http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/vid...ller/17w0i4ge0

(sorry, vid starts with 30-sec ad)

o/u on the number of times teller made penn practice it before he was willing to volunteer?

Im assuming the use the same sequence everytime ldo.

or rigged gun. Could of been a full strip of nails with a switch that stops the advance of the nails.

lol yeah they were not actually memorizing a sequence, they even told you that at the end

Yeah, I wondered if there was a safety that didn't allow nails to fire unless the nozzle was pressed down by the board. But the whole "memorize the sequence" doesn't seem any tougher than playing music.

If you listen to what Penn is saying, the whole point of the commentary is that there is no sequence he has to memorize because it would be incredibly stupid for a magician to risk either his life or the life of somebody else by making a simple mistake like forgetting the sequence when he can evoke the same reaction from the audience with no risk at all. In other words, the magician is in comlete control; the only time a nail comes out of the gun is when Penn does something very specific in order to load a nail into it from the magazine. That is the magician's job - to make something completely safe look dangerous.

Just watched it again. The gun only fires a nail when he pushes the muzzle down onto the surface causing the barrel to contract. If you notice when he fires it into his hand, he does not put any pressure on it and the muzzle does not contract. Instead, he holds the gun steady and moves his hand up to cup it over the barrel. Also, when he puts it on Teller's neck, he does so very carefully, not applying any pressure to it, and even grabs the magazine to ensure that he has a very steady grip on it such that it cannot compress on Teller's neck. So the trigger is not what is allowing the nail to fire, it is simply the mechanism that triggers the burst of compressed air. The barrel contraction is what loads the nail into the chamber. If you watch the last shot into the board before he put it up to Teller's neck, a nail does not come out. He does this to ensure that there is no nail in the chamber before he fires it into Teller's neck.

Clip not for outside USA

bummer

We're sorry,our video library can only be streamed within The United Totalitarian State of America.

You get us back when we try try to watch a video off the bbc website.

If it's on the BBC website and you can't watch it, that's because you won't understand it, it's for your own good

There are ways around this, you know ...

no worries internationals, wasnt worth watching

The only thing that makes any sense at all is that there are no nails at all coming from the gun. This means the strip is rigged and the nails are actually traveling UP from the board when Penn covers the spot with the gun. At the angle you are viewing the stage from you would never be able to see this so it is a very simple illusion.

lol no

Have you ever been to a taping of a late-night style show? The audience is in bleachers. 100% of them can see the top of the table from their seat, so they'd be able to see nail heads sticking out.

Plus, half of the nails go in crooked.

This is my guess and I would bet this is how its done:

When he presses the trigger the gun doesn't do anything other than give off a blast of air. The only time a nail will trigger is when he pushes the nail gun onto the board. The reason the nails are sticking out so far is because there isn't enough force through the action of hitting the wood alone.

Everytime he pulls the trigger all he is getting is a blast of air. When he hits the board with the nail gun, there is enough force where he is basically manually pushing the tip of the nail into the wood. That is why the gun isn't slamming the nail into the wood, through it, and into the metal table.

Everyone knows how a nail gun works. There is so much force behind them that there is no way you're going to keep the nails from sticking out 2". He just has it timed so that when he hits the board, he pulls the trigger and the sound of the air and the action of hitting the nail into the wood is synchronized, but yet, they are 2 separate actions.

It's a powerful electromagnet and it sucks the nails out of the board! Luckily Teller didn't have any shrapnel or metal implants in his neck, and his blood iron levels weren't high enough to cause any veins to rupture.

You mean they come out crooked just as they went in crooked prior to the show, obviously.

Yeah, Deorum already explained exactly how it's done.

My guess is that he put a sheet of metal under the wood to keep them from going through.

Inso0 I have never been to a late night taping although I am guessing from your reply that you have.

I don't think the height that the audience is seated is whats important. I think the distance from the stage is sufficient that there would not be any way for someone to pick up that the nails are indeed rising up from the board and not the other way around. Counter sinking the heads would be very easy so that even at a short distance the board would appear totally normal.

I think the likelihood of them relying on Penn holding the gun in just the right way so that no nail is fired during the trigger pulls when his hand, Teller's pee pee, or worse yet Teller's chin is the would be target is near zero. The slightest, and I mean, slightest mistake would result in severe injury or death and the risk there does not make any sense.

Sure, for Penn to hold the gun up to his hand once and make that move might be a skill one could aquire but to do it at speed while talking would result in way too high a risk that something goes wrong. P&T are all about misdirection and making you believe that you are seeing something which in point of fact, you are not. They are very open about this so I don't see why people would think there is any different standard used in this trick.

It doesn't make it any less entertaining IMO. But I would bet a large sum of money that all showbiz BS aside if you could ask them with a 100% guarantee that they answer truthfully, there are no nails coming from the gun during the entire bit. Of course this isn't possible, which is what makes it fun to watch and prompts discussions like this.

Ham, you need to apply significant pressure to load a nail into the chamber before it can be fired. I hope I don't have to elaborate.

Yeah I guess I see Deorum's and my answer are similar.

I don't really agree with this quoted part as the nails aren't going in far enough to have to worry about them going through.

But nonetheless i'm not going to debate this because I really don't care. I don't like magic tricks that are obviously, and noticeably, fake.

Yes, all magic is fake..blah blah blah. I like magic where it leaves you wondering how they did it, not "yeah this is fake, let's figure it out."

I dunno if it's really up for debate since it was explained in the first minute of the clip when he shows you the big sheet of metal under the board.

This thread has officially annoyed the **** out of me.

Well he's not going to do this trick with a 2x4 on top of a table draped in linen cloth and rose petals. The metal table is part of the theme of the trick.

So basically you're saying the nails are the length of the width of the wood + 2" out of the wood. Doubt it. He'll say whatever he has to say to get your mind into believing the illusion.

Plus, if there was enough force of the nail gun to push it through the wood and stop on the metal, you'd hear it. Also, you'd see the board bounce off the table, imo.

I'm done talking about it. It doesn't matter either way. I'm not impressed with the trick and debating it is only making me dumber.