Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (mysterious music)

  • (applause)

  • - Welcome back to Fool Us.

  • Penn and Teller have already been fooled once.

  • Let's see if this next magician can do it a second time.

  • Take a look.

  • - My name is Jimmy Ichihana.

  • I started out as a high-school math teacher.

  • I taught Algebra Two, statistics, and AP Calculus,

  • and really there's a combination of

  • the math that can apply to magic

  • and probabilities in particular with playing cards.

  • While I was teaching math, I met my fiancée, Lois.

  • I talked so much about the magic of Spain

  • that she's like, "We should just move to Madrid."

  • We moved to Madrid, spent a year there.

  • If you love card magic, that's the place to go and study.

  • She doesn't like to take credit for it,

  • but Lois has really driven me to pursue my passion.

  • We've been planning our wedding for months and months now,

  • and we get the email for Penn and Teller Fool Us.

  • Please don't make me choose between a wedding date

  • and being on Penn and Teller Fool Us.

  • But it worked out perfectly,

  • that I come down here, and then five days later,

  • go home and get married.

  • (applause)

  • - All right, with randomly selected world-famous magicians,

  • here is Jimmy Ichihana!

  • - Thank you very much everyone.

  • Thank you guys.

  • Alyson, would you please join us at the table?

  • Everyone, let's welcome Alyson here.

  • - Hi.

  • - Alyson, nice to see you, pleasure.

  • Gentlemen.

  • Thank you so much for having me here.

  • It's an absolute pleasure to be here.

  • And I should tell you guys that

  • previously I was a math teacher,

  • and so I'm passionate about both mathematics

  • and playing cards.

  • I'm fascinated by the link between the two.

  • How a deck starts in an order we know,

  • or a pattern we recognize, new deck order,

  • but with each shuffle,

  • you start to create different patterns

  • and so of course the two colors, the four suits,

  • the 13 values kind of create different patterns

  • every time you give them a shuffle

  • and to truly mix a deck of cards,

  • you should shuffle about seven times.

  • This is what they say.

  • Any fewer than that, and patterns will still exist.

  • And of course you may have noticed,

  • I've shuffled fewer than seven times.

  • This is good, this is good.

  • This means that if you look through the cards,

  • you see patterns and chunks, groups of playing cards,

  • that will help us out here in a moment.

  • So using the skills of the gambler,

  • I'll attempt to use these patterns

  • to find what we're looking for.

  • Teller, one, two, or three?

  • Just one.

  • Because Teller said one,

  • notice that's one red card followed by one black card,

  • one red card followed by one black card.

  • They go in groups of just one.

  • Penn, give us a number,

  • one, two, or three, what would you like?

  • - Three.

  • - Three.

  • Now that would be one, two, and three red cards,

  • now followed by one, two, and three black cards.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three red cards.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three black cards.

  • Groups of one, then groups of three.

  • Alyson, go ahead and give us a number,

  • one, two, or three, what would you like?

  • - Three.

  • - You'll stick with three.

  • Okay, so that would be one,

  • that's two, that's three red cards.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three black cards.

  • One, two, and three red.

  • One, two, and three black.

  • But, of course, I'm deciding when you guys switch, right?

  • So, we'll try this.

  • Alyson, give me a number, one, two, or three.

  • - Three.

  • - You'll stick with three?

  • Okay.

  • But this time, Penn, when you'd like Alyson

  • to change her mind, you just say the word switch.

  • - Okay.

  • - As soon as he says switch, you'll give us a new number.

  • Are you clear?

  • - Yes.

  • - Okay, perfect.

  • So we'll start with three.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three red cards.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three black cards.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three red.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three black.

  • Whenever you say switch, she'll change her mind.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three.

  • - [Penn] Switch.

  • - [Alyson] One.

  • - That's one red, one black, one red, one black,

  • one red, then one black.

  • (applause)

  • A perfect balance here.

  • Thank you.

  • Oh, I appreciate that, guys.

  • That means a lot.

  • Just so everyone knows that we're on the up-and-up here,

  • this time, Alyson, you'll say the word switch,

  • and when you do, Penn, you'll give us a new number,

  • one, two, or three. - Okay.

  • - Teller, just point for us, red or black.

  • Those are for you.

  • We'll come back to you in just a moment, okay?

  • Here we go.

  • And Penn, where should we start?

  • One, two, or three, your choice.

  • - Uh, two.

  • - Two.

  • Notice how that's two spades followed by two clubs

  • because there are two suits within the black cards.

  • That's two spades, followed by two clubs.

  • Whenever you say switch, he'll change his mind.

  • That's two spades, followed by two clubs.

  • That's two-- - Switch.

  • - And two.

