Wizard Wars (2014) s02e06 Episode Script
Walking On Water
Welcome to "Wizard Wars" Whoa! where two pairs of challengers, go head-to-head in a magic throwdown.
- Using ordinary objects - Whoa! - to create extraordinary illusions.
- Woo! The team that impresses the judges - Wow, was this close.
- will battle the wizards, - for a chance at $10,000.
- Money!! The wizards are, street magician, Justin Flom, escape artist, Billy Kid, - conman, Gregory Wilson - Your wallets! And grand-stage illusionist, Shimshi.
And tonight Cutting-edge magic takes center stage, as teams from Philadelphia And Los Angeles Things start to morph and change.
Compete to advance to the Wizard War.
Keep it goin' over there.
But the wizards go biblical.
- Walkin' on water! - Hahahaha.
Can they conjure up miracles? Whoa! Find out, next.
Magic! Hi, everyone.
I'm Ellen Fox, and welcome to Wizard Wars.
We have some amazing illusionists here tonight to test their skills, by performing magic with everyday objects.
So, let's get started and meet our judges.
Penn and Teller.
Christen Gerhart.
Jason Latimer.
Shimshi is going to start tonight off, with a classic of magic.
And he'll be getting a helping hand from Billy.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Uh, so, on Wizard Wars, we're doing new stuff all the time, we create new magic.
But as illusionists, we love classics of magic.
But we're still gonna do it in a way you've never seen before.
Uh, we thought we're gonna do, like, a throwback to the '20s.
So, take off the jacket, Billy.
- Yuh! - Beautiful! - Woo! - Looks beautiful.
- That looks beautiful.
- Oh, we've got more.
You have a tattoo, but it looks beautiful.
There you go.
I'm so happy.
Yes, you seem very excited.
That looks great.
You don't need that.
All right, so, um, are you ready? Why don't you please, have, uh, have a se - Lie down? - Yeah.
- Lie down.
- Okay.
- All right, you're doing good.
- Okay.
- All right.
- Oh.
All right.
Make sure it's real.
All right.
It's confusing, it was confusing.
- All right.
Okay.
- Shimshi, wait, wait.
I thought we were friends.
I thought we were friends.
We are friends.
Aah! Very good.
All right, now, I'm sure you've seen illusionists, uh, cut a girl, before.
That's why we thought we're gonna show you something you haven't seen before.
We're gonna strip everything down, so you can see it.
Completely.
No, but I really want you guys to see everything.
All the way in.
Oh! All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna wake her up, in the best way that I know how.
Stop it, stop it.
Okay, okay, Shimshi.
- Yes.
- Shimshi.
Where are you? Shimshi.
All right, uh, here's the thing.
I really have to pee.
Like right now, seriously.
Not a good time.
Uh.
Uh.
Where'd he go? Oh, there we go.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, that works.
Okay, that feels so much better.
Again.
Ah.
All right.
Tonight's first team of challengers, are both from Philly.
First, a close-up creator, who's so prolific, he was asked to teach at the World Magic seminar, in Las Vegas.
Eric Jones.
Some of the stuff that I'm known for in the magic community, is magic with everyday objects.
When you're put onto a situation, like here, at Wizard Wars, you have to learn how to take those small tricks, and get 'em to play bigger, to a much larger audience.
That's a challenge, that I'm really looking forward to.
Teaming up with Eric, is a magician known for creating the most deceptive linking ring trick on the magic market.
Please welcome Joshua Messado.
In the magic community, I'm known for the Chinese linking rings.
I've developed a series of moves, or flourishes, that I've dubbed "ringistry".
Bein' on Wizard Wars is a dream come true.
All my years of hard work and dedication, have finally paid off.
Taking on Eric and Joshua are a team of L.
A.
locals.
First, is a magician, who's won awards for his close-up magic, Alex Iverson.
My magic is always impromptu, and it's geared towards the audience that I'm in front of.
That's why I like close-up magic.
What I'm excited about with Wizard Wars, is being on the biggest stage I've ever been on.
Yeah, I'm gonna show America what I have.
Joining Alex is an illusionist, who's performances are best described as part-magic show, part-heavy metal concert.
It's Sammy Cortino.
My magic is a cross between slight-of-hand and stage magic.
And a lot of the effects that I do involve dangerous objects and musical instruments.
Wizard Wars is an amazing opportunity.
And really, the plan is to win this competition.
Now, for the rules of the Challenger Round.
Each team will be given three of the same everyday objects, to use at least once during an original routine.
A pink, lawn flamingo, a hula hoop, and a piggy bank filled with coins.
You will be judged based on your creativity, deception and showmanship.
Eric and Joshua are up first.
They've already put their performance together, so let's see how they did it.
I can probably do a couple of things with the coins.
Like the, to show three, and then cause one to vanish, and maybe, have it go back inside of the piggy bank.
And take the next one and drop that, or give it a little squeeze, and take all three, and make all three vanish.
And then be able to jump them back out of the, the piggy bank.
- That could be something we could - You is great - with the coins, dude.
- Um, I'm, I'm all right, but let's see what else we can find.
They got a gang of stuff in here.
Uh-oh.
I'm the ring guy man.
I-I absolutely love 'em.
These things are great.
Okay, well, let's, let's keep that in mind.
Maybe, if we could do something with the hula hoops, on a larger scale.
So, how about this.
Show a coupla coins, show 'em like this, and then cover it with the hand, and then cause one coin to arrive inside, but getting that to happen with the piggy bank.
What if we could get all of them to arrive inside? So you actually hear Imagine this.
From here, to grandma's flamingo.
Eric and Joshua.
Take it away, guys.
Now, tonight, we're gonna share with you a little bit of magic.
Now, see, in the 21st century it's like a rat-race.
The day-to-day activities, kinda keep you from realizing the moments of magic.
In fact, we'd like to share a little bit of that with you now, using this little hula hoop.
Eric, that's not a hula hoop, my friend.
Sure, it is.
All you have to do, is imagine.
Watch close.
Oh.
Not bad.
Not bad.
I see where you're going with this.
- I got one of my own.
- Yeah? They call 'em mini hula hoops.
Watch it, close.
But, wait.
But, wait.
There's more.
Get that.
Get that.
You know, what? Let's end with a big finish.
How about that? - How's that sound? - Tell you what, let's try it.
That's kinda weird.
Takes me back in the day, to my childhood.
There was a beautiful, young lady, her name was Lisa, and she used to amaze me w-with her Hey, do you remember the thing? - Oh, you're talkin' about that - Lisa used to do, with the - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right? - That was awesome.
- The wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, right? I tell ya what.
How 'bout we recreate that right now? I need a beautiful, young lady to come up and help us out.
To play the part of that lovely, young lady, from back in the day.
Uh, miss, would you How 'bout you? You look like her.
You remind me Big round of applause.
Give it for ya.
- Come on.
No, I want her hand.
- I got her hand.
- You don't have to worry about it.
I got it, I got it.
- It's cool.
It's all right.
- How are you? What's your name? - And what's your name? - Courtney.
- Good to meet you, Courtney.
Give it up for Courtney, guys.
Thank you, so much, Courtney.
Tonight, what we're gonna do, is we're gonna recreate - one of Josh's little wiggle-wiggle sessions, yeah? - Wiggle-wiggle.
Uh, we're gonna get you to hula hoop for just a couple of seconds.
In fact, 30 seconds.
If, in fact, you can hula hoop for a continuous 30 seconds, we're gonna give you all the money In the piggy bank.
- All right.
- Now, we're gonna give you three tries, 'cause I don't know if you're a pro, or if you're a novice, like I am.
Ready to give her a little encouragement? Guys, give her a round of applause.
And are you ready? Yes.
And go.
One.
Uh, keep goin'.
Keep it goin', keep it goin'.
Keep goin', keep goin', keep goin'.
Get her a little in character.
There we go.
- It's goin', it's goin'.
- Get it, get it.
Ha-ha-ha-ha, that's awesome.
Awesome, awesome.
You know what? You didn't quite win.
You didn't quite make it to 30 seconds.
And it's okay, it's okay.
- Do not cry.
- If you don't mind standing right here.
I'll take this back from you.
But you got to 14.
J-Josh, if you don't mind just dumping the coins into my hands.
Excellent.
Get 'em all out there.
Now, you stopped at 14 seconds.
Had you gone one more, or one less, it could've changed the entire outcome.
If you don't mind.
I'll show my hands, empty.
If you could count those coins onto the palm of my hands.
- There's one, two, three, - One, two, three, - four, five, six, seven, - four, five, six, seven, - eight, nine, - eight, nine, - 10, 11, 12, 13, - 10, 11, 12, 13, - Fourteen.
- and 14.
Give her a round of applause, please.
Be careful on your way back to your seat.
- Would you mind givin' her a hand back? - Thank you so much, darlin'.
We'd like to show one more piece to you, using these two props.
The little pink pig and Le flamingo! Josh, if you don't mind, take the pink flamingo out into the audience, and see if we can get a volunteer to help us out.
- All righty.
- Actually, Teller, would you mind, sir.
