REVEALED | EXPOSED - IMPOSSIBLE Card Magic Trick by 12 Year Old STUNS Penn & Teller Fool Us

As requested, here's another "reverse Engineered" reveal of the great card trick by Zoe LaFleur. PLease provide in the comments your ideas for how you think it worked!
Zoe Lafleur is an amazing 12 Year Old Magician who appeared on Penn and Teller Fool Us and attempted to Fool Penn and Teller with a card magic trick. The trick she performed can be seen by searching KZbin for Zoe and Fool Us. Although she didn't manage to Fool Penn or Teller it was an incredible card trick
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[@cslloyd1]

thanks for this video. knowing how she did it actually increases my appreciation for what she did. this was not the card magic I did as a kid, all of which were simple mathematic phenomena. i think the show producers robbed her a bit by making it seem like she needed help in terms of editing. she didn't. there was a ton of effort in learning/performing this trick. much more than I would be willing to put in. and it could very easily have gone wrong which is a big risk on national tv (although I suppose they could have dropped the segment in editing if she really blew it).

[@Creshex8]

I study magic defensively. I watch a trick, and I don’t look at the solution until I figure it out myself. Magic tricks are sort of like puzzles to figure out for me.... And this freaking trick...I cannot tell you how much time I’ve devoted to trying to figure this out. I eventually concluded that it was impossible for me to figure out and I gave up. I am so glad someone like you finally told me that the trick edited out the crucial part. You are the savior of my sanity.

[@falsecopyrightsclaimsfight1475]

Ricky Jay has been doing this trick since at least 1997. He was simply amazing with card control. Watch : Ricky Jay assistants medium, it's one of the best 1 hour of cardistry I've even seen.

[@DanielPIR4BR]

Yeah I've been fooled by the editors 😂😂😂😂

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Me too! In previous seasons producers made it *possible* to see the trick but now they hide the key moves. That makes me sad.

[@its-a-kind-of-magic]

I did not understand how she had managed the end of the trick but I had not thought about editing. Thank you for this excellent explanation. I love your channel...

[@hawkeye6156]

Thanks for sharing sir.... Appreciated your work

[@totallymagic]

Thank you

[@Alex3954]

Very nicely explained. Hadnt thought that this trick is so complicated (at least for a newby). Thanks for sharing, keep doing that great work!

[@eyewaves...]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts - I agree with you. It is brilliant that you reverse engineered this amazing trick.

[@oldschoolwarrior]

I was really impressed by her poise and by how great she pulled this trick off. Seeing the explanation makes me appreciate her routine even more. To manage all of that right in front of them with the confidence that she had says a lot about her. Yes, they saw the crimp, but it was still incredibly impressive that she actually made it all work so smoothly.

[@totallymagic]

I totally agree with you, I don't think people give her enough credit for this, I too think she did a beautiful job of handling those cards.

[@oldschoolwarrior]

@@totallymagic There are experienced magicians who don't have the guts to call Penn and Teller onto the stage, instead opting for Allison. To me, doing it right in front of them earns them an extra bonus, even if they fail to fool them.

[@gunna2k]

Now I get the Penn talking about his hair when he said he had to put a crimper on to straighten out his hair :)

[@andybe8056]

Thank you so much! I enjoy your videos and this one had me puzzled even tho Pen gave lots away at the end.

[@martinjf467]

Well done spotting the cutaway and what it hid! No point doing that with Dynamurrrr’s shows because they are riddled with camera cons! Keep those tricks coming and thank you.

[@TrinityX]

That was great viewing. And some great Reverse engineering of a fantastic trick. The believing in magic one liner made me laugh 😂 😂 you’re a funny guy. Harry Potter 👏👏👏👍😊👍

[@totallymagic]

Cheers mate

[@briansmith3109]

I really enjoyed her impressively confident, very skilful performance. Even without the edit it's very good but watching this several times I can see that the cards are in a different position on the table after the unseen cut.

