ML30: Penn & Teller Trick

hi Don we're back buddy doing okay you know several years ago telling I did a series of documentaries we traveled all over the world seeing magic mostly street magic close-up magic in all different cultures at just about every magician we met in all the countries had some version of the same trick they all did some version of the cups and balls which is probably the oldest magic trick in history at least the oldest one we know about and in all different cultures they had the trick kind of sort of stayed the same but the props were different in China had these beautiful metal cups of our handed down generation generation these flocked cork balls and India they had these a hand-carved wooden cups and if a magician would make his own version but as we traveled around the world we felt we were kind of representing the United States of America so we did it with plastic cups and then we also did it with aluminum foil balls and thus had the totally American totally disposable cups and balls it goes like this we we take the ball we place in our hand we vanish it it appears underneath the cup that's where it's done all around the world we take the ball we place in our hand we vanish it it appears underneath the cup here's a little variation till they came up with where he takes the ball placing his hand and shows you underneath the cup takes place in the company that still appears underneath the cup now we're back to where we started we have three cups three balls to the center ball placing a center cup the two side balls we put them away if they still regroup I need to set a cup like them over here with these three balls now this is juggling and while I'm juggling there's a giant ball Neath the center cup one more giant ball on each side and of course for the finish it's an American baseball now after we had done the American cups and balls for a while want to kind of zoom in and do a Penn & Teller version of the cups and balls and this involves breaking a few rules of magic now the first rule of magic is you never do the same trick twice so we're going to do the same trick twice second rule of magic is you never tell an audience how a trick is being done so we're going to tell you exactly how this trick is being done the third rule of magic is you never let the audience see your secret preparation they must not know what is hidden in which pocket and the fourth rule of magic is unwritten but we think any magician in the world would agree with us in a second that you never ever do the cups and balls with clear plastic cups so here we have the Penn & Teller version of the cups and balls really the first ball pretend to place in their first hand have you already snuck into the first cup to the second ball simultaneously secreted beneath the cup to loosen our hand and show it did the third and final ball triplets in our hand pretty sure the cup of the place of the competent secretly secreted in reveal and now we're all seven second half so he cups all over three balls on top to Center ball please set a cup to the two side walls where you put them away we don't need them anymore we have three duplicates in a cup PC balls were here this is not juggling this is called misdirection for a look over here tells me the final ball under one more neither side and of course for the finish it's an American baseball that's the pennant our cups and balls

Channel: MIT Media Lab

Views: 81,323

Rating: 4.9317536 out of 5

Keywords: MIT, Media Lab, 30th Anniversary, technology

Id: Uq5uyORvKo0

Length: 3min 44sec (224 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 08 2016