Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a TV talent show that is filmed in front of a live audience (or, virtual audience during the pandemic). Oh, and we can't forget to mention that Penn and Teller are there too -- they're the judges!

During each episode, four magicians perform a magic act for Penn & Teller which, at the end of each act the magician-comedian duo try to deduce how the trick was done. In very articulate speech, Penn -- as Teller remains characteristically silent -- commends the magician on a job well done. If the magic act fooled Penn & Teller, they win a sweet Fool Us trophy and a trip to Vegas to be the opening act for Penn & Teller's show!

I want my opinions below to reflect those of a spectator who just saw a performance live. To achieve this, I've only watched this episode once. In real time - no pausing. No slow motion. Once through, with commercials and with my kids enjoying it with me too. Did I remember everything I saw? Did I see everything that happened? Do I remember the exact words that were said? Maybe, but likely not -- which means if I over-portray an effect below then it was just that great of a trick. If I under-portray it, well, yeah. So let's see what this episode's got in store for us!

Episode Recap

The episode Stabba Dabba Deck first aired on January 21, 2022 as Season 8's episode 11 (episode #116 overall!). The show received it's title from the first act of Zak Mirz who, in fact, stabbed a deck! Okay, so that's a lie - he stabbed the table. Alyson stabbed the deck ;)

All four performances were good, but to be blunt -- they were all classics in magic. Said another way, they weren't anything unique and chances are, we've all seen similar routines many times before. A card stab, cups and balls, a "think of a number" mentalism routine, and the cone and ball. My intuition tells me that these segments were all chosen for this specific episode because of their relationship to the history of magic, but maybe I'm overthinking it.

The fooler of the night's episode was Zak Mirz, the first performance of the show. I really enjoyed John-Henry's performance though; he's a bit eccentric and fun and looks like he can cover a lot of material. Wouldn't mind seeing a performance of his in person!

One of the downsides of becoming a magician is that, inherently, we learn how certain routines are performed and, ideally, how to perform them ourselves. I know for a fact how to do three of the routines, and I know of several ways to do the one that fooled Penn & Teller -- as they likely do too (they made a good guess for this one). Unfortunately, the magical wonder of "how is this possible?!" wasn't there for me during this episode but I did enjoy seeing these wildly different personalities and performances.

Performances

Here are the four magical performances from this episode. Each presented a different type of magic and each had a very different personality. What a good group overall!

Zak Mirz

Zak Mirz, the guy with the knives! You can find him on Instagram at @zakmirz.

His introduction video was deep and very personal. A death that turned out to be one of the biggest inspirations of his for his magic. It started the show off on more of a somber note than I would have preferred, but then Zak came out on the stage and his personality was anything but!

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, see Zak Mirz's deck stabbing routine here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9txc8CEzvgE

After his initial toying with a knife, which actually led me to think this was going to be a danger-magic routine, the kid in him shone and he pulled out a deck of cards. Thank goodness!

With the deck perfectly squared and sitting on the table, he motioned for Alyson to cut to any card and show Penn & Teller, but neither he or she were allowed to see the card. The card cut to was the 3 of Spades.

I'd like to branch briefly to mention that he was using what looked like standard Bicycle playing cards. He actually has printed two decks of his own that were available on Kickstarter: Mirz Deck : First Edition and Mirz Deck 2nd Edition (Feat. Hope for Justice). The first deck comes with a duplicate card. Any guess as to what the card is?

After showing the card to Penn & Teller, Alyson put the packet back onto the rest of the deck. Zak gave the deck a cut or two and spread it across the table before pulling out two Jokers to "practice" with.

He opened his jacket to reveal a lot of knives of different sizes, all hanging perfectly. I have to say, this was actually pretty neat and I think the subtlety of the knives just hanging was perfect. Yes, yes, we know it's magnets. However, these little appearances matter a lot in the overall image of the performance. But yeah, Alyson grabbed one and then they both stabbed a Joker. You know, for practice.

Fast-forwarding to the end, when Alyson stabbed into the deck the card that was on the end of the knife was in fact the originally selected 3 of spades.

Penn & Teller were pretty confident on knowing how this one was done given that they also have performed a card stab routine in the past. Unfortunately, the method they guessed was not the method Zak used and, well, he fooled them! My personal guess for this one doesn't actually use a metal plate like they thought; however, now that I've written the above about the magnets and the knives in his jacket I remember questioning it during the act: "why didn't she just use the knife that was already on the table?". Hmm... maybe Penn & Teller weren't that far off.

He's performed a similar routine publicly before too (check it out on YouTube here) and I actually kind of like the performance of that routine a little better. It's very similar overall, but there feels like there's more to it. The one on Fool Us was strong, very strong actually, given that Alyson cut to any card which couldn't possibly be forced (*cough cough*), but at the end of the day they're pretty much the same. I know he's "the knife guy" but I have a feeling he can do a lot of other routines too!

