Original subtitles

DEAN: 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 your brain can be misled.

Meet "The Masters of Illusion."

Hello, and welcome to Masters of Illusion.

I'm your host, Dean Cane.

Can we deliberately trick our brain?

Look at this, right here.

You see a floating pyramid.

But, is it really?

By turning this sculpture, the pyramid is gone.

It's actually abstract metal bars.

Only when it is rotated do the spaces in between the bars

reveal the artist's true creation.

Our first performer proves that a straight line can

indeed be divided in to many parts.

Here is Las Vegas legend, Rick Thomas.

♪ MUSIC ♪

(APPLAUSE)

♪ MUSIC ♪

(APPLAUSE)

Master of Illusion Farrell Dillon is having a little

trouble finding you a chair.

FARRELL: Sometimes we magicians wish that we could

go back in time, and understand less about magic

than we do now; because it seems like the more we

understand about magic, the less this stuff just feels

like magic, and the more it feels like psychology.

So I would like to stop and speak for just a moment about

optical illusions.

Now, according to Wikipedia, an optical illusion is a

visually perceived image that differs from objective

reality.

Now, I'm sure you all have experienced an optical

illusion before and if not, get ready as I present to you,

one of the world's most famous optical illusions,

the chair in the box.

Ooooooh.

Mysterious.

Right.

♪ MUSIC ♪

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Thank you.

I know it's just a silly trick,

but I really enjoy doing it so I hope you guys like it also.

So, I would like to stop and speak for just a moment about

optical illusions.

Now, according to Wikipedia, an optical illusion is a

visually perceived image that differs from objective

reality.

Now, I'm sure you have all have experienced an optical

illusion before and if not, get ready as I present to you,

one of the world's most famous optical illusions,

the chair in the box.

Oooooh.

Mysterious.

Right.

♪ MUSIC ♪

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Thank you.

I know it's just a silly trick,

but I really enjoy doing it so I hope you guys liked it also.

So, I would like to stop and speak for just a moment

about-- I'm sorry, did I do this trick already?

Okay, I'm sorry, you guys are just lucky I'm not telling the

same jokes over and over, because that would be

redundant.

But, by now, you guys have obviously figured out that it

is-- this trick is not about the chair flipping over inside

the box and actually about something completely

different.

It is about the fact that this box is a T.A.R.D.I.S.

Now, uhm-- you've probably never heard the term

T.A.R.D.I.S.

before, I mean unless you have an affinity for British

Television, but according to Wikipedia,

a T.A.R.D.I.S.

is any object that is bigger on the inside,

than it is on the outside.

It's a true impossibility.

Now, I hope this all makes sense to you,

because by now, you all probably think that I've made

this up.

And I hope you all have a better understanding of

illusions.

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: Next, Las Vegas headliner Mac King will crack

you up.

DEAN: Mac King seems to find his fingers giving him some

trouble.

Let's check it out.

MAC KING: Howdy!

Uh-- I'm going this way. Hi!

This woman in the blue, catch that rope.

What's your name? WOMAN: Sheedae

MAC KING: Sheedae, come this way.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Sheedae!

Watch your step there.

Nice to meet you.

SHEEDAE: Nice to meet you as well.

MAC KING: Alright, this way, Sheedae,

right over on this side.

Thanks for coming up.

Sheedae, you and I and that piece of rope are going to do

one of Houdini's most famous tricks.

SHEEDAE: Okay.

MAC KING: Yeah.

This is called The Houdini Challenge Naked Rope Escape.

I just want you to take off your clothes and tie me up.

SHEEDAE: Okay.

MAC KING: No, I'm kidding.

You don't have to tie me up.

No, we're going to do a quick card trick,

Sheedae.

Uh, take the deck in your own hands,

take out any card you'd like.

You can look through and find you like or select one at

random, but we need to be able to tell your card from all the

others, so I want you to write your name really big on the

other 51 cards.

No, I'll take the deck.

You keep your card.

I'll take the rest, you hold on to yours.

SHEEDAE: Alright.

MAC KING: Yeah, it's very complicated.

You got it?

Okay, and uh, just take this.

Write your name really big, Sheedae,

right across-- No, these are mine.

Write it across yours.

Yeah, that way suppose she had the six of clubs,

even if I had two of them, I wouldn't have two with

"Sheedae" across them.

