SURPRISE ENDING! Nathaniel Segal on Penn & Teller: Fool Us Stuns with Number Trick 

I thought of that as soon as I seen his finger blocking the numbers. Checked the comments to see if anyone wrote this. Pretty good 👍

By the way, I have the vid on pause, so I don’t know if penn and teller got it yet! 👍

Hence Penn's code "...turned it on its head..."

got it. thanks. It's not so fair to have Alyson standing so far away, and the counter being so small in his palm.

couldn't be anything else than a force. There are formula's for making magic triangles (they work within a number range), but the bar code reveal -- that only works if the chosen number is 68. There was no other way but being a force. Clever routine though.

I assume it was forced too so i counted the clicks after he demonstrates the turning mechanism, and it was at 42 when it was shown. And i counted 15 clicks but it lines up pretty well.

@@chaosryans It's not force, it's misdirection. 😏

tbf, a lot of magic is literally just lying to the audience's face about what you're doing lol

He set the number to xx89 then turned it upside down to show everyone; which is why he hid the numbers with his fingers.

@@Nzlaten Wouldn't it have to be set at 89XX. That way when he turns it over it's XX68

Well, the magic square should have been obvious already. You can't do that with all potential numbers + I'd call it impossible to fill all fields properly in real time

The thing I’m wondering, is how did he get the 8 and the 9 in those places so quickly with only a couple clicks. And I know he can turn the knob but he got those numbers really quickly

@@sydneyskousen2030 When he was turning the knob, the hundreds and thousands were moving too. Wouldn't be surprised if that knob had a mechanism that would turn only the first two digits and stop at 89

That’s true because otherwise why wouldn’t he ask penn mad teller pick a random number

@@Menjelook1 you mean 'penn and teller'... 😁

I believe this was the worst show to be honest. What's the point showing all these mathematics when you clearly can tell that it's a forced number. I rarely think so but this was boring !!!

Exactly... This is probably the first trick on fool us that I got from the first watch..

It's not as complicated as you think lol

Brilliant explanation. 100% correct!

yep, the first time he shows the clicker, the button is on top. when he shows the selected number, it's on the bottom. well observed.

You're smart

The button is normally on the top, yep. They help with cell counting and are thumb activated. The flip was like...yeahhh. But a cool act nonetheless.

Yeah… If he had given the counter to Alison to come up with a real random 2-digit number, and then been able to do the figures in his head, I would have been VERY impressed. The plexiglas flip board proves it was a force, rather than add any sense of magic or mystery.

@@___meph___4547 nah he said focus on the last two digits and had the first two digits at 8900... then he can click anything less than 100 times... he takes the clicker and "flips it on its head" then covers the first two digits, presenting what was 89 as "68". He thus doesnt need much precision other

@@justwannasharevideo1058 exactly. When he first shows the clicker, the black button is on top. After she tells him to stop, he covers the Second two and flips it over with the black button on the bottom.

Yep. This is why I love slight of hand. Even though there’s a clear explanation, that often times makes it even cooler.

@@___meph___4547 he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

I agree with you up to the end. This act doesn't deserve to be on tv. At all. Children's birthday party at best.

Once you’ve seen the magic square once, you really don’t want to see it again.

@@hoopyfrood4391 good point. I've rarely seen a trick with so little mystery. It's like the trick is also its own reveal. By the end you know how everything is done.

Penn and Teller were very nice in their comments because it's a little insulting to think a trick like this would fool them.

Yeah, this does not feel like magic at all, even if I didn't know how he did the trick I would still be unimpressed as this just feels like a math thing, like oh maybe he's just really good at math

I think the last part should have just been omitted. It's still a well put together trick, but the ending makes it very, very obvious that he forced the counter.

in my opinion its was a little boring and on the nose

Very cool! Glad I could represent the escape room community. Would love any recommendations you have so I am ready when things open again :)

It would have been much more difficult for Alison to chose 59

Nice

Or if anyone else had clicked the clicker

Yeah you're right. 42 would have been a quirky number.

@@MrCatface There is a RU-vid video showing a magic square being composed after being given the number 42 : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aQxCnmhqZko.html

LOL

Yep, they’re pretty loud. We use these in our lab for cell counts in body fluids.

Yeah, plus the final portion of the trick meant that a force HAD to be how it was done. Like I might have believed he was just good enough at math and had a special enough trick that he could do the number square, but as soon as it was revealed that he had predicted the 68, it was otherwise too good to not be a force.

@@baylichelsea1041 Too perfect

It was a great trick but the counter had a way of disabling the dial so it would just click, he had already spun the dial to 68. If you counted the clicks after he reset you would of figured out he came nowhere near 68. You will notice he covered two numbers on the dial. Both P&T both wrote notes as soon as that was revealed. The square they already knew so they just kicked back and watched from that point on.

