New show in the UK just had it's 3rd episode. The premise is an american/pop idol talent show type set up but for a bunch of magicians, the goal however is not to be good or even entertaining but to do a trick that Penn and Teller cannot work out how it was done. If you succeed you get a trip to vegas and the opportunity to open for P&T at their show at the Rio.

I've enjoyed the first few eps, I'm a big P&T fan (Bull**** is awesome) and I quite like that they don't give everything away in their reveals of other peoples tricks. Working out for yourself (with the help of VLC's 1/4 speed play function) how the tricks were done and trying to interpret Penn's somewhat cryptic hints is all part of the fun.

The shows are available free legally on ITV player and in all your regularly scheduled places I have no doubt.

I've watched it. I'm mostly just impressed with the talent they're finding. They're all excellent. A talent show with actual talent? Go figure, right?

i like it a lot and have read basically any knowledgeable forum discussion i can get my hands on about the show and how the tricks are done.

The one I was quite happy with catching was the royal flush blindfolded one. Obviously you know how it must have been done but actually seeing it 100% was fun.

Episode 2 it starts about 29 mins in

this is cool http://wimp.com/mathieubich/

Yeah, no real idea on this one. My girlfriend thought

The 'Laughs or Links' forum has a couple of threads on it

I had a look round a magic forum I used to frequent and it seems a few magicians who were on the show or were edited out of the show and people who were in the audience had some doubts about how above board the whole process is. P+T have been fooled by some tricks which really shouldn't have fooled them, like Bich's trick which won a FISM award and is well known. There also seems to be little consistency in the judging process. Sometimes P+T get one guess and if they are wrong they are fooled while James Brown said they examined his effect for 20 minutes with multiple questions and extensive checks on his props before he was eventually edited from the show altogether.

Not that this necessarily takes anything away from the show.

There was also quite a bit of discussion about exposing secrets but the general consensus was that P+T are doing it pretty well, and occasionally if the original reveal is too explicit they have filmed it again in the studio, which is good.

I don't know what the editing process hides but they make the magicians look pretty good on this show.

kitarist,

ya read most of that. another interesting tidbit i have read (sorta related to the very dumb 'why go on this show with a really famous illusion? you really think that will fool P&T!?') was that the producers select the acts, and they decided against a bunch figuring there was no way they'd fool P&T. they then used these acts in soundchecks and P&T were completely baffled by a lot of them.

i know teller is an avid student of magic but they are pretty busy guys so it doesn't seem too outlandish to me that he didn't know of spreadwave. i may be completely off as i obviously don't know much about the scene.

ive only seen the spreadwave one but i thought the guess was a complete softball and set up.

Producers selecting the acts makes sense to me. I was wondering why that Soma would perform an act that P&T use themselves..

Loved Piff the Magic Dragon and the very first act of show with the duck and chicken. Ali Cook (the guy who performed that first trick) is really good, he presented a show called 'The secret world of magic' on sky a year or so back that is worth checking out.

I love P&T, and I love this show. I don't care how real it is. I love how they reveal tricks in a way that still confuses most people.

Some of the tricks are a bit confusing, though, in that I don't see how they planned on fooling P&T. I guess you could go on the show just get exposure, but don't they want to win too?

My only question is

Just watched the three episodes on Youtube. Really fun show.

piff the magic dragon: http://wimp.com/funniesttrick/

very funny

think i'm gonna go watch piff next month, he has a show at the edinburgh festival

i know nothing about magic but seems like they use force a lot, for example the slight pause after Mathieu Bich said 9 and the emphasis on certain words puts words in people's mouths which seriously limits the number of outs they need.

They used the outs explanation on the show when Jonathan Ross picked 7...7, cmon Jonathan! Make him work!

woss could have said any number as could the people in the bich trick. i think you've been watching too much derren brown

Probably. All the same to me. No such thing as magic and all that.

I wonder if Derren Brown could fool Penn and Teller.

busy guys remember, probably never heard of him

i feel like derren brown does a lot of his stuff on people who are easily influenced, I'd have thought P&T wouldn't be, although they do come across as very willing participants in the show.

derren and teller are very good friends.

I haven't seen a ton of Darren Brown's stuff, but a good deal of the stuff he claims is purely psychological isn't.

That doesn't make the tricks any less impressive, though.

how does penn feel about this?

True. Derren Browns misdirection is just to trick you into thinking hes using the power of suggestion/mind control or hypnosis when really its just a simple magic trick.

Like how he says hes banned from every Casino in the uk. Not true. Its all to create an illusion though that he must have some incredible powers.