Penn & Teller: Fool Us

He's T.V.'s very own Mr. Magic, Jonathan Ross.

Thank you. Let's get that out of the way.

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

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

Now, I can promise you, absolutely no camera tricks are used on this show.

It is like a nudist beach. Good, bad or ugly, we're gonna let you see it all.

The challenge facing the acts tonight is huge.

They must perform in front of the true greats of their craft.

This is like a chef baking a cake for Gordon Ramsay

or a singer performing a song in front of Louis Walsh's friend, Simon Cowell.

I'm talking about, of course, Penn and Teller!

Good evening gentlemen. Let's get to work, go take your seats, let's go, let's go.

I hope you've got some huge acts, Jonathan. I hope you've got a few, huh?

I'm keen to see some magic. Let's get 'em on stage.

Let's meet tonight's first wannabe fooler.

Shawn Farquhar.

I'm Shawn Farquhar.

I come from a little place called Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

Population about the same as Heathrow Airport.

I've been doing magic all my life.

My mum says when I was born, the doctor slapped me and I said, "Pick a card."

My father was a magician. My grandfather, my great-grandfather.

I'm like the fourth generation without a real job.

In 2009, I went into Beijing, China, the World Olympics of Magic.

and in front of 3200 of my peers

I won the World Championship for Card Magic.

It's an amazing title and it gives me an opportunity to see the world.

Showtime! Time to have some fun.

Please welcome, the reigning World Champion of Card Magic,

Mr. Shawn Farquhar!

Wow.

Thank you so much for that warm welcome.

It's a real pleasure to come across the pond

to share with you one of my magic tricks.

I'm going to do a card trick.

But it's a special one

and it's gonna use a brand new deck of cards.

-Penn, would you mind helping me? -I'll try. Should I stand up?

Ladies and gentlemen, Penn Jilette, please come and join me.

Thank you, sir.

I would have picked Teller,

but I think the conversation might have been very one-sided.

I have a brand new deck of cards, hermetically sealed.

Inside of this deck of cards is the little paper seal.

Says, "The United States Playing Card Company."

It sure does.

It confirms that it's a new deck of cards.

-And not Canadian. -That's true.

Not much is. Look, I'm gonna pop it open.

Inside, a brand new deck of cards never touched by human hands.

Would you cup your hands together like that for me?

I'll then drop the cards on your hand. Now I know you know cards,

but they don't. I just wanna point out that if you look at the brand new deck,

-there are two premium cards here. -Right.

These are advertised things, the other end of the deck

has two jokers.

One is like the traditional one and the other is like a guarantee joker.

We're not gonna use those but we're gonna keep the one joker in.

-Okay. -Can you kind of fan them out

so the audience can see what new deck order looks like?

You can see it runs Ace through King.

See the two Kings in the middle, folks?

These are what we call The Kissing Kings. I call 'em The Brokeback Kings.

So do me a favor and shuffle up the cards.

When you feel they're completely shuffled, let me know.

I believe Persi Diaconis said you have to do 12 shuffles.

-Absolutely. -But I'll just do four or five.

I believe that's okay. We'll give them a cut,

- Perfect. -I won't let you see the bottom.

Could you do me a favor, touch a card on the back?

Okay.

Just kind of a plunk your finger, take a look at it.

It's all right if I see it, I've seen this trick before.

-Okay. -

What card did you get? This is one of my favorites.

I got the seven of diamonds.

Seriously? You could not have picked a more perfect card.

Write your name right on the face of the card.

I will.

Perfect.

Once the card's been signed, we'll recap.

-Okay. -That's the pen.

-Right. -It's the joke.

If I go through them... Just explaining to everyone else.

Would you hold your hand just flat like that?

I certainly will.

I'll place the cards here. Place your other hand on top.

-Sure. I will. -Trapping the cards in between

fully and effectively and I'll remove one card.

Okay.

If I removed your card would that be impressive?

That would be very impressive.

No, it wouldn't. I got a joker, it's okay. How about this? I can do better than that.

