Penn & Teller: Fool Us

Here's TV's very own Mr. Magic, Jonathan Ross!

Wow. What an audience. Thank you so much!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Penn and Teller: Fool Us,

where magicians must fool the greatest trick-masters of the age.

Backstage the tension is incredible.

Magicians hate giving up their secrets.

Their secrets are more closely guarded than Anne Robinson's real age.

That's a secret which is kept in a vault with one of her original faces.

Like the Face of Boe!

To succeed, tonight our acts must outwit two of the greatest magicians of all time.

Will you please welcome, the majestic Penn and Teller!

Take your seats. Let's get started.

Let's get ready to rumble.

I'm ready for whatever you've got!

I hope we figure out a few.

Let's see what you've got, Jonathan.

You're sitting comfortably?

-You're sitting comfortably? -All set.

Let's go and meet tonight's first wannabe fooler.

Lee Hathaway.

I'm Lee Hathaway, I'm 34, and I'm a close-up magician from London.

I like close-up magic more than any other form of magic

because you're right there in front of people,

you can see their reactions straight away,

it's happening there in front of their face.

This is a classic of magic, taught to me by my father.

Here it is, guys, the famous three card trick.

Along with the gigs that I do in the evening,

I've also got a magic stall up in Covent Garden.

Unbelievable, you are magic.

And it's kind of become like a hub

for magicians to meet from around the world and hang out.

-Where are you from Sam? -I'm from America.

Awesome, Sam!

One of the great things about street performing

is it really is the school of hard knocks.

If the public don't like you or the people watching you don't like you,

they can just walk away.

Yes, by day he spends his time in London trying to fool American tourists,

tonight, well, he's here to do pretty much the same thing.

Will you please welcome Lee Hathaway!

Thanks very much!

Thank you, good evening, it's a pleasure to be here,

my name is Lee Hathaway.

Now what I've got here is a few decks of playing cards,

and I need one of these selected so we can do the trick.

So I'll just ask somebody down here, perhaps the gentleman just here.

Would you please choose one of these decks of cards?

That's great, thanks very much.

And I'll give you the rest of those, you can check those later,

and that's just to prove there are no trick decks or special decks here,

this is just a regular, ordinary deck of playing cards.

When I have the card selected this evening,

I'm gonna be doing this without touching the deck.

What's more, I'm gonna also be doing the whole trick

with my back turned to the audience,

so I can't see the deck, or have any visual clue or clue from the audience,

as to what the card might be.

Now I mentioned I'll be doing this with my back turned.

There's a reason for this, because I've had my back fitted

with a very special stomach entering device

that feeds the cards directly into my stomach.

Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen,

it's amazing what you can get done in Thailand these days.

Now the reason for that is because over many years

I have developed a mind-reading stomach.

Now I realize the viewers at home may find the idea

of a mind reading stomach a little difficult to swallow.

So let me explain what's gonna happen.

Once the cards are inside my stomach,

I'm gonna be attempting to read the mind of the volunteer who chose the card,

and regurgitate the card out through my stomach,

up through my esophagus, and out through my mouth.

Now if that fails, I do have a contingency plan,

but I'm really hoping we're not gonna have to go there this evening.

It's... It's a little messy if you get my drift.

So I need a volunteer to help me out with this.

So we know it's somebody random.

Could I ask Penn and Teller,

would you mind choosing a member of the audience from over this side?

That's great.

Teller's taking it upon himself to do the choosing.

Fantastic. This lovely lady here.

Thanks very much, madam. Would you make your way up to the stage?

Hi, there.

-Hello, what's your name? -My name's Adele.

Adele, Adele. Adele, what I'm gonna be asking you to is very simple.

In a moment I'll place the cards here, and I'd like you to cut the deck, okay?

And look at the card you cut to, alright?

And I'd like you to just hold it up, show it to the audience,

and make sure that the camera there can see it as well, alright?

It's as simple as that, Adele.

And after that I'm gonna be giving you some further instructions,

but don't worry, I'll give you those as we go on. Here we go.

