Quote:
Originally Posted by youtalkfunny
The gun is sucking nails out of the board??? Even rapid fire, Penn is able to precisely line up the gun with the already-sunk nail?
It's amazing how wild people's imaginations get when they don't know something (none of us "know" how the trick is done), and they can't stand not knowing, and they'll believe the wildest things, because believing the illogical isn't as discomforting as "not knowing".
You are arguing against yourself. Magicians count on you not believing the lengths they will go to make a trick work. Which is likelier: that Penn practices for hours on end aiming an empty nail gun at precise points to make a trick safe, or Penn practices for hours on end memorizing a sequence/pushing the right amount on the end to prevent a nail from firing? It's the same amount of work, just one is completely safe.
When Penn pushes the gun to the neck of Teller, there should be no question in anyone's mind if there are any nails in that gun at all.
Regardless, some people refuse to believe until evidence is presented to them. Penn and Teller repeated the trick for a UK show called "Fool Us." Lining the clip up with Penn's earlier performance on late Night with Jimmy Fallon:
The nail patterns are the same (don't forget to take camera angle into account). I'm happy to post more screenshots showing the pattern of nails on the entire board continues to match exactly throughout both performances. Either Penn is inserting dozens of nails in the exact same pattern, or he is using a preset board and pulling prop nails out with a magnet.
If that still doesn't "grab" you (ha ha) maybe this will help...
Last edited by stereodan; 07-18-2011 at 07:20 PM.