John-Henry

I... haven't been able to really find much info about John-Henry online. Perhaps I'm not searching properly, or maybe his typical audience is from a different country and in another language. I believe he was Swedish, but that doesn't help my queries any.

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, see John-Henry's cups & balls performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL7DwJ559_g

His introduction on Penn & Teller was amazing. It shows him to be a very well rounded magician and performer. Stilts, juggling, animatronics, and more! Definitely an act I'd be interested in seeing. Oh, and he seems friggin crazy!

Starting off with a tube of three tennis balls, a juggling act ensued. I can juggle, but I'm around the level of a beginner in middle school. Fun fact: I helped start a juggling club in middle school! John-Henry's performance with three tennis balls and a tube was effortless and speaks to years of practice and you could see the awe on Penn's face.

And then out came the buckets. Three metal buckets, placed on a table. Three tennis balls, one each placed on a bucket. I think we know where this is going. The imagination and presentation of this routine was spectacular. Definitely a magician who's performed for an audience or two.

During his performance, my older son who's been learning a little bit here and there asked "how many tennis balls does he have?!". The thing that was in my head around that same time was "wait, but how can he do this with real tennis balls?!". Ah, but therein lies the secret. Even for being an original performance, I really don't see many (if any) cups and balls routines making it past Penn & Teller.

A complete pantomime act, he let the magic speak for itself. Well done John-Henry, well done.

Andy Deemer

Andy Deemer, found on Instagram at @andydeemermagic and Twitter at @andydeemer, is an award winning Magic Castle magician. Holy crap I must have been living under a rock. I mean, I get it that I don't know ever magician out there, but I've confirmed he actually did win I.B.M.'s Close-up Magician of the Year for 2021. Did I just read his name and move on because I never heard of him? Most likely =[

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, see Andy Deemer's "the government's out to get you" routine here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDB1bnMqKPo

His intro for this episode really set the stage for his act, in more ways than one. Conspiracy theories and his kids reading books, now you know he's going to be a fun one.

As the camera panned to Andy, we the audience were presented with Pee-Wee's Playhouse and everything a kids magician would do. A fun "make a deck box and deck appear" skit was performed, and then when the coast was clear the whole scene was flipped on its head and the conspiracy was laid out in front of us.

Another little skip ensued with a simple force of Lie cards and a single Fool Us card, and then we moved on to the actual routine.

He displayed a board with several logos on it and then wrote a prediction on a notepad. Alyson had a free choice of any number between 3 and 80-something. She chose 3 because why not. He turned around the prediction and it read 24. Ouch. Missed it by that much.

But wait, there's more. He then flipped the board of logos around and it read "miss by 21" -- he was right all along!

This routine is, for all intents and purposes, fairly basic and kind of a classic. While he did make it "larger" by the inclusion of the board with all of the fun logos, the actual trick behind it isn't too deep. In fact, in his introduction video, one of his kids was holding a book: 13 Steps to Mentalism… the first chapter's pretty much the explanation behind this one.

I'm sure that he's a great magician. After all, he won close-up magician of the year! But the few routines he performed on Fool Us were, well, not anything that would have won. I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for more material by Andy though, I have a hunch there's a lot below the surface!

Thomas Solomon

Thomas Solomon, "the world's greatest escape artist"! You can find him on Instagram at @escapeartist1969 though he hasn't posted in a while so his site at thomassolomon.com is probably a better place.

His intro on this episode called out his more than a thousand-pair handcuff collection and how he can escape from anything. It very, very much set the stage for an escape act.

Oddly enough, his act had nothing to do with any of that though. He started speaking to us, the audience, about dimensions and shapes. For a square, he showed a checkered handkerchief. For a circle, a white ball (he said white, but I swear it looked yellow to me... maybe my TV needs adjusting =P). And for a triangle, he used a cone.

A cone, for a triangle? I know, I know. It's not a triangle any more than a ball is a circle but by tracing it with his finger it works. He was, after all, setting the stage for the movement between dimensions. Perhaps that was moving from the 2nd to the 3rd so we could later better picture moving between the 3rd and 4th?

I do want to call out that I have a background with physics so for me, the patter between dimensions was a bit goofy. However, the routine was non-stop and I kind of lost track of what he was saying and just watched the performance.

A ball placed under the cone disappeared and appeared in his pocket. Placed back under the cone, it was again in his pocket. Placed in his pocket, it was under the cone. On top of the cone, it was now under the cone. Back and forth and round and round. Penetrating the top of the handkerchief and back under the cone it went, and then back to the pocket. So fluid each movement, so in tune with the story.

