Penn & Teller: Fool Us

I saw this show for the first time a few nights ago, and was highly entertained in seeing the experts dissect various magic tricks by performers on stage, and then admitting when they had been fooled.

The format is simple; Penn and Teller sit at the front of a stage and watch various prestidigitators perform their tricks on stage to see if the legendary duo of Penn and Teller can reverse engineer or deduce how they did their trick.

The only down-shot is that they will, for the sake of keeping the essence of the trick, a secret, sometimes use magicians jargon or stage lingo to get their point across to the performer on stage, and in this way communicate to both us and the audience that they either know how the trick was done, or are sufficiently impressed that they have been fooled.

But even then, they do reveal and otherwise convey to us the basics of some of the tools the performers use to create their illusions.

I had fun watching this show as I watched and tried to figure out how each trick might have been done. And I found myself being right a significant part of the time. It was very interesting and entertaining.

For anyone who's been to a magic show, wants to see magic, but is curious how any of the tricks were done, then you must see this very basic yet very remarkable show.

Enjoy!

This a truly outstanding TV show that brings highly talented magicians to the screen. Jonathan Ross does his job really well and Penn&Teller do a wonderful job of honoring true talents who come to the show to fool them. Nothing is controversial, Penn is courteous when dealing with fellow magicians, and the magicians accept defeat with humility, also Penn&Teller do a good job of keeping the methods secret when describing how the tricks are done, which helps keep the mystifying aspect of the tricks: the 'magic' is never totally gone even after Penn explains the methods used. Almost all of the acts are exciting and have a wow factor, which provide non-stop entertainment with very little filler to artificially boost the length of the show.

We're massive Penn-Teller fans - my wife "did" the joke-book trick with them in Vegas - and I'd love to give the show a 9 or 10, but the show definitely lost something after moving from the UK after 2 seasons.

Changing hosts didn't help. Jonathon Ross was cheeky and fast on his feet while Alyson Hannigan comes across like a kid selling raffle tickets. However, her blandness is consistent with how the show is now safer and tailored to a middle American audience.

After all, the duo became conjuring superstars by pairing Penn's staggering stage presence with Teller's skills - they were hip and "dangerous" and perfectly fit shows like SNL and early Letterman.

That time has faded. The pair compliment all the acts, as they should, but the whole vibe has softened and been tooled to never tease or offend. That's a shame as the magic is still great but the experience is pure vanilla.

Great to see Penn and Teller still in action after 30 plus years in magic. Hosted by Jonathan Ross i thoroughly enjoyed this 1 hour special, after all who doesn't like a bit of magic? To get that universal feeling of "hey, how did you do that?" brings back a lot of good memories. Also the duo performed 2 tricks of their own on the TV special which was definitely too good to be true, got my money's worth. I think its great that ITV got the chance to broadcast this because here in London at least, you don't get to see much magic acts aired on television.

My only regret is that the show wasn't longer, that's just how glued I was. Misdirection is an amazing talent that most of us will never master but man it's amazing to see it in action with those magicians.

Penn & Teller aren't strangers to the tube. They've hosted game shows, appeared on reality shows and talk shows, and hosted the long running Showtime series "Bull*hit". However, they are best known for being a magic act in Las Vegas that combines comedy with illusions and some great effects as well. They finally have a show on TV that gives them the platform to do what they do best, but now they've opened it up for other magicians as well on "Fool Us."

The concept is pretty simple. Four magicians from around the globe come to Vegas to perform one act in front of Penn & Teller. The magicians range from masters of card tricks, to mentalists, to prop artists and many more. After the act, Penn & Teller briefly confer and, in traditional magician form, declare they know how the trick is done using code words (like all magicians, they follow the code of not revealing how a trick is done) or admit they have no idea how it's done. If their guess is wrong or they are stumped, they tell the magician that he/she "fooled us" and the magician wins a trophy and is invited back to Vegas to open for Penn & Teller. After four magicians, Penn & Teller perform a trick of their own from their wide array of tricks.

The best part about the show is how unlike other reality shows it is. Penn & Teller are positive, encouraging and very supportive of the magicians, whether they fooled them or not. There seems to be a certain level of respect between the hosts and the contestants that you don't see on many shows these days. Also, there is little "drama" or side stories like some reality shows like to emphasize now. It sticks to magic, the art and love of it, and letting up and coming magicians have the opportunity to display their skills to a wide audience.

It's enjoyable, informational, and even educational. I recommend Fool Us to anyone looking to be awed.