Wizard Wars (2014) s01e02 Episode Script
Puppy Love
Even in impromptu magic it's important to know and understand your props.
Our buddy Danny Hillis is not a magician, he's a computer genius.
But he wanted to learn a trick, so Teller taught him to bend spoons with his mind.
And then, because Danny's a big shot, he got invited to a New York City penthouse party.
You know, the kind of party that Hillary Clinton goes to.
I mean fancy, way fancy.
Well, as the expensive wine flowed, the talk turned to psychics and the subject of spoon bending came up.
One of the rich guys, who's a believer, and Danny was in hog heaven.
He could debunk the jive psychics and do his magic trick at the same time.
He did his secret spoon setup and got all set, and then said, "You mean he showed you how you can bend a spoon with his mind like this?" Well, Danny did his little trick.
And Danny killed.
I mean, mouths dropped, everyone was speechless.
Finally, someone stammered out that Danny had just destroyed an original spoon from the Revolutionary War, like, made by Paul Revere himself or something.
Now, with magic, you should really know your props.
And this is especially important for the magicians on Wizard Wars who'll be using everyday objects as props.
Although probably not from the 1770s.
That's my watch! That's-- that's my watch.
That wasn't a magic trick.
That wasn't funny.
It's like you gotta be a wizard to figure this thing out.
You ever tried one? - Um, I can't do it, but I got an app.
- Yeah? All right, do it.
Hold on a second here.
I think I can get this.
Hold on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- Stop it.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Oh! - Time out, time out.
- What? - No way! - You gotta turn the phone on.
How do you turn it on? - I don't know how to turn it on.
- It didn't do anything.
- I don't get it.
- You push to slide? Let's hear it for our wizards Angela Funovitz, Justin Flom, Gregory Wilson, and Shimshi.
Hey, everyone.
Get ready to have your minds completely blown.
I'm Ellen Fox, and welcome to Wizard Wars.
Here's how Wizard Wars works.
Teams of magicians are given everyday items that they must turn into world-class magic.
Today we have two teams of esteemed magic creators that will compete against each other in the challenger round.
They'll be given the same three household items to use at least once in a routine.
Now, the team that wins the challenger round will advance to take on a team of our wizards in round two, the Wizard War, where the teams will be working with four new objects.
If the challengers beat the wizards, they're taking home $10,000.
All right, so let's introduce our revered panel of judges.
Our first judges have won Emmys, a star on the Walk of Fame, and reigned over the world of magic for nearly 40 years.
Please welcome, Penn and Teller.
Our next judge is a renowned magic critic and a real-life astronomer.
She's basically Stephen Hawking in hot pants, Christen Gerhart.
Our final judge is also a scientist, and is one of only four Americans ever awarded the title Grand Prix World Champion of Magic, Jason Latimer.
Let's meet our challengers.
Our first challenger has been a headliner at the Tropicana Hotel for over two years.
As a semi-finalist on America's Got Talent he made an entire steam engine disappear.
Get ready to get rocked by Murray Sawchuck.
I became a world champion winning over 25 national and international awards.
So I'm expecting to bring the type of performance that's outside the box that people would expect most magicians to fall into.
Teaming up with this superstar is a close-up magician.
He won the Rising Star award at the Reel Awards in Las Vegas and he's here to shine tonight.
Say hello to Rob Anderson.
I've been taking everyday objects and doing magic with them for years.
So today, using just everyday objects that we're going to be given, I think I'll be able to construct a really cool routine.
To take on our headliners, we're breaking out some serious competition starting with a guy who's known as a comedy imaginator.
He's appeared on everything from the Late Show with David Letterman to America's Got Talent, let's hear it for LA's own Eric Buss.
I'm kind of known for building my own props.
Personally, I like to do something that has never been done.
Wizard Wars is made for me.
Teaming up with Eric is a Swedish sleight of hand specialist and a mechanical engineer.
Here's Mattias Ramos.
I'm mostly known as a close-up magician.
I'm a lot about the comedy, that's what's fun, and that's what magic is all about for me.
All right, here are the rules for the challenger round.
Each team will be given three of the same everyday objects that must be used at least once in a routine.
You will be judged on your creativity, deception, and showmanship.
Object one, packing crates.
Object two, dog treats.
And your final object is a puppy.
Our first team up is Murray and Rob.
They've already built the routine, so let's see how they did it.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at this.
- Are you kidding? Look at that face.
- Aww.
Live animals can be the hardest things to work with in magic, so Murray and Rob head into the magic shop - Look at that! - to see if this new dog can be worked into some old tricks.
- Chinese rings.
- Look at that.
- An old change bag.
- A little necktie thing I've done.
And they find inspiration in a classic of magic and right behind here - and found one of those.
- That is amazing.
the disappearing sponge balls.
I remember I started this when I was a kid.
Where you put it here, right? It disappears, right? And then it comes back to my pocket, right? Boom, right here, right? You know, a cool thing would be - is to actually have the puppy vanish.
- That would be good.
- Ooh, that works.
- Oh, yeah.
To make the puppy vanish, they'll rely on a variety of box tricks.
We gotta break them up.
Are these big enough, Murray? Just getting an arm workout.
There we go.
It's perfect.
Let's see how well-trained he is.
Come here.
Come on.
Come here.
Come here.
- That's a problem.
- What will they come up with? If we can't get her to listen, I don't think this is going to work.
We're about to find out.
Okay, it's important to note there are no camera tricks on Wizard Wars.
Our first team up is Murray and Rob.
- I'm Murray.
- And I'm Rob.
- The dog treats, huh? - Yes, 681 dog treats.
Kinda boring, Rob, I'm just saying, I'm going to fix that.
Hold on, let's just do this, all right? Watch very carefully, Rob.
I got this covered.
One, two, three.
Go, Rob! That's what I'm talking about.
- That's it.
- Scout.
Everybody meet Scout.
- She's a real puppy, see? - Aww.
Ruff! I'm totally just kidding.
- We're gonna leash him up.
- Well, you know, Murray, we actually bought this dog house today.
I wanna try something with the dog house.
It's like the one you had in Baltimore, you were growing up with, right? Yup! Go ahead and put Scout in there, put him in there.
All right, Scout, come on.
Yeah, this actually does remind me of growing up back in Baltimore.
When I was a little kid, we had a dog house in our backyard just like this.
The thing is, I never had a dog when I was growing little until I was 13 and my parents - got me a huge dog.
- Hey! Everybody meet Scout.
Say hi to everybody, Scout.
- Aww.
- Now you know, one thing dogs love - is getting a bath.
- They love it.
So we're gonna give one a bath and you're going to go in, too.
I'm going to go in? I don't need a shower, Rob.
Uh, yeah, with hair like that, you need a shower.
I'll get in here.
- All right, come on, Scout.
- You're going to give the dog shower? Come on, Scout.
Aww.
Come on.
There you go.
A little water.
- Just give him a little bath.
- Very nice.
It's a little-- uh, sir-- there's a little shrinkage, Rob.
Uh, shrinkage-- Yeah, yeah, check it out.
- It's a little shrinkage.
- That sounds like a personal issue.
No, no, seriously.
What the-- What the-- Are you serious? Oh, but he's clean, and that's what's important.
- I shrunk your dog, Rob.
- Yeah, you did.
You shrank my dog.
- What are you doing? - Sorry about that.
You made him like-- You made him bite-sized.
I'll give him a bite-sized treat.
You want a bite-sized dog treat? Let's ring this out.
- Sorry.
So you have one dog treat? - I do.
But you brought over 200 before.
One dog treat for our poor dog? - Well, one dog, one dog treat.
- I got a better idea, hold on.
Here they are.
Boom! 2,600 dog treats.
- I'm Murray.
- I'm Rob Anderson.
- And that's Scout.
- This is Scout.
Let's hear what the judges have to say.
Let's start with Christen.
First off, your showmanship is off the charts.