If you have studied any type of magic other than card magic, say with coins or balls, one of the first things you learn is The French Drop. Now, Thomas did a lot more than this simple sleight but the theory behind that move speaks wonders to how well he presented this routine. He was so calm and so natural. The body movement, the location emphasis, the positioning of everything. Just wonderful!

He didn't fool Penn & Teller, and I do kind of doubt that he would have fooled many magicians but it was a beautiful presentation overall. Very, very refined. I did expect to see some kind of escape though. Perhaps this was his way of showing the world he does more than just handcuffs and straight-jackets?

One thing that kind of stood out to me was Penn's explanation of how he wasn't fooled. He directly attributed the routine to Dai Vernon. I, personally, didn't know that Vernon did a routine like this. I know him for cards, coins, and rings but beyond that, his magic is a bit of a mystery to me. I looked up the Vernon Cone & Ball routine just a little while ago and jeez, the guy was just a pure master. But, Penn didn't really skirt around the details on this one like he usually does. He didn't say keywords like "squeeze" or "palm" of course, but directly giving the audience the key to finding out how the trick is done is not like him.

Penn & Teller's Routine

What an interesting performance by Penn & Teller... and Carrot Top. I have the feeling that they're friends with the Carrot since this isn't his first appearance on the show. He was physically there, but I have to say he really didn't look all too mentally present.

Penn & Teller have this one type of magic, among their several, where they like to reveal how a trick is done before doing it and somehow end up still working a miracle in front of an audience that now knows what to look for. On this episode, they performed a memdeck routine.

What's "memdeck"? Put simply, it's "Memorized Deck" -- where you quite literally memorize the exact position of every card in a deck. If you want to know more, I've written about memorized decks already. I'll be doing a lot more with them later on too, but that'll get you more than up-to-speed.

Out of what looked to be 100 decks or more, Penn claimed that each was shuffled by Teller and then memorized in-order by Penn. Mr. Carrot first named a card of his own choice and Penn gave a "this is what memorizing a deck looks like" demonstration and stated exactly where it would be. Spoiler -- it was there! Then, Penn accurately matched which deck would contain Mr. Carrot's card at the new location requested (4th, I believe it was). Guess what -- the card was in the 4th spot from that named deck!

The finale of the trick was that any deck from the entire collection could be selected and any position could be named and Penn would state the card at that position. Unfortunately for Penn & Teller, from my perspective, the exact position that was selected actually spoiled the trick (i.e. gave away the secret). Or, rather, the over-convincing once the card was arrived at did.

It's a great trick overall, and I have been getting more and more into memdeck work myself. I don't think I would pull a "hey, I memorized this deck -- wanna see?" type of routine anytime soon, but this multiple deck idea could work pretty well. Not bad at all =]

I can't wait to see the next episode!

What better way to start a post than to talk about the weather! In fact, that's what my last one did too =P

But seriously, it's cold out. So cold that my heater has been running practically non-stop and my skin is dry af. Have you had the pleasure of working with playing cards with dry skin? It's... not the most fun.

A twist of fun with that though, I also suffer from eczema on my hands. For years -- no joke, years -- I thought that my hands were "too moist" for cards by the way they'd stick or slip on my fingers. Only a few months ago did I realize it was just the opposite, they're too dry. I don't remember the exact cause of the revelation, but yeah, it sucks. I use Aveeno lotion a few times a day, otherwise my fingers crack and then life starts to really suck and the cold winter months really don't help much.

To add to it, I just got two papercuts on my right index finger, one of which is right in the crease of one of the knuckles (ugh). And then, just yesterday, a mason jar fell from the top of a counter about five feet up and landed perfectly on my pinky. There's a fun bruise under my nail, so at least I've got that going for me... which is nice. Don't ask though, they all made sense at the time =P

I type on a keyboard for a living (as a programmer), so hand injuries do impact me but a papercut isn't going to slow me down much. However, I can't handle a deck of cards right now because the edge perfectly aligns with the papercuts and actually hurts, and the bruised pinky is amplified when I try to put any pressure on the deck. Yay, break time! But for real, it makes me feel for the professional magician who gets any kind of hand injury small or large!

In October, 2020 I ordered Marlo's Revolutionary Card Technique and it has sat on my shelf since then. Unopened. Spine uncracked. Dust jacket not once removed. Collecting dust.

I had obviously heard of Marlo plenty of times before, but I purchased the book after reading Drawing Room Deceptions by Guy Hollingworth. In the two different routines An Ambidextrous Interchange and A "One Card" Routine, Hollingworth talks about "a Miracle Change" and stated that it was Marlo's variation of an Okito move. The description of the move sounded very familiar to something I had recently come up with that utilized the Lateral Palm, but later I realized that I read it entirely wrong and it was nothing like it. Well, except for the end result of course.

