Hi, I'm Kostya Kimlat, a business-focused magician, specializing in sleight-of-hand magic. My company trains & books magicians around the world for all kinds of corporate events. Over the years, I started to see the connections between the art of magic and the craft of business. A sale, just like a magic trick, happens in the customer's mind. It's all about perception. And that means human interaction. How do we communicate? Those are the real secrets of magic. Great magic doesn't strive to fool you so that you believe in something... Great magic reminds you to be careful about what you believe in. And that's what it can be so help to Think Like a Magician™ Our next performer has been known to teach businessmen how to Think Like a Magician™ like they need any help in making people's money disappear. Would you please welcome, Kostya Kimlat! Thank you very, very much! It's an absolute pleasure to be here with all of you in the theater and everyone watching at home. Penn, Teller—I'd like to show you something special using a pack of playing cards. Will you please join me so you can watch closely? Everyone welcome Penn & Teller! So please have a seat, relax In a moment, you're going to help me shuffle these cards. Now, I found that how people shuffle cards depends on which part of the world they've come from. Now we have 52 playing cards, we've taken the jokers out. I don't know if you have a preferred way of shuffling the cards, but I'd like to give you about half of the cards and I'd like you to mix those up as much as you'd like. And you can mix them up too. Can you wash them here on the table? Like this. The hardest part is collecting all those cards. So we're going to square all of these cards up. And you feel those are pretty well-shuffled for yourself? Thank you, Teller. I'm going to spread these face up. And then I'm going to do a crazy shuffle. I'm going to turn these face down. And I'm going to shuffle them together But—before I push them in, I want you to see the state that they're in. All right, very well mixed up. Teller, take your hand and place it like this. And can you take your hand and place it above? And press the cards together. That way you not only see them down the line, but you actually feel them being shuffled. Working so effortlessly! Penn: We're such a team! You are, I love it! Perfect shuffle! Penn: You should see us shampoo together! Now look, would you agree these are really well-mixed? Penn: Unfortunately, yeah, I would. There's only one other shuffle that mixes the cards in a more thorough way. And this is a shuffle that is preferred by children and drunks. Like that. Now we dropped some on the floor but it doesn't matter. Why don't you get in there and feel like a kid again? Mix them face up, face down. Do whatever you like, give them a nice mix You feel pretty good about that? Penn: Actually, it's starting to make me feel worse and worse! Collect them, that's fine. I'm going to gather them Now gentlemen, this is my favorite part! Even though the cards have been thoroughly mixed... Penn: I'm gonna break your hands! I'm going to find your 2 cards, which is really impressive because you haven't even picked them yet. I get excited by the shuffle! Let's do this. I'll go through here face up and face down — reach in there and grab one, face up or face down. It's your choice. Face up — thank you so much, I really appreciate that. Truthfully, it doesn't matter what the card is. If I know what it is, it's OK. What matters is which way you take it out. Reach in there and take another one for me if you would. And you've got another one? Penn: I got our card! Nice, the 3 of clubs, I love it! You can put it back in however you like face up or down, it's completely up to you. Yes slide it in there. So you see it going in? And which way? Do you want to put it back in face up or face down? We'll even leave it sticking out there until the very last moment. Now look, at this point, some cards are face up, and some cards are face down. Look, I'm not even going to touch them I'm just going to let them sit there And if I let them sit there, they start to turn over, so that every card is facing the right way. Every card is now face up, except for one, except for two— the only two—and hopefully lucky for me, they are your two cards! Kostya Kimlat, ladies and gentlemen! You can take your seats. And you'll take the cards with you, is that ok? Penn: Of course it's OK! I think we've got a rough idea how this might be heading, but come and join me round the fun here Ladies and gentlemen, how spectacular was that? We like to see Penn pissed off like that! Here's in a terrible mood now. But that was really quite special indeed This trick, is this one that you've come up with? Absolutely, some magicians, we create the magic. That's what we love to do. So really the chance of them getting this, certainly if they do, it will be having seen it for the first time not knowing similar tricks in the past. Now I'm hoping that you'll be back here performing with