Original subtitles

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

[cheering and applause]

- From the Penn and Teller Theater

at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas,

here's our host, Brooke Burke.

[cheering and applause]

♪ ♪

- Welcome to "Fool Us."

Magic's greatest arena, where four magicians enter

and hopefully some magicians leave

with a Fool Us trophy.

Let the games begin as we bring out

our reigning champions, Penn and Teller.

♪ ♪

If a magician fools Penn and Teller,

they win a Fool Us trophy and a trip

back to Vegas to appear in Penn and Teller's show.

Let's meet the first magician to enter our Wonderdome.

- Magic is a marriage between art and science.

As a child, I started with art

with the walls of my house as my canvas.

My parents became painters too.

I did not like their style.

Then I studied engineering in college,

thinking it would help my magic,

but it was all triple integrals and matrices.

I mean, who's going to use that?

My engineering degree made my parents happy.

Me, not so much.

But then I found something that could use

all of my talents,

my full potential, everything I've got.

Magic has brought me to the world's biggest stages

and it has brought me to "Fool" Penn and Teller twice.

These are all special moments.

Tonight I would like to use all my inspiration from my art,

my heart and my life

to create another fooling moment

for Penn and Teller.

[cheering and applause]

- Sit back and enjoy the artistry of Vitaly Beckman.

[cheering and applause]

- Penn, Teller, it's so nice to see you again.

- You know.

- The first time I had the pleasure

to be on your show, and I fooled you,

I thought maybe I was a little lucky,

so I came back for the second time.

And the second time I fooled you,

it was actually during the pandemic,

so I thought maybe you were just being nice.

So now I'm coming back for the third time.

And I mean, at this point,

I'm just here for frequent "Fooler" miles.

But I'm also back because those experiences,

they flew by so fast.

This time, I'll make sure to capture the moment.

And what better way to do it than invite

the wonderful Brooke Burke?

Would you help us? - Thank you.

- Let's give her a nice hand.

[applause]

- Thank you. Hi.

- Thank you so much. - It's my pleasure.

- Thank you. Step right over here.

It's so nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you as well.

Brooke, in order for us to capture a moment,

we first have to select it. - Okay.

- 'Cause we don't want just any moment.

We want a very special moment.

And for that, I brought this old...

This old family clock.

- Okay.

- And you see, it doesn't work anymore,

but you can still move the hands,

and I thought... This is gonna be cute.

Brooke, if you don't mind, I'll ask you to do this.

Close your eyes, please.

- Okay. - And visualize

a clock with no hands on it.

So a blank clock. You got it?

- Uh-huh. - Open your eyes. Good.

I'll ask you to go ahead and move the hands

left or right, any...

Any direction. Doesn't matter. You can hold it.

- Okay. - Stay right at the center.

And as much as you want,

you could stop it anytime you like.

- How's that? - It's up to you.

- Sure. - Okay.

Now... Interesting.

You did not have 10 o'clock in mind

- when you came to help me. - No.

- You didn't think of any time at all when you came

to help me, let alone 10:04, so this will be our moment.

10:04 will be the moment when time stands still

and we're creating a still life.

So, please, stand behind this table...

- Okay. - And I'll ask you

also to select a fruit.

We've got some of my favorite fruits here.

We've got a watermelon,

a melon, a pomegranate and a pineapple.

Anyone you like. Go ahead.

- The Pineapple. - Oh, the pineapple.

It's very good for digestion. - It is.

- Go ahead, place it anywhere you like.

On the top, on the bottom.

Doesn't matter. Anywhere you want to place it.

- Okay. - Go ahead.

- Oh, just not there. - Oh.

- No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

There is fine. There is fine. Yes.

Okay. That's pretty good.

Go ahead, take another fruit.

You can take a melon, watermelon, or a pomegranate.

- Okay. - The pomegranate.

Where do you like to place it?

- Anywhere? - Anywhere you like.

♪ ♪

- Oh, very artistic. I like it.

Would you like to give one of them a companion?

Would you like... take another fruit.

Yeah, the melon.

And where are you gonna place that?

- Mm.

- Oh, sure. - There.

- Oh, very artistic. Yeah.

- Bob Ross would be proud.

- [laughter] - Okay.

- Actually, you know, I also like how the watermelon

stay here by the clock.

I think if somebody paints this, it could become a masterpiece.

But yet, you know, no genius is perfect.

Would you like to make some adjustments?

You can move something to the left,

to the right, or you can keep it the same.