I was so intrigued by the idea that yet another one of the moves I "came up with" had previously been discovered 50 or more years before I did that I broke down and looked up Marlo in detail. Wow! I bought a handful of booklets, and then learned about Revolutionary Card Technique which, ironically, contained most of those booklets. So of course I bought it too. And there it sat on my shelf for a year and a half.

Last night I kicked back on the couch with the book in my lap and started reading, sore pinky and all. I made it through the intros and everything and am neck-deep in the land of the Miracle Change! I already know I'm going to love this book and re-read sections over and over again. I've barely scratched the surface of its contents and it's already inspiring me to just be better. I can't wait to get further -- soon I'll add it to the library on the site too =]

Speaking of new(ish) things, I've added a few more items to the library! I was able to catalog a handful of videos and two or three books:

• Bertram on Sleight of Hand by Ross Bertram
• Genii - The Conjuror's Magazine
• Marvels of Mystery by John Booth
• The Brick Pass by Alex Pandrea
• Xavior's Rise by Xavior Spade
• The Pass by Xavior Spade
• Savant by Dennis Kim
• B.C. Shuffle by Jeremy Griffith
• Clip Shift by Chad Nelson
  • And yes -- I actually bought this one! I... haven't watched it yet though
• Penn & Teller: Fool Us
  • lol, if you're wondering why I added a TV show, just read it first =P

I'm going to try to do a lot more data-entry in the weeks to come to get as much of my inventory up as I can, and then I'll start adding some decent photos and reviews.

I was thinking about making a nice gallery for each item as I added it to the site, but that would take forever and a day. I think it'll be much more fluid to get the info up first. Since most things are more than a month (or decade) old, the reviews don't really need to be too timely. If I'm able to get my current library up then I should be able to focus on reviews of new releases closer to when they're coming out.

If you're interested in seeing anything specific though (like a deck of cards) just let me know -- I'm more than happy to put up something sooner if I know someone wants it!

Until next time <3

Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a TV talent show that is filmed in front of a live audience (or, virtual audience during the pandemic). Oh, and we can't forget to mention that Penn and Teller are there too -- they're the judges!

During each episode, four magicians perform a magic act for Penn & Teller which, at the end of each act the magician-comedian duo try to deduce how the trick was done. In very articulate speech, Penn -- as Teller remains characteristically silent -- commends the magician on a job well done. If the magic act fooled Penn & Teller, they win a sweet Fool Us trophy and a trip to Vegas to be the opening act for Penn & Teller's show!

The episode Penn-Tagram first aired on January 14, 2022 as Season 8's episode 10 (episode #115 overall!). The show received it's title from the act of Paige Thompson who wore a pentagram on a necklace, the back of which had a photo of Penn. Get it, Penn-tagram? =P

I want my opinions below to reflect those of a spectator who just saw a performance live. To achieve this, I've only watched this episode once. In real time - no pausing. No slow motion. Once through, with commercials and with my kids enjoying it with me too. Did I remember everything I saw? Did I see everything that happened? Do I remember the exact words that were said? Maybe, but likely not -- which means if I over-portray an effect below then it was just that great of a trick. If I under-portray it, well, yeah. So let's see what this episode's got in store for us!

Performances

Here are the four amazing performances from this episode. Each presented a different type of magic and each had a very different personality. What a great group overall!

Mellow

Mellow, known as @mellow.magic on Instagram, is a magician from Germany who performed a quite-literal Camera Trick. His performance was remote, but honestly in my opinion that fit with the theme even better. I'd love to see this one in person though.

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, see Mellow's Camera Trick here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD1K8HgF6V4

His act was really three separate pieces. First, he starts by showing off a polaroid camera -- you know, those cameras we used to use back in the day where, after snapping a pic it would spit out the undeveloped picture. Then, you'd shake it because you thought it was the right thing to do but Polaroid later said "no no, don't shake the photo!". Yeah, that one!

But anyways, Mellow and a camera! He has a basket of older polaroid photos and performs some neat effects with them. I have done very similar effects using playing cards so I have to give him credit for the creativity here. I have always been very impressed by folks' abilities to take magic with one object and repurpose it for another.

And then comes the second piece. Mellow brings out an assistant (or spectator? ... I can never really tell when they're recorded like this). The assistant mixes up the basket of photos and then selects one of the face-down photos per instruction. She looks at it but never reveals it. Mellow then uses his magical camera to "snap a picture" of her thoughts and the polaroid that develops sure enough matches the photo she selected!

When I saw this I was actually quite stumped, and then Penn & Teller's commentary at the end didn't help me much either. I thought about the routine a little more later and my first solution to it is sadly a very easy and cheap way to do it, but it's definitely possible that it's the exact method that was taken. I also thought of a skeptical, more tech-savvy approach too. Having participated in virtual magic shows with coworkers and hearing their "ooh, it could have been done by CGI" (or many other very tech approaches, even though I know for a fact it's not), makes me often humorously think of such an approach. Perhaps I'll never know for certain, but if you're interested in my ideas reach out and we can chat!