You came out with a bang and you held that energy.
That was really great.
Creativity-wise, it was definitely very good.
I know those props are really hard to work with, so I liked the story of the bath and that was a nice way to tie it together.
I did think it was kind of a thing of the same trick over and over.
And I would've liked to see maybe something a little bit different than just production/vanish, production/vanish, production/vanish.
I do agree, it was consistently a lot of appearances, appearance, and transformations.
However, you did very strong magic.
And my favorite part is, right off the bat, you use all three in the same effect.
You got the crate, you got the treats, and you got the puppy.
I'm like, "Okay, we're done.
" I'm like, "All right, we're done, we can move on now.
" It's very hard to be deceptive with a box trick.
What you're really doing is pointing to boxes and sometimes those boxes are just concealing what's in them.
The showmanship is good.
They're good, they own the room, but as far as creativity, there's only so much you can do with live animals.
And this was really, really hard.
And I give them a lot of credit for trying something so hard.
All right, thank you, judges.
We'll see what their opponents, Eric and Mattias, have in store right after this.
Coming up We could put together a five-minute Broadway piece.
will our next team's attempt at comedy magic We're going to Broadway! leave the judges laughing or send them packing? That's not even a trick.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
We are mid-way through the challenger round where two teams of elite magic creators must turn the same three ordinary objects into extraordinary routines.
The winner will face a team of our wizards in the Wizard War, for a chance to win $10,000.
Comedic illusionist Eric Buss and Mattias Ramos are up next and they've already build their routine.
So let's see how they did it.
Look who's down there.
- What? Look at that guy.
- Oh, look at you.
Which hand? Ooh, it's gone.
She doesn't care.
Wow, this is going to be really tough.
These are probably the hardest things I've ever had to try to build a routine with.
- Yeah.
- We can make a big bone.
All right, you do it, go ahead.
- That is great! - Thank you.
For the packing crates, Eric and Mattias play around with a classic magic trick.
- Hold on to that.
- Oh, shit! - The light/heavy box.
- Is that cool? But they still need to work out a routine If we can put together a five-minute little Broadway piece.
and make sure to get their timing down.
Hey, we're going to Broadway! All right, Eric and Mattias, the stage is yours.
As magicians, we find ourselves shipping magic props all over the place.
Now rumor has it, there is a new magic shipping company.
We're going to check out this magic shipping company right now.
We need some help from the audience.
How about you, ma'am? If you could help me on stage? Perfect.
And how about you, sir? Give them a round of applause.
Ma'am, right over here.
Right over there, sir.
- What is your name? - Valerie.
Valerie, nice to meet you.
Valerie, you will be playing the part of my beautiful wife.
Now, you, sir, will be playing the part of my beautiful sales assistant.
We are magicians, we are going to go check out this shipping company.
See if they can help us.
Come on, honey.
Howdy, welcome to Premium Magic Shipping.
P-M-S.
We got my partner, Jim Boy, here.
What can I do for you today? - Uh, we need to ship a lion.
- A lion? - A lion.
- A flesh-eating king of the jungle type of lion? King of the jungle, yes.
Flesh-eating, no, she's vegan.
I'll go get her, I'll go get her.
- She's right over here.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Come here, honey.
Come here, honey.
- Oh, yeah.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't bring that beast up on stage! It's okay, it's okay, she's trained.
She's trained and she's the sweetest, little lion ever.
So can we ship her? - Of course we can ship her.
- Excellent.
Yes.
The only thing is that we charge by weight, and this being a lion, it's at least 300 pounds.
- She's 15 pounds.
- 300.
- She's 15 pounds.
- Tell you what.
Let's weigh her.
Can we use that crate over there, please? - Oh, honey, can you get that crate? - Would you mind? Honey, I do not trust this guy.
Check that crate, make sure it's light.
It's not gimmicked in any way? I don't trust these people.
All right.
Um, okay, we're gonna weigh you.
- I'm gonna set her on the scale.
- and we're gonna weigh you.
We're gonna weigh you.
We're gonna weigh you and-- - Sir.
Would you mind? - Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
Okay Jimbo, do you mind weighing her for us? - Can you lift her? - Jimbo lift her.
- 300 pounds.
- 15.
Jimbo, lift her.
Okay.
Try again, Jimbo.
See, I can do it.
I can do it.
- It's like 15 pounds.
- What? 15 pounds, try again, Jimbo.
Lift.
Hard! - Hard! - Yeah, harder.
Can you do harder? Can you do harder? - Unbelievable.
- This is 15 pounds.
- This is a scam, honey.
We're outta here.
- No, no, no, no, no.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
No scam, no scam.
- Yeah.
- I like you guys.
- I tell you what, we'll go half way.
- Okay.
- Yes, 100 pounds? - 15 pounds.
- 75.
- 15.
- 40.
- 15.
- 10.
- 15.
Gotcha.
- I'm good.
- All right, so now what? Jimbo, thank you for your services.
You're fired.
- And no name tag? - Oh! Name tag.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, we have one.
- We have one.
- You need one to ship it.
Honey, it's blank.
We always forget the name of our lion.
- Can we use your marker? - Why of course.
- Excellent.
Honey-- - Do I have to do everything? We always forget the name of our lion.
Sir, what is the name of our lion? - I don't know.
- I don't know.
- That's a strange name.
- I don't know.
If you could write that on that tag, so we have the lion's name on one side and your name on the other.
The lion's name on one side and that looks like scribble to me.
That's your signature? Are you a doctor? All right, let's ship this thing.
Okay, but do you have any food? This is going to be a long trip.
- Oh, didn't bring any, sorry.
- I got this.
I got this.
Here, check this out.
Oop, behind the ear.
- Lame.
- Who's the magician now? That was stupid.
Can you hold her? I noticed you have a box of food down here.
- Is there anything we can use? - That's my trash.
Why are you going through other people's trash? That's a dog treat.
She doesn't like dog treats.
These are lion dog treat.
- She likes lion treats.
- Ooh! I see what you doing.
You raising the steaks.
- Can we ship her? We need to go.
- Yes, you just place her in this custom-made, aerodynamic, shipping compartment - and we're good to go.
- That's a cardboard box.
- That's exactly what I said.
- All right, whatever.
- Can you help me put the collar on her? - Why of course.
- And just hold her right there.
- All right, all right.
- Here we go.
- Okay, perfect just-- - Stay right there, stay right there.
- She needs to-- No, let me cover her up, so if she-- I don't want her to get cold.
- I don't want her to get cold.
- Is that really necessary? - People with their pets nowadays.
- Okay.
Uh, now what? Well, it's done, isn't it? You're holding it upside down.
Oh, oops.
Amazing! - Wow.
- Unbelievable! - That was fast.
- Another satisfied customer.
All right.
- Uh, when does she arrive? - Well, where did you ship it? We wanted to ship her to-- what's the address? Four Judges Street care of C.
Gerhart.
- What, but that's right over there.
- Am I getting a puppy? Oh, my God! - Can I go touch her? - Get her, get her, get her.
- It's a lion! - It's a lion.
- Is there a lion waiting for you? - It's a lion! Aww! Christen, can you verify that name tag.
- It's named "I don't know," exactly.
- I don't know and - Did my wife sign sign for it? - Scribble.
Scribble! Unbelievable! It's the same lion! Oh, my goodness.
Let's find out what our judges thought.
- Penn? - First of all, sincerely funny.
- Thank you.
- Our mentor, the great Johnny Thompson, the greatest magical mind alive, always says, "If you're gonna use a box, you gotta talk the box away.
" So you have to do a box trick 'cause you've got a puppy.
You do the whole skit.
There's a perfect reason to have the box there.
I think for a box trick in this kind of room, you're about as deceptive as you're gonna get.
Thank you.
First off, I love that you had a whole story.
We watched an actual skit of you shipping a lion.
And I love that.
It's a very feisty little lion apparently.