  • - Three.

  • - Three, that's one, that's two, that's three spades.

  • That's one, that's two, that's three clubs.

  • - [Alyson] Switch!

  • - One.

  • - One?

  • So that's just one spade, that's one club.

  • That's one spade, that's one club.

  • Those were perfect choices, guys.

  • (cheers)

  • Oh, thank you.

  • Now, some people may think I'm using extra cards

  • or a partial deck, but I'm not.

  • I mean, I'm just using exactly 13 cards.

  • That's two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

  • 10, 11, 12, and that's 13 there,

  • and likewise with the clubs.

  • That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

  • 10, 11, 12, and 13 clubs,

  • and Teller, we're gonna add one of these to your packet.

  • Would you like to add the clubs or the spades?

  • Your choice.

  • The spades, we'll add those to yours,

  • and give us a number, one, two, or three.

  • One.

  • And one, two, or three?

  • - Two.

  • - Two.

  • And one, two, or three?

  • - Three.

  • - Three.

  • And I will go around here.

  • Keep it going here.

  • Three again.

  • Perfect.

  • - [Penn] One.

  • - [Jimmy] One.

  • - [Alyson] Three.

  • - Oh, we've got three left just for you.

  • Okay, that works out well.

  • And what we've done here is

  • we've actually simulated a shuffle, right?

  • So when you mix cards, they fall from side to side

  • and they make an alternating pattern.

  • Here we've got a group of three, then one,

  • three, two, two, and one.

  • But of course, this isn't random at all, right?

  • You guys decided how the cards would fall.

  • There's one final pattern to find.

  • That's the ace followed by the two,

  • followed by the three, the four, the five,

  • the six, the seven, the eight, the nine, the 10,

  • the jack, queen, king. (applause)

  • That's all of the clubs in perfect order.

  • But wait, hey, hey, hey.

  • You know the funny thing about patterns?

  • Patterns repeat.

  • See it's not just the clubs.

  • That's all of the diamonds in perfect order.

  • That's all of the hearts in perfect order.

  • That's all of the spades.

  • That's all 52 cards, back to the beginning,

  • back to the perfect order.

  • Guys, thank you so much.

  • Thank you so much.

  • - Wow.

  • Jimmy Ichihana! (applause)

  • Wow!

  • Oh my goodness.

  • That was crazy.

  • - Thanks.

  • That's what we're striving for.

  • - I'm surprised they let you in Vegas.

  • So math.

  • - Yeah, yeah, so I used to be a high-school math teacher.

  • I absolutely loved it,

  • and there's definitely a connection between

  • kind of the problem-solving of math

  • and the world of magic when you're getting it, so--

  • - And did you ever do card tricks for the students?

  • - Yeah, I absolutely did.

  • Absolutely, so shout-out to--

  • - Oh my god, they must have thought math was like the best.

  • That was awesome.

  • You, like, made kids love math with it.

  • - Hopefully, hopefully.

  • - Yeah!

  • So did you come up with this trick for the show

  • or have you been doing this for a while?

  • - I've been working on it for about two years

  • so it's a routine that's been out there

  • and I've tried to add one or two little wrinkles to it

  • that hopefully they haven't seen before.

  • - All right.

  • Well, let's check in with the guys.

  • - I love this act.

  • The first thing I said when I sat down,

  • was I just love this.

  • I love this because this is, as Teller said,

  • the junction between juggling and magic.

  • You have such control over the deck.

  • It's essentially juggling,

  • the control you have over the deck,

  • but it comes off as supernatural.

  • It's a Rubik's Cube of complexity.

  • I will also say we were really calling out those numbers.

  • The way you performed that would be different

  • every single time you do it.

  • The real lie about this is the fact that you're doing it so,

  • so naturally and comfortably.

  • - Thank you. - Whereas the,

  • the physical handling, and even more so the mental handling

  • is so complex.

  • You just know that inside out.

  • This is not some sort of simple children's game

  • like Simon Says.

  • This is magician's code.

  • Nobody would say it outright.

  • We happen to know about Call the Colors,

  • and it's a, it's just beautiful,

  • and your handling, and the math tie-in,

  • and the kind-of-sort-of-ish telling the truth

  • at the beginning (laughs) is kind of wonderful,

  • and if I am wrong, and those words don't mean anything

  • to you, you fooled us, and we are happy if you did,

  • 'cause that's the kind of magic we love to see.

  • - No, you hit the nail on the head.

  • - Aww.

  • - But I also had a blast here.

  • Guys, thank you so much.

  • - Thank you.

  • Jimmy Ichihana!

  • - Guys, thanks so much.

  • (applause)

  • - [Penn] He did so good.

(mysterious music)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it