The third piece of the routine was actually quite quick -- Mellow, who has been holding on to the Polaroid camera throughout the entire routine, just crumbles the device up into a ball like it's a piece of scrap paper! And to think, I used to buy refills for the things...

I really don't know how he accomplished his final piece, and the second one I only have a guess that, in fairness, I came to much later on. While he definitely fooled me, unfortunately Penn & Teller were privy to his techniques and he was sent on his way. I really enjoyed this act though, I hope to see more from Mellow in the future.

Paige Thompson

Paige Thompson, on Instagram at @paigesmagic, is a resident house magician of the Chicago Magic Lounge. For her Fool Us act, she performed a round of ... ugh ... danger magic.

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, check out Paige Thompson's danger magic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnXfOienazU

Now, before I get into this, I just want to say that I am not a fan of danger magic. Anything trick or routine that's premise is "if I don't use magic, I'm going to hurt myself or others" is just ridiculous. If you need an adrenaline kick that much, I dunno, go ride a bike or something. What's ironic is that Penn & Teller hate having dangerous routines on Fool Us too -- but they perform a few dangerous tricks themselves (like a nail-gun based one).

Anywho, Thompson's route was setup where she slaps on some safety gloves an goggles and then brings out a very official looking bottle of Nitric Acid:

Filling a shot-glass with the dangerous liquid, she then fills three other glasses with plain and ordinary water.

Through three free-choice selections, she one-by-one drinks three of the glasses proving that the audience can accurately predict which glasses are water and not acid. Honestly, I didn't really feel like this had much of a magic-premise to it while watching it and typing out the description it's even less so now. But yeah, she downed three glasses and survived!

But wait, there's more! To help prove that the final glass was in fact dangerous she pulled out a metal spoon and stuck it in the glass. It almost instantly began fizzing and changing color and, believe it or not, the spoon melted in half!

Look, as an adult who's had my fair share of chemistry classes -- and knowing that they would never allow something real like this to be done on their show -- it's pretty clear how this one was done (and Penn wasted no time letting her know too). I did have to explain to my kids watching that it wasn't real, but I did try hard not to spoil the spoon melting effect for them. Let's just say for them, Paige Thompson's real magic ability is melting spoons =P.

One suggestion I have for making this look more realistic is to do a convincer before pouring the "acid" into the first glass. There are a number of routines where we can pour water into something and it magically turns into something else -- utilizing an effect like that before hand to help drum up the danger would build the suspense more. The spoon thing's neat too, but wouldn't it be cooler to once you're finished drinking the other three to be so relieved that you're alive that you accidentally knock over the other glass and it fizzes/melts something that's laying nearby instead? Or, maybe that's just the "clumsy act" routine ideas that I like poking out!

Stanley Zhou

Stanley Zhou, a 16 year old magician who started practicing the craft only three years ago holds the stage with Penn & Teller at his side for his card magic, err physics routine.

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, check out Stanley Zhou's physics-based magic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF7nb8oLq1c

Zhou performed a multi-phase card routine to the theme of a physics lesson about how the black cards weigh more than the red and will sink to the bottom if a packet is dropped. By mixing a few red cards with black cards, one red then one black, then red then black, etc -- and then dropping the packet down to the table he shows how the heavier black cards did in fact sink to the bottom of the packet. All of the reds were at the top and all blacks were at the bottom. He repeated the effect by allowing Teller to interlace the cards first, but even still they all separated once dropped.

And then he brought out the big gun. Or rather, the regular sized hole punch. He interlaced the cards, punched a hole and fasted the packet together. Though there should not have been a way for the cards to change positions, they yet again did once dropped to the table!

Oh, but where was the rest of the deck during this routine? Well, before any packet-work was done he showed a ribbon spread of the deck to be thoroughly mixed. It was then squared and set to the side. After playing with the packet for a while, he picked up and dropped the deck and then spread it on the table showing all of the cards to have separated where all of the black cards were at the bottom and reds at the top!

The overall routine theme is Oil and Water. Most card magicians are familiar with the theme, and most of those also know at least one way to perform it. There are a lot of ways to perform it. I, personally, used to dislike the routine because I didn't really like packet work -- and then I pulled my head out of the sand and learned quite a few of them. Given there are so many different ways to do it I don't know if I can really pinpoint the exact one that Zhou performed, if I know it at all. I do know that I can perform the first and second ones in the exact way he did.

The hole-punch packet though, wowza! So listen, Penn actually spoke up and said that he screwed up by asking for the packet to inspect it before the trick itself was even finished. Zhou let him of course because if he had said no, well, we would've known it was a gimmicked packet. However, though I would have expected Penn & Teller to have seen this given that they were right there, I could have sworn I saw two separate sleights performed before this last packet was dropped. One of the sleights would have accomplished the effect itself, the other would have been necessary to get it setup. If I was wrong, of course, then he 100% fooled me on this one.