Oh, oh, yeah, give it up for Teller.
How are you, sir? If you could grab Uh, just hold it right here, by the neck, and it's, uh, the - -.
- All right, here we go.
- Huh-huh-huh.
Guys, I want you to use your imagination.
If you could imagine, me being able to, without touching the pig, reach in and grab a coin Of course, that is gonna take a little bit of imagination.
Unless, of course, I can make it real.
Ooh.
Now, of course Watch this.
Watch the flamingo, watch the coin.
- Not bad, not bad.
- It's real, it's real.
Let's take it one step further.
One step further.
Could we do more? Yes.
It's kinda weird.
If you don't mind passing the flamingo back to Josh for just a second.
- Josh, are you ready? - I'm ready.
And now! We're gonna find out what the judges thought of your performance, starting with Christen.
I loved using the flamingo as another piggy bank.
And to actually hear the-the transfer of the coins over here, on this other side of the room, was a really lovely touch.
And I don't know if it's just me, but it was kinda fun, pulling the head off the flamingo, - and ripping the pig apart.
- Yeah, we took it apart.
- And I thought that was kind of, that was kind of a - Yeah.
A fun way of, of ending it.
The hula hoop I actually really enjoyed as well.
Um, the manipulation of the, the small hula hoops was beautiful.
- Thank you.
- And I really enjoyed you guys' performance.
Thank you, thank you.
You know, I-I am very familiar with your guys' work.
And to see you guys cha-change the game, and bring it into your field of close-up magic coins and rings, using the hula hoops as smaller rings, is something that makes it smooth.
And I-I thought it worked.
Deception, awesome, because you're playing in your turf.
- It was great.
Great job.
- Thank you, thank you.
Well, they gave us money.
Game over.
Uh, one of the things that's really important, uh, in watching performers, especially if it's even slightly in comedy, is being able to relax.
Uh, with you two guys, uh, nothing could go wrong.
If every one of the tricks had gone badly, I-I wouldn't have felt heartbroken.
Because you're so comfortable on stage, so classy.
Uh, you, you got yourself into a comfort zone, did the coin stuff, the hoop stuff, stuff that you could even, even relax more.
And we just felt, from beginning to end, uh, we were in very, very good hands, with two very classy professionals.
Thank you.
You'll see if our L.
A.
illusionists can top Team Philly, when we come back.
I'm Justin Flom, and in this envelope I have a prediction.
We can take a deck of cards, give it a shuffle.
Take whatever card we shuffle to.
Four of diamonds.
And my prediction, the four of diamonds.
Stick around, I'll show you how to do that for your friends.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Local boys, Alex Iverson and Sammy Cortino are up next, and they've already built their routine.
So, let's see what kind of creations they've conjured up.
What if we made this into a flamingo bank? We cut a little incision across the top, running all the way, this way, that we can put a larger object inside of.
Maybe, a transfer from this bank - Yes.
- To the flamingo.
Yeah, we just have to modify it.
Yeah.
So, we shake the piggy bank We hear a sound.
We shake this, conceivably, we don't hear anything.
And then, I shake this - And it's all there.
- Yeah.
So, what're we gonna do, that's different, with this hula hoop? - Um.
- I think, that's the final question.
Transformation of some sort.
Either use the hula hoop to transform something else, or transform the hula hoop itself.
I like that.
Alex and Sammy, it's time to shine.
Gentlemen, take it away! So, we have been given a piggy bank.
We also have, uh, been given two hula hoops.
The first one's here, where's the Did you bring the second one? - Ooh.
Perhaps.
- And it's right there.
I like, I like his, I like your style.
I like your style.
Very good.
You know, as magicians, one of our favorite cities in the world, is Las Vegas, Nevada.
Some of the greatest magicians in the world have headlined at Las Vegas.
Uh, we got this sheet from a hotel room in Vegas, - and we have here - So, we have the hoop.
And the thing about Vegas, is the lights are sort of distorted.
So, if you watch the hoop, you can actually see, things start to morph and change in Las Vegas.
You're wondering what a hula hoop and a piggy bank, have to do with Vegas.
You're probably wondering what a piggy bank and a hula hoop have to do with Vegas.
It has absolutely everything to do with Las Vegas.
Sometimes, in Vegas, you see flamingoes, sprinkling the lawns of all the homes, - all around.
- Money comes down to the casino floor, and one of the very first casinos in Vegas, The Flamingo.
Well, you know, one of the tricks that they do in Vegas, is, uh, they take your money.
They make you think like it's a little bit bigger, but ultimately, it always disappears.
But if you take a little bit of your money Well, hold on, wait.
Um, hold on, need a, need a little cash out of here.
All right.
Place a, you place a bet, ultimately The money will travel - from your hard-earned bank account - It will disappear.
And back inside the casino floor.
But, you know, the thing about Las Vegas, is, it's not to say that everybody walks away, completely broke.
On the contrary, there are a lot of big winners, that we find in Las Vegas.
Um, gentleman right here.
What's your name? Uh, Andre.
- Andre, Andre? - Yes.
And Andre joins us from? Uh, Ukraine.
Ukraine.
That's, that's different.
- That's a-ways away.
- Andre from Ukraine.
Um, tonight, you're our big winner.
You're gonna walk away with an amazing surprise.
All I need is your wallet and a dollar bill.
Take out a dollar bill.
Any bill, it doesn't matter which one it is.
And I want you to sign your name, right across the face, so you can identify it later.
All right? Excellent.
And show everybody the signature.
Andre's signature.
Andre from Ukraine.
All right.
Hold it up one more time.
- Andre's signature, on the dollar bill.
- The wallet, please? He's gonna take the wallet, and - That's for you.
- I'm gonna take this back to the car.
Take it back to the car.
Andre's signed dollar bill.
I'm gonna fold it into eighths.
And, um, Alex, I want you to have fun with this.
Well, I don't know.
When I get to Vegas, money always tends to burn a little bit of a hole in my pocket.
Oh, gosh.
He-he-he.
- And as you can see - Oh, wow.
Andre's wallet is perfectly fine.
Here's the truth about Vegas.
Sometimes, I think you have to break the bank, - to get out alive.
- You absolutely do.
So, let's do that now.
One Everybody, count with me.
Three, two, one! - And we can see right here, we have a wallet.
- All right.
We also have a hula hoop that's been here the whole time, with your dollar bill taped up to it.
And I believe, that belongs to you.
Give it up to our big winner, everybody! Thank you.
- Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
- Thank you.
Let's hear it for Alex and Sammy! All right, well, let's find out what the judges thought of your performance, starting with Penn and Teller.
We loved the, uh, shadow thing of changing the, uh, changing the hula hoop into the flamingo.
That was really, really nice.
And loved forcing the um, the Vegas idea onto, onto these particular props.
Very entertaining, very nice.
The idea of having the Vegas theme, was, was very cool.
It's kind of hard to string those particular items together.
And I like that you really tried to, and you-you accomplished, where we're like, "Okay, yes, the flamingo for the hotel in Vegas.
" And then the-the money and the cards.
Everything kinda, it-it made sense.
And I like, that you really took that creative step.
And you guys are very comfortable up there.
So, even though the moves are clumsy, it-it just still looks like you guys runnin' around on stage and having a great time.
And I, I had a great time watching you.
The-the interaction between you two could've been a little bit smoother, but I loved that hula hoop shadow.
Uh, changing to the flamingo.
I thought that was a great way to blend two of 'em together.
That's a really cool, big-playing visual effect.
Interestingly enough, I think it's kinda cool, that, uh, we had two separate groups come up with the idea of transferring money - from the piggy bank to the flamingo.
- Right.
'Cause now we're playing on the same turf.
And I love that.
I loved that a lot.
We'll find out who advances to the Wizard War, and the chance to win $10,000, right after this.
Coming up, right after the break.
I have a prediction.
Take whatever card we shuffle to.
Four of diamonds.
And my prediction, the four of diamonds.
Stick around, I'll show you how to do that for your friends.
Earlier, you saw how I can make a prediction, that will match the card that's shuffled to the top of the deck, every time.
Your friend can shuffle as much as he wants, but the top card will always match my prediction.
Here's the secret.
There's two four of diamonds.
One that's in your prediction, and the other, that's secretly hidden underneath.
So, your friend can shuffle to his heart's content, because you're going to load this card, to the top of the deck.
They don't know that, but you're going to set the envelope on top, just like this, and that card is loaded on top.
You say, "All right.
Let's see what card you shuffled to.
" You remove the envelope, they turn over the top card, and it will match your prediction, every time.
The only thing you have to be careful of, is if, uh, you have some sort of smart aleck, who wants to cut to his own card.
A random card, like six of diamonds.
Then, it would help to be a wizard.
Two teams of challengers, just created amazing magic routines, using the same three everyday objects.
They call 'em mini hula hoops.
Watch it close.
Things start to morph and change.
Penn and Teller, which team will be moving on to the Wizard War? This is another tough one.
Hard objects to, uh, to work with.
Uh, I wanna break it down into those three categories you talk about so much.
