

so that was a force? and if so the rest of the trick is simple.

[TerraXin]

See what the card is at 3:20

[theakstonsrock]

Considering the deck is never examined or shown to be all different at any time during the trick he may as well have just had a deck of 52 10 of Spades, anything else is needlessly complicated.

[PCGamerPortal]

nice spoiler title

[willyolio]

i think the real magic here is adele is so skinny.

[Astyanax1000]

probs just someone in audience with earpiece telling him

[REXX241]

righty..

i'm gonna go with adele being in on it. she was probably the hottest girl in that bit of the audience so teller was always going to pick her, from there the trick is easy

almost everything she does seems weird, the way she says 'my names adele' instead of just 'adele', how she handles the cards like she's trying to look like a retard, and how she already has the rest of the deck in her hand as he says 'yep, put the rest in' (note how he says 'yep' despite not looking)

thoughts?

[Zolbat]

i guess he somehow forced that card on her. How? i have no idea^^

[Llynok]

So... how hard is it to force a card on someone?

Or have a deck of mostly or all of 10 of Spades...

And they can't even investigate the deck.

This is just stupid.

[livedandletdie]

Easiest way to do it... Buy the audience.

[CloudsBeyond]

Was live in audience at the studio for this near front row, was terrific performance. During it somebody bottom burped it was either Lee or Penn, and Penn burst out laughing whilst Lee gave startled look to audience, it wasd a sustained rumbling bottom burp. One of the funniest unintentional things I've ever seen in magic. In TV segment it has carefully been edited out.

[TriviumCrusader17]

Stop complaining about how he did it or the fact that he turned around. The audience was completely fooled and amazed and penn had no idea either sooooo trick successful. That's what's it's all about. They take this a little too seriously I think. Your audience in Vegas is usually drunk/old people on vacation. It doesn't take much to entertain either.

[pcgamernum1]

He COULD have a friend in the audiance who could have sent him some message on what the card was. :P I don't think it's that easy, but he could have every card in the deck hiden in pockets and choose the right one after someone send him a silent text or something.

[MrEpidemik]

boring trick

[aetheriust]

I think it's unfair that he was able to perform the trick with his back turned. It makes figuring a trick out impossible.

[SuperLoganjames]

the cards were all the 10 of spades

[gnackattack]

1:16 for the start of the trick

[camknox]

I've got a problem with this trick. Fully verifiable too. In the scene where "Lee" cuts the deck, he cuts high and it is quite visibly the 10 of Spades at the base of the cut. There is no shuffling done and the deck is re-assembled.

"Adele" then cuts the deck. She cuts extremely low yet manages to pull the 10 of Spades.

By virtue this means it's a loaded deck. You just can't escape that fact.

[arthmus01]

@camknox Watch in higher res here watch?v=zxuojRZlsyA (about 5 min in.) you can see that when he cuts the deck he clearly holds up a 9, not a 10, Penn was wrong.

I initially thought he had a duplicate deck and simply had the info fed to him somehow when she showed the card. So with his back turned he could then pull it from the duplicate deck and palm the card ready to pretend to pull it from the hole, simple trick. But then he said there was no switch, i was completely stumped.

[Askikagaga]

Fantastic. I loved the whole "intestines spilling out" thingy. Not really a fan of the poms, per se, but I do enjoy their over the top humour and I particularly love it when anyone sticks it up two know-all Americans. Lee Hathaway, you are the best.

[bluesteelsaxophone]

omd I have met this guy

hes sick!!!!

[NflNba4Ever]

@AlexRaveloTV Hahaha lol XD

[NflNba4Ever]

@blindingcobra We meet again 240p comment...

[AlexRaveloTV]

@NflNba4Ever not even 240..more like minecraft..

[MikeClub]

@Leelibran Lee, can you comment on my solution? It's spread across four comments. Thanks.

[Mutzy02]

that was gash!

[NflNba4Ever]

He had some "guts" to go up in front of that many ppl and perform

[blindingcobra]

We meet again 240p

[2012suckmycock]

@blindingcobra more like potato

[zofspade]

Girl. Is. Hot.

[golu3990]

Although Adele would have to be pretty dumb to not notice that while she was feeding the cards to his "stomach"

[GreatNewsVideo]

The" trick" to knowing which card she picks is simply this. THere is a camera in the stomach device, look at the latch. Honestly this is a weak, sloppy looking trick and not very impressive , his close up stuff probably lots better, HOWEVER the goal was to fool penn and teller so he used something the had never been seen before.

