Penn Jillette (Penn & Teller) Reviews Magic Tricks in The Prestige, Arrested Development and More

hi this is Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller and today I'll be reviewing some movie scenes with magic in him now you see me she's gonna do an escape she's being tied up as stuff from I assume Home Depot and she's now gonna escape from the from the now she's not doing an escape here this is a movie they reshoot this and everything it's it's it's about magic it's no more she's no more doing magic than a police officer is actually arresting people during the movie I believe if I remember this right piranhas are gonna drop in at the end and and either but piranhas will not attack people like that and we did a whole thing on that would tell her in the tank of piranhas where we were very smugly saying and the piranhas wouldn't actually bite somebody and then the piranhas bit teller which bit is toe really badly and maybe laughs really really hard yeah piranhas won't really do that sadly sadly would be nice if they did oh and she appears in the audience yeah that's done that's done all the time some of the onstage vanishes they appear in the audience and the great thing is when you really do that for real you just walk through the audience and they don't notice you they're paying attention to the stage and we think everybody's gonna be like pointing T and yelling but they don't just walk through spotlight hit you you're there the water tank which is what they're doing a take on in this is usually associated with Houdini and it's very important that Houdini had a rule that he wouldn't do anything more dangerous than sitting in his living room and that's not only an artistic decision it's also a moral decision and not just for myself not self-preservation it's also immoral to put the up make the audience complicit and unnecessary human risk on the prestige watch carefully we will we'll watch very carefully you'll see no trickery we will see trick or no trickery is employed everything he's saying is a lie familiar to certain citizens of the Orient and various holy men of the Himalayas that's not true either what you're about to see is considered safe [Music] wasn't that something he moved a long distance what could be easier to do than that in a movie as far as I know that has no real antecedent that's no real magic trick if you did it as a magic trick live on stage the eyes would know you were using twins you know there's a sense that movies never get where everything being done in a magic show has to be in some way plausible and that's a good example of a trick that would be horrible in a live show because you've got what's called and this is more complicated I'm really going to go into but it's called the to perfect concept if a trick is so perfect there's only one way to do it well then that's the way you did it and to move that kind of distance and that kind of speed would have to be a identical twin I'm not talking about Hugh Jackman or the overall movie just that one trick a little stupid mm me too peanut but just wait till next weekend once I'm out of here you and I gonna go paint this town red well so much ice cream will never stop puking that's what my favorite moments of magic of all the stuff we're gonna see today that may be the only thing that was really done he actually did that magic trick Houdini I hope he's a Tony Curtis it is oh boy they're putting lots being put in their little list right in middle out there this is a little like something Houdini did this isn't that far off looks as if you've got me pretty well locked out oh I think they're telling him what to do in this like he's not the one who built it and designed it and hasn't done it a thousand times oh yeah yeah put your hands like this yes I know I designed the trick once you see locks in a magic show you know they're right the locks belong to the magician you'd have any Keys rigged them any way you want will you hold this in front of me oh yes surely [Applause] [Music] but he does their the the adjusting the curtain while you're doing an escape that is a standard gag that Houdini undoubtedly did one of the things you do in escapes is you're one step ahead while they're putting you in the next thing you're already out of the thing before so he would be out of the he'd be out of this before they even put the curtain up and then able to do stuff once again he mentions there that that the guy built it like it was a challenge of the person brought in Houdini had a lot of that or needed a lot of stuff where the local brewery would build a beer barrel and challenge Houdini to get out of it of course Houdini had sent them that plans for that beforehand so the guy might have actually meant because this is a movie so it's not true but a nudie mias case he might have actually had the person make that apparatus but they would have made it to his exact specifications he would have escaped from it hundreds of times before that practice the illusionist this is a trick that teller is obsessed with teller pitches this trick to us to do all the time he always wants us to do a trick where a seed is put in and and a plant grows out of it man tell her tell her it loves this trick I hate this trick you'll never see this in a Penn & Teller show as long as I'm alive now the I believe the magic consultant on this was Ricky J and Ricky was one of the greatest minds had ever lived in magic and a wonderful person and Ricky laid this out to be very close to what the magicians would have really done at the turn of the last century well that's not Paul Giamatti that's that's a Chuck from billions in the movie you see the tree grow you see the oranges get bigger when you would see this in a stage show becoming with a cloth in between so maybe if it look like this and getting our show it's not going to look like that it's going to look like covering up a twig with a piece of cloth and sneaking in another plant while you're doing it it sucks mission impossible wow this is amazing they made Tom Cruise look tall oh we're look at Tom he sees playing the part of a magician now knowing how hard Tom Cruise works he probably actually practiced that it's a it's a big thing that's supposed to be going up his his sleeve you made the disk disappear using using sleight of hand now if you're going to do that for real he might have actually done it for real their minds just taking on a few frames you just throw that what's called the topic it's a little thing built in to your suit coat that's like a big pocket that you can just throw something in and when he comes in like this you could do that I doubt he does because why bother he's Tom Cruise the incredible Burt Wonderstone this is uh this is tellers favorite magic movie oh my goodness while they're acting out a little high school thing oh yeah I'm gonna be doing a sword cabinet here yeah she would not be surprised but where the yes what was gonna come would you like to see it tonight that's essentially the way it would be done is we do a lot more swords and the purse would be in another more uncomfortable position and also you'd probably have the cabinet built in a cheating way to give you more room to hide in it as the swords went through one thing that's very accurate about this is how casual they are when you're doing these things are looking credibly death-defying you're very very very casual this is Arrested Development I know this is a TV show but TV and movies have become the exact same thing now this is the most realistic thing we've seen so far for magic this is exactly how real magic is done yeah this is there's no CGI here taking an old guy shame in the box is done all the time there's a panel just put it around the girl of mind it don't make any noise all right in this clip he tells the gentlemen what to do when he gets in the box and that's called instant stooging and it's interesting but you can tell someone on stage to do something and they just do it there's hardly ever a question we don't do much instant stooging because it's kind of not fun because it's more fun to fool the person who's on stage as well but that's a technique that's used and the idea is that you give up folding one person or the full the whole audience but I've just found it more fulfilling for everybody to have the person onstage full too so we have I think without exception we always fold the person onstage finally the Magnificent Seven show us our money party well this is the new magnificent server oh yeah you can't resist picking the card see this is just not card they're trying to show this as you can't just picking the card we're naturality getting someone to pick a card it's almost impossible go to a party fan on a deck of cards they want to pick a card everyone will say no let's go on commit the card to memory when you're ready put the car back in the day oh yeah I like that they're using actually an antique kind of deck that's nice with a shuffle and a cut all they get someone doing Carter Street in the close-up that's that's not the actors hands on your car that's a three hearty food card you didn't let me finish oh that's nice he's performing under a lot of pressure there a lot of pressure I think I'm better under pressure we were doing Saturday Night Live in the 80s which is about as much pressure as we've been under because you've got whatever it is eight million people watching you and it really is no kidding live we did a bit that was really really hard which was a bit where we were upside down in the audience at home didn't know it as we could do all these levitation and vanish things with the gravity being up there we're hanging upside down all day we've been working on it for six weeks all the time to rehearsal and there was an incredibly hard move in it where I had to wall him upside down I had to do this juggling maneuver upside down looking like I was right-side up with gravity backwards and really really hard move and in all the rehearsals I never did it once right and then on Centre Night Live with all the cameras were only in front of 8 million people was the only time I nailed it so offer my personality you put a couple guns on me I'm gonna do the best performance I'll ever do other people they just throw up I hope I've told you a little bit about how magic is done in movies and how movies talk about magic and hope you've learned something but remember I lie