There were a few teeny, little flashes, so that's going to hurt you a little bit.
But I love magic that happens in the hands of the spectator and to have that guy come up there, and the light/heavy box, you could see him working with it and it's great.
He can go back and be like, "No, it really was like that.
" You-- oh, my-- I know, I know, I know.
I'm sorry.
I thought the storyline and the concept of everything just played so well together.
So the showmanship became part of the story.
And as far as deception with what you've been given, you did a great job, guys.
Really great job.
We've seen both challenger routines.
The judges will announce who's going to take on the big dogs when we return.
Coming up I've been inspired by magic to study the sciences.
our world-champion of magic defies physics.
Ooh.
- And later - Sucker.
the wizards make doing magic with candy - look like child's play.
- Oh.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Two teams of challengers just created a mind-bending magic performance using the same three everyday objects.
In a timeless routine, Murray and Rob turned their puppy into a full grown dog.
Hey! Eric and Mattias "raised the steaks" and magically shipped a puppy from one side of the theater to the other.
Now it's time to find out which team won and will move on to meet two of our home team wizards in the Wizard War for a chance to win $10,000.
Penn, what's it going to be? Both teams did great.
We saw very clearly that once you have a live animal, you are backed into box tricks.
And box tricks have certain inherent problems that both had to deal with.
And they both dealt with them wonderfully.
I thought that Murray and Rob did a great job with the dog biscuits.
There were more dog biscuits.
We really felt like that was an item.
- That was really a thing.
- Here they are.
Boom! I thought that for the puppy, you both showed a puppy, it was both really, really cute, but you guys, you dressed it in a lion's suit.
You said, "A puppy alone, that's not cute enough.
Let's just up the cute a little bit.
" And that adds a level of creativity.
I think Mattias and Eric are going to win this round.
Congratulations.
It's time for the Wizard War.
All right.
Eric and Mattias, you will be going head-to-head with two of our wizards.
If you win, you'll take home $10,000.
But before the wizards decide who you're going up against, let's talk about your challenge.
Each team will be given four random objects to create a routine using each item at least once.
A kimono, a rainbow golf umbrella, a bag of hard candy, and an armoire.
Wizards, two of you will take on Eric and Mattias.
I'll give you a moment to decide who it's going to be.
I do a lot of stuff with candy.
I really want this one.
Let's do it, you and I.
I saw your hard candy stuff, I got something, too.
Let's do it? - Yeah? All right, let's do it.
- All right.
Right, wizards, I need an answer.
It's going to be Justin and myself.
All right.
Let's get the party started.
Upstairs we have a workshop and a magic shop that has everything you need to turn these everyday objects into world-class magic.
Challengers, you'll be performing first.
Now everyone head on up and make some magic.
One of our judges will show us why he's earned magic's biggest honor, the title of Grand Prix World Champion.
Let's hear it for Jason Latimer.
Thank you.
Sir, will you help me on this? - And your name? - Troy.
Let's give Troy a big round of applause.
Troy, I'm going to-- I need you to put your hands over this bowl and I'm going to pour these pitchers of water through your hands.
- All right.
- Go ahead.
A little bit lower over the bowl, if you would.
- Okay.
- Your job is to make sure nothing comes out of these pitchers of water except for water.
Perfect.
Great.
- Now, Troy, if you would, take one hand out.
- Just one? Just one hand.
Turn it face down, and if you would, push it all the way to the bottom.
Make sure there's no hidden compartments-- no, go all the way to the bottom.
It's just water, okay? Now the next thing I need you to do is take one finger, from this hand-- go ahead and feel along the sides of the bowl.
Here, pull your hand-- around the sides.
Make sure it's smooth.
Make sure there's no hidden compartments, - trap doors, it's smooth, right? - Yup.
I want you to dream about magic for the 21st century.
Something new, something creative, something different.
Well, what I want to do is to the idea of controlling water.
Could we do it? First, you would have to ask a question-- can we shape water? How strong is surface tension? What shape would you like to make? How would you increase surface tension? Illusion or not? What would it look like if you could control water? - Now I'm going to put this in your hand, Troy.
- Okay.
If you pop it, we're both getting wet.
- How magical does that feel? - Pretty magical.
To see it ripple? To see it wobble? See, this did not exist.
The only thing it needed was one person to wonder if it could.
Any questions? Very impressive.
Let's hear it for Jason Latimer.
All right, let's see how things are shaping up for our challengers by taking a peek in the workshop.
You know what we could use this for, though? We could hide things behind it or make something appear under it.
Umbrellas.
I've never once used an umbrella.
Look at this.
This is like 30 pounds of candy.
What if it appeared in the umbrella or something? Or it's raining down on us.
Oh, yes! For the armoire, a standard escape trick springs to mind.
- Close it up.
- And I'll be gone, okay? Holy cow.
But Eric and Mattias decide they must be 100% original to beat the wizards.
I mean, we can make things appear in a big closet.
That's kind of obvious.
We gotta come up with something quick.
I think this is going to work.
Can we use that ladder? You better know what you're doing, man.
That's not tall enough.
You told me to bring the ladder.
After lots of trial and error in the workshop I think it can work.
Obviously, we have to rebuild it, but-- And I don't know how long that's going to take.
the team is left with more questions than answers.
- Get ready to catch it.
- I got it.
- I got it.
- Coming up We're going big.
Eric and Mattias This take a little bit of sticky.
put on a comedy act for the ages but will it be enough to win $10,000? They have to be more deceptive than you are funny.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Time for the main event the Wizard War.
The challengers are up first.
They can take home $10,000 if they can outshine the wizards.
All they have to do is preform a better routine using the same four everyday objects.
An armoire, a bag of hard candy, a rainbow golf umbrella, and a kimono.
And don't forget, each routine is being judged on creativity, deception, and showmanship.
Eric and Mattias, take it away.
Thank you.
Mattias and I have been studying the art of balance for about 20 minutes or so, roughly.
We're going to show you some demonstrations of balance tonight.
Ma'am, come up with a random color, concentrate on that color, and in a loud, clear voice, say what that color is.
Red.
You said red? I brought out two red lollipops.
- Red! - Lollipops! Lollipops! We're going to show you some demonstrations of balance.
- Our first demonstration is a level-two balance.
- Level three.
Uh, level-- Two-and-a-half balance.
Notice the umbrella balanced on his finger.
That's good stuff.
Uh, Mattias, can you take the kimono off? - I like my kimono.
- We're doing a TV show.
Take it off.
It looks ridiculous.
- Magic.
- Very funny.
Mattias will now demonstrate a level-five balance.
Level-five balance demonstrated by Mattias.
That's what I said.
Notice the umbrella on top of the hard candy.
Level-five balance.
We're going to take it a step further.
- We're going for a level-seven balance.
- "Leven sevel.
" All right, I'll do the talking.
- Two pieces of hard candy.
- Whoa.
You know what, this takes a little bit more-- it takes more than just balance.
This takes a little bit of sticky.
- That ought to do it.
- I think we got it.
Level-seven balance.
- Oh! Eric! - On the umbrella.
- Eric! It's a level 15! - That's a level 15! - 15! - It's a level 15! It's a level 15! - Wow! - Whoo-hoo! - Notice! - Notice no strings.
- No, no! - No strings.
- 15! - No wires.
- No wires or strings.
- Okay, that's enough.
- Now we go for a level-97 balance.
- Ooh.
A large object on top of smaller objects.
Tonight we're going to go for the balance of the armoire on top of the umbrella.
Tonight we're going for the balance of the-- Hold on, wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We're going to balance the armoire - No, no, no, no.
- on the umbrellas.
No, Eric, it was the umbrellas on top of the armoire.
I know, forget about that.
We're going big.
Trust me.
- Now it is quite heavy - Easy now.
and quite delicate.
We have to be careful.
- Got it.
- Where's my umbrella? Uh, I got it over here.
Just let me do mine first-- - Okay.
