"YOU FOOLED US!"
Have you ever dreamed of standing on stage as Penn Jillette leaps from his chair and shouts those unforgettable words at you? For some, this is the dream of a lifetime. To a few of our readers, this dream even became a reality.
Penn & Teller: Fool Us has been around for nearly fifteen years, gaining and maintaining its relevance among magicians. With over 150 episodes, hundreds of magicians worldwide apply to fly to Las Vegas to perform their act in front of magic's most famous duo.
But let's be honest–is fooling Penn & Teller still worth it? At this point, it's feeling like everyone has been on the show, and the ratings are nowhere near what they were in the early seasons. Only 439k viewers tuned into the finale episode of the season, which just finished, compared to 4 million viewers who watched the original UK pilot and the 2 million viewers watching the first US CW season.
We asked previous contestants for their thoughts and experiences and put together a bigger picture that will give you a look behind the curtain of one of magic's most successful TV shows. How did their appearances impact their careers, and what was it like to see their acts go viral online?
One early fooler, Kostya Kimlat, shared their business advice on maximizing the impact of participating in such shows with us. Their insights are gold.
A Smart Formula
Penn & Teller: Fool Us first aired in 2011. Although the first season was shot in the UK, the show was then moved to The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, with a unique format: in each episode, Penn and Teller would watch a few original magic acts, to try and spot the secret methods.
When they can't figure it out, the contestant is awarded a trophy, thus becoming a "fooler." Each episode features an average of four magicians and typically concludes with a performance of an original act from the duo.
Doing some quick calculations, we can estimate that over five hundred magicians went on the show, although some of them appeared multiple times (and some even fooled the duo more than once, too!).
It is remarkable that the show has survived for so long, and especially that they haven't run out of magicians yet. On the other hand, as the seasons went by, producers made it more and more accessible to be on the show, and at one point, they even left the casting email address on the Instagram bio of the show page.
(It’s also worth mentioning that Penn and Teller probably would never have agreed to perform an original routine at the end of each episode if they had known the show would surpass 150 episodes… hats off to them!)
The type of magic presented to Penn and Teller varies from practical routines by gigging magicians, tricks explicitly designed for television, FISM-style magic acts, and even magic designed to fool Penn and Teller.
Although the community has debated the benefits of assigning trophies only to those who make magic "fooling" (there is so much more that makes good magic – and Penn & Teller spent their careers before Fool Us repeatedly revealing secrets to demonstrate this), the show has always received appreciation from magicians for the way it showcases and praises great magic.
The show is a great marketing opportunity for Penn and Teller themselves, who position themselves as the judges of top magicians around the world. The show is shot in their theatre, making it very low-cost to produce, and it helps keep their name high and relevant both for the lay audience and among magicians.
But going on the show can also be helpful for a magician's business–at the very least, it's an excellent opportunity to get some high-quality footage for a showreel. To a greater extent, it is a fantastic way for magicians to promote their business and use the show as a reference to increase bookings.