For creativity, uh, we liked, uh, Team L.
A.
You know, the, uh, the opening thing with the shadows.
It was really nice.
Really took it to another level.
Took it out of just handling the props.
We liked that a lot.
For, uh, showmanship, uh, all of 'em good, but, uh, Team Philly, Teller's hometown, by the way, uh, you guys just had so much confidence, and owned the room so much.
We liked you a little better on that.
On deception, it's kind of a wash.
There were no big head-scratchers in there.
Uh, nothing that really made us, you know.
Won't make us stay up at night.
But I thought that Team Philly was a little, uh, a little cleaner on the moves.
Uh, comes down to a very, very close, uh, very close race, but, uh, Philly, take it away.
Congratulations, Eric and Joshua.
You will face two of our wizards in the wizard war.
If you somehow manage to defeat them, you get $10,000.
But before we get to the wizards, let's talk rules.
You must use each of these fishing-themed items, at least once in a routine.
A fishing pole, hip-waders, a tackle box, and a foot-long sandwich.
Tonight's wizards are Justin and Gregory.
Everyone, head on up! While the illusionists prep their routines, Billy is going to get up close and personal in the audience.
Billy? Okay, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get someone from the audience, if that's all right.
Maybe, maybe this, this gentleman, here.
R-right there, right there.
Yeah, you.
Would you mind, - would you mind helping me? - Yeah, sure.
Give him a round of applause, as he steps up.
How're you? Are you alright? I'm doin' alright.
How you doin'? - What, what's your name? - My name's David.
Uh, where're you from, David? - I'm from Sacramento.
- Sacramento.
All right, David.
I've got something for you, but just to confirm, we've never met before? - No.
- Never at all? - Never, yeah, never.
- Okay.
Here, I have just a little envelope.
Secret thing inside, for you.
We're gonna get back to that in a moment.
I want you to put that in your pocket, somewhere safe.
All right, we'll get back to that later.
Cool.
And in my pocket, over here, I've got this.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is an invisible deck of playing cards.
That's for you, David.
David, all you gotta do is follow my instructions, all right? There's an invisible table.
You're gonna spread those cards across the table.
Elegant.
If you could, if you could actually spread 'em face-down.
And now, you see what you did for yourself? Causing work.
Excellent.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, whenever you do a card trick, it's very important that you take out the two jokers.
If you could take out the two jokers for me? - Sure.
- Two jokers, David.
- Sure.
- There we go.
- That's, uh, one.
- Over there.
And two.
Let me see.
Ladies and gentlemen, unbelievable.
The two jokers, out of a face-down deck of playing cards.
Give him a round of applause.
Yes.
Now, David, things are gonna get a little bit weird.
I want you to gather up those playing cards for me.
Okay, take the cards.
And listen very carefully.
I'm gonna spread them in front of your face, like this.
And I just want you to look at one card, and memorize it.
- Do you have a card? - Yes.
Do you, can you remember it? - Yes.
- All right.
I want you to take the card out, the invisible card, and fold it in fours.
- It's so difficult.
- And toss it behind your back.
Great.
Now, you're familiar with playing cards, yes? - Yes.
- We got hearts, diamonds, - spades and clubs, yes? - Yes.
In a nice, loud voice, what was the name of your card? Seven of clubs.
Seven of clubs.
Now, this is really interesting, 'cause ladies and gentlemen, if you remember, at the beginning of the routine, I gave David a little gift.
- David, do you have that gift? - I sure do.
Now, here's the thing, buddy.
I don't wanna touch it.
I want you to rip it open, just like Christmas.
And inside, here, this is one thing, I'm gonna take it from you.
Ladies and gentlemen, David's card, the seven of clubs.
Give it up for David, guys.
That's for you.
Round of applause for David.
Thank you very much.
Give it up, for Billy Kid.
The challengers are working hard on their routine, so, let's check in on how they're doing.
So, obviously, this is gonna be a fishing theme.
- Hmmm.
- Hmmm.
Now, wouldn't it be cool, if we got it to penetrate something? Like, go through the hip-wade Oh! We'll put it through your body.
Huh.
Yeah, exactly like that.
Um-hmm.
- Catch a sandwich.
- Catch a sandwich.
- Instead of a fish.
- Instead of a fish.
So, imagine, if I was to show the audience, uh, one lure, and then cause it to change into a completely different one.
Ha-ha-ha.
Dude, that was hot.
It was kinda cool.
It was kinda cool.
First thing is, I-I'm not gonna fit in these.
So, we're gonna have to get a bigger pair.
Um, or you can wear 'em.
Hey, I can't, I have a image.
You got the suspenders thing goin' on, now.
This is definitely I'm sayin', I wanna win.
- I wanna win, so - I do.
I do, too.
I'm not leavin' this room, until we have at least an idea.
Coming up.
We're just two black guys from Philly, we've never gone fishing a day in our lives.
Ever.
The challengers hope to reel in a victory, in the Wizard War.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
It's time for the main event.
There's $10,000 with your name on it, if you can out-trick the wizards, using the same four everyday objects.
A fishing pole, hip-waders, a tackle box, and a foot-long sandwich.
Challengers, go to it.
So, thanks for havin' us back.
You know what? We've been doin' a little bit of thinkin', and, you know, we're just two black guys from Philly.
We've never gone fishin' a day in our lives.
Ever.
We really wanna show you guys somethin' interesting.
Uh, so what do we need? - We need a - Let's see.
First thing you need, is a tackle-box.
And of course, with all your tackle inside.
- And all the lures.
Yeah, all of that stuff.
- All the lures and tackle.
But, the-the most important part, if you wanna catch anything, is you have to have - You have to have a fishing pole.
- A fishing pole, right? You wanna hold on to this one? You hold on to this one.
I'm gonna show them something kind of interesting.
I'm gonna come down and show you something, that's gonna look a little unconventional.
It's almost gonna seem like it's completely unrelated to this, but, uh, I'll show you something that's kinda weird.
With a little coin.
If I was to take this little guy, and hold it right at the very tips of the fingers, give it a little squeeze, it Looks like it vanishes.
But, of course, it doesn't.
You know the old trick.
Comes back there.
I'll keep this one for myself.
But, actually, instead, we'll use this one.
But if you don't wanna use that, well, we can use this one here, or, Or, perhaps, this one, over here.
But the best part, is how you turn a little guy like this, into a lure.
Yeah? - You wanna drop that in? - What is that, E? It's-it's like a little fishin' lure.
It's-it's blue, it's sparkly, that's why I like it.
It's blue and sparkly.
I, I tell you what Yeah is there something you can do with it? Uh, maybe, I can try.
You know what? Prettiest lady, right here.
Come on up.
You, right there.
Yeah.
- Give it up for her.
- Come on, come on, come on.
- What's your name? - Mel.
- Mel? - Mm-hmm.
Everybody, give it up for Mel.
Mel, I tell you what.
Have you ever seen one of these, uh, lure squiggly-digs, right here, before? No, I'll tell you what.
Crazy thing happens, right, if you just give it a little knock and a si-a simple squeeze.
Here, you hold on to it, just like, uh, one finger.
Here you go, watch.
With a snap and a wave.
How many do you have? - One.
- One? - Just one.
- One? No, no, no.
Take a look.
Huh! - Show them both.
- Wow! - Oh, my God.
- Not half bad, at all.
I'll tell you what.
Back to your seat.
Beautiful.
Round of applause.
Help her get down Eric, if you will.
Okay, all right.
You know, Josh, actually, I-I'm wonderin' how this thing works.
I've never really had an opportunity to play with one of these, but, you know - I have no idea how it works.
- I can, I can try and show you - something cool.
- I mean, 'cause But I'm starvin'.
I'm tryin to What's wrong? Is everything okay? Uh, yeah, everything is fine, but I mean, we've been workin' so hard, I'm starvin'.
- You know, I'm a big boy - Well, we'll get something to eat later.
But first, I wanna show you this really cool thing - But I, I brought a sandwich.
- with this fishing rod.
I could've swore.
Did you eat my sandwich? No.
Why would I eat your sandwich? No, 'cause it was in here, and I swear, it's not in here now.
I don't know what to tell you.
I didn't eat your sandwich.
I'm trying to get you to watch this trick.
Show me your trick or something.
- Make me feel better.
- Well, do me a favor, look over there for a second.
Now, we're gonna do this thing, on the count of three.
One, two - Oh.
- Huh-huh-huh-huh.
That's interesting.
'Cause, guess what, E.
I found my lunch, baby.
Did you find your lunch? Sure did.
You found it? Have to make, uh, the best of it.
Reel me in, E.
Reel it in.
Reel it in.
Good guy.
That's good enough.
There you go.
Oh.
Huh-huh.
That's wonderful.
Oh.
Now that I got it - Ha-ha-ha-ha.
- Gotta You left this thing in me, - how am I supposed to - Well, that's magic.
You could just push it all the way through.
Just push it all the way through.
All right, there we go.
That's good enough for me.
That's awesome, that's awesome.
So, it's Pardon my back.
E, wait.
This, I don't believe, this is my sandwich.