[@RobertBallMagician]

Nice reveal, and tutorial. 👍👍

[@Clothahump1]

Her poise and grace at age 12 are amazing. And even though P&T busted her while she was performing the trick, she earned a standing ovation from them. High Praise Indeed!!

[@anti-apathy9715]

She's just a kid. We all know it's a slight of hand TRICK. Pulling it off flawlessly, THAT is the very hard part of it. And that is what she did. She really impressed me! I saw nothing that gave her trick away. Cute, articulate, so much poise and so talented!

[@samwyckoff6216]

Great explanation!!! Thank you. I agree with you that there must have been a cut seen, and I believe this is done to prevent the tv audience from watching over and over eventually figuring it out. In a live audience that saw her do the final cut it is still impressive and the audience would never remember the steps.

[@totallymagic]

You are right, the effect was still great, and to be honest the audience would not have noticed the cut anyway, but I think you're correct it's so us sneaky magicians don't keep watching it and working out how it was done LoL

[@LoDijoTuAlmohada58]

Didn't want to believe there was a missing scene but looking at the performance again, you can see that after the random woman scene, the shape of the deck is a bit different than what it was the moment Teller put his cards there.

[@coolpoolshark]

Now, it makes 100% sense.👍

[@kyleleon85]

After Teller places cards on top and bottom, we don’t see her cut the deck. There’s a camera cut at that point.

[@daveshereduh]

Even without the "movie editing magic" if I saw her do the final cut she would have fooled me! This young lady is very good!

[@totallymagic]

Absolutely right its a great trick and when performed live no one would notice a final card cut.

[@lane99]

@11:07: just to correct a small point...the presumed video cut takes place not between her putting the cards down and her asking Teller to replace his cards...but rather the cut happens (which is when we see the blonde lady with the glasses) *after* Teller has already replaced his cards.

[@sandeepkumar-fb9it]

You are a cardbuster !!

[@dcdelacruise]

just because of this, I subscribed and will watch all your videos....thanks sir

[@totallymagic]

thank you

[@juliusreyes7550]

great explanation, now i felt like i'm being cheated by the show itself, i really couldn't figure out the last part of the act when i saw the video. never thought that the show would cut such an important part of the act.

[@contactuttam]

She can count more than 10 and calling it 10

[@judgedread9253]

Brilliantly explained. And like other comments, feel a bit cheated. If TV will start doing this 'cut away' I'll be viewing it differently. Many thanks, great tutorials as always.

[@joebowieaddick]

The 'cut away' has been going for as long as magic has been on TV...One of the most modern obvious ones was when David Blaine did his levitation trick...I think it was done his first revolutionary 'street magic' show.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

@@joebowieaddick Yes, cut away editing hack was used in *other* shows but I watched fool us exactly because they made it possible to see the trick if you're clever enough. Hiding sections of card trick where magician clearly touches the cards is not acceptable.

[@jacksonsmagic]

A comprehensive explanation...

[@kingkong-gz3jp]

You are really awesome man

[@mikeonthebox]

What if they take the card from the same area where the stack is taken? Wouldn't that mean that you would think the 2nd person took for example 12 cards when in reality it's only 11 and the other is held by the first person?

[@johnthetrickster1957]

thanks for this. I to hate when they show anything other than the performance. Thanks again TM, Love your videos.

[@totallymagic]

Thank you John

[@hudders11]

I loved this trick when I saw it, but if there was a cut, and you're right, there had to be because he could have placed either 2 or 7 cards on top of the deck for all she knew. Then I feel its a bit dishonest? We're more astonished by the trick than we should be because it never shows her cutting the card into position right before the reveal. I feel that's a bit cheap?

[@totallymagic]

I agree. Early series of Fool Us they did less editing out important moves but the latest appears to have a number of edits done to hide those all important moves us magicians know about and look for. However, I guess the show is just Saturday night entertainment for most viewers. But I agree with your points.