-Okay. -If I could reach in between your hands

and straighten one card up

so it's the opposite direction, and it was your card,

the seven of diamonds, would that be...

-That'd be pretty good! -Okay, I can do better. How about this?

Would I fool you if I put those cards back in new deck of order,

-and put the one card reversed? -Yeah, that'd be pretty good.

-Okay, if I would. -I'm not gonna say you're gonna fool me.

-I won't say that yet. Okay. -Good. Good. Good.

How about if I took the cards and put them in a new deck of order,

reverse the one card, put them in the cardboard box, put the paper seal

-and wrap them up in the plastic? -Oh, that'd be a fine trick.

I just did it. Take a look.

It's a brand new deck of cards.

Because you're the closest, I want you to see,

is there a cut or slit in the top of the box?

There is not.

Cut or slit in the bottom of the box?

No.

-Not that I can see. -How about the side?

-Not that I can see. -The other side.

-Not that I can see. -Top or back?

-Nope. -It's a brand new deck of cards.

-I believe so. -I'm gonna pop this open.

Inside there is a paper seal.

-Says United States Playing Card Company. -Not Canadian.

Déjà vu!

Déjà vu. Déjà vu. Sometimes it takes four.

Look, I'm gonna pop open the paper seal, inside a brand new deck of cards.

Never touched by human hands.

-Yeah, that's perfect. -I remember the last time.

-Yeah, yeah. -I wanna point something out.

If you look at the deck, there isn't a premium card on the end.

Do you know why?

-Why is that? -They're in my pocket, remember?

Get them out. There's a lot of them. There's jokers and the premium card.

All of them were in here.

That means that this should be a new deck order deck.

Take a look and see if they run ace through king.

Or maybe you could turn this way so the camera can see.

Oh maybe I could. That, someone who was

a professional in show business would have done that automatically.

Now we get to the diamonds. Do you notice one card is reversed?

I do! Between the eight and the six of diamonds.

Would be where the seven should be.

Exactly where my selected card should be.

And would you like me to remove it to make it easier for you?

I'll just kind of pull it like that lightly

Sure.

and turn it around like that, so you can see.

Wow!

That was fabulous.

Thank you so much.

Wow! Very good. Amazing.

Mr. Shawn Farquhar, ladies and gentlemen.

-That was incredible. -Thanks, Jonathan.

Okay, so.

I know you're not gonna tell us how you did it, but that was unique.

-It's a trick. It's my job. -Does anyone else do that?

Does anyone else--

I know, you can't share, but does anyone else do that particular technique?

No, there was not the similar technique,

the same effect was a gentleman by name George Schindler, many years ago,

now the dean of American Magicians.

He inspired me, but I came up with a completely different method.

And that would be the key, I guess, this evening to fool those guys.

- Sure. - If it's a new one for them

and they haven't seen it before, and they can't put their finger on it.

We'll get away with it and by "we" I mean you, of course,

although I'd like some of the reflected glory.

It's awesome. I'll share.

And is that one of the most technically difficult ones in your routine today?

It is, in fact, not the most technically difficult,

but it's probably the most fun to present

because most of it takes place in the spectator's hands,

and I think magic that takes place in somebody else's hands

is so much more powerful than magic that takes place in our own.

That's what I tell my wife all the time.

I'm learning some tricks to help.

That's all it is...

I believe we have given you enough time. Penn.

This is a really, really tough call for us.

I think anybody, has to know,

that at some point you had to do a deck switch.

Unfortunately, there was a moment

when we both saw when you were pulling the pen out.

-Yes. -And we had all of these discussions

and meanings about this, which we've talked for hours with the producers,

about what would constitute fooling us.

We said over and over again, if we actually saw a move,

it would negate the whole thing.

But all that having been said, and the feeling that we saw a move

that we should not have seen, we have no idea

how you got the goddamn card into the goddamn deck.

Yeah.

I think, that to be

honest and fair.

-Yes! -I think right out of the deck

That's incredible. Don't throw that at me!

-I should say... - Don't take it out on me.

...that you absolutely did on the most important part of the trick,

I think you did