You got it?

SHEEDAE: Got it.

MAC KING: Not you, her.

You got it?

I'm out of time.

Ye-- Show everybody your card.

Show the folks.

Yeah, show everybody.

Yeah, get 'em over on the left.

Did you get these guys over here,

did you show them?

Alright, good.

And set that six of diamonds right back there.

What you'll recognize that when you see it because you

wrote your name across the face of the card.

I sandwich her card in the center so she's safe.

Hold the whole deck if you would there,

Sheedae.

Did you bring any twist-em's handy home and garden ties up

here with you?

Oh, it's a good thing I did.

We need two of these for the trick.

Two twist ties.

I'm going to twist twist-tie number around twist-tie number

two, so they're kind of locked together.

Right, Sheedae, that one's twisted around that one?

I'm going to twist this twist tie around this thumb.

You can give that a couple of twists if you want,

just make sure that's good and tight around my thumb there.

Good, just-- yeah.

And, oh, that one goes around that thumb so my thumbs will

be wired together, like a little pair of thumb cuffs,

yeah.

Can you twist that up nice and tight so I can't escape!

Like a-- No stale bread at your house.

You want to sit down really badly,

don't you?

I'm going to get you a chair.

We'll slide this over here, Sheedae,

you can have a seat. (APPLAUSE)

What the-- Alright.

Hold the deck between your hands,

kind of interlock your fingers over the edge.

Yeah, good!

Extend your arms away from your body,

come towards me just a little bit if you would,

and turn them sideways so the deck's face down.

Good.

Don't separate your hands.

Or the cards'll drop on the floor.

But can you come towards me just a little more?

Hold 'em right up here. (APPLAUSE)

Uh-- Here we go!

I snap my fingers, your card jumps from the deck,

now, into my pocket.

Can you hold the cards with one hand,

reach in my pocket with your empty hand,

and uh, bring out your card.

Yeah, right there.

No-- le-- Yeah, that's that's the one.

Oh.

Fig cookies.

Put those back, I'm saving those for later.

No card?

SHEEDAE: No card.

MAC KING: There's only one other place it could be.

It's my birthday.

No, untwist me, untwist me, untwist me.

What was the card?

Six of diamonds?

SHEEDAE: Yes.

MAC KING: I don't know what I'm doing,

can you go through there, take out the six when you come to

it.

I'll get rid of this stuff.

Here you go, enjoy yourself.

Can't believe it's not there.

Maybe I should check the directions.

I just read them on the box of Frosted Flakes.

Do you like those, Frosted Flakes?

Oh, yeah.

The directions to the trick are printed on the box.

I'll trade you the deck for the box.

It says right on the side "If the card is not in Mac King's

pocket, tear open the top of the safety seal

box-o-tasty-cereal to find out why."

Give it a rip.

What, it-- Oh that wax paper bag.

Those are like impossible to get into.

Reach down amongst the Frosted Flakes.

SHEEDAE: Woah.

MAC KING: Show everybody your card with your name on it.

The same exact six of diamonds.

Sheedae, thank you so much for your help.

Here's a fine deck of Mac King cards and Frosted Flakes for

you.

Sheedae! (APPLAUSE)

DEAN: Next, Dana Daniels has gone to the birds.

Dana Daniels has a very talented assistant named

Luigi.

They're kind of a double bill.

DANA: Thank you!

How 'bout a nice round of applause for Luigi!

Fantastic.

Luigi here is a psychic parrot.

We're going to prove it right now.

We're going to start by having Luigi read the mind of someone

here in the audience.

I'd like to get a lady volunteer if we can.

A woman who'd like to have their mind read by a bird.

Oh, we got one right over here.

Would you like to come up?

Give her a nice round of applause.

Bring her up on stage. (APPLAUSE)

Hello.

How are you?

Stand right over here.

Hi, what's your name?

WOMAN: Stephanie.

DANA: Stephanie, nice to meet you.

Now, Stephanie, we're gonna have Luigi here read your

mind, alright?

Um, now I'm going to have you select a card from this deck.

Now these cards right here, you push on 'em,

they do squeak.

You wanna give that a little try-- Give it-- Try it.

A little push, right there.

You also use a squeaker in your hand.

I'm a jerk.

Now I'm going to riffle my thumb through the cards.

Say stop any time, that will be your selection.

