Andi Gladwin FOOLS Penn & Teller 

For people wondering about the backstory of this performance: Basically everything after 7:59 was re-filmed. Originally, Penn and Teller said they were NOT fooled by this trick. However, Andi recalls after his performance, he got a call from a producer saying that they lost the footage of the performance and need him to come back to do it. He agreed and once they got him on stage, they didn't make him perform again, but instead P&T did their little talkback that we see at 8:00. They had read the explanation packet that Andi gave the producers that detail how his trick is done, and P&T decided they were WAY OFF from what the true method is. They brought Andi back on stage just so they can tell him that he fooled them, and awarded him the trophy. Andi recounts all of this in an interview on the Vanishing Inc. Magic channel.

Penn and teller buy tricks from him, yet he’s surprised that he fooled them 😂 such a humble guy

“Pen Andi Teller” not going to lie, that is a great name.

Looking at some of the cards they seem to be a combination of different shifts or a direct translation. All of the starting points are in the same order as the ending points. They just get shifted everything up one, or down one, or stay the same. So the trick isn't so much the odds, it's seeing where Penn and Teller place themselves, computing the up/down total, and then selecting those shift cards from his stash. Since they chose the same level, he just had to even out the up shift and down shift totals. +1,+1,0,-1-1. If Teller had ended up 2 spots above Penn then he would have chosen different cards, +1,+1,0,0,0. The card spin is clever, but pointless. Because as long as all the cards move the tracks in unison up and down, then the card is the same backwards and forwards. Also the order doesn't matter at all so they can be in any arrangement, up or down. Asking them to change position and rotate is just a distraction. Perhaps the real smarts here is that by designing it the way he did, he only needs 7 cards in his folder to make any combination. +1,+1,0,0,0,-1-1, (or +1+1+1,0,-1-1-1) Because no starting positions are ever more than 2 moves away. Even if they pick top and bottom, it's only one move away because when the track cards shift up the top track drops to the bottom. So it's not like he needs a whole binder of 15-20 cards, and has to fumble through them all. Probably has them in order of value, and has memorized the order, so he can give the prompts without looking at the card, which is meant to convince mark that the cards are in a predetermined order and he is not selecting them based on the positions. Maybe there is more to it, but that seems like the simplest plausible explanation to me.

I love this trick even more now that I know the backstory of how Penn and Teller reversed their original decision and called Andi back to surprise him with a Fool Us trophy. This made my day

From a mathematical point of view, the trick is quite straightforward. Watching closely, one can see that the permutations used in the maze are the potencies of the cyclic permutation π =(1, 2, 3, 4, 5), with π^5 = id (the identical permutation). Especially, {π, π^2, π^3, π^4, π^5} is forming a subgroup of the symmetric group S_5, with the nice property that π^x o π^y = π^(x+y). Turning the page actually has no effect on the permutation (It does not invert the permutation as i thought at first!!!). Thus, turning pages can be done arbitrarily without changing the maze. All Andi has to make sure is that the sum ∑ of the exponents modulo 5 is equal to the „distance“ between Penn and Tellers choices. (Here: Penn chooses 4, so does Teller, meaning the distance is 0). As there are 5 possible values for the distance, Andi only has to differentiate 5 cases. My guess how he realizes this is as follows: In the envelope there are 5 copies of the last piece of paper (the one with himself as 3rd member of the show), all with a different permutation on the back (one for π, one for π^2, …). The mazes on the other 4 pieces of paper sum up to the permutation π^10 = id. So Andi has to choose the copy of the last piece for which the potency of π corresponds with the distance. Leaving aside the whole math stuff, Andi does a great performance. Congratulations for fooling them! Edit: From other comments i saw only now that the envelope is empty at the end. I‘m a very beginner in magic but my math is right:) Definitely, the maze doesn’t have another ending whit another ordering (in general cyclic permutations are not commutative, but in this special case they are). So, one way or another, a corresponding 5th card must appear somewhere. A force can be excluded in my eyes

Just saw about the reversing of the decision story, and man I gotta say Pen and Teller seems the most genuine people ever. Like, I'm legit impressed that almost everyone who comes in contact with them have good things to say, it looks, from an outsider view, they truly respect the craft and their colleagues at that. It's so wholesome.

The mental gymnastics required to make the maze alone is staggering to me.

