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.

Meet the Masters of Illusion.

Hi, I'm Dean Cain, and welcome to Masters of Illusion.

Now, if you had to differentiate between reality and illusion, you'd think it'd

be pretty easy, wouldn't it?

Not so sure?

Neither am I.

And we'll all see for ourselves. Sorry, really quickly, can I get your opinion

on something?

Yes, maybe.

I've got this thing with two dollar bills here, with a one and a twenty. Can

take the one for me?

Here,

can you fold that in half for me, and then fold it in half one more time?

Fantastic, good. And then if I were to ask you to hold on to the... Can you

out your hand?

Perfect. Hold on. Just grab your hand around that, turn your hand over.

All right. So now here's the question. If I grab, let's say, the 1 out of your

hand, and if I were to back up, and if I were to do this, the question is, is

this slow enough to look impressive?

That now I have the 20, and when you open your hand, you've got the 1. Is

slow enough?

That was...

Amazing. No, but I have a whole bunch more of these. If you could do that.

sure. Yeah, yeah. I can take care of it.

I'm not giving that to you.

All right. Can I have the $20 ,000? Yeah, no. Thank you, Nathan. I'll do it

sure. Nathan Pham. There you go, everyone.

And I made some money off of you.

This bit of magic can only be described as a whole lot of fun, as is the

magician himself.

Here's Bill Cook.

so much. I have a wonderful help within the audience. This is Tassie.

Thank you, Tassie. I've got a question for you. Have you ever been to Chicago?

No. I am from Chicago, and I want to share a story with you about my

Chicago is the birthplace of what is known as close -up magic, anything small

like a card trick or a coin trick.

And the godfather of close -up magic was a man named Matt Shulian. He owned a

bar on the north side of Chicago called Shulian's.

He was not only a good magician, but he was a Better businessman.

What he would do is he would walk around his restaurant and see who had just a

little bit of liquor left in their drink, and he'd approach their table and

can I show you something? And they'd say, yeah, perfect. He'd ask you to

your drink. Okay.

Done. Perfect.

And then he'd say, I'll go through the deck of cards like this. I want you just

to say stop whenever you feel like it. Stop. There.

He would then show you the card that you picked, the ace of clubs.

That would go back into the deck.

The rest of the cards would go back on.

He would take your glass, place the deck on top, and then say, watch.

Suddenly, a corner of a playing card shoots inside of the glass.

Now that was pretty cool. He would then take the deck of cards off the glass and

what's called spring them between his fingers.

And one card would kind of shoot its way out of the deck, being your ace of

clubs.

Not only that, he would then turn it around to show that it is missing a

and it perfectly matches the corner that is inside of the glass.

Now, I did say he was a good magician, but a better businessman.

Because as a person who owns a bar, this glass is now dirty and you have to buy

another one.

And for that, I say cheers. Thank you for helping me. Thank you so much.

Next up, this performer couldn't decide what he wanted to be, a magician or a

musician.

So he chose both.

Here's Chris Funk.

Thank you. Thank you so much. We have the wonderful Suze from our live studio

audience. Suze, here's the deal. I want you to think of a number between 1 and

100. We're going to go to this little list that I keep. I keep a list of

objects. I don't know why. I just find it fascinating to keep lists of random

objects. So if I were to ask you for a number between 1 and 100, what would you

say? 25. 25. Perfect. So what we're going to do is we're actually going to

my little notes app right here. You can see right at the very top I've got a

list of random objects.

As I scroll through it, You can see that we've got some random things. I've got

MP3 players, stockings, bottle caps, just things that I think of that maybe

day I want to do a trick with.

But if we go down to number 25, what does number 25 say?

Violin.

Are you serious?

Oh my gosh.

Okay, normally the random objects that I put in my list are a little bit smaller

than a violin.

No, that's good. I just got to think a little bit quicker on my feet right now.

I thank you for being very considerate about that.

Let's see if we can do this here. I've got some handkerchiefs, okay? I've got

here a big white handkerchief that we're going to use in a moment. I also have,

like I said, three. So the other one I have here is a black handkerchief. And

I've also got a blue handkerchief right over here, okay? You could have picked

any number between 1 and 100. You picked 25. What did 25 end up on?

Violin. Violin.

Wasn't expecting that, but using a little magic just like this, you can

see that. Boom, all of a sudden, we have a violin.