[@57thorns]

​@@totallymagic I believe they feel it is too easy to figure out a trick if they are not editing out key parts as in this performance. It is said about this show that a magician who knows the trick is more impressed by it being done well, than a "muggler" that knows there is a trick but can't figure it out. A lot of people seem to think lesser of a trick once they know how it is done, and can't appreciate the skill involved in doing it _well_. But not showing the whole act is dishonest, it is like revealing that all grand TV illusions use paid audiences and camera tricks, no slight of hand, no "magic", just dishonesty and editing. CGI and movie cutting is another art that is sometimes magical, but it has no business in illusionism.

[@gruberman1984]

It's cheap, but the reason they edit the show isn't to hide things from the audience- it's because they need to cut the show to time, and so they look for places to trim. Obviously, the producers, being tv people concerned with running times and not magicians concerned with the authenticity of a trick, thought this was an irrelevant part of the trick that could be edited out. Whether Penn & Teller are less involved in the editing process this season, or whether they were out-voted by the execs, I don't know- but the bottom line is the show needs to be cut down to a specific running time for TV one way or another.

[@oldschoolwarrior]

I can understand why you would feel that way. However, the fact that this 12 year-old girl had enough confidence to call them up and do this trick right under their noses (which a lot of professional magicians won’t do) and use such skilled methods as crimping, reading a marked deck, and figuring out the position of the card while delivering top-notch patter to me is not minimized one bit by producers cutting away. It was gutsy to perform that trick right in front of them like that.

[@Totaro17]

But she asked teller what number he was thinking of. He said 10. And there was no cut away. What if he said 16. This part confuses me. Unless it’s just more editing. And she cut the cards after he said the number he was thinking of.

[@gothicbagheera]

Here's a way she could have done it without having any parts of the trick edited out to help fool people watching it on television, that so many have jumped at believing that's the only way she could have successfully done the trick. When the chosen card is put back in the deck she knew exactly how many cards were on top and bottom of it, from the way she "randomly" put groups of cards down until she was told to stop. When she deck cut shuffled the couple of times before the remaining cards were added back, she could have used the crimp to get the right card on the top of the deck, and as she placed the deck back on the table before the remaining cards were added, she could have palmed the top card as she was moving her hands back out of the way. When she turned away to not see the final cards added back to the top and bottom, she didn't just turn facing away like all the other times, but also put her hand up to help block her view of seeing the cards put back, and that was the only time she.did.that. To me, she did that as a distraction so people didn't see what she was doing with her right hand, putting the palmed card somewhere at the back of the table where she could palm it again and reveal it as the final card drawn from the top of the deck. If you notice, her right hand drops behind the table momentarily while she's keeping her finger on top of the deck after counting to the number that Teller showed her he added back to the top and bottom of the deck. After asking what the card was supposed to be, and she's told the 5 of Hearts, when she draws up the card she's had her finger on, she's holding both hands in a very unnatural way, and then turns the card around in a very unnatural way as well, but all in ways that it would be easier to flip out the 5 of Hearts she had palmed in her right hand onto the back of the card in her left hand, and made it appear like she just turned the top card around, to reveal the 5 of Hearts. I don't know if that's how she did it or not, but it is a possible way she did it, and is a way that doesn't downplay her at all, by implying the only way for her to successfully do the trick was by having parts of it being hidden by jump-cuts done by television editors.

[@magnushedberg9182]

About the cutaway - it might just be as simple as that the person editing the final video found it suitable to put in a short clip of her mother, not realising that they cut out an important part of the trick. I don't think Penn & Teller audits the final output just to make sure that nothing is tampered with. It might've been as simple as that.

[@falsecopyrightsclaimsfight1475]

Ricky Jay used to do this trick amazingly well. Watch Ricky Jay assistants medium if you love card magic. It's the best hour of card magic I've even seen.

[@ryanhenderson8908]

They do this all the time. They did a very clever edit on a David Blaine trick on Jimmy Fallon too, which I only know because I know the trick.