- I like it the way it is. - You like it the way it is?

- I do. - All right.

Well, it is a beautiful arrangement.

It reminds me of how precious things in life are fleeting.

Just like our moments here together.

See, clocks tick endlessly, fruits go bad,

and soon we're all gonna say goodnight.

But art, art lives forever.

And this painting was sitting here the entire time.

Nobody came close to it.

It's a painting I've done years ago.

And now you will see what makes this work a true masterpiece.

They say that art imitates life.

But on rare occasions, it is life that imitates art.

Because, right here... a watermelon.

Painting of a watermelon, and then we got a clock.

What was the time? Was it 10...?

- 10:04? - 10:04. Exactly. 10:04.

And of course, it got all the other fruits.

[applause]

It's a masterpiece.

It's a masterpiece.

- Well done.

Vitaly Beckman.

[cheering and applause]

- Thank you. - Thank you so much, Brooke.

- Thank you.

That's incredible.

So is art always a part of your magic?

Most of the time, yeah.

I started by painting. - Okay.

- And then, when I moved to magic, I realized

it's very similar, but you're painting in 3D

and you have the audience become part of your painting.

So, in this case, you can share your vision.

You have a vision, you can realize it on stage

and have audiences active participants in your vision.

So I actually think magic is,

like, the most powerful share button.

- Mm.

All right, let's find out if the boys

can paint a clear picture of your magic methods.

- All right. - Are you ready,

- Penn and Teller? VITALY: Yes.

- Oh, Vitaly, you make things so difficult for us.

Just so difficult. You know, so many people that come on here

were able to talk about precedents

and where it started and say, you know,

"Oh, this was something done by Slydini."

We have all these... This vocabulary we can use.

But your stuff is so honestly original

that there isn't really an antecedent to go to.

So we just have to sit here

and try to puzzle out how you do it.

I mean, this is really a work of art.

It's really gorgeous.

It's beautiful. It's a wonderful idea.

And we think there's a whole lot of complicated stuff going on.

So we've said this before. It's no secret to our audience.

The judges are listening to everything we say,

and we just kind of throw out ideas

we have that we think might work.

We don't get to experiment. - Uh-huh.

And after a while, they just say, "Shut up."

[laughter]

- And at this point, we don't know.

We threw out a system we think might work.

But, again, this is so complicated and so original,

we don't have any experience with it.

So what I'm saying is, you don't know

whether you fooled us or not.

And neither do we. - Neither do I.

And I don't know either. And they don't know either.

[cheering and applause]

BROOKE: Okay. - Maybe you did,

maybe you didn't.

The judges will decide, and either way,

I'm pleased as punch.

I'd love to see you win, and I'd love to see us win.

[laughter]

- I love when this happens. They're talking to me now.

So let me see what the judges are saying. Just bear with us.

This does not happen very often.

- Okay. - And I love when

the boys are puzzled.

[whispers] This is so good. Uh-huh.

And the judges are telling me...

Well, how about that?

You won another Fool Us trophy.

- Yes.

[cheering and applause]

- Congratulations. - Thank you.

- I didn't know where we were going with that.

I love when that happens.

- Congratulations. - Thank you, Penn.

Thank you, Teller.

- Vitaly Beckman, everyone. Congratulations.

Vitaly Beckman just added a Fool Us trophy

to his art collection.

And we've got more foolers ahead before this night is done,

so stick around.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Welcome back.

If you're in need of a fine magic trick,

I've got a fine magician for you right here.

- Being on "Fool Us" was an incredible experience.

- Very impressed.

- ANNAROSE: Even more so for my dad.

He shows my appearance to everyone and it's cringe.

Even during business meetings,

he'll pull up my performance and show it

son a big projector screen to everyone in the room.

And I didn't even fool Penn and Teller.

Can you imagine if I did?

He's the best. I love him so much.

When I first started magic, I saw a magician perform

a card trick and I knew that's the one I wanted to learn.

And I wasn't at that skill level yet,

but just... dove in.

For the next year, I had cards in my hand

till I mastered it.

One of the coolest things about magic

is that a deck of cards is cheap.

No one can do the work for you.

No one can take that from you.

Mastering a trick like that has given me confidence

on the inside, and that bleeds into other areas of my life.

I was insecure that I was late to the game,

but now I've found that my limited background

in magic is actually my biggest asset.

Penn, Teller.

I may not know every way this trick is done,

but I know my way.

And that's how I'm going to try to fool you.

