Sanders The Great » Penn and Teller

Penn and Teller Fool Us

Sanders The Great — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:43:40 +0000

No sooner have the BBC announced a prime time magic show than ITV announce one of their own.

From the press release:

“Penn & Teller: Fool Us, ITV1’s brand new entertainment extravaganza is an original and daring TV magic show – starring the world famous magic double act – Penn & Teller.

…this 90 minute spectacular throws down the gauntlet to every aspiring magician in the UK to perform their most mystifying trick to fool Penn & Teller.

Las Vegas legends Penn & Teller will have no prior knowledge of either the performers or the planned trick. They’ll be sitting in the audience just like everyone else, watching every move the guest magicians make. And, if any illusionist comes on and fools the professionals – they will win a five star trip to Las Vegas to perform as the opening act in Penn & Teller’s world famous show at the Rio Hotel & Casino.

Every magician will be performing for high stakes. Whether it’s a grand stage illusion or a tiny trick of sleight of hand, whether it uses tigers or toothpicks, if they are good enough to fool Penn & Teller then they get to perform in Vegas with the iconic duo.

Penn says: “Nothing would give me or Teller more pleasure than to hand over Vegas tickets to someone – anyone – who has the nerve to stand in front of us, monkey with us, leave us baffled and ultimately blow us away with their brilliance. That would be a dream. We SO want that to happen! Magic is always evolving with different performers constantly innovating. We believe there are performers out there who can do it so we’ve sent out this challenge. And if they can fool us we’re taking them to Vegas to perform!”

The BBC plumped for Lenny Henry to host their show, and ITV have followed suit with Jonathan Ross.

It’s a real shame that neither of them tried a little harder in their choice of presenters, but it will be great to see Penn & Teller back on UK television.

With these two new shows in the pipeline: is magic the new Strictly/Skating/Singing sensation?

We’ll see…

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Why Are Most Magicians Skeptics

Sanders The Great — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:37:17 +0000

(Thanks to the magicwoods for the tip and cectic for the details)

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Teller On Making It Real

Sanders The Great — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:14:11 +0000

In this clip from a magic conference the usually silent half of Penn and Teller provides us with a few glimpses as to why he is such a fantastic performer.He begins by demonstrating a shortened faultless performance of the Miser’s Dream. This is followed by a breakdown of the trick: the point being that what appears to be repetition isn’t and how this psychological subtlety is to the advantage of the performer.

This is followed by an example on why magic should have a motive if you are to fool your audience demonstrated with a simple sponge ball vanish.

All wonderful stuff.

[Thanks to Matthew Hampel for bringing the clip to my attention]

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Magic Is Easy, Magic Is Hard

Sanders The Great — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:26:08 +0000

The Magic Woods Forum currently has Teller as its special guest. The threads have been very interesting, and well worth a read. Teller was even kind enough to answer a question I asked him. The favourite post I have come across is the following where Teller is asked “What are your views on where the magic community stands presently?”. His reply is enlightening:

I find the magic community to be mostly a pleasure. Lots of happy
people, excited about their favorite subject. I love talking with
magicians late into the night.

Artistically magic’s problem is that it’s simultaneously too easy and
too hard. It’s so easy that to get a powerful reaction from the
audience, all you have to do is execute a trick deceptively. So the
dumbest, least artistic person in the world, with no talent, no
sensibility at all, and nothing to say, can get applause just by
doing a trick right.

On the other hand, a person with who wants to express himself through
magic has his work cut out for him. He has to come up with a
deceptive procedure for simulating an impossibility, then (generally)
write his own script, and stage and direct himself. It’s terribly hard.

There’s a piece I’ve been working on for more than a year now. I’ve
had help from David Ben, Johnny Thompson, Mike Close, Apollo Robbins,
Matt Holtzclaw, and Penn. I have shop staff of four, headed up by
Nate and Zeke, that works pretty much fulltime to build and revise
props. I’ve been creating and working this trick every night after
the show for about an hour since the middle of last year. When
complete, the trick will run 4.5 minutes at most, and look simple and
terribly easy. Most viewers who see it will, I bet, think it’s a
charming old trick I came across. Magicians may recognize its
ancestry and dismiss it as “old wine in new bottles.” They won’t
realize that it is an entirely new idea, and virtually every aspect
was wrestled from the jaws of impossibility.

That’s the nature of the beast.

Magic is easy. Magic is hard.

The original post can be viewed here.

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