[MikeClub]

I know this is an even further long shot because when we see her cut the deck, her hands are on the platform, though we don't see a continuous shot. In support, though, I would say that she is instructed to hold the card prominently so as to give the pressure-sensitive plate enough time to calibrate.

[MikeClub]

The stomach-entering device could recognize the cards optically when they are dumped in, and it could extract the correct one and give it to the magician. Or the information of which card is chosen could be communicated to the magician, who can produce the same card (perhaps from a different deck) via any means.

[MikeClub]

When she cuts the deck, it is still in standard order. If the platform is pressure-sensitive, it can tell how many cards remain and, due to the known order, which card she chose. This information may be transmitted wirelessly...

[MikeClub]

I'm not a magician, but I think this was a great trick, however it was done; I was entertained.

I have an idea of how it might be done. I know it's a long shot, but I might as well brainstorm.. (see next post)

[educatedkids]

240p we meet again

[julesgemini]

Lee offered £100 to someone on here if they could work out his method too!

[skillcoiler]

@julesgemini All the cards in the deck he used are the same except the bottom. So will he mail me a check or use paypal?

[julesgemini]

can you not read @herbys68? No that's not what happened! Penn & Teller are world famous I think they would have spotted that!

[herbys68]

I'm surprised Penn and Teller didn't get it. He swapped the deck for one composed of tens of spades when he turned to show the back door.

[Justin9Noble]

looks like this guy is doing gazzo's cups

[Leelibran]

@Justin9Noble I do not perform Gazzo's cups. They were just on the table from a previous street performer as it looked good on camera. Personally I think it's far too over-used and saturated by other performers...and, as much as Gazzo has made it his own, it is essentially the Vernon routine with double loads. The cups routine I do is my own but strongly influenced by Colombini's routine and David Williamsons',

best, Lee Hathaway

[ConstipatedFr3ak]

That girl from the audience is so pretty! And she really knows how to carry herself on stage too!

[kozmon0t]

Since you ran the video through a 120p filter and then resized it to 240 again, I'm sure the trick is in the small details.

[failrailtf2]

@kozmon0t

I'm pretty sure Penn and Teller weren't watching the trick on YouTube. :\

[ProfitableLifestyles]

You fuckin idiots who think the deck was all ten of spades.. What magician would do that on this show? That's childsplay

[boterbram]

he knew the girl, she is way too sexy to just be a girl in the audience;)

[stfwho]

0:42 "Where you from?"

"Ahm frum Uhmurrakuh"

[cociplis]

cool

[sotoi04]

made in thailand, what else did you expect?

[Captainchiggs]

you can clearly tell that the whole deck is all 10 of spades. You can tell when the lady cuts the deck. she drops another card which is another ten of spades. so he just hide another 10 of spade in his fake guts

[therealnightwriter]

The 10 of spades clearly exists in at least two places in the deck. Very clear. He actually shows the deck three times, but I can't read the first one. He puts the deck together with the 10 in the middle, and she pulls it from near the bottom. The deck is untouched in between. The trick is in the box on his back. It has a secret compartment, and when opened the second time there was a normal deck missing a 10 of spades. This is what P&T found when they inspected.

[TheHeads2tails]

orrrrrrrrrr he couldve used a svengali dexk hence an inexperienced audience member thts y he didnt call on penn or teller

[julesgemini]

@kalloused & janeyanna so you guys not read? The deck was ungimmicked! Don't you think Penn & Teller would have thought of that?

[kalloused]

omg it's so easy, how could P&T not realize the whole deck was all 10 of spades? It's so obvious. They should have asked to see the cards in his back container. Either way good for him, it's a once in a lifetime chance to be told by P&T they are impressed

[janeyanna]

Wasn't the whole deck made up tens of spade? Then he'd just have to influence the person choosing the deck he's using.

[simpleben09]

The reason I think he would make a good opener for Penn and Teller is because he did an act just like them. The whole guts thing, the larger than life attitude; It's a very Penn and Teller inspired trick

[TheGmThunder]

Ok, so after i had thought that i had uncovered Lee's method, i found out that my method was really way off. In fact the deck is really, ungimmicked, and is always ungimmicked. After he revealed his method for me, it was really, completely new, it is not through the fact that no one has done it, but no one could possibly think of it on their own. And even though he made the trick on stage, and all "clues" are present in front of you, you will still miss it, because it is a new way of thinking.

[Marcelloooful]

Beautiful magic :)

Thank you!