♪ ♪

[applause]

- Give it up for the magic of AnnaRose.

[applause]

- Penn, Teller.

I look up to the both of you, unless I'm wearing heels,

in which case I only look up to Penn.

But heels or not, you both inspire me.

You've inspired what you're about to see

as I try to fool you.

The three shell game is a variation

of the cups and balls.

Consists of one ball and one, two, and three cups.

To win, you must identify which cup is covering the ball.

It's both a con game and a magic trick.

So, in this case, you might think that the ball

is under this cup here, but in reality,

it's under this cup here and here and here.

[applause]

Now, my version is a little bit different.

These cups won't be used as a cover to hide a ball

or conceal any sleight of hand.

Because, unlike a ball, you can't manipulate...

water.

Now, even though the variables are different,

the rules are the same.

To win, you must identify which cup...

is full...

of water.

Well, I guess you could say, in this case, half full.

[sips noisily]

[laughter]

Classy, like these cups.

And we don't need these anymore.

Now, this isn't just for Penn and Teller.

Whether you're here in the audience

or you're watching through a screen,

make sure you follow along

with this cup of water to play along.

Round one is just a warm up.

Which...

cup...

contains...

the water?

You said this cup here, you're correct.

Now, round two is for the money. So we're clear.

Going to start with the water in the middle cup.

So keep your eye on the middle cup for the next round.

Round 2.

One, two,

three.

And four.

Which cup contains the water?

Now if you said this cup again, you're wrong.

[audience gasps]

And that's because it's in this cup here.

[cheering and applause]

Now, that was a little tricky.

So we're gonna get rid of this cup entirely.

Now, there's only two.

Reminder, this cup is the cup with the water.

One, two... [babbles]

All right, this is my left, but your right.

And this is my right, but your left.

All right?

For those of you who chose left, you wouldn't have been right.

That means the one on the right is the only one left,

and since it's the only one left,

then it's got to be right.

But for those of you left who chose right,

you're going to be left wondering

why you are also not right.

And you're right, but that doesn't sound right

'cause the reality is there's no water left.

- [audience gasps] - Magic. Am I right?

[cheering and applause]

- AnnaRose, everyone.

Come on over.

Hi.

- Hello. - You look amazing.

I mean, just to have a girl moment

and talk wardrobe, like, you know, you look gorgeous.

- Yeah, it's weird, like, whenever I do magic

for different events, like, my number one thing

is like, "Oh, well, there's no tricks

up my sleeve 'cause I don't have any."

- I don't get to share the stage with very many women.

- Not a lot, it looks.

- How does it feel to be up here with us tonight?

- When I perform, I feel like I have an obligation to...

be the best, not only performer,

but be in representation for a woman.

So, when I was younger, I would have liked...

I would like to think that I'd be proud of myself.

Oh, My God, why does that make me sad? That's so weird.

- You should be proud of yourself.

- That's a powerful message. - Yes.

- All right, AnnaRose, Penn and Teller

have been fooled by lots of things.

Let's see if you fooled them with water.

- Okay. - Boys.

- Hello, AnnaRose. - Aww.

This--this is just great because sometimes

the most obvious idea is just sitting there in front of you.

Magicians, for thousands of years, have been

doing the cups and balls.

And, outside of my personal life, balls rarely go into cups.

It's water that goes into cups.

And the idea of doing a trick like this using the cups

with liquid in them is just a really, really great idea.

And makes sleight of hand so much more complicated.

And, you know, Teller knows so much about magic.

He's just a bottomless well of information.

I just sit here and absorb what he says

and then try to kind of say it to you

in some sort of way that gets through.

But it's really Teller that does all the thinking on this.

The idea of doing the cups and balls

with the cups and water

is just the way everybody should do it,

but they're just not good enough.

We just loved the whole routine,

but we don't think you fooled us.

- Is he right? You didn't fool them?

- Uh, I think they got something.

- These boys just know too much.

We loved it.

It was such a beautiful performance.

- Just wonderful.

- Thank you so much for being here with us.

AnnaRose.

[cheering and applause]

Don't forget, Penn and Teller will perform

tonight's final trick,

but first you'll see other world-class acts

take the stage when we come back.

[cheering and applause]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Welcome back. Another Fool Us trophy might come down

for our next magician.

♪ ♪

GONCALO: I live in Porto, a place known for excellent

wine and a calm way of life.

Growing up, I played rugby.

I was good and dreamed to be a professional.

But a serious injury sidelined me.