Congratulations Andi, great performance! Loved everything about it.

This is perfect. The premise, the effect, the presentation... Andi crushed it!

Congrats Andi! Great effect and so well performed!

They’re always so gracious. True gents. And congratulations.

Great trick, Andi! And your face when they said you fooled them was priceless. Bravo and congrats!!

Watching this again after watching Andis interview. Such a cool thing! So happy for ya.

Congratulations Andi!!! You definitely earned that. What a Wonderful performance and trick.

Great trick and flattering performance. Much respect

Beautiful magic! Congratulations, Andi!

Well done Andi! You are an amazing magician! I loved the trick and I love vanishing inc. Keep up the incredible work!

Absolutely amazing, very well done and congratulations 👍💯

One of my favorite tricks and presentations.

Wow, incredible act! I love the premise and the enormous amount of thinking that must’ve went into creating the trick.

One of the main reasons I love watching fool us is how genuine the reaction foolers get when they find out they stumped Penn and teller. The hard work that goes into this preparation is astounding.

Congrats! Brilliant routine.

Wow!!! Thanks for putting this in youtube absolutely blown away hot chills from this!

Absolutely beautiful. That was a perfect routine.

Great presentation! Excellent act!

Congratulations, Mr. Gladwin! 🎊🎉🎊👏🏻👏🏻🦑🤙 That trick was Flippin amazing!

Your presentation is great. I really enjoyed this one.

I love the bit where they shifted things around. Great act-really loved it.

In Theory, this Group of cards is one of the most enjoyable tricks to figure out! Especially after seeing the back story that p&t thought they had you busted, and then had to call you back in when the Producer found out they had been fooled after all! Another brilliant trick and great show, you must have had fun coming up with this one. Lol

Wow. Such a good trick. Bravo 🎊👍👏

What a kind guy! Such a nice way to perform it.

I can always tell how great a magic trick is by rating how much rage i feel after seeing it performed. Maximum rage.

When P&T easily realize they haven’t figured a trick all the way down you know it’s genuine. Kudos👌🏻👏🏻 I was also able to crack parts of the underlying logic (math enthusiast, physics student, etc…) but couldn’t find all the missing bits. Curiously, it’s ever more intriguing this way!

A really N I C E trick, nice to watch, more tricky than you think at the beginning, great stuff for the brain, nice story. Magic!

teller had a shine in his eye at the end! damn right. that was great

Rotations, permutations, commutivity. Four of the five cards just mapped 0->0, 1->1, 2->2, etc. The remaining card was the heart of the trick, and Andi just had to pull out the one that represented the distance (mod 5) between P&Ts initial choices.

what a lovely routine! Elegant, so well put together; Even without knowing what you were aiming for, you took us by the hand and led us through the maze of the trick. I loved every second!

Brilliant. Congratulations!