No? You know what? Break bread with me.
- Yeah, I'll have some.
- Here you go.
Oh, what the That's nasty.
- What kinda sandwich - What kinda sand What did you What deli did you go to, bro? - What - Oh, my stars.
Hold on, hold on.
These are, these are the lures.
- Where's the, where's the - These are Where's the meat? Well, if these are the lures, then the meat must be That's, that's interesting.
And I'm free.
Ladies and gentlemen, I-I swear, I'm turnin' into chocolate milk, up here.
I'm meltin' up this bad boy.
It's super hot.
You know what? I think, I could really use some, uh, some privacy, maybe.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Could we get somethin' out here, to cover me up? - Yeah, let's try this.
- Can I get I'm gonna get real sexy for you, real quick, watch.
"Oooh.
" Awesome, awesome.
You go ahead.
Now, you wanna get out of the hip-waders? Is that what's goin' on? Um, I'm-a try my best.
I'm definitely gonna get out the hip-waders.
Okay, let's see if we can get this to work.
- All right? - All right, let's do it.
All right, guys.
We're gonna see if we can get Josh to do a little bit of magic.
We're gonna countdown to three.
Help me out.
Three, two, one.
Huh, that's kinda interesting.
Now, I don't know where Josh went, but I'm pretty sure we can find him.
All we have to do, is use this little guy.
All you have to do, is watch close.
It's gonna happen on the count of three.
One, two, three.
Woo! All right, let's find out, what the judges thought of this performance, starting with Jason.
I really liked the use of the props.
Although, there was a lot of dead space, between each effect.
And the showmanship, the-the fact that you just kept going, that's the right thing to do.
As a professional, that's what we have to do.
But, uh, as far as the creativity, I just, really like the direction you guys are going.
You really try to do something new, uh, with the props we gave you.
Thank you very much.
You know, uh, we could watch you do anything.
And you're kinda testing us.
Um, the opening line, because Teller's from Philly, and never went fishing, and because I'm from rural America, I went fishing all the time, we loved that.
Uh, people in Philadelphia don't fish.
So, we loved that.
So, I liked that, uh, the fish-out-of-water premise, if you'll excuse me.
Uh, and, uh, I liked a lot of the stuff You know, there was a lot of technical problems, but you're so, you're so loveable on stage, we adore you so much, we may cut you more slack than we should.
There were a lot of, uh, kind of, dead-space moments, that there really should be, kind of, stuff coming forth, to fill those spaces.
But I really enjoyed the contents of the sandwich, appearing in the tackle-box.
'Cause, that's not a way that I pictured the sandwich being used.
And it was a lot of ideas like that, where you, you took the objects we gave you, and you really, kind of, used 'em in very unique, very creative ways.
Thank you, guys, a lot.
We'll see the wizards' performance, when we come back.
Coming up.
Walking on water! The wizards go biblical.
Go for the multitudes, multitudes.
Keep it goin' over there.
Keep it goin' over there.
And try to pull off a miracle.
Boom, magic! Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Our wizards have already created a magic routine, using fishing themed items.
So, let's learn a bit about how they did it.
Uh, what can you do with some of the stuff in here? How 'bout a bobber? Like this guy? This is for jugglin', right? Whoa-huh-huh-huh.
This complicates things, a little bit.
I wonder if these come off.
All right, MacGyver.
And there's a lot of possibilities with just this.
I would love to see us show this empty, and make something appear in it.
Like a sandwich? Like, a dozen of these appear in there.
Then, some Make fish and bread appear? That's, well, yes.
And then later, we'll use the fishing waders, and we'll walk on water.
And then part it.
Wizards, it's showtime! We've been out here all day, haven't caught a single thing.
I think it's Think it's 'cause the water's so choppy.
It's perfectly still.
Oh, he's thinkin' about the white caps.
- Aaaah.
- Aaaah.
See what you did there.
Uh, but seriously, I'm actually getting really hungry.
Then how about a little less talk, and a little more fishin'? Show me what you can do.
Okay, no pole.
No pole, watch this.
Uh? Freshwater fishin'.
See, it's fresh water.
- A fresh water fish - What kinda All right, all right, all right.
What kinda fish is that? It's a bottle-nose.
Come on.
- Terrible, terrible.
- This is, what am I gonna - Awful.
Uh - What can you do? I-I can do better.
I can do a lot better.
In fact, if we get it just right, I don't even need to touch the water.
- Watch.
- Watch close, watch close.
We can get a fish.
- Oh, we got it, we got it.
- Come on.
Look at that! - He needs water, he needs water.
- He needs water.
- Give us some water.
- Right there! - Ladies and gentlemen! - Goldfish! Come on! We'll leave that guy right there.
Well, uh, that's I think, that's pretty good.
Uh, let's eat.
I'm not good with sushi.
- So, you want some bread with it.
- Loaves and fish.
- Loaves, right? - Yes, we could use loaves and fish, but We could, uh, multiply the fish and the bread, feed the multitudes.
You guys.
You're the multitudes.
Unfortunately, it's a good trick, good miracle, we'd lose points for originality.
You see? Two thousand years, some guy was - Let me see it.
- I know.
Let me see what you can do, anyway.
- All right, all right.
Let's see what we got.
- Let me see it, I wanna see it.
Okay, all right.
I got plenty, over here.
A little for everybody, folks.
A little for everybody.
- Got one of those over there.
- Oh, what's that? - Oh, that's some bread.
Uh, here, - Uh? we'll let you have that one.
- Okay, he's part of the multitude.
- Uh, yeah.
- Got one of those, over there.
- Let me just Well, that one, - well, that one's mine.
Okay, good.
- Got one of those, over there.
- All right.
That one, that one's a good one.
- Got another one, - over there.
- That one's good.
- That one's, another one for them.
- Come on! What-what's with you people? - Hey, you want one? - You want more? Keep it goin', over there.
Got another one, over there.
Another one, over there.
It's like Lucy And The Chocolate Factory, over there.
Keep it goin', over there.
Keep it goin', over there.
Keep it goin', over - Look how small that bloody box is, over there.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at that.
- Oh.
Oh God, he's unbelievable.
There's like, about 4,900 more, - but we'll get back to that later, okay.
- Sure.
You know what? I think, I think I can do the same, if-if I, if I may, uh Show them, show them.
- Let's, let's see if we can try this.
- Go for the multitudes, - multitudes.
Go.
Lots of people.
- Multitudes, - multitudes? - Big fish.
- Oh! - Look at all that fish! Look at all that fish! Plenty for everybody.
Well, we'll hand it out.
Okay.
As long as we're turning magic into miracles, I think you should do one more.
You ready? Are you ready? Come on! Miracle of miracles, watch it happen.
Walkin' on water! He's standing on water.
That's standing on water.
Okay, joggin' on water.
Joggin' on water.
Let's see what you can do, Little Mister.
I? No, I don't think I can do that.
I don't wanna get wet.
- Yea, yea of little faith.
- Well.
Whoa! - Come and join me, come and join me.
- I will, hang on.
Let me bring my tackle-box.
Oh! Oh, my I'm not getting wet, 'cause I'm wearing fishing waders.
- Look at that! - Oh, look at the walkin'.
Oh, look at the acting, he's walkin'.
Uh, one more thing.
Watch the stage.
Check this out.
Yeah! Boom, magic! We're outta here.
- Can we get an amen? - Hallelujah.
- Here we go.
- Plenty of fish.
You get fish.
You get fish.
And wash it down.
Wash it down, - You get fish.
- wash it down.
Let's see what the judges thought of your performance.
- Christen? - Um, you really brought the whole fishing theme in, in every way.
It was, it was awesome.
The religious jokes, and all those puns, so flawless, and so hysterical.
So, that was really fun.
Thank you, guys.
I really, really liked the parting of the water.
I thought that was awesome.
It was, visually, you could hear it, you could see it.
It was just a great idea.
Uh, and I, I liked the, uh, the waders.
The waders coming up.
It was a great way to use 'em.
But on the other side of it, we saw a couple of flashes on little things.
But when you get to that level of great show and great creativity, sometimes, deception doesn't really matter as much.
It's just a great show.
Thanks, thank you very much.
Thank you, thank you.
Uh, there's always a marriage of, uh, surrealism and magic.
Uh, you have surrealism built in automatically.
Taking the symbolism of the bottles for the water, and then using all the jokes on that, and making it all a symbolic thing, and building that onto the symbolism of the bible, makes it intellectually, um, really nice.
No matter how many jokes they do, it's essentially an intellectual conceit.
And, uh, once they've got all that going for them, we don't care about the magic.
The magic was fine, but who cares? It was better than that.
We'll find out which team wins tonight's Wizard War, when we come back.
All right.
It's time.
Which team is the winner of tonight's Wizard War? Uh, Eric, Joshua, we loved both of ya, and we love Philadelphia, and we would watch you do anything, and that's gonna be true forever.
But, you know, sometimes, things fall together just right, and the whole bit just swings.
The wizards, Justin and Greg, you guys win.
Congratulations, wizards.
Thank you, Eric and Joshua.