- This is-- ah, Jesus.
Hold on.
- My umbrella.
- Okay, hold on.
I'll help you.
Push it here.
Push it here.
With your foot.
Okay, all right.
That was level 37 right there.
All right.
Get it in there.
Just take your time.
This is the balance of a lifetime.
Wait.
- Is it balanced? - It's balanced.
- We did it? - It's balanced.
It's balanced! The balancing armoire! All right, Mattias, take away your umbrella.
- I just placed it there.
- Level 237.
- 237! Level 237! Take it away.
- Okay.
It's away! - Now come over here.
- No.
- Come over here.
- No, no, no, no.
- Come over here.
- Eric-- - I have candy.
- Oh, I love candy.
What kind of candy is it? - It's hard candy.
- Oh! - Oh! - Look! Level 3,000! - Amazing! Amazing! - Level 3,000! - Oh, yes.
- We're going to celebrate with more candy! Yay! - You want more candy? More candy? - Let it rain.
I want more candy! We want more candy! - Ah! That's more candy! Thank you.
- More candy! It looked like a lot of fun.
Let's find out what the judges had to say.
Let's go to Jason first.
Mattias, Eric, I love the effects, I loved the way the umbrella came up, and I love-- I love the way you took off a kimono and you had another one.
I thought that was just awesome.
That's not even a trick, but it was funny.
As far as deception, I think that's where the wizards are going to come after you.
Mechanically, they're going to go after the stronger magic.
But what you don't go after in deception, you went after with creativity and showmanship.
- Great job.
- Thank you.
Well, we certainly, from seeing this, we see a level 342 in comedy.
It's a perfect routine that's really funny, really wonderful, and with the wizards, they have to be really, really deceptive to be more deceptive than you are funny.
I think it was really well-balanced.
No, um, speaking of balance, you guys balance each other out really well.
Using the balance theme that you guys have, gave you the time you needed to make this illusion not clumsy.
And it looked great.
Can the wizards top our challengers? We'll have Justin and Shimshi's performance next.
Coming up - The wizards show off in the workshop - Sucker.
but will their routine be good enough to win the Wizard War? Just how the hell did they do that? With the challengers pouring on the pressure, how did the wizards hold up in the workshop? Let's check this out.
Let's see if there's anything to use in the magic shop and tie all of these items together.
Let's see.
I like the dice actually.
What's in the trunk? What is this? Shimshi finds fabrics in all different colors.
Uh-huh! Let's see if we can do something with that.
Now that we've got more than one color-- The rainbow umbrella.
With an idea for a prediction trick using the umbrella and kimono, the wizards move on to the armoire.
All right, so what if we take this light-- - Shadow box.
- Yeah.
Get a hole in the top.
This goes in.
Let me try to do something.
In the end, only one question remains What else can we do with the candy? If I take the gum With so many tricks with candy at their disposal which one will they choose? - Color-changing sucker.
- Ah.
All right.
Wizards, time to earn your keep.
What's up? My name is Justin Flom and this is an armoire.
That's a word I learned especially for Wizard Wars.
Anywhere else, this would be called a closet.
When I was eight years old, this is a trick I would do.
It's a switch.
I was eight.
It's important to see no smoke and mirrors.
In fact, this armoire, you can see through to the back.
And we've even put two lights down on the stage so you can see under the base at all times.
Garment bag.
When you're eight, everything is magic.
I'm going to put the light into the top so you can see what's going on at all times.
Little bit of shadow play.
Use your imagination and you can make magic happen.
Watch this.
Ladies and gentlemen, Shimshi! That's fun, when you're a kid, you don't need an expensive game from the store, you can make a game out of whatever you have around the house.
Maybe it's a garment bag, an umbrella, - or a die.
- Yup, we used to play a lot of Backgammon.
Nobody plays? Okay, that's good.
That's fine.
All right, we wanted to make this game really random.
First of all, check this die and make sure it's normal.
Nothing is tricky about it.
I want you to shake it a few times.
Make sure that the number's always different.
- Yeah, it's good.
- Okay, good.
Now I want you to shake it and don't look, stop whenever you want to, and keep not looking.
I don't want even you to know what it is.
- Is that okay? - Yes.
- Good.
- Here's the deal we're adult magicians now.
We understand that most people are skeptics.
Maybe she's in on it, so we're going to make this random.
You haven't peeked at the number yet.
We're going to count whatever number you've ended up on around the umbrella to a random color.
All right, we're going to count this direction.
Have you looked at it yet? You can look.
That's fine.
- Three.
- Three, okay.
One, two, three.
- Green.
- We rest at the color green.
Now you guys know that one of the items we had to wear was a kimono.
The question is which color.
Justin, will you do the honors? - I don't want to do that.
- All right.
Thank you very much.
Justin and I, as little kids, we used to do magic with things we really loved, like candy.
Candy.
I love candy.
Uh, here.
You have the chocolate for me? I made it disappear.
- Here's a-- - That was amazing.
That was amazing.
All right, good.
We're going to use, I guess, breath mints.
This is actually perfect because, when I was a little kid, I used to always see the, uh, do you remember the old Chinese linking rings trick? Yeah, I used to always imagine that I can do that stuff with mints.
That's how I was when I was a kid.
You can see it's really linked right there.
Thank you.
- Ready? - Ah.
I'm not good at that.
This is-- this is where it gets weird.
Headphones.
Thank you guys very much.
No? Let's find out what the judges have to say.
Christen? You guys are wizards for a reason.
Your presence is awesome and you guys work really well together.
The opening was awesome.
I really liked it.
When you came out in the bag, that was great.
And then it led you right into the kimono and you knocked the umbrella and the kimono out in one.
Overall, it was really great.
Thank you.
We were talking earlier about how hard it was to use boxes on stage.
As much as it's a little detail, it's very easy to say, somebody appears out of a box and to put it on the stage.
But to take the time to raise it off the stage and to point it out, it actually takes a professional to know that everyone would say, "Oh, he just came up from the bottom.
" So to address it before it became a problem was a great way of showing that you know what you're doing on stage.
We appreciate it.
We saw Teller stand up to look and go, - "Okay, they're telling the truth.
" Exactly.
And the creativity, I have to agree, the suit bag to the kimono with the umbrella picking the color, brilliant.
As far as the downside? The effects were so big in the beginning and so small in the end, it was lopsided.
But other than that, I liked the magic a lot.
Thank you.
I disagree a little bit on the scale.
I kind of liked it going from big to small.
I like those tricks with the Life Savers a lot.
I wish you'd have talked away a little bit the earbuds.
It's a great idea to use them, but it's still an arbitrary prop to pull out.
Doing close-up magic with hard candy is-- it's just really nice 'cause we all know all the rules of how Life Savers work.
The showmanship, the creativity, there's this comfort we see with you guys.
There's no panic, there's no fear-- let me put that a different way-- your panic and fear are concealed.
I thought it was a great performance.
All right, thank you, judges.
Will the challengers walk away with $10,000 or will the wizards pull out the win? Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
This is the moment of truth.
Which team is the winner of to-- Penn.
Well, you know, this is a tough one.
Mattias and Eric used all the props all the way through.
We really like that.
You didn't use the hard candy as well as Justin and Shimshi.
They killed you on the hard candy.
They just destroyed you on the hard candy.
On the armoire, Shimshi and Justin's trick was better.
But yet, the creativity of Mattias and Eric using it in a different way than we expected.
You kind of expect something to come out of a big box.
The fact they used the big box as an object itself kind of does it a little nutty.
At the beginning of Mattias and Eric, we threw down the gauntlet and we said that in order to beat how funny they were you guys had to be so deceptive and knock us over with just, "How the hell did they do that?" Don't think you quite did that.
I think we're gonna go with funny.
I think it's going to be Mattias and Eric.
Congratulations, Eric and Mattias.
You're going home with $10,000.
Thank you all for an unbelievable evening.