[@JB-nn4fk]

I think she counts the total amount of cards before/after penn put the 5 of heart back into the pile. If she did it your way, there would be a chance where teller and penn took card from the same group of cards and the counting is false.

[@andrewroos6035]

I don't think she had to cut the pack after Teller added his cards. Since the pack was marked, she could memorise the top card. Then when counting them off one by one, when she got back to the card she had memorised, she would have known how many cards Teller added to the top of the deck. She could then remove the excess cards with double/triple lifts. Of course, this would fail if Teller had put ALL the cards back on the top, but it's a reasonable expectation that he would split them roughly 50:50 after she asked him to put some on the top and some on the bottom.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

I actually hope it was this for real instead of jump cut by the editors. I don't feel there's much point watching that show if they start hiding the tricks behind editing hacks.

[@mikeonthebox]

In the presentation, how could she tell where Teller took the cards from? There isn't a clear missing chunk or gap.

[@derynle]

The number teller pointed out was the number of the chosen card, not the card after.

[@VK3CSJ]

I see....but also the fact that the cards are marked and that she crimps the corner are the main things she's working on apart from just counting the cards...I dunno...don't they call it the "slight of hand" yeah?....still its very clever for a young 12 year old to pull it off...thanks for showing us the clue,...also Penn said something about "coding" what was that in reference to?

[@michaelolson6982]

I also think that magic acts like illusions and escape acts are at a huge disadvantage due to the fact that they are all done in strict compliance with known elements magic and at that point all they have to say is they know how it is done, I have noticed that a few more coin magic acts have slipped through recently and deservedly so, but they still could have said that they know how coin magic works, ending with I just glad to be fooled 100% of the time because I enjoy magic and even though I do understand some of the principles of magic I do not try to unravel what I have just witnessed I just let the magic fill me with wonder.

[@U2fan24]

Well she subtracted 1 card. Teller selected 10 cards, and Penn's card was in the 10th position. Meaning there would only be 9 cards on top. But yeah... I didn't think of a crimp. I thought maybe she used a breather. But I was still stumped.

[@michaelkolowicz5577]

Thank you very much for this explanation. My friends and I have the same idea: PTFU cut out a important move of her. Thanks for the missing link ;-)

[@beebee3616]

you should be a judge on fool us

[@minxythemerciless]

What would happen if Penn took a card from the range that Teller later took? That would give one too many cards removed. Did that mean Zoe had to check the entire deck for missing cards?

[@thecommexokid]

She never specified whether she would reveal the 7th card or count off 7 cards and then reveal the 8th, so maybe she had two different outs? But I’m not sure how she’d know which one to use.

[@thecommexokid]

Oh, finished reading the rest of the comments and @57thorns points out the obvious: she finds out which out to use when Teller reveals how many cards he took. If Penn’s card had been in the middle of Teller’s bunch, she would have counted 11 cards missing instead of 10; so when Teller said “10”, she’d count off 10 cards and reveal the 11th instead of revealing the 10th like she did in the video.

[@codeisforever]

What if Teller had taken his cards from the area Penn had taken his single card? Using your order example, Penn takes a 6 and Teller grabs the cards from 3 to the Q (inclusive) that were surrounding that 6. She would count 10 but Teller would have actually only grabbed 9 since the 6 would have been held by Penn.

[@totallymagic]

You are correct. But that would mean that all she had to do is deduct 1 from the value, so if there were 9 cards taken, she would simple put 8 cards on top of Penns selected card. if Penn had taken a card from the block Teller grabbed I guess once Teller tells her at the end his number she would know that the card is either at the Exact number OR the very next card! Hope that makes sense!

[@leungjohn3346]

You are spot on

[@Jon66B]

@@totallymagic Yea, but how would she know to do that?

[@MagictubePrasant]

The trick confused me but you clear me sir ,thank u But she did not any cut,after keep cards top and bottom by teller

[@totallymagic]

If you watch the tutorial I mention that the cut was "edited out". Seems the makers of this latest series are doing this more and more which is a shame.

