skip to 4:35 to get straight to magic

so somebody from the audience put the fish in the briefcase which didn't move?

trap doors i guess

What i think happened is they had a sound device in the box in the audience, recorded the ringer the girl had(which happened to be a standard ring which seems really weird), that could send to the recorder and play on cue, than the real fish was inserted when teller was messing with the frozen one in that box.

ok. what was the point of penn fumbling the cup and throwing the phone back into the bucket lol

There's another phone attached to the back of the cardboard cutout. Penn switches the girl's phone with that phone, and then pretends to fumble it and throw it back to Teller. However, the girl's phone has now taken the place of the 2nd phone in the back of the cutout, and carried offstage where a stagehand can put it into a fish.


Teller then switches the fish in the box with the fish that has the girl's phone in it.

right. so whats the point of throwing the fake phone back to teller? everyone sees that he throws the phone back, but the girl proceeds to stomp on the empty foam cup. is there somethin im missing.

it's just a filler fake distraction for them to have time to put the real phone into the fish

the audience thinks the phone is in the red bucket that got taken away, so it makes it more believable when they hear the ringtone in one of the chairs

Can somebody explain to me what "half-fit" means?

I think the cell phone owners could be plants.

If not, then I would guess there's a way to insert a fish into the empty box underneath the chair, maybe like a panel in both the chair and box that opens in, but not out, and the cameras and audience are too far away from the bottom of the box to see it.

I think the fish in the crowd/box is untouched and has no panels. The tray/cart I think has another fish and Teller does some sleight of hand to make the switch and make it seem like he flipped the fish onto the ice. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to put the phone in the fish and rush it out to the crowd.

Also they are playing the odds by using the latest Iphone, they don't need plants since there is a very high chance multiple people in the crowd will have that phone.

[ ] 4:35 straight to the magic

They sneak phone off stage, put it into a fish, then use slight of hand to swap out the backstage fish for the box fish after it's been opened.

EZ game.

fit = hot/attractive

I don't think even the smell of fish will stop the person they choose being mobbed after the show by people wanting to see the video.

i think the explanations so far are wrong though possible. i dont believe they even needed to switch the box or prep it during the act. The box was legitimately there and untouched the whole time.

My guess:

The box was equipped with a recorder and speaker. When she played her ring, the box recorded the ring, and when the friend called they played the ring tone from the box. It could be well timed because cameras were watching her to show when she dialed and idled to wait for the ring.

Teller, meanwhile, pocketed the phone and placed it in the plastic, which could have been press-sealed or whatever. He then sneaks the phone back in when cutting as he has the fish and the box blocking site. He dirties the plastic with one of his hands that had already touched the fish likely, but from what i could see the plastic wasnt as filthy as you'd expect coming out of the fish and im nearly sure that he snuck the phone in after, so thats my understanding of the trick.

I like the fish swap theory best. Did you look at the 2nd video itt?

Nothing needs to be recorded. The woman's phone actually rings when her friend calls, and they just need to have the phone somewhere that the audience cannot hear it. Then whoever has the phone simply holds the phone up to a mic that feeds into the speaker in the box.

100% the phone is not inside the fish. Watch closely when Teller(?) allegedly removes the phone from the fish. You can tell it is not actually coming out of the fish but from behind it.

I havent quite figured out how they got the ring from the box though.

Also, Penn grabs a hold of the woman's hand and moves it to physically block her view of the phone so that she does not notice that it isn't really coming out of the fish.

this is probably it, better than recording the ringtone like i said earlier.

You can see where the fish guts are already out before they cut it open.

So all they did was shove it inside and if you seen Teller work he can do it easily before chopping off the head.

Don't they run the small risk of someone else calling the phone (mom, dad, bf etc.) as the phone is being taken off stage along with the cardboard cut out? I'm pretty sure we all agree that's what happened to her real phone. But having that happen would only give that part of the trick away anyways.

I guess Penn and Teller decided that was just a risk they would take.

They talk during the whole thing pretty much, speakers are pretty loud. Also I'm sure some of those people participating are lost in the moment and spotlights. Probably nervous of what possible thing might happen next.

What I find odd is that Penn appears to actually throw the phone over his back to Teller. I wouldn't think that they would risk damaging the woman's phone by being so careless, but there does not appear to be a point at which he can hand it off to Teller, as he clearly still has the phone in his hand right up to the point at which he pretends to put it in the cup. While he does get close to Teller afterward, neither Penn nor Teller ever get close enough to hand it off to somebody else to take it backstage before they have the girl's friend call again (eg. the phone call happens before he exits the stage to grab the fish cart) and surely the girl would hear it ringing right next to her were Penn or Teller still holding it. This leads me to believe that the phone had to actually go up in the bucket, but Penn has it in his hand right up to the point that he pretends to throw it and can't really hand it off at any other point. That said, I am fairly sure they did seal the phone in the plastic wrap, and assume they did so when it was offstage.

Watch post #2.