-Ladies and gentlemen,
Penn and Teller! Oh, my goodness!
[ Cheers and applause ] Nice to see you, buddy. Pleasure to see you. -Thank you again.
Welcome back to the show. First of all, I want
to congratulate you on -- you guys have
the longest-running headlining act in Las Vegas.
-In history. -In history.
-Not just now. The longest-running headliners
in history of Las Vegas. -Congratulations.
That's just amazing. -And we just signed for another
four years, so until 2022. -At the Rio?
-We intend to die in office. [ Laughter ]
That's our plan. -Oh, man.
I can't believe -- I love that. Now let's talk about
the fifth season, "Penn and Teller: Fool Us." Explain the show to the people
if they haven't seen the show. It's a good premise. -Greatest magicians
in the world. And we're into the fifth season,
it really is the world. We get people from all over. They come on,
and they do a magic trick that they think can fool us,
and if they fool us, they come out and play with us
in Vegas at our theater, the conveniently named
Penn & Teller Theater. And if they don't,
they go away crying. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, exactly, yeah. -This season,
we're also bringing back -- which is not thrilling us -- We're bringing back people
who fooled us before. Fan favorites to come back on
and try to fool us again. -Fool you again.
-Yeah. -Okay.
Now you always bring a cool thing
or do something amazing, some type of illusion or trick, and so you're
doing something tonight. I never know what it is. -We didn't let you in
on the rehearsal. -No, I never know.
All right good. What do I do?
-Stand right over there. You watch it right there.
-Okay. -You know, there's a word --
misdirection -- that's used by laypeople a lot. It's a magical term.
It's a term of art. And the way laypeople use it
is wrong. Because laypeople often use it
as a synonym for distraction. Like, "Hey!
Look over there!" do something sneaky here,
and then you look back, and the trick is done. That doesn't fool anyone.
-Mm-hmm. -The way we use
the word misdirection is kind of a curating
of attention, giving the audience a story
they can tell themselves that lets them not really know
they were distracted. And we're gonna do a trick
right now using misdirection. I'm gonna tell you what it is. The trick is
The Vanishing Chicken. There's a chicken in there.
We're gonna make it disappear. Now, when I say "Give you
a story to tell yourself," it's not some jive-ass story
like this is Clucky McCluckface, and this is the chicken-coop
rocket ship to Mars. No, a real story,
which is you know it's a vanishing chicken.
I've told you that. -Yes.
-You know we're Penn and Teller. You know we do magic tricks. So as soon as I
cover up this chicken, you're telling yourself
what you're gonna do. You're telling yourself a story. You're making yourself
a promise. 'Cause you're
promising yourself right now that at no time
will you allow your attenti-- [ Cymbals crashing ] [ Laughter ] -[ Laughing ] Oh, my goodness. -Misdirection.
-Yeah. -Now, Jimmy, I want to see
how well this works. Can we have the house lights up
so I can see people? Yeah, just want to see --
Show of hands. How many of you saw
the gorilla with the cymbals? Should be everyone! It's a goddamn gorilla
with cymbals! [ Laughter ]
Should be all of you! -Yes, yeah.
-Now some set of that, how many of you saw Teller
walk out here, cop the chicken, and split? That's almost everyone, too. Now here's where
the misdirection comes in. How many of you,
during all of that, saw us sneak the gorilla
into the cage? [ Audience "Oohs" ]
How many people saw that? Because that's misdirection.
-What? -Oh, my gosh.
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ -That's Georgie Bernasek.
Georgie Bernasek. -Are you kidding me? Oh, my gosh!
That is -- -Only we would take the showgirl
and put her in a gorilla outfit. -In a gorilla outfit.
Unbelievable right there! Penn and Teller!
[ Cheers and applause ] How did you do that? "Penn and Teller: Fool Us"
premieres Monday at 8:00 p.m., on the CW.
You guys are the best. We'll be right back!
How?!
Remember Rule #1 of r/Magic:
Last month I saw them live and they did this exact thing!
Still didn't notice them sneak the gorilla lol
Shout out to Alex Boyce as the un-credited man in this trick!
So good in taking a tried and true illusion and giving it a new and fun presentation.
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Haha, great stuff.
there's something truly wonderful about a "bungled" misdirect. Messy magic at it's finest.
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