[@MagictubePrasant]

@@totallymagic Tnx for answer

[@leenaawate5964]

I feel something is wrong with the last moment where she deals the cards because if it was really at that number then she would let them deal the cards, I thought she changed the card

[@michaelolson6982]

Also can reveal Dominique Duvirier cards appearing from the bag trick, she was originally debunked from winning and dramatically the decision was reversed by editing the end showing that she had won,if you look very closely you might detect that her body language is slightly out of sinc at the trophy award because she had only just been told that originally she was a loser.

[@thesammyjenkinsexperience4996]

I'd be very interested in seeing you do a video on Boris Wild's recent performance on Fool Us. If you are familiar with Boris' Ideal Effect and PurACAAN effects, there seem to be some obvious edits at two very crucial moments of his performance at 4:25 and 4:39 (timestamps are from the video posted on his channel.) I'm getting pretty disappointed with this show, as I like to be able to try and figure it out myself. The way his performance was edited makes his routine utterly impossible as shown (and yes, I am aware that Boris got extremely lucky with Penn's chosen number.)

[@totallymagic]

You are correct, like so many other magicians have spotted! Yes they did edit out some important moves. I think the producers have clocked on to the fact that magicians will watch the tricks closely again and work out how its done, so they now cut out "key" moments in the performance. This makes it impossible to correctly guess how its done. Shame really, its no different than doing camera tricks now, you don't get to see whole performance!

[@creativitycell]

He said 10! Not 7!😂

[@littlekenny8411]

The editors continually destroy the show's integrity with the constant cutaways, panoramas, and jump cuts.

[@Creshex8]

Thankfully, I’ve managed to reverse engineer most of the tricks I work hard at shown on Fool Us. This edit was the worst I’d ever seen because I concluded only real magic could make this work. If all tricks on Fool Us were edited like this, I would stop watching. No fun trying to figure out impossible tricks.

[@martinmoore7920]

Can't believe I have been duped by a 12 year old girl...and the magic is not even real.....wotz the world coming to..oh I'm a 55 year old hippie dude🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Boudicca-the-musical]

He didn't day seven. He said ten.

[@daveedmunds4609]

They didn't need to do edits for Kostya Kimlet's first P&T appearance - the best sleight-of-hand card trick in all of Fool Us.

[@garydalrymple7308]

Actually Teller’s number was 10, not 7 or 9.

[@dougfisher1266]

but...she talks through the "jumpcut" and the audio of her talking would line up to show that there is zero missing footage, and no time for a cut. I"m with you on the final cut being necessary to remove Tellers random placement of cards. But i watched it several times, and I just dont see/hear any significant jumpcut that let her cut the deck.

[@AaronCMH]

I still don't get it.

[@michaelolson6982]

Can you expose Jimmy Ichianna I believe that he did a oil and water routine that apparently revealed cards in a random order correctly and then all the cards completely in suit order. Sorry for the description of the trick but hopefully you will find the one I mean, I think that it has something to do with his dealing skills and I want to know if I am right.

[@totallymagic]

Michael you are correct in thinking it's in the deal. Jimmy was using the second deal, the cards (despite any shuffles!!!!) were in order. Notice he used an all over back design instead of the usual Bicycle cards with white borders, this is a ploy many magicians use for the second deal as it helps hide the move. The late Kevin Reay performed a similar routine for years (even on Paul Daniels Show). Jimmy's card handling skills are superb, way too skilled for me to attempt. LoL

[@michaelolson6982]

@@totallymagic So he should have won but he has got a job for life, Jimmy Ichianna must go into the brilliant class.

[@CarrotCakeMake]

But what if Teller had taken some cards that had surrounded the cards that Penn took? The whole trick would be off by 1. Maybe some of the fanning through the cards is supposed to account for that, and you just change the ending to "after the 10th card" or whatever.

