Original subtitles

Illusion, the art of tricking the brain, distorting the senses, challenging

perception. You can't trust what you see, even with your own eyes, because

brain can be misled. Meet the Masters of Illusion.

Welcome to Masters of Illusion. I'm your host, Dean Cain. How does color affect

our world of illusion?

Can the brain react to design its own colors?

Look at these spirals, red against yellow and blue.

Our mind tells us that the hues of red are different. But when we take away the

background, we realize we have been tricked.

All the red is the same shade.

Rick Thomas uses color to great effect in this startling large -scale illusion.

A lot of models, some jewelry for us. But watch out, it may go away before you

can say, I like that one.

Yeah.

Next, Michael Finney strings us along.

Michael Finney teaches us to avoid living at the end of a rope. This lady,

second row, one, two, three, four, five in. You just look down at your feet.

Yes, what is your name? That's a guy. You're the lady.

What's your name?

What is it? Lizzie.

As the audience applauds, would you please join me on stage?

Hi, Lizzie.

How are you? Good, how are you? That's great. Very nice to meet you. You can

stand right over here if you would.

Lizzie, where are you from?

Right here.

Right here.

This is a nice place you got.

This is great. Do you like card tricks?

Yeah. That's great. You and I are going to be doing a little rope trick here.

That's a piece of rope. I want you to go ahead and examine it.

Very thorough, too. That's great.

Don't take a second chance.

That's a pair of scissors. Examine those. Make sure they work. Try them

here on your sweater.

No, I'm still paying for this suit.

This is a piece of rope. That's a pair of scissors. This is a classic of magic.

This is the left end. This is the right end. Take the scissors. Cut the two ends

off.

Now we shall begin.

Left in, right in. If you put the two together, this becomes the middle.

If you bring the middle up to the top, what's right here?

Correct, you are.

Take the scissors and cut the middle loop.

This piece of rope is now cut right in half. As you can see, equal at the top

and equal down here.

You can see equal at the top and pretty darn close here at the bottom.

It's kind of important that they be the same length.

What are you doing?

No, I didn't say it. I don't remember telling you to cut the rope at all.

I don't know what you're talking about.

All right, we're going to do this a little different tonight.

You bring the end of A to the top of A. You bring the end of B to the top of B.

Are you with me so far? Yes. You bring the middle of A side over B side, which

is this flat side over D side. Bring it down, pango, QC, side C off the left

wrist into the right hand.

Kind of confusing, don't you think?

Let's start again.

This is a piece of rope. This is the left end here. This is the right end

And down here is the middle.

One more time for me. Take the scissors and cut the middle loop.

This is the end of A, so this must be the end of B. All right, little

builder there, huh?

What do you want to do? What do you want to do?

You know you want to.

Hold on to them and just trim the two ends so they're the same length. I'd

go ahead and just trim the two of them right there. That'd be perfect.

This is a piece of rope.

This is the left end here. This is the right end here. And down here is the

middle.

One more time. Take the scissors and cut the middle loop.

This piece of rope is now being cut how many times?

I lost count. Three?

Three times and tied with a knot. Not that impressive, but the lips have

continued to move vigorously.

Cut the loop right next to the knot. This piece of rope is now being cut

twice. Since two is company, three is a crowd, and this has been a great crowd,

we'll do this one more time.

Please take the scissors and cut the loop right next to the knot.

Now I'm going to have the scissors back in case you don't like the rest of the

trick.

Magicians are not only noted for having magic hands, but also magic breath, as

my lovely assistant will now demonstrate.

Step right over here and face the audience.

Now what I'm going to do is bring the ropes up around the front. At the count

three, you will blow each one of the knots off of the ropes, okay?

All right, here we go.

Now, at the count of three, blow each one of the knots off of the ropes.

One, two, three.

Take this into the rope. Hold it firmly. From right there, blow the middle knot

right off.

All the way.

If I was a knot, I'd have been gone.

Here, try it right there.

Better yet, just take this home and practice. Please give her a big, big

of applause.

Masterful magician Christopher Hart will manipulate your mind.

Pull up a chair with Danny Cole.

Danny Cole has a chair with a mind of its own.

And now a trick that Beryl Dillon calls slight of mouth.

Hello. Well, no magic show would be complete without a card trick, and I

to do my favorite card trick for you guys tonight, but I need some help from

somebody out of the audience.

This guy right here in the blue, what's your name?

Bert. Bert. Nice to meet you, Bert. Let's give Bert a big round of applause.

Nice to meet you, Bert. My name's Beryl.

Bert, we are going to be doing a card trick.

But I want you to think it's like a trick magician's deck of cards or

like that, so I will show you that all the cards are completely different. Take

a look.

