'Penn & Teller: Fool Us' Season 7 Episode 2 Highlights: Hosts end up being tricked almost twice
Spoilers for 'Penn & Teller: Fool Us' Season 7 Episode 2
It's always a challenge to fool Penn & Teller and even industry pros have a tough time doing so. Does half a fooling count? Penn seems to think so, but one contestant managed to at least get an entire fooling in and will be making his way to Vegas, despite a number of strong showings this episode.
The episode was off to a great start with Eric Leclerc fooling Penn and Teller with a trick that saw him finding a single styrofoam peanut among thousands in a giant box. Penn noted that not only were he and Teller fooled but they also admired Leclerc for performing "fabulous, original magic", stating that he and Teller had been attempting to do a "needle in a haystack" style trick for years. Leclerc's dad jokes and exuberant energy kept the audience as entertained as they were mystified, and he managed to bag the night's first and only win.
Dave Sherman and Conan Liu both brought visually stunning illusions to the stage. Dave combated the Voice of the Inner Critic to spread his symbols of strength, purity and calm through a deck of cards, illustrating just how magic helped him gain confidence. Conan stunned audiences by turning water into tea (a much less alcoholic version of the old Biblical trick) and then took it up a notch by turning a tea branch into a tea girl. While Penn and Teller were initially blown away by the teapot trick, they figured that timing played a key role in its working, and neither Dave nor Conan managed to fool the professional magicians.
Ruben Vilagrand, who performed his trick mute, took a big risk by performing a trick similar to one of Teller's — swallowed fish hooks and chewed up thread were pulled out of his mouth tied together like a fish on a line. Doing a trick Teller knew so well proved to be a major disadvantage for Ruben as Penn and Teller were able to map out their trick to figure out just how Vilagrand's was done.
In the final trick of the night, Penn went solo against Teller, trying to fool the latter with one of Penn's own tricks. Penn managed to pick out Teller's card by process of elimination — picking out cards that were exactly the wrong one in order to correctly show he knew which one Teller had picked. Calling in Piff the Magic Dragon to act as his mouthpiece, Teller displayed a first for the show — Penn had HALF fooled him. It's enough to earn Penn a trophy all the same, ending the night with one and a half foolings, and sometimes half a chance is all you need.
The next episode of 'Penn & Teller: Fool Us' airs on June 6 on The CW.