Good night from Wizard Wars.
Our buddy Danny Hillis is not a magician, he's a computer genius.
But he wanted to learn a trick, so Teller taught him to bend spoons with his mind.
And then, because Danny's a big shot, he got invited to a New York City penthouse party.
You know, the kind of party that Hillary Clinton goes to.
I mean fancy, way fancy.
Well, as the expensive wine flowed, the talk turned to psychics and the subject of spoon bending came up.
One of the rich guys, who's a believer, and Danny was in hog heaven.
He could debunk the jive psychics and do his magic trick at the same time.
He did his secret spoon setup and got all set, and then said, "You mean he showed you how you can bend a spoon with his mind like this?" Well, Danny did his little trick.
And Danny killed.
I mean, mouths dropped, everyone was speechless.
Finally, someone stammered out that Danny had just destroyed an original spoon from the Revolutionary War, like, made by Paul Revere himself or something.
Now, with magic, you should really know your props.
And this is especially important for the magicians on Wizard Wars who'll be using everyday objects as props.
Although probably not from the 1770s.
That's my watch! That's-- that's my watch.
That wasn't a magic trick.
That wasn't funny.
It's like you gotta be a wizard to figure this thing out.
You ever tried one? - Um, I can't do it, but I got an app.
- Yeah? All right, do it.
Hold on a second here.
I think I can get this.
Hold on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- Stop it.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Oh! - Time out, time out.
- What? - No way! - You gotta turn the phone on.
How do you turn it on? - I don't know how to turn it on.
- It didn't do anything.
- I don't get it.
- You push to slide? Let's hear it for our wizards Angela Funovitz, Justin Flom, Gregory Wilson, and Shimshi.
Hey, everyone.
Get ready to have your minds completely blown.
I'm Ellen Fox, and welcome to Wizard Wars.
Here's how Wizard Wars works.
Teams of magicians are given everyday items that they must turn into world-class magic.
Today we have two teams of esteemed magic creators that will compete against each other in the challenger round.
They'll be given the same three household items to use at least once in a routine.
Now, the team that wins the challenger round will advance to take on a team of our wizards in round two, the Wizard War, where the teams will be working with four new objects.
If the challengers beat the wizards, they're taking home $10,000.
All right, so let's introduce our revered panel of judges.
Our first judges have won Emmys, a star on the Walk of Fame, and reigned over the world of magic for nearly 40 years.
Please welcome, Penn and Teller.
Our next judge is a renowned magic critic and a real-life astronomer.
She's basically Stephen Hawking in hot pants, Christen Gerhart.
Our final judge is also a scientist, and is one of only four Americans ever awarded the title Grand Prix World Champion of Magic, Jason Latimer.
Let's meet our challengers.
Our first challenger has been a headliner at the Tropicana Hotel for over two years.
As a semi-finalist on America's Got Talent he made an entire steam engine disappear.
Get ready to get rocked by Murray Sawchuck.
I became a world champion winning over 25 national and international awards.
So I'm expecting to bring the type of performance that's outside the box that people would expect most magicians to fall into.
Teaming up with this superstar is a close-up magician.
He won the Rising Star award at the Reel Awards in Las Vegas and he's here to shine tonight.
Say hello to Rob Anderson.
I've been taking everyday objects and doing magic with them for years.
So today, using just everyday objects that we're going to be given, I think I'll be able to construct a really cool routine.
To take on our headliners, we're breaking out some serious competition starting with a guy who's known as a comedy imaginator.
He's appeared on everything from the Late Show with David Letterman to America's Got Talent, let's hear it for LA's own Eric Buss.
I'm kind of known for building my own props.
Personally, I like to do something that has never been done.
Wizard Wars is made for me.
Teaming up with Eric is a Swedish sleight of hand specialist and a mechanical engineer.
Here's Mattias Ramos.
I'm mostly known as a close-up magician.
I'm a lot about the comedy, that's what's fun, and that's what magic is all about for me.
All right, here are the rules for the challenger round.
Each team will be given three of the same everyday objects that must be used at least once in a routine.
You will be judged on your creativity, deception, and showmanship.
Object one, packing crates.
Object two, dog treats.
And your final object is a puppy.
Our first team up is Murray and Rob.
They've already built the routine, so let's see how they did it.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at this.
- Are you kidding? Look at that face.
- Aww.
Live animals can be the hardest things to work with in magic, so Murray and Rob head into the magic shop - Look at that! - to see if this new dog can be worked into some old tricks.
- Chinese rings.
- Look at that.
- An old change bag.
- A little necktie thing I've done.
And they find inspiration in a classic of magic and right behind here - and found one of those.
- That is amazing.
the disappearing sponge balls.
I remember I started this when I was a kid.
Where you put it here, right? It disappears, right? And then it comes back to my pocket, right? Boom, right here, right? You know, a cool thing would be - is to actually have the puppy vanish.
- That would be good.
- Ooh, that works.
- Oh, yeah.
To make the puppy vanish, they'll rely on a variety of box tricks.
We gotta break them up.
Are these big enough, Murray? Just getting an arm workout.
There we go.
It's perfect.
Let's see how well-trained he is.
Come here.
Come on.
Come here.
Come here.
- That's a problem.
- What will they come up with? If we can't get her to listen, I don't think this is going to work.
We're about to find out.
Okay, it's important to note there are no camera tricks on Wizard Wars.
Our first team up is Murray and Rob.
- I'm Murray.
- And I'm Rob.
- The dog treats, huh? - Yes, 681 dog treats.
Kinda boring, Rob, I'm just saying, I'm going to fix that.
Hold on, let's just do this, all right? Watch very carefully, Rob.
I got this covered.
One, two, three.
Go, Rob! That's what I'm talking about.
- That's it.
- Scout.
Everybody meet Scout.
- She's a real puppy, see? - Aww.
Ruff! I'm totally just kidding.
- We're gonna leash him up.
- Well, you know, Murray, we actually bought this dog house today.
I wanna try something with the dog house.
It's like the one you had in Baltimore, you were growing up with, right? Yup! Go ahead and put Scout in there, put him in there.
All right, Scout, come on.
Yeah, this actually does remind me of growing up back in Baltimore.
When I was a little kid, we had a dog house in our backyard just like this.
The thing is, I never had a dog when I was growing little until I was 13 and my parents - got me a huge dog.
- Hey! Everybody meet Scout.
Say hi to everybody, Scout.
- Aww.
- Now you know, one thing dogs love - is getting a bath.
- They love it.
So we're gonna give one a bath and you're going to go in, too.
I'm going to go in? I don't need a shower, Rob.
Uh, yeah, with hair like that, you need a shower.
I'll get in here.
- All right, come on, Scout.
- You're going to give the dog shower? Come on, Scout.
Aww.
Come on.
There you go.
A little water.
- Just give him a little bath.
- Very nice.
It's a little-- uh, sir-- there's a little shrinkage, Rob.
Uh, shrinkage-- Yeah, yeah, check it out.
- It's a little shrinkage.
- That sounds like a personal issue.
No, no, seriously.
What the-- What the-- Are you serious? Oh, but he's clean, and that's what's important.
- I shrunk your dog, Rob.
- Yeah, you did.
You shrank my dog.
- What are you doing? - Sorry about that.
You made him like-- You made him bite-sized.
I'll give him a bite-sized treat.
You want a bite-sized dog treat? Let's ring this out.
- Sorry.
So you have one dog treat? - I do.
But you brought over 200 before.
One dog treat for our poor dog? - Well, one dog, one dog treat.
- I got a better idea, hold on.
Here they are.
Boom! 2,600 dog treats.
- I'm Murray.
- I'm Rob Anderson.
- And that's Scout.
- This is Scout.
Let's hear what the judges have to say.
Let's start with Christen.
First off, your showmanship is off the charts.
You came out with a bang and you held that energy.
That was really great.
Creativity-wise, it was definitely very good.
