Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/09/this-is-what-a-great-magic-act-looks-like.html
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I’ll give that a solid 5/10.
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I don’t get the trick. It was all patter. The only “magic” was the final reveal of Penn’s photo.
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The examples of magicians “discovered” by P&T are poor ones. Both Shin and Piff were first on America’s Got Talent. I’d argue that is the show that made them famous.
There are only 16 possible outcomes of the four trials, hence he could have as many as 16 envelopes in his briefcase and coded them to know which one to open next based on the history of guesses.
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Which explains the handwritten note on the back of Penn’s photo, but not the correct selection of Penn. Or am I missing something for that last 50/50?
I think I know how he did the Penn/Teller trick, but writing on the back has me stumped.
Edit: @henry_minsky may have nailed it.
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actually, this is what a mediocre magic act looks like, sorry.
Real magic involves the creation of wonder. It often involves skill. It certainly requires preparation.
THIS is what a great magic act looks like:
It’s 10 minutes of your life you won’t need a refund on.
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My best guess is each final envelope contained two white pieces of paper separated by a yellow paper that matched the color of the envelope. You can see in the final reveal he folded the envelope lip over into the envelope, which could hide that you were looking at a separate piece of paper.
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This might be entertaining to some, but it’s the anticipation of the trick that ruins it for me, and especially a mediocre disappointing trick that makes me forget any of the entertainment value of the patter beforehand. I’m not a big fan of stage magic though, so rather than rain on someone else’s parade, I’ll happily admit that I’m not the target audience.
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Yeah pretty confident that’s the case. He definitely was holding the envelopes super weird to show they were empty. Someone else mentioned that he could have just had multiple ones prepped for the various guesses too, which makes sense.
It’s not a bad trick or anything, but it really does pale to the Dani DeOrtiz link a few posts back, which blew my mind.
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Penn gave it away when he talked about Timothy Leary and described “envelopes in envelopes.”
Each time the envelopes were held up for the audience and viewers to see, he was very careful to make sure there was tension in the paper comprising the mouth of the envelope to prevent any sagging and gaps to become visible.
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That is a great combination of cunning and showmanship. Thanks for sharing that. 
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I’m sure the idea was to normalize showing the actually empty envelopes that weird way to cover up for the last one that wasn’t actually empty, but I feel he did the exact opposite, and called attention to it, making the trick really obvious because goatse is just not a normal way to hold an envelope open.
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I’ve watched all but the last few seasons of Fool Us, and that is hands down the most mind-boggling thing I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even get a whiff of how he did any of that… Thanks for sharing.
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