[ThomasWadeFraser]

Ok guys - I have to admit, he was using a method I did not think of. Neither me nor Teller were anywhere close. But I must stand by my point that they, nor I, were "fooled" in the sense that I would call it.

NO ONE posting here knows his method, but I think many of us could duplicate it exactly. So I guess it fully depends on your definition of being "fooled".

Its a good trick though method-wise, I would love to use it. As the deck can really be borrowed and NEVER EVER touched by the magician

[Leelibran]

@ThomasWadeFraser you could not duplicate it exactly without touching/switching or gimmicking the deck in some way.

[ThomasWadeFraser]

@Leelibran

Yeh, but you did touch the deck... ;)

Touche!

[julesgemini]

@ThomasWadeFraser it did fool them! That's the point! and I'd luv to see these 5 different ways just off the top of your head! Please tell!

[ThomasWadeFraser]

@julesgemini

Mirage deck

Confederate

Breathers (X-Ray)

One Way Force

Long & Short

Since all of these are POSSIBLE sollutions, Penn and Teller had no chance of finding the SINGLE method used. There are too many possible sollutions. Even if Penn and Teller had known from the start that there was no deck switch, that still would leave them with atleast two or three possible methods; but they only got one guess.

Its ashame the rules of the show work so much in favour of tricks like this.

[Leelibran]

@ThomasWadeFraser all of these methods involve a gimmicked deck of some kind. P & T went through ALL of that. That process lasted 20 mins although you only see a couple of mins of it. Point is, the deck is brand new, totally ungimmicked. That's why the method is new, unpublished and nobody has got close to it. Nor is there a confederate (which would be cheating let's be honest). Can you link me to your AOCCAN?

[proprodigySD]

As an average American viewer, i concur that the guts are indeed fake.

As for the trick. Phenomenal. When i'm in London i'm going to find this man so he can have the pleasure of hearing me go absolutely batty for his tricks.

[ThomasWadeFraser]

The reason it did not fool Penn and Teller was because there were SO many ways it could be done. I am a mentalist, not a card magician, but I can still name atleast 5 different ways of doing that just off the top of my head.

In my opinion the show was flawwed there, the rules should be "If they can come up with a working method, they were not fooled"

[Leelibran]

@ThomasWadeFraser hi Thomas, thanks for your comment. I've checked your Youtube vids and you seem like a smart kid. That said, you definitely do NOT know more about Mentalism than Teller. There's a good reason why he wrote the intro's to Banachek's Psychological Subtleties. As I said, the adjudication process is heavily edited but P&T checked the decks. But, here's the challenge for you...it's a brand new, ungimmicked deck and there's no switch and no force. Give me a method, I'll send you £100.

[ThomasWadeFraser]

@Leelibran

Challenge accepted - I will rewatch the video now.

However, in my defence I just want to point out that, due to the editting, the way it is shown on tv is worse.

And I do believe I have more mentalism knowledge than Teller, though he is one of my favourite magicians - I immediately knew the Barrie Richardson "Lazy Mentalist" method used by Einhorn, aswell as Archer's method. And by the way, if you can discover the method to my AOCAAN (video) then you get £100 too!

GAME ON! :D

[ThomasWadeFraser]

@Leelibran P.S

I will message you privately with a couple of possible methods.

If possible can you please link of the full un-editted performance that would help, for obvious reasons

[NocturnaLucid]

Why on earth do you spoil the clip in the title?

[VelvetKevorkian]

@NocturnaLucid So you want to see a trick that's so good they couldn't figure it out.

[SpringBizkit]

There's a principle that I once read in a Dai Vernon book.. it's risky.. but it can work, especially with a new deck.. and i would like to say it here, but.. if it is this method, i'd feel quite bad about saying it online.. But a response to.. did it ever come up in a story with dai vernon where he gave a lady (?) a deck of cards, gave an example of cutting the deck, then walked out of the room during her selection? or.. well.. you did handle the cards so.. forcing the cut? :P

[TheFelicityCullen]

Lee. In an earlier comment you said you would give the guy the puffin magic for begginers book... I'm just starting is it the best? :P

[Leelibran]

@TheFelicityCullen nah, it's a good book though. If you're literally just starting Mark Wilsons' Book of Magic is excellent. If you want to learn card stuff, either get Royal Road to Card Magic or Roberto Giobbi's Card College series...and for coin magic, Bobo's Modern Coin Magic published by Dover. Good luck, Lee x

[ErikCartman]

the deck is all ten of spades period. 