Thank you, judges.
Good night from Wizard Wars.
- Using ordinary objects - Whoa! - to create extraordinary illusions.
- Woo! The team that impresses the judges - Wow, was this close.
- will battle the wizards, - for a chance at $10,000.
- Money!! The wizards are, street magician, Justin Flom, escape artist, Billy Kid, - conman, Gregory Wilson - Your wallets! And grand-stage illusionist, Shimshi.
And tonight Cutting-edge magic takes center stage, as teams from Philadelphia And Los Angeles Things start to morph and change.
Compete to advance to the Wizard War.
Keep it goin' over there.
But the wizards go biblical.
- Walkin' on water! - Hahahaha.
Can they conjure up miracles? Whoa! Find out, next.
Magic! Hi, everyone.
I'm Ellen Fox, and welcome to Wizard Wars.
We have some amazing illusionists here tonight to test their skills, by performing magic with everyday objects.
So, let's get started and meet our judges.
Penn and Teller.
Christen Gerhart.
Jason Latimer.
Shimshi is going to start tonight off, with a classic of magic.
And he'll be getting a helping hand from Billy.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Uh, so, on Wizard Wars, we're doing new stuff all the time, we create new magic.
But as illusionists, we love classics of magic.
But we're still gonna do it in a way you've never seen before.
Uh, we thought we're gonna do, like, a throwback to the '20s.
So, take off the jacket, Billy.
- Yuh! - Beautiful! - Woo! - Looks beautiful.
- That looks beautiful.
- Oh, we've got more.
You have a tattoo, but it looks beautiful.
There you go.
I'm so happy.
Yes, you seem very excited.
That looks great.
You don't need that.
All right, so, um, are you ready? Why don't you please, have, uh, have a se - Lie down? - Yeah.
- Lie down.
- Okay.
- All right, you're doing good.
- Okay.
- All right.
- Oh.
All right.
Make sure it's real.
All right.
It's confusing, it was confusing.
- All right.
Okay.
- Shimshi, wait, wait.
I thought we were friends.
I thought we were friends.
We are friends.
Aah! Very good.
All right, now, I'm sure you've seen illusionists, uh, cut a girl, before.
That's why we thought we're gonna show you something you haven't seen before.
We're gonna strip everything down, so you can see it.
Completely.
No, but I really want you guys to see everything.
All the way in.
Oh! All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna wake her up, in the best way that I know how.
Stop it, stop it.
Okay, okay, Shimshi.
- Yes.
- Shimshi.
Where are you? Shimshi.
All right, uh, here's the thing.
I really have to pee.
Like right now, seriously.
Not a good time.
Uh.
Uh.
Where'd he go? Oh, there we go.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, that works.
Okay, that feels so much better.
Again.
Ah.
All right.
Tonight's first team of challengers, are both from Philly.
First, a close-up creator, who's so prolific, he was asked to teach at the World Magic seminar, in Las Vegas.
Eric Jones.
Some of the stuff that I'm known for in the magic community, is magic with everyday objects.
When you're put onto a situation, like here, at Wizard Wars, you have to learn how to take those small tricks, and get 'em to play bigger, to a much larger audience.
That's a challenge, that I'm really looking forward to.
Teaming up with Eric, is a magician known for creating the most deceptive linking ring trick on the magic market.
Please welcome Joshua Messado.
In the magic community, I'm known for the Chinese linking rings.
I've developed a series of moves, or flourishes, that I've dubbed "ringistry".
Bein' on Wizard Wars is a dream come true.
All my years of hard work and dedication, have finally paid off.
Taking on Eric and Joshua are a team of L.
A.
locals.
First, is a magician, who's won awards for his close-up magic, Alex Iverson.
My magic is always impromptu, and it's geared towards the audience that I'm in front of.
That's why I like close-up magic.
What I'm excited about with Wizard Wars, is being on the biggest stage I've ever been on.
Yeah, I'm gonna show America what I have.
Joining Alex is an illusionist, who's performances are best described as part-magic show, part-heavy metal concert.
It's Sammy Cortino.
My magic is a cross between slight-of-hand and stage magic.
And a lot of the effects that I do involve dangerous objects and musical instruments.
Wizard Wars is an amazing opportunity.
And really, the plan is to win this competition.
Now, for the rules of the Challenger Round.
Each team will be given three of the same everyday objects, to use at least once during an original routine.
A pink, lawn flamingo, a hula hoop, and a piggy bank filled with coins.
You will be judged based on your creativity, deception and showmanship.
Eric and Joshua are up first.
They've already put their performance together, so let's see how they did it.
I can probably do a couple of things with the coins.
Like the, to show three, and then cause one to vanish, and maybe, have it go back inside of the piggy bank.
And take the next one and drop that, or give it a little squeeze, and take all three, and make all three vanish.
And then be able to jump them back out of the, the piggy bank.
- That could be something we could - You is great - with the coins, dude.
- Um, I'm, I'm all right, but let's see what else we can find.
They got a gang of stuff in here.
Uh-oh.
I'm the ring guy man.
I-I absolutely love 'em.
These things are great.
Okay, well, let's, let's keep that in mind.
Maybe, if we could do something with the hula hoops, on a larger scale.
So, how about this.
Show a coupla coins, show 'em like this, and then cover it with the hand, and then cause one coin to arrive inside, but getting that to happen with the piggy bank.
What if we could get all of them to arrive inside? So you actually hear Imagine this.
From here, to grandma's flamingo.
Eric and Joshua.
Take it away, guys.
Now, tonight, we're gonna share with you a little bit of magic.
Now, see, in the 21st century it's like a rat-race.
The day-to-day activities, kinda keep you from realizing the moments of magic.
In fact, we'd like to share a little bit of that with you now, using this little hula hoop.
Eric, that's not a hula hoop, my friend.
Sure, it is.
All you have to do, is imagine.
Watch close.
Oh.
Not bad.
Not bad.
I see where you're going with this.
- I got one of my own.
- Yeah? They call 'em mini hula hoops.
Watch it, close.
But, wait.
But, wait.
There's more.
Get that.
Get that.
You know, what? Let's end with a big finish.
How about that? - How's that sound? - Tell you what, let's try it.
That's kinda weird.
Takes me back in the day, to my childhood.
There was a beautiful, young lady, her name was Lisa, and she used to amaze me w-with her Hey, do you remember the thing? - Oh, you're talkin' about that - Lisa used to do, with the - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right? - That was awesome.
- The wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, right? I tell ya what.
How 'bout we recreate that right now? I need a beautiful, young lady to come up and help us out.
To play the part of that lovely, young lady, from back in the day.
Uh, miss, would you How 'bout you? You look like her.
You remind me Big round of applause.
Give it for ya.
- Come on.
No, I want her hand.
- I got her hand.
- You don't have to worry about it.
I got it, I got it.
- It's cool.
It's all right.
- How are you? What's your name? - And what's your name? - Courtney.
- Good to meet you, Courtney.
Give it up for Courtney, guys.
Thank you, so much, Courtney.
Tonight, what we're gonna do, is we're gonna recreate - one of Josh's little wiggle-wiggle sessions, yeah? - Wiggle-wiggle.
Uh, we're gonna get you to hula hoop for just a couple of seconds.
In fact, 30 seconds.
If, in fact, you can hula hoop for a continuous 30 seconds, we're gonna give you all the money In the piggy bank.
- All right.
- Now, we're gonna give you three tries, 'cause I don't know if you're a pro, or if you're a novice, like I am.
Ready to give her a little encouragement? Guys, give her a round of applause.
And are you ready? Yes.
And go.
One.
Uh, keep goin'.
Keep it goin', keep it goin'.
Keep goin', keep goin', keep goin'.
Get her a little in character.
There we go.
- It's goin', it's goin'.
- Get it, get it.
Ha-ha-ha-ha, that's awesome.
Awesome, awesome.
You know what? You didn't quite win.
You didn't quite make it to 30 seconds.
And it's okay, it's okay.
- Do not cry.
- If you don't mind standing right here.
I'll take this back from you.
But you got to 14.
J-Josh, if you don't mind just dumping the coins into my hands.
Excellent.
Get 'em all out there.
Now, you stopped at 14 seconds.
Had you gone one more, or one less, it could've changed the entire outcome.
If you don't mind.
I'll show my hands, empty.
If you could count those coins onto the palm of my hands.
- There's one, two, three, - One, two, three, - four, five, six, seven, - four, five, six, seven, - eight, nine, - eight, nine, - 10, 11, 12, 13, - 10, 11, 12, 13, - Fourteen.
- and 14.
Give her a round of applause, please.
Be careful on your way back to your seat.
- Would you mind givin' her a hand back? - Thank you so much, darlin'.
We'd like to show one more piece to you, using these two props.
The little pink pig and Le flamingo! Josh, if you don't mind, take the pink flamingo out into the audience, and see if we can get a volunteer to help us out.
- All righty.
- Actually, Teller, would you mind, sir.
Oh, oh, yeah, give it up for Teller.
How are you, sir? If you could grab Uh, just hold it right here, by the neck, and it's, uh, the - -.
