Review of Fool Us Episode "Magic is Sexy"

There isn't a whole lot to describe about this one. At least, writing about it won't help sell it much.

The tl;dr is that Cash had Brooke select a card which was then lost in the deck. Except, it magically appeared on top! He placed it back into the center of the deck and bam! On top again. This went on a couple more times until the finale.

The card was placed in the center of the deck and Cash set the deck down on the table and stepped away. If you blinked, you would've missed the moment it happened but bam -- the top card, which was face down, magically changed into the selected card (face up)!

Penn and Teller were, obviously, not fooled. I say "obviously" because Penn even started off his whole speech by calling out that Cash came on Fool Us to just perform an Ambitious Card routine, something all card magicians know and perform.

He also gave Cash a lot of praise, so at least there's that! But, as ACR is a well-known routine that most magicians do know, this one didn't fool them.

This is where we might get a bit contentious, but I personally don't think routines like this should be allowed on Fool Us. There was nothing special about this routine, it was a run-of-the-mill ACR. Even down to the "reveal" of the final card, which I'm assuming was the main piece of the routine that he was hoping would fool Penn & Teller, is something you'd see in a stage or parlor setting. Sure, you might not see that one in your typical street magic ACR act, but that doesn't make it unique. I'm sure someone would be watching like a hawk and know what's up.

A big problem with ACR on TV is that it's much easier to discern the method than other tricks. This is a card trick with complete focus on the deck. When you're in person, misdirection is simpler, and things move more quickly. When you're at home, you're not distracted by the world around you, you're focused directly on the screen which has a zoomed-in look at the deck of cards. This is a case when Fool Us could easily spoil how the trick's done for anyone watching... which is bad, given every card magician does this routine at one point or another.

Cash's performance was also a bit off to me. This isn't on him at all, it's more of the environment. Or it could be him -- but I'm giving him the benefit of doubt. It felt like he was a street performer trying to do an act on a stage for the first time. He stumbled in his words and didn't appear to have control over his spectator. This is me every time I perform, so it's understandable =P. But for an act on Fool Us, I'd expect it to be a little more polished.

As far as I can tell, his performance was just so he could build up marketing for his product (what he used in the final reveal). But hey, what better way to advertise than to perform it live in front of Penn & Teller?!

Aleš's act was a beautiful and fun display of juggling, with elements of magic sprinkled in.

He began with a white ring around his neck. Or a ring of light? It was hard to tell, either it was just really bright white, or actually lit up. And that's about all I can describe from the act in full detail.

You see, he took that ring and began tossing it around. And then more rings appeared. Those rings split in half, or exploded into pieces, or became floppy. More rings, all being juggled.

He juggled rings around his body, even his head! By the end of his juggling performance, the stage was covered in pieces of rings and there stood an abstract art sculpture of sorts.

Penn was laughing in a very endearing way when he started his speech for Aleš.

Since the act wasn't necessarily magic, but juggling, it didn't fool the duo. Penn really loved it though, given he's a juggler too. I'm not sure what Teller thought, but he probably liked it =P

Henry and Klauss took the stage, in Brazil. That's right folks, they were streaming a recording of their stage performance from their theater in Brazil.

Behind them on the stage were two large barrels with chains attached. They set the premise up quickly too. They would each be sealed in a barrel, and they would need to escape before time ran out, otherwise the barrels would explode with them inside!

True to their word, they were both placed inside a barrel and one hand extended out of a hole in the top. The extended hands were handcuffed, and the barrels raised. Worth mentioning is that the assistants who were doing all the work were in dark jump suits with lit-up face masks and all.

The barrels were raised above the stage, the fuse was lit, and the timer began counting down. We were given a sneak peek inside the barrels, courtesy of little cameras, and both Henry and Klauss were struggling to free themselves.

And then the timer hit zero and the barrels exploded open!

Henry and Klauss were nowhere to be seen. But wait, there they are! They were standing at the back of the theater, perfectly unharmed!

As I expected, Penn and Teller weren't fooled by this one. It was a large stage performance, an escape act no less, and Penn was quick to say that they weren't fooled.

He did give them praise, and said:

Seeing this act as a recording on the show kind of killed it for me. Video editing with cameras cutting here and there, yeah, there's no magic. As soon as you do a cut and show another camera angle, I no longer believe it's the same thing we're seeing -- it's the magic of video, many recordings spliced together can still look like one.

