I think I see how this is done. Watch at .25 speed around 3:58. As he's going through the deck, you can see he's filtering face-up cards versus face down cards. Then just before the reveal, he does a "cut" which aligns the cards. He has Penn and Tellers cars set opposite...if they went in face-up then he put them in the face-down cut, if they put it in face-down, he put it in the face-up selection. I'm surprised that they didn't realize how this was done. Pretty basic, actually. This is the phantom shuffle method.

I was providing a more "technology tailored" way to fool us and how it might create a great magic trick. I also love magic tricks that make use of self-created "magical" devices (his vest counts towards what I'm talking about).

As I mentioned there are probably quite a few ways to do this trick and I wholeheartedly agree with you that the most likely way the majority of this was done was via misdirection and cues. As it is true with almost everything, the simplest answer usually is the truth.

I however, became interested with he kept moving his hands (and the "cards") to the same spots or moving them, repeating, the same movement over and over again right before the "change" or flip occurred (with other things as well like the smoke--and yes, I know it was more than likely misdirection--but, sometimes smoke is just smoke ).

That is what made me think of a scanner (mostly because I'm a computer/engineering/physics hippie and I have seen scanners that can be made to look exactly like that mat; but I also have learned a bit of magic, with that instead of becoming an amateur magician I instead learned about magic and it's history instead). But, like you said and I also said above in my comment, this all can/could be done through many various schemes. Using differing ways of that same scheme/idea, the same mechanics and/or devices, with sleight of hand and a lot of misdirection (very well done too, simply because there was so very much of it needed--which Penn & Teller commended him on in their own way).

His jacket for example is obviously HIS engineered creation. It has a lot of hidden and secret functionality; in fact it may have been the underlying foundation that allowed the whole trick to work so well (you never know just what exactly is the magician's biggest helper in many tricks). That is what I love, personally, about magic is the engineering and love--the workmanship--that can go into it. Every great magician definitely has that engineering facet to their personality; they all know how to create a device that gives them just what they need. I've seen so many magical devices and how they were used and how they're made as well and I must say, it is a terribly interesting thing to learn about and see done. Sometimes you have devices made just to perform one extremely small function, just to add that little bit of "panache" to a trick...

Every magician--good and average--however do have or need one thing in common no matter what, and this refers to what you talk about (and this magician may be leagues ahead of others, making all tricks completed in that same manner seem simple and mundane compared to what he can accomplish with the exact same, extremely fundamental, aspect to magic; pulling off tricks that almost all magicians would believe to be impossible using such a standard fare of abilities and methods): agility and sleight of hand. With this comes the uses for that "god-like" speed and manipulation. Use that with engineered tools (not necessarily what I mentioned--the scanner, printer, and ink method--but, things easier to craft and more likely to be used like his vest) and it can suddenly make any of the simplest tasks (or even tricks that other magicians perform) we do everyday, extraordinary if not miraculous.

I thought I'd add my idea, because I like to figure these tricks out as well; as I'm sure many of you are as well.

Overall, if I was Penn and Teller, I'd be most impressed with his ability to keep his showmanship intact while obviously needing great concentration on the trick at the same time--not to mention he keeps showing superb sleight of hand the whole time.

So many magicians are just amazing to watch. The tools they create (which can be so complicated that you'd never believe that someone would create such a thing or something fairly complicated to complete one very easy task) sometimes never let their presence be known--if done right. But in other cases you know there is "something" helping the magician, but you can't begin to imagine what exactly he has created or what exactly it is accomplishing for him.

I do wish they'd give us a general idea how these tricks are performed, without destroying the "magic" involved. Just tell us general things, like "misdirection and a magical device", etc... They don't need to explain it into it's minutiae.

I'll always love magic and the amazing use of the mind and the body to create illusions grand and small (or "magic" that just tests the limits OF the mind or the body; feats, as it were).

When the body and mind work together in perfect unison to create such wonderful uses of sleight of hand, feats, and "magical" devices...these are the type of people that will continue--hopefully for as long as humans exist--to create magic as real as it can get. Waking up the child inside us all!

/length

That's the obvious one, there's no way Penn and Teller didn't know how that's done (it's behind his right hand then he drops it into a pocket in his trousers).

Also, in all of this remember that Penn and Teller are showmen. How would the show look if they just sat there and said 'yeah, well, we know how all that's done' every time?

Congratulations! Your video, Magician Shin Lim Fools Penn and Teller, has reached the #1 spot in the current Top 15 New Videos listing. This is a very difficult thing to accomplish but you managed to pull it off. For your contribution you have been awarded 2 Power Points.

This achievement has earned you your "Golden One" Level 7 Badge!

I do avoid 99% of videos of magic tricks then.
As for the rest, see http://videosift.com/video/Magician-Shin-Lim-Fools-Penn-and-Teller#comment-1886445

Your video, Magician Shin Lim Fools Penn and Teller, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

The thing is, one of us has facts on our side, and the other one is you.

I really don't need to put a lot of effort into refuting this because there are mountains of evidence against it.

As for Penn and Teller, there's a difference between someone illustrating a point using known facts and an actual source.

Anyway, I'm sorry you've decided to buy into this; generally, I think you're a pretty decent guy, but you're simply wrong about this.

...more like expertise in spreading it...

Ad hom? Gorski is possibly dubious as a source. I do not care enough to vet him. Evidently neither do you. Nor do I about forming a convenient opinion about the issue but am satisfied to learn more about it. You, and others, are satisfied with having a opinion. A basis in knowledge less so it would seem.

You, and you are not alone, engaged in ad hom of sorts at this video. I, frankly, found and find it humorously interesting. Indeed characteristic of you in particular...your "in your face" demeanor. Not that you are alone in the current crop extant at the Sift.

I tend toward approaching others online as would I in person. I find it common, unfortunately all too common, for people to do otherwise online. Regrettable and unpleasant.

...oh, and Penn and Teller...unimpeachable as sources.

Try that with Blue Man Group. None of them spoke to me back in January 2001 in Sin City's Luxor. Although they did give me hand prints on my sweater. Did you get photo(graph)s with Penn and Teller?

*controversy

Related:

- http://videosift.com/video/The-REAL-Reason-Youre-Circumcised
- http://videosift.com/video/US-Government-Promotes-Circumcision-to-Prevent-AIDS
- http://videosift.com/video/Have-It-Chopped-Off-Or-Wash-It-Tough-Choice
- http://videosift.com/video/Penn-and-Teller-Bullshit-Circumcision

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Shawn Farquhar, Card, Trick, Penn, Teller, Deck of Cards' to 'Shawn Farquhar, Card Trick, Penn, Teller, Deck of Cards, fool us, penn and teller' - edited by lucky760

Your video, See Penn and Teller Shock Arsenio with Their Latest Trick, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 24 Badge!

It would be less interesting if they showed all the people who told him to get lost, or just walked away. But, there is a significant percentage of the population that is ignorant and will just sign anything:

Penn & Teller: Petition To Ban Water

I wonder if he was on Penn and Teller's Magic show in UK?

3 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.