Amazing, awesome, nice presentation 👍👍👍

Great trick. So clean!!! Don't know if I have worked it out but... Andi in another interview said there were no cards left in the folder at the end. Look at each card as he turns them over and map from left to right to see how each 'input' maps to each 'output'. Number positions from the top as positions 1 to 5. On any one card, for all the convolutions, each 'input' on that card maps to the same shift on the 'output'. So one card shifts by 1. 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-1 Another shifts by 2. 1-3, 2-4, 3-5, 4-1, 5-2. And if you flip the cards, they still produce the same net shift!!! There are five cards, and they have shifts of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. But the total shift across all 5 cards is the sum of their shifts divided by 5 (mod 5 for the mathematical). so 0 + 1 + 2 +3 + 4 = 10. mod 5 equals zero. No shift. And Penn & Teller picked the same positions, position 4. No shift. But, if we take just the cards with shifts from 1 to 4, we add up to a 10 - no shift. So these 4 cards, together, do absolutely nothing!! After traversing these 4 cards, nothing has changed!!! They are dummies. Now follow the order in which Andi puts the cards out, and map that to what we see when they are flipped. The first 4 cards are the 1, 2, 3 & 4 cards. That collectively do nothing! All that is just patter, showmanship etc. But importantly, he gets them out of the way early - empties the folder of stuff that doesn't matter. It is the last card that matters. And it is a zero shift card. It is also the one put up when the patter/misdirection is at it's maximum. The 'I want to be on Penn & Teller' card. Look VERY closely at 4:14. He shortly pulls out the 5th card. What is his right hand doing, hidden behind the folder, for just a few seconds? What if? What if there are 4 standard cards, the first 4, that do not matter at all. Then he needs to select from one of 5 possible 5th cards, depending on whether the final shift he needs to produce is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4? He has got the dummy cards out of the way, making it easier to work, he hits the high-point of his patter - misdirection. What if his 'folder' has an open, visible part, that contained the 4 dummies. So if confronted later, he can show that it is empty. But a hidden section contains the 5 control cards that he needs to pick just 1 from. Those few seconds with his right hand hidden doing what? Then he is done with the folder and can put it aside, rather than having the money-moment in the middle. In fact, knowing from the beginning what 'shift' he needed to produce, he could have possibly used each step with the dummy cards to prepare for selecting the control card. So this is one conjecture. It doesn't need 5 sets of 5 cards, just 4 dummies and one set of 5 different control cards. And really great/subtle sleight of hand and stage craft. And a simple trick prop that is immediately set aside. That it is enough of a trick that the prop can be 'examined' afterwards! But Andi has said that the folder was empty afterwards - simpler versions of this trick have a hidden, unused card. Does he mean the 'visible' part of the folder was empty - the 4 cards were gone? Or truly empty? If this was done with skilled, hidden, control cards, a brilliant, clean, sweet trick. If there truly were no hidden cards, then I am totally flummoxed! And this sort of analysis is only possible on RU-vid with repeated rewind/replay/stop. Live you would have a snowflake's chances in 'that other place' of spotting how this might work. Bravo Andi!

"Großartig! Bravo!" Best wishes from Berlin/Germany

Great work Andi so glad your fooled them massive well done

amazing perfomance! bravo! bravissimo! superbtly done!

I love this trick!!! This is such an amazing and creative idea!! So talented Andi, thanks for inspiring me:)

The cards that are picked determine which input hooks up to which output, regardless of the shuffle and orientation. That's where the math portion comes in. The binder contains 4 unused cards in addition to what's shown, and options are picked based on knowing ahead of time, which gates are designed to hook up. Cleverly hidden symmetry. Something only a mathematician/programmer would come up with. If you want to see it more clearly, copy the cards, but draw straight lines, as oppose to maze squiggles. You'll see it.

Soooo cool! This is why I love this stuff!!

This was awesome! Great job!

Finally owner Vanishing inc Joshua and Andi got the trophy!!!

I just love magic. After watching different tricks, I started to gain an interest in trying to do a little myself. Awesome trick Andi! Beautiful performance too.😃

That was fun. Got four out of six moves. Then lost. Excellent. Hope he releases a mini version. Oh, big finish.

That was an amazing trick! Also being on fool us was an awesome experience I loved it and I want to go back

Wow 😳 I was totally baffled about this one. But....I'm an engineer (we solve things) and I have the ability to slow this down and I have the ability to freeze the screen. So I did just that and was able to figure out that you fooled me too.

Even if you weren't gonna fool them, it was really awesome incorporating their stories into it making it personal. What a nice touch.

Lovely! Bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

This was an interesting magic trick, Andy is intelligent..Great performance 🙌🫶

I saw this last night and what a brilliant act. Congratulations Andi

Amazing, completely folded. Wonderful performance, well deserved a masterpiece in all elements 👌👍

i was not expecting this kind of trick it was amazing fresh and new keep going :)

Love this trick, and love the story behind it even more. Like P&T I've perhaps figured out more of this by myself than any other trick I've seen on the show... but I don't know HOW you did it. I know what needs to have happened, and I can see that it has happened, I can see how it works, but I don't know when it happened. So frustrating... congratulations!

Fixing a bad call publicly like they did adds to the respect a fan can have for performers in both the professional business dealings and as humans doing right by fellow humans and as performers to the judges of their performance of their chosen craft.

Yeees Penn Andi Teller 🥳 Couldn’t stop smiling for 1 sec watching you finally perform on FU . You made that classic so relevant , loved your presentation , loved the jokes , loved everything about it . The story is as good as if it was from Joshua 😬 Congrats , and Yes Vanishing Inc is the Best indeed . Thank You so much for your Magic Andi 🥳👏🏆👏😍👏🎉👏

Bravo Andi!Brilliant!

Andy seems so happy, good for you. You deserved it.