them. Would that mean a lot to you? Absolutely, I've been a fan for such a long time. To be back here in Vegas on this stage would be wonderful. I think we're ready to hear your verdict. Mr. Penn and Mr. Teller? What do you have to say? OK, I want to say right up front... I HATE YOU. Let's get that out of the way. There is a bias. I HATED THE WAY YOU LOOKED I HATED THE WAY YOU CLEANLY HANDLED THE DECK OF CARDS. I HATED THAT I KNEW THE PUNCHLINE WHEN YOU STARTED I HATED THAT IT WAS CLEAN ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I HATED THAT I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT I HATED IT FROM THE MOMENT YOU WALKED OUT. I TELL YA, WHEN I SAW HIM SITTIN' THERE WITH HIS BEADY LITTLE EYES, I WANTED YOU AS DEAD AS A HAMMER! Kostya: I feel the love, thank you. NO YOU DON'T FEEL ANY LOVE! YOU FEEL NOTHING BUT HATE! I KNEW THAT YOU WERE GOING TO FOOL ME FROM THE MOMENT I SAW YOU SITTING THERE. AND YES YOU DID, BUT WHO CARES?! WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT A MINUTE! NO, IT'S NOT, NO, IT'S NOT! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, BRING THAT BACK INTO THE AIR! PUT IT BACK! YOU FOOLED ME...YOU KNOW FOR A FACT THAT IT'S HARD TO SAY THE WORD "BIG" WITHOUT COVERING IT WITH "DUMB" YOU FOOLED THE BIG, DUMB GUY THAT DOESN'T MEAN JACK! TWO-THIRDS OF THE PEOPLE ON HERE FOOL THE BIG, DUMB GUY! WHEN YOU BRING THAT THING DOWN WHEN YOU SAY FOOLER, FOOLER, FOOLER IS WHEN YOU FOOL TELLER! AND TELLER HANDLED THE CARDS AND HE LOOKED AT IT AND HE THOUGHT ABOUT IT ...AND YOU FOOLED HIM! YOU FOOLED TELLER! NOW BRING IT DOWN! NOW IT'S A FOOLER! Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous Kostya Kimlat ladies and gentlemen! He fooled Penn & Teller! Well done!
Magician here- this is my FAVORITE card trick period. I spent about 2 years practicing the method before I performed it once. And I'm talking hours per day... For 2 years... Just to make it passable.
This is a variation on Kostya's trademark trick. It's a variation on one of the oldest plots in card magic- originally created by the "father of modern card magic" Dai Vernon. The trick is called triumph originally and there are 100 ways to do it. They all center around a card is selected, it's returned to the deck, the deck is shuffled face up into face down and then BAM every card in the deck corrects itself and the selection is the only one now face down in a face up deck.
What's spectacular about Kostya's version here is that it is the ONLY version (that I'm aware of) that actually shuffles the cards face up into face down. Every other version (including the original), you pretend to shuffle them but dont really mix them. There are 100 methods to do so. And if they DO shuffle them together, they use a gimmicked deck.
That's what causes this crazy reaction from Penn. As soon as he says he will shuffle face up into face down, every magician knows the exact path this trick is going to take. And now he's looking for the "false shuffle or gimmicked cards". When Penn reacts like that, it's because by showing the backs of the cards AND the faces he knows it's not a gimmicked deck. And by letting the spectator complete the shuffle, he knows it's not a false shuffle.
Kostya goes out of his way to obliterate every method that every other variation of this trick uses. And that reaction is the very moment that Penn realizes that Kostya has disproved every method he was expecting Kostya to use. It's such a beautifully genuine reaction that is kind of hard to appreciate unless you know what's going on behind the scenes.
I hope someone found something interesting out of all that haha.
Edit: thanks so much for the gold! :)
The only thing I can see for sure is that the last time he handles the cards before setting then down, he flips the bottom half.
Whether or not that means anything is anyone's guess.
Kostya's take on it:
Amazing!!!! Can someone please tell me how this was done?
EDIT SPOILER: I was too curious to wait for a reply and I found out how to do this. This is one of the best card magic tricks I've ever seen.
SO WARNING...before you guys look at this, decide whether you want a spoiler or not.
SPOILER VIDEO HERE
(He flips the now-sorted two halves so that they are facing the correct way. During sorting, he 'skips' sorting penn and teller's cards)
The best part of the prize is having Teller speak to you.
The best part about this video is, by the impatience in his voice Penn thinks he knows what's going on here: same old card trick staple cut-rate magicians have been doing for eons. Then he realizes he's genuinely been bamboozled
I like to believe that, as "abrasive" as Penn's humor can be, working with those two would be nothing but fun and wonder all the time. I've heard rumors that they don't always get along, but I still want to believe they are good people overall (unlike some famous people who are dicks to be around).
I like the recommended videos afterward, which are always narrated by a nasally teen for some reason with a face for radio and a voice for print.