After that, magic is all I had.

From then to now, the magic has never stopped.

Portugal is a small country, so in magic

there is no sense of community.

I founded a magic school to change this.

It's a real school with classrooms and pupils.

My youngest student is 11 and the oldest is 70.

We'll teach anybody to do magic.

The first time I saw Penn and Teller was ten years ago.

They ripped up a card on stage and I stole the deck.

It's my prized possession.

I brought it so they would sign it for me.

So I'm after two trophies tonight.

And, if it works, Portuguese magic will be known

all over the world.

♪ ♪

[cheering and applause]

- From Porto, Portugal, give it up for Gonçalo Gil.

[applause]

[baby lullaby playing]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[audience gasps]

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

[audiences oohs]

[cheering and applause]

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[audience gasps, applauds]

♪ ♪

[applause]

[applause]

♪ ♪

[audience gasps]

♪ ♪

[applause]

♪ ♪

[cheering and applause]

[dramatic sting]

[cheering and applause]

- Gonçalo Gil!

- Hi. - Hi.

- Wow. I don't even know where to begin.

There was so much going on.

- Yes. It's a nightmare.

[laughter]

- I love that. How do you describe this kind of an act?

I mean, cards, cubes, illusions.

- Uh, too much free time, and--

[laughter]

But, actually, it was because...

this idea happened because of the pandemic.

- So, truly, you had so much time on your hands

that you just...

- On the pandemic, I did.

Now I don't, because now I'm a father,

- so the time is a bit tight. - Ah, congratulations.

All right, Gonçalo, maybe your magic nightmare

will make your dream of the trophy come true.

Let's go to Penn and Teller and see if you fooled him.

- Sure. Thank you. - Boys?

- Gonçalo, the audience absolutely loved you,

and this is not always true, but we agreed with them.

- Thank you. - Just fabulous. Um...

What a beautiful, magical routine all the way through.

It's just absolutely clean and really what magic should be.

You've taken the Yann Frisch stuff

and done a beautiful job with it.

You've also added so much that is totally your own,

like the queen going into four pieces and back and forth.

- Yes. - I've never seen anything

like that, neither one of us has.

Just beautiful. I assume that's your own?

Yes. Yes. That is my favorite party routine as well.

- Yeah. There's so many effects in there.

We had to break it down bit by bit.

We'd be at, you know, three and a half hour show.

- Yeah.

- You just have so many moves in there,

and it's all so beautiful and so well done.

And, really, this kind of magic that...

I will just tell the people here is very,

very modern, very, very new.

All these techniques are right up to date

and beautifully done and, uh...

looks so magical and so gorgeous all the way through.

But we don't think that... That you fooled us,

- but we loved it-- - [audience reacts]

- Oh, don't turn on me. - [laughter]

- I love them, too. - [audience boos]

- If I were you, I'd be storming these seats and beating us.

[laughter]

- Gonçalo, would you agree that they know

how you did your magic? - Yes, I think so. Yes.

I didn't build this for magicians,

but my main goal is to entertain you.

I think I did it. So--

PENN: You sure did. - My goal was--Yeah.

BROOKE: We loved it. We loved you.

Thank you so much.

Gonçalo Gil, everyone. Thank you so much.

Loved it.

[cheering and applause]

Sit tight. You'll see more

fantastic magic right after this.

[cheering and applause]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Welcome back to "Fool Us," where our next magician

is ready to rock. Meet them now.

♪ ♪

- I'm Ren X from Salt Lake City.

I've always been interested in both art and science.

When I was little, I kept sketchbooks by my bed.

I watched documentaries about space in my free time.

I loved learning about how the universe worked.

The first time I saw a magician levitating

an object, I was captivated

and then disappointed when I realized it was fake.

But something clicked at me, and I realized that the mystery

in a magic trick is the same mystery

that I love investigating in science.

I'm a scientist specializing in cognitive neuroscience.

I'm working on a PhD and the process

of making experiments to study the brain

is weirdly similar to making magic tricks

to create a particular thought in another person.

In magic, for the purpose of entertainment,

and in science, to study the thought itself.

If I merge art and science just right, I might be able

to control the results and fool Penn and Teller.

[cheering and applause]

- Please, welcome Salt Lake City scientist Ren X.

[applause]

- So, as a scientist, I study the brain.

How we think, learn, make decisions.

And as I'm sure you're all aware,

these things are complicated.

And, to be honest, there's still a lot we don't know.