Ah but we can't forget the entire deck itself. I definitely expected the deck to get the same Oil and Water treatment as the packet, otherwise he wouldn't have pointed it out at the beginning of the routine. I have a guess about the deck itself that is either exactly how it is done, or I have zero idea how it is done. Either way, I would love to be able to perform this one. Even if it's the way I think it is I would really like doing it because that would allow me more reason to practice a certain sleight. If you're interested in hearing my thoughts about this routine, or info about "a certain sleight" that I want to practice more then reach out and let's chat (^_^)

Oh yeah, did I mention that Zhou fooled Penn & Teller! He came out confident and after only practicing magic for 3 years was able to pull this one off?! I really hope he keeps it up because he'll have a great future ahead of him in this field if he does!

I found an Instagram account @stanleyzhoumagic that appears to be Zhou's, but there isn't really any content at the time of this writing so dunno - maybe he'll become more active in the future.

Jonathon LaChance

Jonathon LaChance is a magician-comedian that can be found on Instagram at @lachancemagic. He's worked on this specific breakfast-themed routine for years and finally performed it for Penn & Teller -- and us -- on Fool Us.

If you want to check out the performance before reading my recap, check out Jonathan JaChance's breakfast magic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_k-mZQ3f_Q

What an interesting collection of magical pieces in LaChance's routine. First, let's just say, I love me some breakfast. Cereal's not really on my top-item list, but hey, it sells the theme pretty well.

To start things off, Penn & Teller have a sheet of paper with them in their "judges seats" that has a list of sweet, sweet prizes you could find at the bottom of a breakfast cereal box. They are offered the chance to select any one prize and they go with the 3D Specs!

Then, LaChance busts out a few mini-boxes of pretty magical breakfast cereals (I love the names of them, honestly killed it with them!). Alyson gets a free-choice of which cereal she wants and picks one. And now, the magic begins.

A cardboard box that was set out on the table earlier in the routine is unfolded to show the inside of it matching the cereal that Alyson selected! But wait, there's more. Then, that cereal is poured from the box into a bowl -- and a prize falls out with it. Would you believe, 3D Specs were found right there in the bowl of cereal. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, LaChance beat us to it too because from the box he then pours milk into the cereal and whips out a spoon from thin air. Hot damn, we have breakfast served!

Okay, so, I mostly do card magic -- we know this. However, I have also seen a fair share of magic performances in my day and let's be real, I have a few books in my library. Pouring cereal and milk from the box, fairly straightforward. Pouring a selected cereal, of five... okay, that's a little harder. And having a selected prize from 20 possible? Getting even harder!

Hard or not though, I have solutions to those that I'm pretty sure fit "the secret is in the box" clue pretty well. The one part that really fooled me though is, how did the inside of the cardboard box match the selected cereal?!

I really enjoyed the routine. I didn't think, while watching it, that it would fool Penn & Teller (and it didn't) but parts of it fooled me for sure. I could see this fitting into a much larger stage show too, I just hope I have tickets to go!

Penn & Teller's Routine

Oh Penn & Teller, oh Penn & Teller.

On this episode, they perform a card magic routine where Alyson is actually the magician. She directs Teller to select a card from the shuffled face-up spread and then through a series of shenanigans is able to find his selection. It's a pretty quick and fun routine.

The trick itself is actually very easy, but only Penn & Teller would come up with a duo-themed trick to do it. You literally need three people to pull off  their version too (you could do it with two, but it's not going to have the same effect). It's really clever, I have to given them credit for coming up with the presentation.

This is another case of being able to take existing sleights, methods, or full tricks and repurposing them to fit your style or to have an altered effect. I really love seeing things like these even if they don't fool me because they inspire me to create more things myself and get the thoughts stirring!

I can't wait to see the next episode!

Last week we got a decent amount of snow in a single day here. Winters, where I live, either don't get snow or we get one or two days of snow tops. So far, we had one and in that one day my area received about 6 inches I'd say? Didn't actually measure or pay attention to the news, but it was deep enough to cancel school and cause power outages, so we'll call it 6 inches. The weather report's calling for more snow this coming weekend too. My neighbor's probably getting irked that I keep borrowing his snow shovel but hey, as long as he lets me... I'll keep asking!

During their Black Friday sale I had signed up for Vanishing Inc's VI+ membership. I've been avoiding it for a long time because at $50 a month, I really didn't think I'd use it to warrant it I mean, it's just a new "Masterclass" video per month and that's very much not worth $50 (okay, some of them might be).