Here,

it's pretty awesome. I'll show you guys what this looks like. Here, check it

out. Watch.

That's pretty awesome. All right, now, Bert, now that we know that all the

are different, I can begin the trick for you. Go ahead, take out any card you

want. Look at it. Don't let me see it. Show everybody what it is.

Great. And Bert, to make sure that no other card in the world looks exactly

that card, I want you to take this marker. I want you to write your name or

sort of symbol on the face of the card.

Perfect. I will take the pen back from you when you're done with that. And if

you would, show the camera what the card looks like now with your signature on

it. All right. Now, Bert, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to go through

the cards like this. You just say stop for me somewhere in the middle.

Stop. Perfect. Put your card back right there. Oh, face down. Good choice.

Yeah, you laugh, but sometimes people put it face up, and then the trick's

really stupid, so I'm glad you put it face down.

Right now, Bert, here's what's going to happen, okay? What you've seen so far in

the show has been sleight of hand, okay?

But this time I'm not going to do sleight of hand. What I am going to do

called sleight of mouth. I'm going to take the cards, I'm going to cram them

my mouth, and I'm going to find your card with my tongue.

Do it.

I'm gonna find a card, okay? Okay. Bert, you have a job.

This is a stick.

Okay. Okay? I want you to take a stick, and you're gonna whack a card out of my

mouth. As hard as I want? Okay, yeah. Whack a card out of my mouth, okay? You

understand? Yeah. Okay, don't hit my face.

I won't. All right, here we go. I'm confident. Ready? One, two, three. Whack

card.

Whack a card out of my mouth.

What am I saying? All right, here we go.

One, two, three.

Okay, here we go. One,

two.

my tongue. I even folded it into quarters, which you have to admit, even

isn't your card, it's really impressive.

But lucky for me, Bert, it's a wet card.

It's a fly -me card, and it's your card. The five of spades with Bert written on

it. Let's give Bert a big round of applause. Thank you so much for your

Watch your step on the way down the stairs, and Bert, don't forget your

souvenir.

I'm just kidding. Oh, that's disgusting.

All right, cool. You can have it if you want to.

Everybody, give it up one more time for Bert.

Next, Jeff McBride.

Now that's some spicy magic.

Jeff McBride is a Renaissance man who is intrigued with the past.

Well, thank you very much.

It's time to step back in time to Renaissance Italy.

My audience volunteers are examining the tools of the street magician.

Take a good look at the bowl and the magic wand. Everything fine. And this is

Commedia dell 'arte mask.

I have a passion for masks. I collect them from all over. This one's from

And his name is Bravo.

I say Bravo. You say?

Bravo?

Bravo?

Bravo?

You know your part. Ear.

Now he's a little naughty.

He's a little body, and he kind of takes over. So I'm going to disappear for a

while. He's going to take over as we step back in time a few hundred years

some Comedia dell 'arte street magic.

Bravo!

Bravo!

Hey, we have some nicer people here this evening. Do you like the magic?

Yes. Oh, very good.

Is everything good?

Yes. Is anything wrong?

No. Okay, very good.

And what is your name?

Susan. Very good, very good.

Do you like Susan?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you like magic?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you like my ball?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, very good, very good.

Hold that. I have some very fresh magic, very fresh magic tonight for you. Right

here. Let me get, let me get.

Uh -oh.

Uh -oh. It's fresh.

It's fresh.

It's my ball.

Yeah. Let's touch your hand.

Like that. Don't squeeze my ball.

Okay. All right.

You like my ball?

Oh, yeah. Okay.

Nothing. Nothing. Watch.

Nothing. Watch.

Hey, bravo!

Bravo!

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Watch. I take the ball. You like? Oh, yeah. Okay. Watch the ball.

Impossible, huh?

Two balls.

Don't squeeze my ball.

You can squeeze my ball.

Okay. Watch.

One ball.

One ball. Two hands. Two hands. Two hands. Two hands.

Don't move.

One hand.

Two hands.

Don't move. All right.

Don't move.

Watch the ball.

Slowly open.

Impossible.

Amazing.

Slowly open.

Hey, two balls.

Hey.

Bravo.

No, hold the balls.

Hold the balls.

Watch the finale.

Watch the finale.

One ball.

Set them a different way. Watch.

One, two, three.

Three balls. Yes, three balls.

One, two, three.

It's nice, huh?

I have three balls.

My mother said I was a special.

All right.

Bye -bye.

Bye -bye. Oh, problem.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Drum roll.

One, two, three.

Hey, bigger fruit, what?

Hey, bravo.

I'm back.

Well, there you have it. A master class in the art of sleight of hand.

Did you catch him in the act?

I didn't.

Remember who we're dealing with. These are the best in the world. These are the

masters of illusion.

Until next time, I'm Dean Cain.