And so, tonight, I'd like to do an experiment

on our lovely host, Brooke.

[applause]

And use all the things that we don't yet know

about the brain to try and fool Penn and Teller.

Brooke, would you join me in my lab, please?

- Love to.

- Thank you.

- Pleasure. - And, Brooke, don't worry.

The electrical shocks only hurt the first couple of times, okay?

- No problem. - I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

They do hurt every time.

- I'm sure. - Yeah.

[laughter]

Now, my experiment's pretty simple.

Brooke's going to be making a choice

between her left hand and her right.

- Okay. - And Brooke, to make

this choice, you'll simply raise the hand

that you'd like and hold it in the air like this.

- Okay. - Make sense?

- Yes. - My goal

is to guess which hand Brooke has raised.

You can take your seat.

Now, to prevent the possibility of any other variables

impacting this experiment... cheating,

I'm gonna position myself on the other side

of this wall from Brooke.

And while I'm at it, I'll blindfold myself as well.

Now, remember, using today's science,

it would be impossible to guess which hand Brooke has raised.

But perhaps that won't always be the case.

Brooke, please make your first choice

and raise one of your hands.

[audience oohs]

Brooke, you can lower your hand if it's still in the air.

You see, if I know what causes every single neuron

in Brooke's brain to fire, then I also know

which hand she has raised.

Brooke, please make your second choice

and raise one of your hands.

[audience oohs]

[applause]

And so a choice is really just a pattern of brain activity.

If I understand the brain, I understand the choice.

Brooke, whenever you are ready, please make one final choice.

[audience oohs, applauds]

Thank you. Thank you.

But let's stay skeptical here.

Every good experiment can be repeated.

Brooke, you're welcome to stand up.

But before we do, and some of you may have caught on

to this already, there's something

of a haunting idea hidden here.

You see, if I know exactly why someone does

the things that they do,

then I would also know what they're going to do next.

And so, Brooke, I am going to have you make

another three choices.

But before you do, I'm going to write a prediction

of which hands you're about to choose.

♪ ♪

Now, I'm committing to what I think Brooke is going

to do, so this doesn't need to be a blind test anymore.

And, Penn, would you mind keeping track

of Brooke's choices on your notepad for us, please?

- I sure will. - Thank you.

Brooke, are you ready to proceed?

- Yes. - Okay.

You're gonna make your choices the same way as you did before.

Just raise the hand that you would like.

Okay.

Choice number one. Would you like left or right?

- Left. - Left. You got that, Penn?

- Yep. - Choice number two.

Right.

One final choice.

Left.

So your choices were left, right, left.

- Is that correct? - Correct.

- Penn, yes? - Yes.

Now, we like to think that who we are largely depends

on the choices we make.

Brooke, I'm gonna have you pull this out,

but keep it face down for now. - Okay.

- But consider this.

If you can predict what someone's about to do,

then maybe there was never a choice in the first place.

Penn, would you remind us one final time,

please, what three choices Brooke made?

- Left, right, left.

- Brooke.

Left, right, left.

[audience oohs, applauds]

Thank you.

BROOKE: Ren X, everyone.

I'm so fascinated by that.

- Thank you. It took a long time to develop.

- So you studied the science of thinking?

- I do, yes.

- What is the connection between that and magic?

- You know, magic, there's... we study attention, kind of.

We're almost like working psychologists.

We're using attention to accomplish

the tricks that we're doing.

And then, in a lab, I study the same thing.

- Does magic still fascinate you or even confuse you?

- It fascinates me more and more.

- And your knowledge of magic?

So much knowledge. That doesn't spoil it for you?

- I think it makes it better.

For me, at least. You know, it's...

I've heard someone say that we keep secrets

for our audience, not from our audience.

And I think that's, uh...

That's a very telling quote. - I love that.

Ren, You've definitely given all of us something to think about.

But let's see if that's earned you a Fool Us trophy.

- Okay. - Ready?

- Penn and Teller. - Hey, Ren, uh...

You really are a scientist, right?

- I am, yes. - Yeah.

I kind of tell that vibe coming off you.

And also, it's really nice how you weave that in

and are able to do mentalism, which is what this is...

REN: Yes. - ...without...

Without all the jive around it. And I really like that a lot.

You have a playful premise based on reality

that still doesn't insult anyone's intelligence.

- And that's really wonderful. - Thank you.

- I gotta tell you, we thought

we had you right away on the first part.

We really did. We thought that you were

peeking down the blindfold and seeing the shiny floor

because the reflection we could see

allowed you to see the hand.