You ready?

STEPHANIE: Ready.

DANA: Kay, here we go.

STEPHANIE: Stop.

DANA: There we go.

Take the card you stopped at.

Alright-- what's-- Make sure he doesn't see it.

We're going to turn him around.

Show the card to the audience, then place the card back

inside the deck anywhere, anywhere back in the deck.

There we go.

Perfect!

Good.

Now, what we're gonna do-- Saves a lot of time.

Okay, we'll cut the cards, and then we're gonna put the bird

in a hypnotic trance.

Here we go, right there.

Little hypnotic trance, he's now going to a deep hypnotic

state like Iowa.

Now concentrate on your card.

Concentrate.

Picture the card in your mind.

Here we go.

Picture the card in your mind, here we go.

Here we go.

Ooh, I think we got a connection here.

Alright now, we're going to take a look over here.

We're gonna have Luigi look through the cards.

As soon as he sees it he will reach up.

Look at that-- A-- Oh!

He stopped at one card, one card only.

What was the card you selected?

STEPHANIE: Two of clubs.

DANA: Two of clubs, and look at that,

he picked the jack of diamonds.

Pretty close.

It's a bird!

It's pretty close for a bird.

I would love to see your pet do better.

What?

Obviously one of you is lying.

Bbmp.

Tell you what, I have an idea.

We're going to try it again, but this time we're going to

use larger cards, larger squeaker,

same jerk.

And these are cards that the bird is more familiar with.

See, we got worms, a cracker, cat in jail,

and an airline engine.

It's a bird! (LAUGHS)

Okay, we're gonna turn him around.

You say stop and that will be your card.

STEPHANIE: Stop DANA: Ooh, right there.

Alright.

Kay, remember the card please.

Remember, 'member, remember.

Re-member. (LAUGHS)

I'm going to shuffle the card back inside this deck.

Here we go.

Okay, we'll just shuffle it in here somewhere.

Okay, it's any one of these four cards.

Come on, Luigi, which one would you like?

Just go ahead.

Alright, it's up.

Just reach right down.

Reach right down, pick one out.

Yeah, look at that, he's reaching right down.

Oh, he likes that third one right there.

Alright.

What was your card?

STEPHANIE: I think it was a cat.

DANA DANIELS A cat?

In jail?

Unbelievable!

He picked the two of clubs.

There you have it, right there.

Alright!

Let's give her a nice hand. (APPLAUSE)

STEPHANIE: Thank you. (APPLAUSE)

DANA: Thank you very much.

You're very delightful.

DEAN: Next, go behind the scenes with Aaron Radatz and

discover where the magic happens.

Aaron Radatz is a master of magic,

and he actually wants you to know how it's done.

AARON: Thank you!

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Great to be here.

You know, magicians over the years always have had a very

distinct style to the performance.

Often incorporating classic tuxedos,

colorful boxes, and a pretty assistant or two.

You gotta remember, though-- magicians of yesteryears had

some very questionable costume choices.

Everything set?

Yes?

Alright!

Drumroll!

♪ MUSIC ♪

I feel like I should acknowledge this costume.

I kind of thought wearing it would make me look like the

Fred Astaire of magic, but it looks kind of more like the

Lady Gaga of magic.

You should see the matching underwear that came with it.

Don't worry.

Hup!

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you!

Thank you.

A simple, yet effective illusion.

As a matter of fact, it's so simple I can't help but show

you how it works.

The way we're going to do that is we're going to turn it

around so you get to see the backstage view,

and you'll get to see how I see all of you.

Now, here's how we're going to do this;

you're going to get a back stage view,

so let's turn that prop around so they can see that

perspective.

Great.

Let's go ahead and get in position,

Chrissy.

Very nice, everyone ready?

Looking good.

Let's do this, from back stage.

Drumroll, please!

♪ MUSIC ♪

I feel like I should explain this costume I'm wearing.

I thought wearing a costume like this would make me look

like the Fred Astaire of magic.

I feel more like the Lady Gaga of magic.

You should see the matching underwear that came with it.

Hup!

Now you got to see part of the secret,

let me show you the other half.

Oh!

(APPLAUSE)

DEAN: Well, there you have it.

Aaron Radatz flips everything around,

reveals all, and it's still a mystery.

How did he do it?

I don't know.

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 Cane.