You didn't see that coming, did you? No, I did.

Tell us about it. I mean, tell us about it. Sorry.

Here now to turn up the heat, all the way from Vietnam, it's Mae Nguyen.

Up next, watch the astounding skill of Ed Alonzo when we return.

And now for the very quiet, civilized part of the show.

Oh wait, I am completely wrong about that. It's the exact opposite. It's Ed

Alonzo.

When I was a teenager, I took a part -time job at a fish market. And one day,

the owner, Arnold, asked me to put up this banner in the front window.

Well, as I was walking up to the front of the store, I looked at the banner and

I read it.

Fresh fish sold here today.

Well, this banner makes no sense at all.

Take the word today, for example.

Everyone knows that we're selling fish today. They're standing right in front

the store. They're not going to come back tomorrow or shop yesterday.

That word is useless.

The word here, well, I think everyone knows it's here. You can see fish

in the window, and, well, you can smell them a block away.

So that just doesn't make any sense at all.

Ah, the word sold.

Well, the owner's not giving the fish away. Of course we're selling them.

And fish.

I think we know there's plenty of fish. It's not a hardware store.

Fresh.

Well, of course, it's the freshest.

Well, just then the owner came out and he said, put that banner up in the

right now or you're fired.

I said, oh boy.

You mean this banner?

He said, yes, get it up there now. So I snapped my fingers and I opened the

banner up.

And that banner said that there was fresh fish

sold here today.

Just perfect, huh?

Magic!

Doesn't get any fresher than that.

Woo! Woo!

Woo! That's a big one.

Make room, guys. Here comes Groove.

Okay.

And now we have stinky on the menu for tomorrow.

I've never had the thought that some magicians are a little bit sneaky.

Well, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that's exactly what you'll think

you see this.

Here's Farrell Dillon.

Hi, my name's Farrell Dillon, and I am here with an audience member.

Your name is?

Keegan. Keegan, nice to meet you.

During the last couple of months, I've been practicing pickpocketing. All

and it's a very difficult skill, okay?

But I wanted to try some pickpocketing on you tonight. Do you have a wallet or

anything on you?

Nope. Okay.

Well, then it's going to be really hard to pickpocket you.

Don't worry, though. It's actually kind of weird if I steal your personal items,

okay? So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to give you my wallet, okay?

I'm going to have you hide it in your pocket, okay? And then I'm going to try

and steal my wallet back from you without you feeling it. Now, have you

seen a pickpocket operate before?

No. No. Okay, so what they do is they try to distract you so that you aren't

paying attention, and then they kind of bump you a little bit, and then they

reach inside your pocket, they steal out your valuables, and that's how they

operate, all right? So look, I'm going to try and pickpocket you, okay? So

imagine that we're just like out at the park or something like that, all right?

And we're looking around, and I go, hey, look, there's something shiny over

there. Look, oh, okay.

Did you see that?

Okay.

And then, look, I reach inside your pocket, Keegan, and I get the wallet

Did you feel it?

Yes. You did?

I did.

All right, well, look, I'm not very good at this, okay? I've just been

practicing. Plus, if I was a good pickpocket, I'd actually be able to

inside your pocket, take out the wallet, then steal all the cash.

Then I could put the wallet back where it was at the beginning. Reach inside

your back pocket.

Is that the wallet?

Yes, it is. Thank you so much, Keegan, for your help. Please give him a big

round of applause.

Watch your step. Take that to your seat.

Next, mind reading is the unbelievable skill of magical Katrina.

Many choices in life are very personal.

You're about to meet someone who has encapsulated that notion into one neat

little package.

Here she is, also known as Magical Katrina.

It is such an honor to be here, but I have to confess, I didn't just come here

to do magic for all of you today. I came here because I need help.

The last few years, my dating life has been unsuccessful.

Yeah, I should probably just stop dating magicians.

But I wanted to see if maybe you would help me.

Yeah? Do you want to help me pick out a date?

Absolutely. Okay, great.

Now, what is your name?

My name is Kevin.

Kevin. Lovely to meet you. I'm Katrina.

Nice to meet you.

Okay. Matchmaker Kevin.

So I have here a bunch of different photos of different gentlemen that I

go on dates with.

And I was wondering if you could take a look at them and tell me if you think

they'd be a yes or a no.