I know those props are really hard to work with, so I liked the story of the bath and that was a nice way to tie it together.
I did think it was kind of a thing of the same trick over and over.
And I would've liked to see maybe something a little bit different than just production/vanish, production/vanish, production/vanish.
I do agree, it was consistently a lot of appearances, appearance, and transformations.
However, you did very strong magic.
And my favorite part is, right off the bat, you use all three in the same effect.
You got the crate, you got the treats, and you got the puppy.
I'm like, "Okay, we're done.
" I'm like, "All right, we're done, we can move on now.
" It's very hard to be deceptive with a box trick.
What you're really doing is pointing to boxes and sometimes those boxes are just concealing what's in them.
The showmanship is good.
They're good, they own the room, but as far as creativity, there's only so much you can do with live animals.
And this was really, really hard.
And I give them a lot of credit for trying something so hard.
All right, thank you, judges.
We'll see what their opponents, Eric and Mattias, have in store right after this.
Coming up We could put together a five-minute Broadway piece.
will our next team's attempt at comedy magic We're going to Broadway! leave the judges laughing or send them packing? That's not even a trick.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
We are mid-way through the challenger round where two teams of elite magic creators must turn the same three ordinary objects into extraordinary routines.
The winner will face a team of our wizards in the Wizard War, for a chance to win $10,000.
Comedic illusionist Eric Buss and Mattias Ramos are up next and they've already build their routine.
So let's see how they did it.
Look who's down there.
- What? Look at that guy.
- Oh, look at you.
Which hand? Ooh, it's gone.
She doesn't care.
Wow, this is going to be really tough.
These are probably the hardest things I've ever had to try to build a routine with.
- Yeah.
- We can make a big bone.
All right, you do it, go ahead.
- That is great! - Thank you.
For the packing crates, Eric and Mattias play around with a classic magic trick.
- Hold on to that.
- Oh, shit! - The light/heavy box.
- Is that cool? But they still need to work out a routine If we can put together a five-minute little Broadway piece.
and make sure to get their timing down.
Hey, we're going to Broadway! All right, Eric and Mattias, the stage is yours.
As magicians, we find ourselves shipping magic props all over the place.
Now rumor has it, there is a new magic shipping company.
We're going to check out this magic shipping company right now.
We need some help from the audience.
How about you, ma'am? If you could help me on stage? Perfect.
And how about you, sir? Give them a round of applause.
Ma'am, right over here.
Right over there, sir.
- What is your name? - Valerie.
Valerie, nice to meet you.
Valerie, you will be playing the part of my beautiful wife.
Now, you, sir, will be playing the part of my beautiful sales assistant.
We are magicians, we are going to go check out this shipping company.
See if they can help us.
Come on, honey.
Howdy, welcome to Premium Magic Shipping.
P-M-S.
We got my partner, Jim Boy, here.
What can I do for you today? - Uh, we need to ship a lion.
- A lion? - A lion.
- A flesh-eating king of the jungle type of lion? King of the jungle, yes.
Flesh-eating, no, she's vegan.
I'll go get her, I'll go get her.
- She's right over here.
- Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Come here, honey.
Come here, honey.
- Oh, yeah.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't bring that beast up on stage! It's okay, it's okay, she's trained.
She's trained and she's the sweetest, little lion ever.
So can we ship her? - Of course we can ship her.
- Excellent.
Yes.
The only thing is that we charge by weight, and this being a lion, it's at least 300 pounds.
- She's 15 pounds.
- 300.
- She's 15 pounds.
- Tell you what.
Let's weigh her.
Can we use that crate over there, please? - Oh, honey, can you get that crate? - Would you mind? Honey, I do not trust this guy.
Check that crate, make sure it's light.
It's not gimmicked in any way? I don't trust these people.
All right.
Um, okay, we're gonna weigh you.
- I'm gonna set her on the scale.
- and we're gonna weigh you.
We're gonna weigh you.
We're gonna weigh you and-- - Sir.
Would you mind? - Oh, sorry.
Yeah.
Okay Jimbo, do you mind weighing her for us? - Can you lift her? - Jimbo lift her.
- 300 pounds.
- 15.
Jimbo, lift her.
Okay.
Try again, Jimbo.
See, I can do it.
I can do it.
- It's like 15 pounds.
- What? 15 pounds, try again, Jimbo.
Lift.
Hard! - Hard! - Yeah, harder.
Can you do harder? Can you do harder? - Unbelievable.
- This is 15 pounds.
- This is a scam, honey.
We're outta here.
- No, no, no, no, no.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
No scam, no scam.
- Yeah.
- I like you guys.
- I tell you what, we'll go half way.
- Okay.
- Yes, 100 pounds? - 15 pounds.
- 75.
- 15.
- 40.
- 15.
- 10.
- 15.
Gotcha.
- I'm good.
- All right, so now what? Jimbo, thank you for your services.
You're fired.
- And no name tag? - Oh! Name tag.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, we have one.
- We have one.
- You need one to ship it.
Honey, it's blank.
We always forget the name of our lion.
- Can we use your marker? - Why of course.
- Excellent.
Honey-- - Do I have to do everything? We always forget the name of our lion.
Sir, what is the name of our lion? - I don't know.
- I don't know.
- That's a strange name.
- I don't know.
If you could write that on that tag, so we have the lion's name on one side and your name on the other.
The lion's name on one side and that looks like scribble to me.
That's your signature? Are you a doctor? All right, let's ship this thing.
Okay, but do you have any food? This is going to be a long trip.
- Oh, didn't bring any, sorry.
- I got this.
I got this.
Here, check this out.
Oop, behind the ear.
- Lame.
- Who's the magician now? That was stupid.
Can you hold her? I noticed you have a box of food down here.
- Is there anything we can use? - That's my trash.
Why are you going through other people's trash? That's a dog treat.
She doesn't like dog treats.
These are lion dog treat.
- She likes lion treats.
- Ooh! I see what you doing.
You raising the steaks.
- Can we ship her? We need to go.
- Yes, you just place her in this custom-made, aerodynamic, shipping compartment - and we're good to go.
- That's a cardboard box.
- That's exactly what I said.
- All right, whatever.
- Can you help me put the collar on her? - Why of course.
- And just hold her right there.
- All right, all right.
- Here we go.
- Okay, perfect just-- - Stay right there, stay right there.
- She needs to-- No, let me cover her up, so if she-- I don't want her to get cold.
- I don't want her to get cold.
- Is that really necessary? - People with their pets nowadays.
- Okay.
Uh, now what? Well, it's done, isn't it? You're holding it upside down.
Oh, oops.
Amazing! - Wow.
- Unbelievable! - That was fast.
- Another satisfied customer.
All right.
- Uh, when does she arrive? - Well, where did you ship it? We wanted to ship her to-- what's the address? Four Judges Street care of C.
Gerhart.
- What, but that's right over there.
- Am I getting a puppy? Oh, my God! - Can I go touch her? - Get her, get her, get her.
- It's a lion! - It's a lion.
- Is there a lion waiting for you? - It's a lion! Aww! Christen, can you verify that name tag.
- It's named "I don't know," exactly.
- I don't know and - Did my wife sign sign for it? - Scribble.
Scribble! Unbelievable! It's the same lion! Oh, my goodness.
Let's find out what our judges thought.
- Penn? - First of all, sincerely funny.
- Thank you.
- Our mentor, the great Johnny Thompson, the greatest magical mind alive, always says, "If you're gonna use a box, you gotta talk the box away.
" So you have to do a box trick 'cause you've got a puppy.
You do the whole skit.
There's a perfect reason to have the box there.
I think for a box trick in this kind of room, you're about as deceptive as you're gonna get.
Thank you.
First off, I love that you had a whole story.
We watched an actual skit of you shipping a lion.
And I love that.
It's a very feisty little lion apparently.
There were a few teeny, little flashes, so that's going to hurt you a little bit.