- All right, here we go.
- Huh-huh-huh.
Guys, I want you to use your imagination.
If you could imagine, me being able to, without touching the pig, reach in and grab a coin Of course, that is gonna take a little bit of imagination.
Unless, of course, I can make it real.
Ooh.
Now, of course Watch this.
Watch the flamingo, watch the coin.
- Not bad, not bad.
- It's real, it's real.
Let's take it one step further.
One step further.
Could we do more? Yes.
It's kinda weird.
If you don't mind passing the flamingo back to Josh for just a second.
- Josh, are you ready? - I'm ready.
And now! We're gonna find out what the judges thought of your performance, starting with Christen.
I loved using the flamingo as another piggy bank.
And to actually hear the-the transfer of the coins over here, on this other side of the room, was a really lovely touch.
And I don't know if it's just me, but it was kinda fun, pulling the head off the flamingo, - and ripping the pig apart.
- Yeah, we took it apart.
- And I thought that was kind of, that was kind of a - Yeah.
A fun way of, of ending it.
The hula hoop I actually really enjoyed as well.
Um, the manipulation of the, the small hula hoops was beautiful.
- Thank you.
- And I really enjoyed you guys' performance.
Thank you, thank you.
You know, I-I am very familiar with your guys' work.
And to see you guys cha-change the game, and bring it into your field of close-up magic coins and rings, using the hula hoops as smaller rings, is something that makes it smooth.
And I-I thought it worked.
Deception, awesome, because you're playing in your turf.
- It was great.
Great job.
- Thank you, thank you.
Well, they gave us money.
Game over.
Uh, one of the things that's really important, uh, in watching performers, especially if it's even slightly in comedy, is being able to relax.
Uh, with you two guys, uh, nothing could go wrong.
If every one of the tricks had gone badly, I-I wouldn't have felt heartbroken.
Because you're so comfortable on stage, so classy.
Uh, you, you got yourself into a comfort zone, did the coin stuff, the hoop stuff, stuff that you could even, even relax more.
And we just felt, from beginning to end, uh, we were in very, very good hands, with two very classy professionals.
Thank you.
You'll see if our L.
A.
illusionists can top Team Philly, when we come back.
I'm Justin Flom, and in this envelope I have a prediction.
We can take a deck of cards, give it a shuffle.
Take whatever card we shuffle to.
Four of diamonds.
And my prediction, the four of diamonds.
Stick around, I'll show you how to do that for your friends.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Local boys, Alex Iverson and Sammy Cortino are up next, and they've already built their routine.
So, let's see what kind of creations they've conjured up.
What if we made this into a flamingo bank? We cut a little incision across the top, running all the way, this way, that we can put a larger object inside of.
Maybe, a transfer from this bank - Yes.
- To the flamingo.
Yeah, we just have to modify it.
Yeah.
So, we shake the piggy bank We hear a sound.
We shake this, conceivably, we don't hear anything.
And then, I shake this - And it's all there.
- Yeah.
So, what're we gonna do, that's different, with this hula hoop? - Um.
- I think, that's the final question.
Transformation of some sort.
Either use the hula hoop to transform something else, or transform the hula hoop itself.
I like that.
Alex and Sammy, it's time to shine.
Gentlemen, take it away! So, we have been given a piggy bank.
We also have, uh, been given two hula hoops.
The first one's here, where's the Did you bring the second one? - Ooh.
Perhaps.
- And it's right there.
I like, I like his, I like your style.
I like your style.
Very good.
You know, as magicians, one of our favorite cities in the world, is Las Vegas, Nevada.
Some of the greatest magicians in the world have headlined at Las Vegas.
Uh, we got this sheet from a hotel room in Vegas, - and we have here - So, we have the hoop.
And the thing about Vegas, is the lights are sort of distorted.
So, if you watch the hoop, you can actually see, things start to morph and change in Las Vegas.
You're wondering what a hula hoop and a piggy bank, have to do with Vegas.
You're probably wondering what a piggy bank and a hula hoop have to do with Vegas.
It has absolutely everything to do with Las Vegas.
Sometimes, in Vegas, you see flamingoes, sprinkling the lawns of all the homes, - all around.
- Money comes down to the casino floor, and one of the very first casinos in Vegas, The Flamingo.
Well, you know, one of the tricks that they do in Vegas, is, uh, they take your money.
They make you think like it's a little bit bigger, but ultimately, it always disappears.
But if you take a little bit of your money Well, hold on, wait.
Um, hold on, need a, need a little cash out of here.
All right.
Place a, you place a bet, ultimately The money will travel - from your hard-earned bank account - It will disappear.
And back inside the casino floor.
But, you know, the thing about Las Vegas, is, it's not to say that everybody walks away, completely broke.
On the contrary, there are a lot of big winners, that we find in Las Vegas.
Um, gentleman right here.
What's your name? Uh, Andre.
- Andre, Andre? - Yes.
And Andre joins us from? Uh, Ukraine.
Ukraine.
That's, that's different.
- That's a-ways away.
- Andre from Ukraine.
Um, tonight, you're our big winner.
You're gonna walk away with an amazing surprise.
All I need is your wallet and a dollar bill.
Take out a dollar bill.
Any bill, it doesn't matter which one it is.
And I want you to sign your name, right across the face, so you can identify it later.
All right? Excellent.
And show everybody the signature.
Andre's signature.
Andre from Ukraine.
All right.
Hold it up one more time.
- Andre's signature, on the dollar bill.
- The wallet, please? He's gonna take the wallet, and - That's for you.
- I'm gonna take this back to the car.
Take it back to the car.
Andre's signed dollar bill.
I'm gonna fold it into eighths.
And, um, Alex, I want you to have fun with this.
Well, I don't know.
When I get to Vegas, money always tends to burn a little bit of a hole in my pocket.
Oh, gosh.
He-he-he.
- And as you can see - Oh, wow.
Andre's wallet is perfectly fine.
Here's the truth about Vegas.
Sometimes, I think you have to break the bank, - to get out alive.
- You absolutely do.
So, let's do that now.
One Everybody, count with me.
Three, two, one! - And we can see right here, we have a wallet.
- All right.
We also have a hula hoop that's been here the whole time, with your dollar bill taped up to it.
And I believe, that belongs to you.
Give it up to our big winner, everybody! Thank you.
- Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
- Thank you.
Let's hear it for Alex and Sammy! All right, well, let's find out what the judges thought of your performance, starting with Penn and Teller.
We loved the, uh, shadow thing of changing the, uh, changing the hula hoop into the flamingo.
That was really, really nice.
And loved forcing the um, the Vegas idea onto, onto these particular props.
Very entertaining, very nice.
The idea of having the Vegas theme, was, was very cool.
It's kind of hard to string those particular items together.
And I like that you really tried to, and you-you accomplished, where we're like, "Okay, yes, the flamingo for the hotel in Vegas.
" And then the-the money and the cards.
Everything kinda, it-it made sense.
And I like, that you really took that creative step.
And you guys are very comfortable up there.
So, even though the moves are clumsy, it-it just still looks like you guys runnin' around on stage and having a great time.
And I, I had a great time watching you.
The-the interaction between you two could've been a little bit smoother, but I loved that hula hoop shadow.
Uh, changing to the flamingo.
I thought that was a great way to blend two of 'em together.
That's a really cool, big-playing visual effect.
Interestingly enough, I think it's kinda cool, that, uh, we had two separate groups come up with the idea of transferring money - from the piggy bank to the flamingo.
- Right.
'Cause now we're playing on the same turf.
And I love that.
I loved that a lot.
We'll find out who advances to the Wizard War, and the chance to win $10,000, right after this.
Coming up, right after the break.
I have a prediction.
Take whatever card we shuffle to.
Four of diamonds.
And my prediction, the four of diamonds.
Stick around, I'll show you how to do that for your friends.
Earlier, you saw how I can make a prediction, that will match the card that's shuffled to the top of the deck, every time.
Your friend can shuffle as much as he wants, but the top card will always match my prediction.
Here's the secret.
There's two four of diamonds.
One that's in your prediction, and the other, that's secretly hidden underneath.
So, your friend can shuffle to his heart's content, because you're going to load this card, to the top of the deck.
They don't know that, but you're going to set the envelope on top, just like this, and that card is loaded on top.
You say, "All right.
Let's see what card you shuffled to.
" You remove the envelope, they turn over the top card, and it will match your prediction, every time.
The only thing you have to be careful of, is if, uh, you have some sort of smart aleck, who wants to cut to his own card.
A random card, like six of diamonds.
Then, it would help to be a wizard.
Two teams of challengers, just created amazing magic routines, using the same three everyday objects.
They call 'em mini hula hoops.
Watch it close.
Things start to morph and change.
Penn and Teller, which team will be moving on to the Wizard War? This is another tough one.
Hard objects to, uh, to work with.
Uh, I wanna break it down into those three categories you talk about so much.
For creativity, uh, we liked, uh, Team L.
A.
You know, the, uh, the opening thing with the shadows.
It was really nice.
Really took it to another level.