And yes, I know that normal acts on Fool Us can also be done this way given that they're technically performed twice, and footage can be used interchangeably from both performances. However, in this case, it's a little different because we're not seeing a video that was edited by Fool Us, but by Henry and Klauss.

I'm sure it would've been cool to see in person though. However, my one piece of feedback is that the whole act, even before they were locked in the barrels, I thought to myself "they're going to end up being the assistants in the masks". They weren't, of course, but if they were I think that the trick would've been next level!

All escape acts, or a lot of them, have the magician end up at the back of the theater. That means that they weren't in the barrels the whole time and we've been lied to. Those monkeys that have been dancing under the barrels the whole time though, if they dropped to floor as soon as the explosion happens and then stood up and pulled off their masks and bam -- Henry and Klauss -- my mind would be blown. It would be a double "assistant's revenge", plus barrel escape!

Ah, and that brings us to their appearance on America's Got Talent. In 2022, Henry and Klauss performed the exact same trick on AGT (watch it here). Except, they didn't "appear" at the back of the theater... instead, they appeared as the camera crew, up close and personal to the show's judges. Now that is how to make an appearance! The act performed on AGT, in my opinion, was way better than that on Fool Us. And yet, it was the exact same one. Go figure!

Jonah and Ben were on the stage behind a large table. They invited Penn and Teller up on stage and recounted some rather interesting information about how they sleep with pictures of Penn and Teller at night.

Ah, but that was to provide context as to why they had photos of Penn and Teller, which they then produced. They had Penn and Teller sign their individual photo and then, Jonah and Ben tore the photos in half.

They swapped half of their photo with the other's and then brought out a lighter. By providing a quick "kiss of fire", both photos were completely restored! Except, they were half-and-half; the top half would be Penn and the bottom Teller, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, the duo didn't fool the main duo.

Their act was a twist on the classic Torn & Restored plot, Penn quickly saying that it was heat-based and giving away just a bit too much information in my opinion.

I'm a fan of torn and restored plots in magic, but only if they're done clean and, or perhaps or, with good reason.

Penn and Teller do a version with a newspaper, as have several great stage magicians. They just "do the thing", and the performance is standalone but amazing.

The plot exists in card magic too, typically with a single card being "restored". Most performances of this are just meh, but it's a strong plot so it often holds. However, I've seen a very similar plot -- to the one performed by Jonah and Ben -- with cards too where two cards with different colored backs are torn in half and then restored together, but opposite.

I've thought that that effect was neat, but not great. The times I've seen it, the performance was lacking. It was just, done. Jonah and Ben's build-up, I never saw the ending coming until they gave it a "kiss of fire." And that is what's cool.

My only nit-pick, and this really isn't a big one at all, but the only thing I recalled that could've been smoother was the handling of the photos during the end -- when they were being "restored". Nothing was flashed or anything, at least that I could tell, but I was left with the impression that there was a lot of "handling" going on. I've only watched it once so I could've simply been distracted and watching again could remove that feeling, but that's how I remember it. Either way though, I really liked this routine and truth be told, it fooled me =]

Penn and Teller started their act on the stage with a member of the audience! Yes, that's right, since the audience is finally back this season, they don't need to rely on the host (Brooke Burke) to always fill in as the spectator.

As usual with Penn, he gave an opening monologue that lasted a bit, but it was all focused on the choice to pick a needle. There was a table covered in needles, and each had a special name, some real and some apparently made up.

The spectator chose the Red Darning needle, which Penn made her reiterate multiple times throughout the act.

Then, Penn had her pick a card from a deck that she was able to shuffle herself.

At this point, she picked a needle -- the Red Darning needle -- and a card. The card was placed back into the deck, but she has the needle in her hand.

The large black curtain that served as the backdrop of the act up to this point was pulled open to reveal a large container of hay with stairs leading up to it.

She was instructed to walk up to the top of a platform and, you guessed it, she threw the needle into the stack of hay.

Teller stood directly below the hay with a piece of string in his hands. The hay was released onto Teller and in an instant, the spectator's selected card was stuck on a red darning needle, threaded on the piece of string!

By far the best act of the episode (^_^)