But I love magic that happens in the hands of the spectator and to have that guy come up there, and the light/heavy box, you could see him working with it and it's great.
He can go back and be like, "No, it really was like that.
" You-- oh, my-- I know, I know, I know.
I'm sorry.
I thought the storyline and the concept of everything just played so well together.
So the showmanship became part of the story.
And as far as deception with what you've been given, you did a great job, guys.
Really great job.
We've seen both challenger routines.
The judges will announce who's going to take on the big dogs when we return.
Coming up I've been inspired by magic to study the sciences.
our world-champion of magic defies physics.
Ooh.
- And later - Sucker.
the wizards make doing magic with candy - look like child's play.
- Oh.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Two teams of challengers just created a mind-bending magic performance using the same three everyday objects.
In a timeless routine, Murray and Rob turned their puppy into a full grown dog.
Hey! Eric and Mattias "raised the steaks" and magically shipped a puppy from one side of the theater to the other.
Now it's time to find out which team won and will move on to meet two of our home team wizards in the Wizard War for a chance to win $10,000.
Penn, what's it going to be? Both teams did great.
We saw very clearly that once you have a live animal, you are backed into box tricks.
And box tricks have certain inherent problems that both had to deal with.
And they both dealt with them wonderfully.
I thought that Murray and Rob did a great job with the dog biscuits.
There were more dog biscuits.
We really felt like that was an item.
- That was really a thing.
- Here they are.
Boom! I thought that for the puppy, you both showed a puppy, it was both really, really cute, but you guys, you dressed it in a lion's suit.
You said, "A puppy alone, that's not cute enough.
Let's just up the cute a little bit.
" And that adds a level of creativity.
I think Mattias and Eric are going to win this round.
Congratulations.
It's time for the Wizard War.
All right.
Eric and Mattias, you will be going head-to-head with two of our wizards.
If you win, you'll take home $10,000.
But before the wizards decide who you're going up against, let's talk about your challenge.
Each team will be given four random objects to create a routine using each item at least once.
A kimono, a rainbow golf umbrella, a bag of hard candy, and an armoire.
Wizards, two of you will take on Eric and Mattias.
I'll give you a moment to decide who it's going to be.
I do a lot of stuff with candy.
I really want this one.
Let's do it, you and I.
I saw your hard candy stuff, I got something, too.
Let's do it? - Yeah? All right, let's do it.
- All right.
Right, wizards, I need an answer.
It's going to be Justin and myself.
All right.
Let's get the party started.
Upstairs we have a workshop and a magic shop that has everything you need to turn these everyday objects into world-class magic.
Challengers, you'll be performing first.
Now everyone head on up and make some magic.
One of our judges will show us why he's earned magic's biggest honor, the title of Grand Prix World Champion.
Let's hear it for Jason Latimer.
Thank you.
Sir, will you help me on this? - And your name? - Troy.
Let's give Troy a big round of applause.
Troy, I'm going to-- I need you to put your hands over this bowl and I'm going to pour these pitchers of water through your hands.
- All right.
- Go ahead.
A little bit lower over the bowl, if you would.
- Okay.
- Your job is to make sure nothing comes out of these pitchers of water except for water.
Perfect.
Great.
- Now, Troy, if you would, take one hand out.
- Just one? Just one hand.
Turn it face down, and if you would, push it all the way to the bottom.
Make sure there's no hidden compartments-- no, go all the way to the bottom.
It's just water, okay? Now the next thing I need you to do is take one finger, from this hand-- go ahead and feel along the sides of the bowl.
Here, pull your hand-- around the sides.
Make sure it's smooth.
Make sure there's no hidden compartments, - trap doors, it's smooth, right? - Yup.
I want you to dream about magic for the 21st century.
Something new, something creative, something different.
Well, what I want to do is to the idea of controlling water.
Could we do it? First, you would have to ask a question-- can we shape water? How strong is surface tension? What shape would you like to make? How would you increase surface tension? Illusion or not? What would it look like if you could control water? - Now I'm going to put this in your hand, Troy.
- Okay.
If you pop it, we're both getting wet.
- How magical does that feel? - Pretty magical.
To see it ripple? To see it wobble? See, this did not exist.
The only thing it needed was one person to wonder if it could.
Any questions? Very impressive.
Let's hear it for Jason Latimer.
All right, let's see how things are shaping up for our challengers by taking a peek in the workshop.
You know what we could use this for, though? We could hide things behind it or make something appear under it.
Umbrellas.
I've never once used an umbrella.
Look at this.
This is like 30 pounds of candy.
What if it appeared in the umbrella or something? Or it's raining down on us.
Oh, yes! For the armoire, a standard escape trick springs to mind.
- Close it up.
- And I'll be gone, okay? Holy cow.
But Eric and Mattias decide they must be 100% original to beat the wizards.
I mean, we can make things appear in a big closet.
That's kind of obvious.
We gotta come up with something quick.
I think this is going to work.
Can we use that ladder? You better know what you're doing, man.
That's not tall enough.
You told me to bring the ladder.
After lots of trial and error in the workshop I think it can work.
Obviously, we have to rebuild it, but-- And I don't know how long that's going to take.
the team is left with more questions than answers.
- Get ready to catch it.
- I got it.
- I got it.
- Coming up We're going big.
Eric and Mattias This take a little bit of sticky.
put on a comedy act for the ages but will it be enough to win $10,000? They have to be more deceptive than you are funny.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Time for the main event the Wizard War.
The challengers are up first.
They can take home $10,000 if they can outshine the wizards.
All they have to do is preform a better routine using the same four everyday objects.
An armoire, a bag of hard candy, a rainbow golf umbrella, and a kimono.
And don't forget, each routine is being judged on creativity, deception, and showmanship.
Eric and Mattias, take it away.
Thank you.
Mattias and I have been studying the art of balance for about 20 minutes or so, roughly.
We're going to show you some demonstrations of balance tonight.
Ma'am, come up with a random color, concentrate on that color, and in a loud, clear voice, say what that color is.
Red.
You said red? I brought out two red lollipops.
- Red! - Lollipops! Lollipops! We're going to show you some demonstrations of balance.
- Our first demonstration is a level-two balance.
- Level three.
Uh, level-- Two-and-a-half balance.
Notice the umbrella balanced on his finger.
That's good stuff.
Uh, Mattias, can you take the kimono off? - I like my kimono.
- We're doing a TV show.
Take it off.
It looks ridiculous.
- Magic.
- Very funny.
Mattias will now demonstrate a level-five balance.
Level-five balance demonstrated by Mattias.
That's what I said.
Notice the umbrella on top of the hard candy.
Level-five balance.
We're going to take it a step further.
- We're going for a level-seven balance.
- "Leven sevel.
" All right, I'll do the talking.
- Two pieces of hard candy.
- Whoa.
You know what, this takes a little bit more-- it takes more than just balance.
This takes a little bit of sticky.
- That ought to do it.
- I think we got it.
Level-seven balance.
- Oh! Eric! - On the umbrella.
- Eric! It's a level 15! - That's a level 15! - 15! - It's a level 15! It's a level 15! - Wow! - Whoo-hoo! - Notice! - Notice no strings.
- No, no! - No strings.
- 15! - No wires.
- No wires or strings.
- Okay, that's enough.
- Now we go for a level-97 balance.
- Ooh.
A large object on top of smaller objects.
Tonight we're going to go for the balance of the armoire on top of the umbrella.
Tonight we're going for the balance of the-- Hold on, wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We're going to balance the armoire - No, no, no, no.
- on the umbrellas.
No, Eric, it was the umbrellas on top of the armoire.
I know, forget about that.
We're going big.
Trust me.
- Now it is quite heavy - Easy now.
and quite delicate.
We have to be careful.
- Got it.
- Where's my umbrella? Uh, I got it over here.
Just let me do mine first-- - Okay.
- This is-- ah, Jesus.