@@IAM_Reedy he jsut holds it the wrong way, it was set to 89xx (xx was the clics when its right side)

agree, even I (and I have no idea about 90% of the Fool Us tricks) thought the moment he covers up the other two digits "right here's the trick". I didn't immediately notice the flip, though, but near the end of the routine it came together and it became obvious that's the deal. With a different, less obvious force, this would be an absolutely amazing trick.

Yes so the clicking he did didnt affect the first two digit

He covered the first 2 numbers. He already had it set at 89. So really his counter is going 1189 to 2189 to 3189 to 4189 etc......flip it over and cover first 2 numbers you will always have 68

@@markmason571 But the counter was actually 68 if you listen to the click noises made after the clicker was hidden. So on that part it is very impressive to predict how long it would take for Allison to say stop though.

@@MateoFloresOfficial But the clicker WAS turned upside down just as most commenters have pointed out. It’s a way he was sure to get 68. The position of the button changes from top to bottom… it’s a dead giveaway. It HAD to be a force in order for the quarter turn flip to work.

It's a magic square. There are lots of them actually, and there are ways to generate them. It's a cool math nerd trick for us math nerds. The "magic" in this trick was in getting the right magic square... by finding a way to ensure Allyson picked the right random number.

@@kma3647 he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

I agree with you that the second part weakens the first part. Without the second part I could have believed that the 68 wasn't forced and he did the first part mentally. Which is difficult, but possible.

@@MikeWallaceDev but then that's just maths and not magic so it wouldn't be a trick at all

@@RealGaIaxy Magic is whatever the audience doesn't understand. There are many ways to create magic, and math is one of those ways. That's what the act was about : math magic. You don't think that P&T don't know what a "magic square" is, right? However, in this act he didn't even do math! He just remembered a predetermined square. I have to say, the more I think about this act, the less I like it.

@@MikeWallaceDev I get what you're saying, and that might be true of some people, but I also think what Galaxy said holds true for a lot of people as well. Part of the appeal of magic for a lot of people is getting the feeling of being mystified and not just being impressed by something. The ability to do really fast math is definitely impressive in its own right, but its not the same as being baffled by something. Because while most people can't do fast math like that, they can at least concieve of that being a skill by some people who are very good at math. So you end up thinking "oh cool, he's really good at math" no "what?? How did he do that??". It leaves you with no questions at the end to think about and no feeling of "the impossible" just happened. So I do think the end of his trick does make this a better magic trick overall for the a lot of viewers. And on that note, to the OP's point: I don't think that every person is going to sit there thinking "oh he obviously did a force there". There's a lot of people that have probably never even heard of that term because they're people that just watch magic for fun and don't look up a bunch of stuff about it online. I mean, maybe because of the nature of the show, a lot of people watching this specific show might be inclined to think like that. But at this guys regular gigs, he probably entertains a bunch of people with this trick, because they're not people that sit there and break tricks down in their mind via standard ways tricks are accomplished. They're not even aware of basic methods in magic. They're just people looking to be entertained.

No, it was a force.

he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

He fooled me. To this very day it's far above my head how a guy with a math degree can come on TV and do nonsense like this.

@@RU-vid_Stole_My_Handle_Too 68 was his number from beginning ...the combination of numbers is just old maths so everything was prepared...not even the level of fool us to be fair.

@@spaceshido6124 seems the guy above you fooled you too...

He turned it upside down, the actual number was 98??, but he just showed ??86

he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

But FAR more impressive.

he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

they figured it out in like 1 second lol

just a force ,and only force is in the trick

Or… let it be a freely chosen number between 20 and 80, and learn how to create magic squares on the fly… there are tutorials online, and doesn’t look hard to do once you memorize the formula. It would be more impressive to those people that have not seen it done before. It’s more of a math trick than a magic trick, though. Why not try to come up with something more original? You were not the first person to do the magic square on Fool Us.

@@hoopyfrood4391 but then the 2nd part which actually ruined this trick as well , cant come in part

he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

Because, if he hadn’t, it would have been really obvious that he had flipped the counter upside down.

he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

The show isn't all about fooling penn and teller. It's a showcase of Magicians, good or bad. It allows Magicians a platform to reach an audience they may not otherwise be able to reach.

He flips the clicker. He sets it to 8888 when he's showing the reset function, then starts clicking, ending on 89XX - upside down, it looks like a number ending in 68 instead of a number starting with 89.

no its not editing , he starts with no 89xx , then when alyson say stop , he simply reverse and hide the xx by his fingers and showed 68 to us which is reverse of 89 , so simply its a force on alyson

Thank you so much!

Quite the opposite- That’s their way of expressing they saw the force.

@@hundredpercentjuice The magician said those words during the performance...

I don't know if it was really a slip of the tongue, per se. I mean, it was a counter that was XXXX and counted up on the right side (0001,0002,0003,0004). It's not unreasonable to identify the two right most numbers as the "first two". Perhaps, he could've referred to them as the 2 right most numbers instead. That would alleviate any confusion about whether that's some kind of Freudian slip.