Channel: Vanity Fair

Views: 2,371,122

Rating: 4.9248447 out of 5

Keywords: penn, penn and teller, penn reviews, penn jillette, penn reviews magic scenes, penn jillette reviews scenes, penn jillette vanity fair, penn jillette interview, penn jillette reviews movies, penn jillette the illusionist, penn jillette the prestige, penn jillette arrested development, penn jillette movie magic, magic tricks in movies, magic in movies, vanity fair magic scenes, penn vanity fair, penn jillette 2019, vanity fair reviews 2019, vf reviews, vanity fair

Id: S3vTld5pNlI

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 18 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/DangerouslyDevilish]

Here's the SNL skit he mentions near the end of the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwkmgqbYXdE

[u/gregariousfortune]

Penn and Teller are brilliant for many many reasons, but one of my favorite things they've done with their careers is showing that even if you find out how the trick is done it doesn't take away from the experience, and in fact always adds more enjoyment. EG the upside-down Letterman performance or the clear cups and balls trick.

[u/AaaawShitBuddy]

His hairstyle is far too normal. This is clearly a twin.

[u/Murrdogg]

"...but remember: I lie."

[u/I_Said_I_Say]

Just once I’d like to hear him introduce himself as Penn Jillette from the movie Hackers. That was a cool video, I reckon I could listen to him talk about magic all day

[u/TucsonCat]

Man... love Penn and Teller.

I went to one of their shows when they were in Tucson a few years back. Not only was the show even better live than you would expect, they stood outside the auditorium afterwards and met every fan that wanted to meet them, and took pictures with everyone.

They’re just such genuine entertainers, and they deserve every iota of their success.

[u/timelighter]

/r/goodvideobadtitle

[u/jMan9244]

I so glad they included the stage light in the shot for us to look at!

[u/georgeahhwell]

"This is amazing! They made Tom Cruise look tall" 😂😂😂😭😭😭😂😂