Hold on.
- My umbrella.
- Okay, hold on.
I'll help you.
Push it here.
Push it here.
With your foot.
Okay, all right.
That was level 37 right there.
All right.
Get it in there.
Just take your time.
This is the balance of a lifetime.
Wait.
- Is it balanced? - It's balanced.
- We did it? - It's balanced.
It's balanced! The balancing armoire! All right, Mattias, take away your umbrella.
- I just placed it there.
- Level 237.
- 237! Level 237! Take it away.
- Okay.
It's away! - Now come over here.
- No.
- Come over here.
- No, no, no, no.
- Come over here.
- Eric-- - I have candy.
- Oh, I love candy.
What kind of candy is it? - It's hard candy.
- Oh! - Oh! - Look! Level 3,000! - Amazing! Amazing! - Level 3,000! - Oh, yes.
- We're going to celebrate with more candy! Yay! - You want more candy? More candy? - Let it rain.
I want more candy! We want more candy! - Ah! That's more candy! Thank you.
- More candy! It looked like a lot of fun.
Let's find out what the judges had to say.
Let's go to Jason first.
Mattias, Eric, I love the effects, I loved the way the umbrella came up, and I love-- I love the way you took off a kimono and you had another one.
I thought that was just awesome.
That's not even a trick, but it was funny.
As far as deception, I think that's where the wizards are going to come after you.
Mechanically, they're going to go after the stronger magic.
But what you don't go after in deception, you went after with creativity and showmanship.
- Great job.
- Thank you.
Well, we certainly, from seeing this, we see a level 342 in comedy.
It's a perfect routine that's really funny, really wonderful, and with the wizards, they have to be really, really deceptive to be more deceptive than you are funny.
I think it was really well-balanced.
No, um, speaking of balance, you guys balance each other out really well.
Using the balance theme that you guys have, gave you the time you needed to make this illusion not clumsy.
And it looked great.
Can the wizards top our challengers? We'll have Justin and Shimshi's performance next.
Coming up - The wizards show off in the workshop - Sucker.
but will their routine be good enough to win the Wizard War? Just how the hell did they do that? With the challengers pouring on the pressure, how did the wizards hold up in the workshop? Let's check this out.
Let's see if there's anything to use in the magic shop and tie all of these items together.
Let's see.
I like the dice actually.
What's in the trunk? What is this? Shimshi finds fabrics in all different colors.
Uh-huh! Let's see if we can do something with that.
Now that we've got more than one color-- The rainbow umbrella.
With an idea for a prediction trick using the umbrella and kimono, the wizards move on to the armoire.
All right, so what if we take this light-- - Shadow box.
- Yeah.
Get a hole in the top.
This goes in.
Let me try to do something.
In the end, only one question remains What else can we do with the candy? If I take the gum With so many tricks with candy at their disposal which one will they choose? - Color-changing sucker.
- Ah.
All right.
Wizards, time to earn your keep.
What's up? My name is Justin Flom and this is an armoire.
That's a word I learned especially for Wizard Wars.
Anywhere else, this would be called a closet.
When I was eight years old, this is a trick I would do.
It's a switch.
I was eight.
It's important to see no smoke and mirrors.
In fact, this armoire, you can see through to the back.
And we've even put two lights down on the stage so you can see under the base at all times.
Garment bag.
When you're eight, everything is magic.
I'm going to put the light into the top so you can see what's going on at all times.
Little bit of shadow play.
Use your imagination and you can make magic happen.
Watch this.
Ladies and gentlemen, Shimshi! That's fun, when you're a kid, you don't need an expensive game from the store, you can make a game out of whatever you have around the house.
Maybe it's a garment bag, an umbrella, - or a die.
- Yup, we used to play a lot of Backgammon.
Nobody plays? Okay, that's good.
That's fine.
All right, we wanted to make this game really random.
First of all, check this die and make sure it's normal.
Nothing is tricky about it.
I want you to shake it a few times.
Make sure that the number's always different.
- Yeah, it's good.
- Okay, good.
Now I want you to shake it and don't look, stop whenever you want to, and keep not looking.
I don't want even you to know what it is.
- Is that okay? - Yes.
- Good.
- Here's the deal we're adult magicians now.
We understand that most people are skeptics.
Maybe she's in on it, so we're going to make this random.
You haven't peeked at the number yet.
We're going to count whatever number you've ended up on around the umbrella to a random color.
All right, we're going to count this direction.
Have you looked at it yet? You can look.
That's fine.
- Three.
- Three, okay.
One, two, three.
- Green.
- We rest at the color green.
Now you guys know that one of the items we had to wear was a kimono.
The question is which color.
Justin, will you do the honors? - I don't want to do that.
- All right.
Thank you very much.
Justin and I, as little kids, we used to do magic with things we really loved, like candy.
Candy.
I love candy.
Uh, here.
You have the chocolate for me? I made it disappear.
- Here's a-- - That was amazing.
That was amazing.
All right, good.
We're going to use, I guess, breath mints.
This is actually perfect because, when I was a little kid, I used to always see the, uh, do you remember the old Chinese linking rings trick? Yeah, I used to always imagine that I can do that stuff with mints.
That's how I was when I was a kid.
You can see it's really linked right there.
Thank you.
- Ready? - Ah.
I'm not good at that.
This is-- this is where it gets weird.
Headphones.
Thank you guys very much.
No? Let's find out what the judges have to say.
Christen? You guys are wizards for a reason.
Your presence is awesome and you guys work really well together.
The opening was awesome.
I really liked it.
When you came out in the bag, that was great.
And then it led you right into the kimono and you knocked the umbrella and the kimono out in one.
Overall, it was really great.
Thank you.
We were talking earlier about how hard it was to use boxes on stage.
As much as it's a little detail, it's very easy to say, somebody appears out of a box and to put it on the stage.
But to take the time to raise it off the stage and to point it out, it actually takes a professional to know that everyone would say, "Oh, he just came up from the bottom.
" So to address it before it became a problem was a great way of showing that you know what you're doing on stage.
We appreciate it.
We saw Teller stand up to look and go, - "Okay, they're telling the truth.
" Exactly.
And the creativity, I have to agree, the suit bag to the kimono with the umbrella picking the color, brilliant.
As far as the downside? The effects were so big in the beginning and so small in the end, it was lopsided.
But other than that, I liked the magic a lot.
Thank you.
I disagree a little bit on the scale.
I kind of liked it going from big to small.
I like those tricks with the Life Savers a lot.
I wish you'd have talked away a little bit the earbuds.
It's a great idea to use them, but it's still an arbitrary prop to pull out.
Doing close-up magic with hard candy is-- it's just really nice 'cause we all know all the rules of how Life Savers work.
The showmanship, the creativity, there's this comfort we see with you guys.
There's no panic, there's no fear-- let me put that a different way-- your panic and fear are concealed.
I thought it was a great performance.
All right, thank you, judges.
Will the challengers walk away with $10,000 or will the wizards pull out the win? Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
This is the moment of truth.
Which team is the winner of to-- Penn.
Well, you know, this is a tough one.
Mattias and Eric used all the props all the way through.
We really like that.
You didn't use the hard candy as well as Justin and Shimshi.
They killed you on the hard candy.
They just destroyed you on the hard candy.
On the armoire, Shimshi and Justin's trick was better.
But yet, the creativity of Mattias and Eric using it in a different way than we expected.
You kind of expect something to come out of a big box.
The fact they used the big box as an object itself kind of does it a little nutty.
At the beginning of Mattias and Eric, we threw down the gauntlet and we said that in order to beat how funny they were you guys had to be so deceptive and knock us over with just, "How the hell did they do that?" Don't think you quite did that.
I think we're gonna go with funny.
I think it's going to be Mattias and Eric.
Congratulations, Eric and Mattias.
You're going home with $10,000.
Thank you all for an unbelievable evening.
Good night from Wizard Wars.