We're going to put them into two different piles. Can you do that? I can

that. Okay.

Perfect.

Should I date this guy?

Yes. Yeah. Okay, great. We'll put him next to you. You'll give me the yes.

What about this guy?

He has a beard?

He has a beard. He has a beard like you.

Yeah, let's do him. Let's do all the beard.

Okay, what about this guy?

Job security good, but maybe a no.

Yeah, he does.

He might be 12. Not sure.

Okay, what about this guy? He has coffee.

Any man that brings caffeine to a date I'm a fan of?

No. No? Okay, no.

What about him?

Anybody with a cat is a yes.

Yeah, yeah. Then I could choose. I can choose him or the cat. Yeah.

Okay. What about this guy?

Didn't you say you were going to stop dating magicians?

Oh, oh, my gosh.

Dodged that bullet. Thank you.

What about her?

She looks a little bit like she's had a rough day. She's had a rough day, but

that's okay. Yeah. Okay. Great.

What about this guy?

He has a tiny head. Well, he's a yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah.

Okay. So these are the yeses and these are the noes. So we have here a girl,

kitty, kitty guy.

Nice.

Beard guy.

Beard man.

And clean cut guy.

So that's still too many people for me to date.

Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of people. It's one, two, three, four, five. Could you

just narrow it down to one person to be my perfect match?

I need to talk to her.

I mean, she feels like she's had a rough day. She needs a win.

She might need a win. She might need a win. Okay, great.

Do you like the pretty lady? Yeah. I'm going to put her right here just so that

she doesn't leave the table the whole time because I actually have a

to make.

Before I came here, I kind of already knew which person I wanted to choose.

In fact, I took a Sharpie and I drew big black X's on

every single one of the cards.

All of them.

Except for.

The one I wanted more than anything.

The very same one you chose. I drew a big green checkmark. The girl, could you

pick that up and show the audience the big green checkmark?

Thank you so much. Round of applause for my volunteers.

Up next, amazing if the only way to describe Glenn Strange.

What you're about to see is a bit strange.

Well, the magician is.

Because that's his name.

For real.

Here he is, folks.

Glenn Strange.

Well, thank you, thank you.

Now, it's what you've been waiting for, a card trick. I know.

But it's not really a card trick. It's a trick that uses cards.

For this, I need someone in the audience to help. Someone that's probably not

helped today.

This lady, you'll do perfectly.

Just come right over here. You don't even have to come down.

And what is your name?

Alma. Alma.

That's a beautiful name. That's my mama's name, Alma.

Now, Alma, I'm going to go through the cards, and whenever you feel the urge in

a loud voice, I want you to say, stop. Are you ready? Here we go.

Stop. Okay, that's the card you stopped me on. You got it?

Yes. Now, if you can't see that card, that's good, because sometimes I miss

I can lie out of it.

I'm losing it down in the deck.

I'm going to attempt to read your mind.

I'm not getting a signal. It's not your problem, it's me. I've got a little

black bag over here. Now, this is a little black bag, and down in this

black bag, I've got a little piece of rope.

Now, if you like to play cards with the boys or the girls, just take, in your

ambassador, your shuffling skills, take your little black bag with you next time

you go and shuffle up the cards. This is a good way to shuffle cards.

Nobody will ask any questions.

I'm going to take this rope and lasso your card out of the bag. Yes, I am.

Are you ready?

Yee -haw.

I go down in the bag.

Around and around.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. The card you stopped me on seconds

earlier.

The card.

The ace of clubs.

Oh, man.

I didn't want to do this. Looks like I'm going to have to get out the heavy

artillery. Now, if you've been to Las Vegas, you've seen this trick.

There's a magician out there. He's got his own theater. He does this same exact

trick. He has a card selected by a lovely lady in the audience.

He shuffles it. I picked you.

He shuffles that card back into the deck.

He throws all the cards up in the air. He whips out a great old big long sword.

I have no idea where he keeps it.

He'll stick it amongst those cards, and he'll stick that card out of the air.

I'm going to take this vacuum cleaner and suck your car out of the air.

Made even harder by these high ceilings.

Lots of turbulence up there.

Thank

you

so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, this has been amazing. I wish we had more magic. And we do. But you'll

have to wait until next time. Till then, I'm Dean Cain. Have a great night.