It would have worked that way, by the way.

But then we realized "He's not just going

to do this on a shiny floor.

He's got to have another way of doing it."

Another way of, like, having the old

patent leather shoes that you glance at...

I won't go into that, but...

You ended up using a rather high tech method

on the first part

that gives us kind of this creepy feeling

that if you knew all the neurons

and all of that, you'd have this feeling

that Big Brother was watching you from all over.

And what's nice about using the high tech,

although you could have used the shiny floor,

is that you went really low tech on the ending.

And we can't let you slide on that.

We really got to focus on that.

But the ending could have been done, uh...

200 years ago, and the beginning part of it

could only be done in probably the past 15 years or so,

15 or 20 years.

It's a wonderful presentation.

I like the way you had this humble quality

with still the brains behind it

and some very, very clever tricks.

That's what we think about this whole thing.

But I don't know if you think that you fooled us,

we'll have to see.

I think there's a reason why you're the best.

I think you got me. - Thank you. Thanks so much.

And next time you do this, consider the shiny floor.

- That would be smart. Yeah.

- Sounds like they got you. None of that made any sense to me.

- Thank you. - We sure love that, Ren.

Thank you so much, Ren X.

[applause]

Penn and Teller will not take on more magicians tonight.

That's because they are our next magicians.

See the Legends themselves right after this.

[cheering and applause]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- Welcome back. It has been quite a night.

Let's have Penn close out the show.

Everyone, put your hands together for Penn.

- Thank you.

It's been 50 years, I've been doing magic.

50 years, and I'm still an outsider.

I'm still not really accepted by the magic community.

I came to magic a little bit late. I was 20 years old.

And most magicians start when they're children, very young.

And so my sensibility about magic

is different than theirs, 'cause when you start

as a child, your whole feeling about magic is,

"Gotcha! Gotcha! I know something you don't know.

Gotcha! I can do something you can't do. Gotcha!

I've got a secret and I gotcha, gotcha."

Now, I started out in music and juggling,

and there's no gotcha in any music.

You don't finish a bass solo and go, "Gotcha!"

You don't finish a juggling trick

and go, "Gotcha!" You're doing something.

It's a gift you're sharing with other people.

There's no gotcha.

There's no unpleasantness underneath it, no sourness

of trying to put yourself above other people

because you've pulled a trick on them.

Now, during the lockdown,

we weren't doing a lot of magic, so I...

I kind of got back to my roots in juggling,

but I didn't want to do the club juggling,

which is what I used to do mostly,

a lot of club juggling.

I want to do balance juggling. I've never done much of that.

And also you can do balance juggling sitting down.

So I worked on stuff.

Now, there is one thing that's a little bit disingenuous

about balance juggling, and that is people think

that bigger things are harder to balance.

You see a guy with a stepladder on his chin,

and you're impressed by that.

But actually... Thank you, Teller.

Bigger things are actually easier to balance.

I mean, right now, with no practice at all,

you can take a broom, keep your eye on the top of it,

and you'll be able to balance that

right at home with no trouble.

You can move around and everything.

You can balance that forever.

No practice, no skill, no nothing.

When things are really tall, you can balance them easily.

You have a lot of time to correct.

Whereas something as small as this, which is a little

smaller than the pencil we rehearsed, okay.

It's okay. With a small thing like this...

the balance becomes...

[fanfare]

...really...

[cheering and applause]

...difficult.

Okay. Good. I got lucky with that.

Um, but during lockdown, I wanted to do another trick.

Now, you know, people balance balls on their nose

and on, you know, mouth sticks and so on.

But balancing a big ball like a beach ball

is not that difficult.

I mean, seals can do it, right?

But to balance something the size

of a ping pong ball is really amazing.

No glitz, no hype, no nothing.

Just pure skill. Now...

I've built this up a lot. I better be able to do it.

[laughter]

Give it a try here.

The important part is where you start it.

I want to get it right...

on the very tip.

♪ ♪

Nope. God.

[drum roll]

- It's going. It's going. - [audience gasps, applauds]

You see, this is just pure skill.

But after 50 years hanging around with magicians,

I kind of found a certain affection

for gotcha!

[laughter, applause]

You even look good in that, Brooke.

You even look good with that.

- Thanks, Penn.

If you're looking for more of TV's best magic,

we've got you covered.

- Gotcha! - See more of the world's

greatest magicians next time when "Fool Us" returns.

[cheering and applause]