Andi almost cried there. Penn's words were that deep.

So here's how I think its done. The guy has a folder, from which he takes out all the events in Penn and Teller life. But he does not have 5 cards in there, actually he has more. And the path is calculated on the simple math difference between P and T choices. So they both chose Library, and there is 0 difference in this. He showed the Home path, which lead to another Home. Coffee leads to another Coffee and so on. If Penn would have chosen Home and Teller Coffee, then all the maze would lead to next one location. Andi should only have 4 extra cards in his folder, to make it always work. And he only needs to replace one of them, as even as the maze looks quite complicated, it leads to the same entry-exit points except for 1 card.

Congratulations, that was amazing ! :)

Excellent work Andi well done old chap

Really loved this trick. Wonderful & due to video editing I think Andi was pretty stunned he fooled them.

That is certainly a very-very clever trick! I too like programming, math and magic, so this one was a special treat. Thanks and congrats!

This was so classy. Such a massive compliment to P&T.

Wow! That was awesome!!!

I love how this trick is so simple, but effective.

This is a magic trick I've never seen before. Good job Andi!

Awesome, awesome, awesome performance

That's one of my suppliers in the UK , lovely to see him on fool us

This routine was incredible. I’m curious how many times Andi went through and practiced it. His word choice and everything was just great.

I think trick is something like this (but involves more maths): he has many "cards" to show Penn & Teller not just those 5. Since they choose the library on both sides he shows them just those "cards" that when placed will create a route from library to library. And you can place the cards in any order or upside down the routes will be the same. The 5 cards he placed create a route from library to library always. Another set of cards creates a route from library to home, and so on.

Oh, glad to meet sha'.Andi. I buy Vanishing Inc. Products. That maze effect is beasty!

So cool!

Nice trick with an interesting mathematical background (permutation groups and so). The trick would have been more fun if Penn and Teller would not both have selected the Library. Because of that, the “counter” example Home obviously and unfortunately also led to Home, which was a bit of a spoiler.

Great trick. My idea: Andi knew where the penn and teller thumbnails were located before taking the cards out of the folder, so he produced the cards that would join those locations, and those cards would work regardless they were upside down or in any order.

Brilliant!

I do love the small flash he has with the coin during his intro! Overall amazing routine!! Way to go!

I really loved that Penn really made him think he'd lost to the point that I think Andi was more shocked than the audience was when he won :P

Love how no matter whether the card is rotated or not the path remains the same (yes I screenshot it and rotated them :) )

Wow. Bravo. I can't even begin to understand how this is done. To me, this is magic. Amazing job and a very well deserved win.

Wow! A very nice trick!

I feel as if I could develop something that would at least pretend to be something such as this, if it were fewer rows and cards... But the fact he let them rearrange *and then* flip *any* of them over, too... That...just did me in.

The 5th card is the key...that is the piece that “connects” them. To be clear, the 5th card refers to the final card placed, not the numbered location.

love love them both

Ok I’m stumped 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Very cool, sort of reminds me of bit rotation and in this case, 4 cards combined rotate through all of the 5 positions twice (4 of the cards cause 10 shifts total, 1+2+3+4=10 shifts) which keeps the original order. Then the last card keeps the order as-is.

Each card has an effect on the outcome regardless of its orientation. The cards shown are [+2,-2,-1,0,+1]. One more card combined with four existing cards can get you to any outcome you want. Andi just had to select 5 cards (from a deck of 6) with a net outcome of zero.

A real masterpiece !!

Congratulations Andi !!! ^^

"I personally take offense that I had to make the commute across the board, and not Teller! But the commute aside, either way you flip it, it's a great trick. I think it really added to it that we could modify the order of the cards freely. After all, a single card could have completely shifted the outcome, AND it was completely dependent on the audience, who you have no control over. Now, we think we know how you did it, but that doesn't matter, because in the end, it all adds up to a fantastic trick. Thank you." -- Penn, if he had figured out the trick

First time I've figured a trick out and Penn and Teller didn't. I was baffled that they didn't get it. Reminds me a lot of a trick for the home viewers David Copperfield did one time that was easy to figure out. If the result is based on math, taking just a little time to go over a trick reveals where the force is very quickly.

Andi this was awesome dude!

This is the excellent invention by this man because it doesn't matter how many times you turn the cards up side down or anyway you want the result will be the same.