[julesgemini]

I've known Lee for many years and I can tell you now if you were to work out how he did the trick then he would not lie! You simply havent worked out how he did it and nor did Penn & Teller that's why he beat them!

[TheUnsungOne]

@julesgemini Besides to perform on Penn and Teller Fool us you have to provide the method to a judge. If they lie the judge steps in and confronts them. So you can not lie on this show.

[sefsefsefsef]

I like how Lee has been commenting on this video. That's really neat to see some interaction with the artist. However, keep in mind when reading his comments that it is in his best interest to lie about how the trick is done. Magicians lie. That's the point.

[Leelibran]

@sefsefsefsef Magicians don't lie maliciously or in conversation (well, most respectable ones don't). They deceive for entertainment value - and, unlike scrupulous fake mediums or psychics, they're honest about that. It's a little difficult to answer your point or strike up a dialogue if you start with assumption that anything I say will be a lie, best, Lee

[nitkov94]

3:16 he also cut 10 of spades

[MrSkott1]

Nice..did you switch in a shim so it didn't matter what deck was picked?

Really nice effect.....I also believe the guts are fake...

[julesgemini]

If it was that simple how do you think it fooled Penn & Teller?

[AkumaADemoncus]

I thought it was a simple card force and he had the 10 of spade prepared beforehand in the fake stomach.

[Leelibran]

@AkumaADemoncus sadly, they edit the adjudication process quite a bit on Fool Us. P & T went through all the force options. It's a free choice, it's a totally ungimmicked deck in ANY sense. The method is brand new, unpublished and never been done before. It fooled Johnny Thompson and Teller, two of the greatest and most knowledgeable magicians alive. For anyone to think they know more than them is naive at best!

best, Lee Hathaway.

[LucaTurilli89]

@Leelibran there is an edited (cut) part it seems given what Penn says. He says that the performer explained how to shuffle the deck or something and somehow he then make a specific card placement to know what card will the girl select.

[wygram]

@Leelibran There was no deck switch. The deck was all 10 of spades from the beginning, except for the ace of spades (1:43) at the bottom to make it seem normal. Were the other decks checked? Maybe they were all 10 spade decks?

The most important thing is that when you cut the deck and get 10 of spades you cut in the middle. The lady cuts it way at the bottom. And gets the same card. It's not a normal deck. When a magician says a deck is normal but doesn't show it, it's not.

[thispoorguy]

@wygram if you find a high depth version of this when he shows the girl the deck (he cuts it himself, even though Penn says it was the 10 of spades, he's wrong), there's a 9 of spades, so it wasn't all10 of spades. And when she's putting the cards in the ting on his back, I saw a 4 of spades. It seemed the whole deck was just spades though. He says the deck isn't a trick deck, he can't lie, someone at some point would find out and he'd lose.

[FAQUAD2010]

@Leelibran great job.  I thought deck switch as well, but apparently wrong

[kunkushun1]

@Leelibran Your absolutely correct sir. And good original magic damn beautiful man damn beautiful!!!!

[sahilnairrr]

did you use a crimp?

[Leelibran]

@sahilnairrr no, the deck is completely ungimmicked. It's a free choice.

[mconnollyil]

Easy. Magnetic cards.

Watch at her cut at 3:27 as many cards are "drawn up" to reveal the 10 of

spades.

P&T missed this one.

Easy peasy.

[Leelibran]

@mconnollyil hahahahaha! Nice try. The bit they edited out was the fact P&T examined the other 5 decks I handed out. There's no deck switch, it's a regular COMPLETELY ungimmicked deck....so guess again!! - If you get it, I'll send you £100 and a copy of the Puffin Book of Magic for Beginners (sounds like you could do with it)

Lee Hathaway xxx

[ch3ckm8]

Daaamn, I don't care about the trick. I just wanna fuck that girl

[ninjaassasin4]

i know him, he isthe best magician i know.

[IWANTTOBELIEVE786]

Guys, whats the music that is being played during his promo, and also his entrance? I vaguely remember it, but cannot, for the life of me, remember! Thanks!

[0XiDiZE]

@IWANTTOBELIEVE786

Magic - Ladyhawke

[Leelibran]

@IWANTTOBELIEVE786 Ladyhawke - Magic

best,

Lee Hathaway.

[Tyrathius2361]

We believe these guts are fake.

[pineapplesand556ers]

What's the song he comes out to?

[deadmanavir]

Teller has good taste

[slubglurge]

i;ll never eat sausages again,great trick Lee