But, there's free shipping on anything and everything if you're a member. Also, there's a new "VI Studio" of other free videos too. And, you can pause or cancel at any time so I figured why the hell not, let's give it a go. And yeah, I signed up.

I think I had just renewed for the 3rd month now and based on the number of things I've ordered, my shipping costs have broken even. I've skimmed a few videos but honestly, I just don't have enough time to go through everything.

In the VI Studio, there are currently 19 videos. I know for a fact that two of them were there when I signed up but the others, I'm not sure. This gets me wondering whether they refresh these videos too and if so, maybe I should be downloading them. If I don't save them for later and I can only actually watch one a month (not including the Masterclasses), and now that my post-holiday purchase extravaganza has dwindled, that $50 per month is looking awfully expensive again.

What is nice about it though is that I will get to keep access to the Masterclasses that were live during the months I was a member, if I decide to cancel. You know what would be a really great perk though, one that would definitely get me to spend more money, is if they offered a (nice) discount on previous Masterclasses. They're all sitting at $75 per individual Masterclass -- do you know how many decks I could buy for that?! Less than half of an IAOCPv2, that's how many! =P

Speaking of Vanishing Inc., I've recently ordered a few new books. I haven't added them to the site yet, but just you wait until I've actually read them!

I picked up Theseus by Nathan Colwell which, I have to say, I love the actual design of the book cover itself. I think that, based on the comments and reviews, it's a single-trick theme (torn-and-restored) book but it looks like it has something good to offer so we'll give it a shot.

I also snagged Secrets of Gambling by Hugh Miller. I'm not actually sure why I bought that one, and I'm really not sure if I received a copy that's been sitting out in the sun or not -- it was "new" from Vanishing, but the dust jacket's faded pink when it should be bright red and has a few slight tears. $15 with free shipping though, pretty much the lowest price on eBay but from a more reliable vendor. I've skimmed through it a little already and may have buyer's remorse. I haven't given it an actual "read" yet, but from what I've seen it looks like Miller just wanted to write a book to call out some fun and eccentric cheating methods. I'll 100% give this a proper review once I've read it, I don't want to discount it just from a quick skim.

Oh I also ordered Volumes 2 - 5 of Bruce Cervon's Castle Notebooks -- but that's a story for a different day. Hopefully I'll find a good deal on Volume 1 to complete the set, but we'll see.

I haven't been practicing much the past week or two. I have had a cold for a few days now, didn't even get out of bed on Monday my fever was so bad. It isn't the 'vid, it's definitely just a cold but sheesh it's a doozy. I'm on the mend now and cards are back in my hands but I really hate when I go through those lulls of not practicing.

However -- yeah, always a however -- I have noticed years ago that after even a small break of a day or two, let alone a week, I'm better at sleights I was practicing before the break. It's really hard to remember that your hands, specifically the fingers, are muscles that need a break too. If you go the gym and lift weights, you're not going to work the same muscle group tomorrow or maybe not even the next day because they need time to rest and recover. Same goes for your fingers.

I remember when I was learning one-handed cuts for the first time. I couldn't for the life of me do a Scissor Cut. My hand just wouldn't. Who's thumb could possibly go that far?! For days I practiced, at least an hour at a time. My hand was sore. Actual physical pain sore, so I took a break. I moved on to something else (probably double lifts). A few days later, I tried it again and on my first try, I did it perfectly. A perfect Scissor Cut after not being able to do a good one for days. And then I did it again, and again. That memory has stuck with me for everything that I try to practice that I can't do well. Keep practicing and once I've practiced "enough" for a certain amount of time, take a break for a day and come back to it. It's amazing how well that really works. Now, it hasn't made me an expert handler for anything -- but it's gotten me past the barrier of "not being able to do it" many times now.

What am I practicing right now you're wondering? Savant by Dennis Kim (and Xavior Spade) -- it's a quick multi-phase color change that utilizes a lot of stuff in your off-hand. Fun fact, I can now do Undertow better in my left hand than my right! Go figure...

So, what are you practicing?

Exposed!!!! The Sensation of Sensations
Sawing a Lady in Half, who thought of it first?

Genii, The Conjurors' Magazine Volume 84, Number 12 came out in December 2021 and has 87 pages of packed content!

The cover screams of vintage satire in its greatest form:

Content, Content, Content!

This issue's main feature is: Sawing a Woman in Half, Shattered Friendships and All-Out War by Mike Caveney.

If you're familiar with Genii, you'll notice the standard list of columns are seen this month with another installment of The River by Joshua Jay:

• Genii Speaks by Richard Kaufman
• The Eye by Vanessa Armstrong
• Exhumations Easy Affinity by Jon Racherbaumer
• Chamber of Secrets The Martin Rabbit from Hat and Asrah Form by John Gaughan
• Cardopolis Master of the Game by David Britland
• Artifices A Finale for Multiple Location by Roberto Mansilla
• The River Common Threat by Joshua Jay
• Expert at the Kid's Table The Gift of the Magi by David Kaye
• Magicana: Michel Huot One-Man Magicana by Jonathan Friedman
• The Academy of Magical Arts in Genii

And as always, the issue is rounded out with Light from the Lamp which includes book reviews (by Francis Menotti, trick reviews (by David Regal), and video reviews (by Ryan Matney).