[@fuzzydrawrings269]

The trick works either way because the cards are marked and she had several opportunities to see the back of Penn's card before it was returned to the deck. Teller removed 10 cards, so Penn's card will be either the 10th card (if it had been next to or surrounded by the cards Teller removed) or the next card after the 10th card.

[@Xer0neman1a]

So the producer was a magician too... no wonder the trick didn't make sense at all.

[@gabrielaortiz7367]

I think she did a herman pass

[@TheMagicoMoreno]

This is marked deck ???

[@nonixious]

well... but doesn't Teller say 10 only after all the adding the cards back and cutting? What if he said 3?

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Teller was supposed to say how many cards he had in total. After the (not shown) cut all those cards would be in series so it really doesn't matter how many were on top and how many were on bottom.

[@BenChode-wf5vo]

12 years old we have to give her Major Credits for being able to do this in front of P&T! She has a great future in Magic!

[@dcaudal8555]

The proof that there is INDEED an edit in the video is that the pack of cards looks different at 3:05 (bevelled) and 3:15 (straight) : kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYiwf2ioaNqGgaM

[@TheMagicoMoreno]

Tell me this cards is marked yes?

[@ikon1403]

João Moreno yes

[@michael2244]

Teller said 10

[@mizuhashikazuma1556]

I still don't get how to know 9 card takken ...

[@vinnymeee7402]

These are specially marked cards that you can say what card it is even by looking from the back. So she knows what card it is even from the back. She also knows the order of the cards. So when Teller removes a bunch of cards she can tell by looking at remaining cards from back how many cards are missing.

[@QuasiELVIS]

Do you think they edited the film to make it more difficult to spot what was happening? Seems a bit bullshit and wouldn't have made any difference to casual viewers like myself.

[@totallymagic]

Yes, like most magic on TV, it's for entertaining the layperson, so if it can be made to look impossible, the entertainment value goes up. Just my thoughts!

[@mauricegilliam7102]

Card tricks r hard to perform.

[@vojtechpilar5809]

Not unless you believe in Harry Potter :D :D

[@godfreyofbouillon966]

Those cuts are starting to ruin Fool Us for me :(

[@totallymagic]

I agree too!

[@michaelchesney8680]

im not sure this is the answer at all, much too risky

[@totallymagic]

As I say in the video, it's only my guess, but I notice on youtube there are dozens of different explainations. Its fun trying to guess!

[@michaelchesney8680]

@@totallymagic yeah, it really is...definite crimp but must be something else too

[@transformer889]

She asked Teller "Show me the number you are thinking of" at this point, he could have said any number but he chose 10, this part puzzles me

[@MikkoRantalainen]

I interpreted that question to mean how many cards did you have in total.

[@AK-rx6hv]

She asked him at the beginning to remember and to think about how many cards he took

[@iWhacko]

BUT if there was a cut in editting between her putting the cards down, and teller adding cards.... so let's say they cut out the part where she cuts the cards to the crimp. If Teller adds an unknown amount of cards, the trick is still not explained! So she must have cut AFTER teller added the cards. And if that is the case, they woud have switched parts of the video around. which I don't think they would do.

[@thecommexokid]

I think the theory is that she cut a few times, Teller added the cards, and then she cut again. The first cuts were shown but the third was edited out.

[@thecommexokid]

The cutaway occurred after Teller put back his cards, but before she started counting to the 10th position.

[@nehamaw]

Kinda irritated me if this is true and they are they are doing these cuts.

[@apvibes2861]

She could have done a pass instead of a cut

[@contactuttam]

She would have taken few more cards during counting..

[@MikkoRantalainen]

How to know how many cards to take?

[@iometuno44444]

nothing correct..sorry!

[@waynebow-gu7wr]

Your trick worked because the cards were in order..... but were hers ?

[@thecommexokid]

They weren’t in *numerical* order like his were in this video, but whatever arbitrary order they were in, it was a specific order she had memorized. So she could see the bottom card of the top pack and the top card of the bottom pack and know, based on her memorized order, how many were missing in between.

[@heybelsky]

She wasn't good at all. Period