Took it out of just handling the props.
We liked that a lot.
For, uh, showmanship, uh, all of 'em good, but, uh, Team Philly, Teller's hometown, by the way, uh, you guys just had so much confidence, and owned the room so much.
We liked you a little better on that.
On deception, it's kind of a wash.
There were no big head-scratchers in there.
Uh, nothing that really made us, you know.
Won't make us stay up at night.
But I thought that Team Philly was a little, uh, a little cleaner on the moves.
Uh, comes down to a very, very close, uh, very close race, but, uh, Philly, take it away.
Congratulations, Eric and Joshua.
You will face two of our wizards in the wizard war.
If you somehow manage to defeat them, you get $10,000.
But before we get to the wizards, let's talk rules.
You must use each of these fishing-themed items, at least once in a routine.
A fishing pole, hip-waders, a tackle box, and a foot-long sandwich.
Tonight's wizards are Justin and Gregory.
Everyone, head on up! While the illusionists prep their routines, Billy is going to get up close and personal in the audience.
Billy? Okay, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get someone from the audience, if that's all right.
Maybe, maybe this, this gentleman, here.
R-right there, right there.
Yeah, you.
Would you mind, - would you mind helping me? - Yeah, sure.
Give him a round of applause, as he steps up.
How're you? Are you alright? I'm doin' alright.
How you doin'? - What, what's your name? - My name's David.
Uh, where're you from, David? - I'm from Sacramento.
- Sacramento.
All right, David.
I've got something for you, but just to confirm, we've never met before? - No.
- Never at all? - Never, yeah, never.
- Okay.
Here, I have just a little envelope.
Secret thing inside, for you.
We're gonna get back to that in a moment.
I want you to put that in your pocket, somewhere safe.
All right, we'll get back to that later.
Cool.
And in my pocket, over here, I've got this.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is an invisible deck of playing cards.
That's for you, David.
David, all you gotta do is follow my instructions, all right? There's an invisible table.
You're gonna spread those cards across the table.
Elegant.
If you could, if you could actually spread 'em face-down.
And now, you see what you did for yourself? Causing work.
Excellent.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, whenever you do a card trick, it's very important that you take out the two jokers.
If you could take out the two jokers for me? - Sure.
- Two jokers, David.
- Sure.
- There we go.
- That's, uh, one.
- Over there.
And two.
Let me see.
Ladies and gentlemen, unbelievable.
The two jokers, out of a face-down deck of playing cards.
Give him a round of applause.
Yes.
Now, David, things are gonna get a little bit weird.
I want you to gather up those playing cards for me.
Okay, take the cards.
And listen very carefully.
I'm gonna spread them in front of your face, like this.
And I just want you to look at one card, and memorize it.
- Do you have a card? - Yes.
Do you, can you remember it? - Yes.
- All right.
I want you to take the card out, the invisible card, and fold it in fours.
- It's so difficult.
- And toss it behind your back.
Great.
Now, you're familiar with playing cards, yes? - Yes.
- We got hearts, diamonds, - spades and clubs, yes? - Yes.
In a nice, loud voice, what was the name of your card? Seven of clubs.
Seven of clubs.
Now, this is really interesting, 'cause ladies and gentlemen, if you remember, at the beginning of the routine, I gave David a little gift.
- David, do you have that gift? - I sure do.
Now, here's the thing, buddy.
I don't wanna touch it.
I want you to rip it open, just like Christmas.
And inside, here, this is one thing, I'm gonna take it from you.
Ladies and gentlemen, David's card, the seven of clubs.
Give it up for David, guys.
That's for you.
Round of applause for David.
Thank you very much.
Give it up, for Billy Kid.
The challengers are working hard on their routine, so, let's check in on how they're doing.
So, obviously, this is gonna be a fishing theme.
- Hmmm.
- Hmmm.
Now, wouldn't it be cool, if we got it to penetrate something? Like, go through the hip-wade Oh! We'll put it through your body.
Huh.
Yeah, exactly like that.
Um-hmm.
- Catch a sandwich.
- Catch a sandwich.
- Instead of a fish.
- Instead of a fish.
So, imagine, if I was to show the audience, uh, one lure, and then cause it to change into a completely different one.
Ha-ha-ha.
Dude, that was hot.
It was kinda cool.
It was kinda cool.
First thing is, I-I'm not gonna fit in these.
So, we're gonna have to get a bigger pair.
Um, or you can wear 'em.
Hey, I can't, I have a image.
You got the suspenders thing goin' on, now.
This is definitely I'm sayin', I wanna win.
- I wanna win, so - I do.
I do, too.
I'm not leavin' this room, until we have at least an idea.
Coming up.
We're just two black guys from Philly, we've never gone fishing a day in our lives.
Ever.
The challengers hope to reel in a victory, in the Wizard War.
Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
It's time for the main event.
There's $10,000 with your name on it, if you can out-trick the wizards, using the same four everyday objects.
A fishing pole, hip-waders, a tackle box, and a foot-long sandwich.
Challengers, go to it.
So, thanks for havin' us back.
You know what? We've been doin' a little bit of thinkin', and, you know, we're just two black guys from Philly.
We've never gone fishin' a day in our lives.
Ever.
We really wanna show you guys somethin' interesting.
Uh, so what do we need? - We need a - Let's see.
First thing you need, is a tackle-box.
And of course, with all your tackle inside.
- And all the lures.
Yeah, all of that stuff.
- All the lures and tackle.
But, the-the most important part, if you wanna catch anything, is you have to have - You have to have a fishing pole.
- A fishing pole, right? You wanna hold on to this one? You hold on to this one.
I'm gonna show them something kind of interesting.
I'm gonna come down and show you something, that's gonna look a little unconventional.
It's almost gonna seem like it's completely unrelated to this, but, uh, I'll show you something that's kinda weird.
With a little coin.
If I was to take this little guy, and hold it right at the very tips of the fingers, give it a little squeeze, it Looks like it vanishes.
But, of course, it doesn't.
You know the old trick.
Comes back there.
I'll keep this one for myself.
But, actually, instead, we'll use this one.
But if you don't wanna use that, well, we can use this one here, or, Or, perhaps, this one, over here.
But the best part, is how you turn a little guy like this, into a lure.
Yeah? - You wanna drop that in? - What is that, E? It's-it's like a little fishin' lure.
It's-it's blue, it's sparkly, that's why I like it.
It's blue and sparkly.
I, I tell you what Yeah is there something you can do with it? Uh, maybe, I can try.
You know what? Prettiest lady, right here.
Come on up.
You, right there.
Yeah.
- Give it up for her.
- Come on, come on, come on.
- What's your name? - Mel.
- Mel? - Mm-hmm.
Everybody, give it up for Mel.
Mel, I tell you what.
Have you ever seen one of these, uh, lure squiggly-digs, right here, before? No, I'll tell you what.
Crazy thing happens, right, if you just give it a little knock and a si-a simple squeeze.
Here, you hold on to it, just like, uh, one finger.
Here you go, watch.
With a snap and a wave.
How many do you have? - One.
- One? - Just one.
- One? No, no, no.
Take a look.
Huh! - Show them both.
- Wow! - Oh, my God.
- Not half bad, at all.
I'll tell you what.
Back to your seat.
Beautiful.
Round of applause.
Help her get down Eric, if you will.
Okay, all right.
You know, Josh, actually, I-I'm wonderin' how this thing works.
I've never really had an opportunity to play with one of these, but, you know - I have no idea how it works.
- I can, I can try and show you - something cool.
- I mean, 'cause But I'm starvin'.
I'm tryin to What's wrong? Is everything okay? Uh, yeah, everything is fine, but I mean, we've been workin' so hard, I'm starvin'.
- You know, I'm a big boy - Well, we'll get something to eat later.
But first, I wanna show you this really cool thing - But I, I brought a sandwich.
- with this fishing rod.
I could've swore.
Did you eat my sandwich? No.
Why would I eat your sandwich? No, 'cause it was in here, and I swear, it's not in here now.
I don't know what to tell you.
I didn't eat your sandwich.
I'm trying to get you to watch this trick.
Show me your trick or something.
- Make me feel better.
- Well, do me a favor, look over there for a second.
Now, we're gonna do this thing, on the count of three.
One, two - Oh.
- Huh-huh-huh-huh.
That's interesting.
'Cause, guess what, E.
I found my lunch, baby.
Did you find your lunch? Sure did.
You found it? Have to make, uh, the best of it.
Reel me in, E.
Reel it in.
Reel it in.
Good guy.
That's good enough.
There you go.
Oh.
Huh-huh.
That's wonderful.
Oh.
Now that I got it - Ha-ha-ha-ha.
- Gotta You left this thing in me, - how am I supposed to - Well, that's magic.
You could just push it all the way through.
Just push it all the way through.
All right, there we go.
That's good enough for me.
That's awesome, that's awesome.
So, it's Pardon my back.
E, wait.
This, I don't believe, this is my sandwich.
No? You know what? Break bread with me.
- Yeah, I'll have some.
- Here you go.
Oh, what the That's nasty.