Adele, would you please cut the deck?

Can you hold it up, show the card around to the audience?

And now put the cards back.

Fantastic, okay. Pick them up, give them a quick shuffle, Adele, if you like.

That's lovely, and could you please open

the stomach entering system on my back, Adele?

Adele, would you please just place a few cards

into the stomach entering system, just a few.

-Any cards? -Yeah, that's perfect, just a few cards.

Okay, yeah, put the rest of the cards in, Adele.

That's great. Okay. And would you please close the hatch?

That's great. Okay, I shall now attempt to regurgitate the card,

and can I please have a slow hand clap from everybody

as we attempt to do this. Here we go.

Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop. I think something's gone wrong.

I'm really sorry guys. I'm really sorry. I didn't want to do this.

Here we go.

Just a second, Adele. I've got a card here.

Just a minute, Adele.

Ah!

Adele. I've got a playing card.

Tell me, was your card the ten of spades.

-Yes. -The ten of spades, ladies and gentlemen!

And ladies and gentlemen, Adele!

Thanks very much.

Well done, Adele. And Lee Hathaway, ladies and gentlemen.

What a memorable performance, Mr. Lee Hathaway.

No, no. That is your own design, it's your own idea this evening?

Yeah, that is an idea I came up with specifically for the show, yeah.

But when you first came out, I thought, like me, he's been drinking too much.

-Cause you had... -That too!

Either that or you were six months gone, but no, it wasn't that at all.

Fellas, are you close to giving us your verdict?

Yeah.

It's, it's a tough one, I...

I'm...

May we... May we approach you?

Uh... Yeah, but I mean I've got prosthetics and stuff here.

Yeah, but I just want to see if we can approach you.

You're saying you can approach but don't... don't handle him.

We... We think...

We think these guts are fake.

The guts are fake.

And by the way, when you cut the cards, you gave it away a little bit.

I did what, sorry?

- When you cut the card. - Yes.

And when you showed her the deck.

What did you see?

I believe... And you might have done this intentionally...

Yeah.

But when you cut the cards to show her how to do it.

Yeah.

I believe you cut to the ten of spades.

Possibly. Possibly. Sorry I didn't see the card, I cut to, but that's not--

- No, you didn't. -Oh right.

- And that's not what you were-- -It's got nothing to do with the method.

That's not what you were doing.

Well wait a minute--

You know, between each other, that isn't what he did.

That, that isn't... That isn't what's going on here.

Okay. We believe that after you showed

the six decks over here and had one selected...

- Yeah. -...which was legitimate.

We believe you walked up to the stage and you turned your back.

Yes.

When one turns one's back on the audience,

it's a really good time to do sneaky stuff,

like to, shall we say, ring in a cooler.

-Absolutely. -Then you brought her up,

-and that allowed her to-- - Okay.

There's no, there's no coolers rung in, I don't do anything when I turn my back.

There's nothing special about the deck of cards,

you can check the rest of the decks, there's no--

-Well-- -You know what,

no, but you know, guys, what you're saying is,

-I need you to be specific. -Okay.

Because I think, you know,

there are things that are going on where you can say,

"Okay, well maybe there was something changed there."

-I still think the guts are fake. -But what you don't know...

...what you haven't arrived at satisfactorily, for me,

or indeed for my new best friend, despite the way he looks,

is that whole thing about how to--

-If he did not-- -How to get that card,

If he did not do a deck switch when his back was turned at the beginning.

-He did not. He did not. -Then...

If, then, you have fooled us.

Yes.

- Well done. -

You're going to Vegas. You're going... Oh my God!

Do you deliberately try and make it look like

you were doing one kind of thing to fool the fellas,

-and then do another whole kind of thing? -Absolutely not.

I've done... Absolutely not... I've done that,

I mean that was one of the things I was very aware of when I devised this trick,

because it's very si... It's very easy to come out and do...

You know, as you guys know as magicians,

it's very simple to do something and give lots of different...