Sawing the Feature in Half

On Page 16 and 17, readers are greeted with full page art that inspires an ominous tone where the story of the famous trick of sawing a person in half began. We're introduced first to P.T. Selbit, a young boy born Percy Thomas Tibbles, who was destined to become a magician. The quote that's given for him right away is that he was the most creative illusion inventor of his time -- and that's no small feat.

After reading through a decently rich background of Selbit, we are then introduced to Horace Goldin, born Hyman Goldstein. Goldin was a vaudevillian who, unlike other magicians at the time, performed much shorter shows with a lot more magic packed into them.

And this is where the real fun began. Selbit was performing a version of "Sawing Through a Woman" that he invented in Europe. Goldin was performing his invention of "Sawing a Woman in Half" in the United States. But, who created it first and, effectively, had rights to the trick?

On page 37, after diving through this tantalizing tale of background and history, we the readers of Genii are cut off from even a semblance of a resolution. We can, through what was written in these 20 pages, paint our own picture of who invented the trick and who was the villain of the story though. However, the story ends on a cliffhanger, followed by an advertisement to buy the book Sawing: The Astonishing History of Magic's Most Iconic Illusion by Mike Caveney.

I don't think you can understand the frustration I went through when I hit this abrupt ending. There was no pretext that stated that this was an excerpt from a book. There was no warning that we were only previewing a small part of a story. In fact, it started like most other Genii features by introducing the magicians, giving their history, and bringing the story to a height. The difference is, this one ends with:

I promptly closed the issue and tossed it down and didn't pick it back up for a few days. I'm surprised I didn't just throw the thing away to be honest. This was a very cheap thing to do to readers, and seeing that the book is 440 pages - ugh. I don't really think I'll purchase this book. Not out of spite or anger, but actually because of the feature itself. The 20 pages within Genii had so much information that I really feel like I know most of the story already. Everything that happens after is just, well, more history but of less interest to me. I was really interested in seeing "who invented it first" and what was the fallout from it -- and the feature pretty much gives us that. An extra 420 pages more of this?

Caveney, the author of the book and effectively the feature itself, could have laid this out a little more effectively. If it started with a custom introduction to the topic, a mention of the book, and then a highlight or two that was then wrapped up with "do you want to learn X, Y, and Z? are you interested in more?? step right up and $$$!" I think that it would've went a lot further than what's here. I really feel like the saw was pulled out from under my feet on this one.

Column Highlights

The columns in this issue were content-packed as usual. While I read through all of them, here are a few highlights of the ones that stood out to me most.

Fun fact, but this actually happens to be Kaufman's last issue as the author of Genii Speaks for a while. He's taking a step back to work on his book Greater Magic. I'm excited to see this book come to life, it sounds like it's in full production and has contributions from many different magicians on many different topics. As long as it doesn't take as long as Mr. Jenning's Takes it Easy, I think we're good =P

I'm normally a fan of the routines presented in Cardopolis too, and this issue's Master of the Game was no exception. It's a quick gambling demonstration where you place the four Kings on top of the deck, then deal the cards into two hands. The spectator ends up with all four Kings. Easy peasy. Then, you repeat the demonstration by placing the four Kings back on top of the deck and deal out two more hands. The spectator once again has all four Kings, but on turning over your hand you have the four Aces. A mini setup and a second deal is all that is needed - and I really like the emphasis on "you don't need to be an expert [at dealing seconds]" with this one (because I'm not!).

In The Eye, one thing that has caught my eye is the teaser of History's Greatest Mysteries Reveals Houdini's Lost Diaries. If you're unfamiliar, as I am, The History Channel has a show called History's Greatest Mysteries that explores some of, well, history's greatest mysteries. Back in September, they got their hands on a set of Houdini's diaries that have never been examined by the public before! The episode is full of interviews with different experts including Bill Kalush, Penn & Teller, Mike Caveney, RJ Lynch, Paul Zenon, Jonathan Goodwin, Christopher Sandford, Steve Cuiffo, John Cox, Patrick Culliton, Ruth Brandon, and Lee Terbosic. The column does state that we don't really learn anything new about his life but we do get a peek into some interesting diary entries. I have always been a Houdini fan and my oldest son has shown interest lately too so I actually think that, for those who aren't familiar this might be a highly educational thing. It looks like it's available to stream on their website here.

Genii Subscriptions

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You can check them out here: geniimagazine.com/subscribe-now/