- What kinda sandwich - What kinda sand What did you What deli did you go to, bro? - What - Oh, my stars.
Hold on, hold on.
These are, these are the lures.
- Where's the, where's the - These are Where's the meat? Well, if these are the lures, then the meat must be That's, that's interesting.
And I'm free.
Ladies and gentlemen, I-I swear, I'm turnin' into chocolate milk, up here.
I'm meltin' up this bad boy.
It's super hot.
You know what? I think, I could really use some, uh, some privacy, maybe.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Could we get somethin' out here, to cover me up? - Yeah, let's try this.
- Can I get I'm gonna get real sexy for you, real quick, watch.
"Oooh.
" Awesome, awesome.
You go ahead.
Now, you wanna get out of the hip-waders? Is that what's goin' on? Um, I'm-a try my best.
I'm definitely gonna get out the hip-waders.
Okay, let's see if we can get this to work.
- All right? - All right, let's do it.
All right, guys.
We're gonna see if we can get Josh to do a little bit of magic.
We're gonna countdown to three.
Help me out.
Three, two, one.
Huh, that's kinda interesting.
Now, I don't know where Josh went, but I'm pretty sure we can find him.
All we have to do, is use this little guy.
All you have to do, is watch close.
It's gonna happen on the count of three.
One, two, three.
Woo! All right, let's find out, what the judges thought of this performance, starting with Jason.
I really liked the use of the props.
Although, there was a lot of dead space, between each effect.
And the showmanship, the-the fact that you just kept going, that's the right thing to do.
As a professional, that's what we have to do.
But, uh, as far as the creativity, I just, really like the direction you guys are going.
You really try to do something new, uh, with the props we gave you.
Thank you very much.
You know, uh, we could watch you do anything.
And you're kinda testing us.
Um, the opening line, because Teller's from Philly, and never went fishing, and because I'm from rural America, I went fishing all the time, we loved that.
Uh, people in Philadelphia don't fish.
So, we loved that.
So, I liked that, uh, the fish-out-of-water premise, if you'll excuse me.
Uh, and, uh, I liked a lot of the stuff You know, there was a lot of technical problems, but you're so, you're so loveable on stage, we adore you so much, we may cut you more slack than we should.
There were a lot of, uh, kind of, dead-space moments, that there really should be, kind of, stuff coming forth, to fill those spaces.
But I really enjoyed the contents of the sandwich, appearing in the tackle-box.
'Cause, that's not a way that I pictured the sandwich being used.
And it was a lot of ideas like that, where you, you took the objects we gave you, and you really, kind of, used 'em in very unique, very creative ways.
Thank you, guys, a lot.
We'll see the wizards' performance, when we come back.
Coming up.
Walking on water! The wizards go biblical.
Go for the multitudes, multitudes.
Keep it goin' over there.
Keep it goin' over there.
And try to pull off a miracle.
Boom, magic! Welcome back to Wizard Wars.
Our wizards have already created a magic routine, using fishing themed items.
So, let's learn a bit about how they did it.
Uh, what can you do with some of the stuff in here? How 'bout a bobber? Like this guy? This is for jugglin', right? Whoa-huh-huh-huh.
This complicates things, a little bit.
I wonder if these come off.
All right, MacGyver.
And there's a lot of possibilities with just this.
I would love to see us show this empty, and make something appear in it.
Like a sandwich? Like, a dozen of these appear in there.
Then, some Make fish and bread appear? That's, well, yes.
And then later, we'll use the fishing waders, and we'll walk on water.
And then part it.
Wizards, it's showtime! We've been out here all day, haven't caught a single thing.
I think it's Think it's 'cause the water's so choppy.
It's perfectly still.
Oh, he's thinkin' about the white caps.
- Aaaah.
- Aaaah.
See what you did there.
Uh, but seriously, I'm actually getting really hungry.
Then how about a little less talk, and a little more fishin'? Show me what you can do.
Okay, no pole.
No pole, watch this.
Uh? Freshwater fishin'.
See, it's fresh water.
- A fresh water fish - What kinda All right, all right, all right.
What kinda fish is that? It's a bottle-nose.
Come on.
- Terrible, terrible.
- This is, what am I gonna - Awful.
Uh - What can you do? I-I can do better.
I can do a lot better.
In fact, if we get it just right, I don't even need to touch the water.
- Watch.
- Watch close, watch close.
We can get a fish.
- Oh, we got it, we got it.
- Come on.
Look at that! - He needs water, he needs water.
- He needs water.
- Give us some water.
- Right there! - Ladies and gentlemen! - Goldfish! Come on! We'll leave that guy right there.
Well, uh, that's I think, that's pretty good.
Uh, let's eat.
I'm not good with sushi.
- So, you want some bread with it.
- Loaves and fish.
- Loaves, right? - Yes, we could use loaves and fish, but We could, uh, multiply the fish and the bread, feed the multitudes.
You guys.
You're the multitudes.
Unfortunately, it's a good trick, good miracle, we'd lose points for originality.
You see? Two thousand years, some guy was - Let me see it.
- I know.
Let me see what you can do, anyway.
- All right, all right.
Let's see what we got.
- Let me see it, I wanna see it.
Okay, all right.
I got plenty, over here.
A little for everybody, folks.
A little for everybody.
- Got one of those over there.
- Oh, what's that? - Oh, that's some bread.
Uh, here, - Uh? we'll let you have that one.
- Okay, he's part of the multitude.
- Uh, yeah.
- Got one of those, over there.
- Let me just Well, that one, - well, that one's mine.
Okay, good.
- Got one of those, over there.
- All right.
That one, that one's a good one.
- Got another one, - over there.
- That one's good.
- That one's, another one for them.
- Come on! What-what's with you people? - Hey, you want one? - You want more? Keep it goin', over there.
Got another one, over there.
Another one, over there.
It's like Lucy And The Chocolate Factory, over there.
Keep it goin', over there.
Keep it goin', over there.
Keep it goin', over - Look how small that bloody box is, over there.
- Oh, my God.
- Look at that.
- Oh.
Oh God, he's unbelievable.
There's like, about 4,900 more, - but we'll get back to that later, okay.
- Sure.
You know what? I think, I think I can do the same, if-if I, if I may, uh Show them, show them.
- Let's, let's see if we can try this.
- Go for the multitudes, - multitudes.
Go.
Lots of people.
- Multitudes, - multitudes? - Big fish.
- Oh! - Look at all that fish! Look at all that fish! Plenty for everybody.
Well, we'll hand it out.
Okay.
As long as we're turning magic into miracles, I think you should do one more.
You ready? Are you ready? Come on! Miracle of miracles, watch it happen.
Walkin' on water! He's standing on water.
That's standing on water.
Okay, joggin' on water.
Joggin' on water.
Let's see what you can do, Little Mister.
I? No, I don't think I can do that.
I don't wanna get wet.
- Yea, yea of little faith.
- Well.
Whoa! - Come and join me, come and join me.
- I will, hang on.
Let me bring my tackle-box.
Oh! Oh, my I'm not getting wet, 'cause I'm wearing fishing waders.
- Look at that! - Oh, look at the walkin'.
Oh, look at the acting, he's walkin'.
Uh, one more thing.
Watch the stage.
Check this out.
Yeah! Boom, magic! We're outta here.
- Can we get an amen? - Hallelujah.
- Here we go.
- Plenty of fish.
You get fish.
You get fish.
And wash it down.
Wash it down, - You get fish.
- wash it down.
Let's see what the judges thought of your performance.
- Christen? - Um, you really brought the whole fishing theme in, in every way.
It was, it was awesome.
The religious jokes, and all those puns, so flawless, and so hysterical.
So, that was really fun.
Thank you, guys.
I really, really liked the parting of the water.
I thought that was awesome.
It was, visually, you could hear it, you could see it.
It was just a great idea.
Uh, and I, I liked the, uh, the waders.
The waders coming up.
It was a great way to use 'em.
But on the other side of it, we saw a couple of flashes on little things.
But when you get to that level of great show and great creativity, sometimes, deception doesn't really matter as much.
It's just a great show.
Thanks, thank you very much.
Thank you, thank you.
Uh, there's always a marriage of, uh, surrealism and magic.
Uh, you have surrealism built in automatically.
Taking the symbolism of the bottles for the water, and then using all the jokes on that, and making it all a symbolic thing, and building that onto the symbolism of the bible, makes it intellectually, um, really nice.
No matter how many jokes they do, it's essentially an intellectual conceit.
And, uh, once they've got all that going for them, we don't care about the magic.
The magic was fine, but who cares? It was better than that.
We'll find out which team wins tonight's Wizard War, when we come back.
All right.
It's time.
Which team is the winner of tonight's Wizard War? Uh, Eric, Joshua, we loved both of ya, and we love Philadelphia, and we would watch you do anything, and that's gonna be true forever.
But, you know, sometimes, things fall together just right, and the whole bit just swings.
The wizards, Justin and Greg, you guys win.
Congratulations, wizards.
Thank you, Eric and Joshua.
Thank you, judges.
Good night from Wizard Wars.