Just finished watching Fool Us.

[K]

My partner and I have just finished watching all four seasons of Fool Us and I can't recommend it enough.

For the uninitiated, Fool Us is a '"[___] Got Talent" / "Pop Idol" style talent show, only all the acts do magic, and the 'winners' are the ones who manage to do a trick  which the judges, Penn and Teller, cannot work out how it was done.

For the first two seasons I believe it was a British show, with mostly British magicians and it was hosted by Jonathan Ross. Season three it was picked up by the CW and production moved to Las Vegas, where Alyson Hannigan became the host. By the end of season four, it featured magicians from all round the world.

Each episode has four different magicians and it finishes with a trick by P&T. Tricks range from sleight of hand card tricks, to big set pieces. 

Anyway, the great thing about it is P&T are so positive about every performance, they're only ever supportive and there are never any negative comments. It's great fun to watch. P&T never directly reveal how tricks are done, instead using 'code words' to hint to the performer that they were not fooled, so you won't have the tricks spoiled for you if you don't want them to be.

I think it's been picked up for a fifth season, but I have no idea when it will arrive. 

Seasons One and Two are on Netflix (UK), and Seasons Three and Four are on YouTube, although some of them are a bit choppy so use YouTube at your own risk.

Love it, it was definitely my favourite show to watch with my partner and I don't know what's going to take its place now we're done.

Sorry for all that text. Watch this dope magic routine.

 

[Colly]

I've not seen it in ages (and I've only seen the Jonathan Ross ones), but I just like the bit where they really quickly go "did you use a "whisper whisper"" and whoever it is just goes yeah and politely leaves. I'm sure there's an episode where the person says no and they just accept they've been fooled. 

Also isn't there a middle aged north east guy (I wanna say teesside but could be wrong) who fools them and gets his Vegas trip? 

[K]

2 minutes ago, Colly said:

I've not seen it in ages (and I've only seen the Jonathan Ross ones), but I just like the bit where they really quickly go "did you use a "whisper whisper"" and whoever it is just goes yeah and politely leaves. I'm sure there's an episode where the person says no and they just accept they've been fooled. 

Also isn't there a middle aged north east guy (I wanna say teesside but could be wrong) who fools them and gets his Vegas trip? 

Yeah a few times P&T will say some secret code and the dude will go... nah sorry, and penn and teller's jaws drop. it's really cool. I love watching Teller's reactions cause you can tell that after a lifetime of magic he still get's genuinely swept up in how much he loves it.

I think the northern dude you're referring to is John Archer, who was the first person to fool them in the pilot episode

 

[Colly]

That's the fella. Great show. 

[Benji]

I used to love that show with the weird masked dude who showed magic secrets, and I love Penn & Teller. Didn't know this was on Netflix

[apsham]

At our last Christmas party we had a corporate magician who stole 90% of his material from stuff on Fool Us. Sometimes word for word.

[K]

2 hours ago, Benji said:

I used to love that show with the weird masked dude who showed magic secrets, and I love Penn & Teller. Didn't know this was on Netflix

I'm pretty sure that Masked secrets dude is on Netflix too

[Colly]

The best thing about the Masked Magician was Mitch Pileggi's "Hi, I'm Mitch Pileggi" introduction, which utterly ruined him in the X Files for me...

Didn't he eventually unmask to crowd goes mild-ness? 

[Benji]

4 minutes ago, Colly said:

The best thing about the Masked Magician was Mitch Pileggi's "Hi, I'm Mitch Pileggi" introduction, which utterly ruined him in the X Files for me...

Didn't he eventually unmask to crowd goes mild-ness? 

Yeah, series finale. He was Val Valentino or something.

[K]

There's some David Blaine stuff on Netflix, but it does not hold up and feels incredibly boring and dated. There's also a documentary called Magicians which is fine but doesn't really have any magic in it.

I think Derren Brown has a Netflix Original coming out soon.

 

[K]

4 hours ago, K said:

 

I think Derren Brown has a Netflix Original coming out soon.

 

Oh, this arrived today

[K]

On 2/27/2018 at 14:35, Colly said:

The best thing about the Masked Magician was Mitch Pileggi's "Hi, I'm Mitch Pileggi" introduction, which utterly ruined him in the X Files for me...

Didn't he eventually unmask to crowd goes mild-ness? 

lmao Pileggi is so pervy in this masked magician thing. I just rewatched episode one and every trick he's just talking about how fit the assistants are

[K]

17 hours ago, K said:

lmao Pileggi is so pervy in this masked magician thing. I just rewatched episode one and every trick he's just talking about how fit the assistants are

Lmao pileggi just said, regarding a trick, 'no need to call Mulder and Sculley'

[Colly]

That's nothing, in the last X Files episode he said "Hi, I'm Mitch Pileggi". 

[Chris2K]

I'm binging the Netflix ones now and a guy called Shawn Farquhar did the best card trick I've ever seen.

Spoiler

How the hell do you get a deck of cards including a signed one by Penn into their original order (except Penn's one in reverse) back into a completely sealed packet including the seal being intact and the plastic wrapping untouched??!!

 

 

[K]

17 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

I'm binging the Netflix ones now and a guy called Shawn Farquhar did the best card trick I've ever seen.

  Reveal hidden contents

How the hell do you get a deck of cards including a signed one by Penn into their original order (except Penn's one in reverse) back into a completely sealed packet including the seal being intact and the plastic wrapping untouched??!!

 

 

He comes back in another season and does an equally impressive trick!

[K]

3 hours ago, Chris2K said:

I'm binging the Netflix ones now and a guy called Shawn Farquhar did the best card trick I've ever seen.

  Reveal hidden contents

How the hell do you get a deck of cards including a signed one by Penn into their original order (except Penn's one in reverse) back into a completely sealed packet including the seal being intact and the plastic wrapping untouched??!!

 

 

So the trick is definitely something to do with that Joker, right? Otherwise why does he leave it in and then take it out straight away,? but the plastic and sticker, I got no idea.

[Chris2K]

13 minutes ago, K said:

 

  Hide contents

So the trick is definitely something to do with that Joker, right? Otherwise why does he leave it in and then take it out straight away,? but the plastic and sticker, I got no idea.

 

Spoiler

Assuming that he accepts there's a deck switch (not that I can see it he's so fast) then I have to think he switches the signed Penn card in to the new deck after its open. But I can't see even a split second where that would have been possible.

Therefore my belief is that he used genuine magic.

 

[K]

39 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

  Hide contents

Assuming that he accepts there's a deck switch (not that I can see it he's so fast) then I have to think he switches the signed Penn card in to the new deck after its open. But I can't see even a split second where that would have been possible.

Therefore my belief is that he used genuine magic.

 

 

The deck switch is what's happening at 2:33.  You can even see either the lid being closed or the sticker being stuck back. The joker is there so that penn can't see that it's a new deck. How he slips the card in the right place or wraps it back in plastic though is beyond me

[Liam]

On 2/27/2018 at 18:55, K said:

Oh, this arrived today

Once my classes at school get to around Year 9, I generally show them this. It is absolutely fascinating and a brilliant way of showing people how easy (...ish) manipulating people can be. It works well as a move into teaching Lord of the Flies in particular.