Penn & Teller: Fool Us

[El Barto]

Despite being a huge P&T fan, I had no idea this existed. A consequence of being on some British network, I suppose. Regardless, I've blasted through the first 6 episodes and love it. Shame that it only lasted one season. The premise is that amateur magicians go on the show and attempt to stump P&T, who of course have an encyclopedic knowledge of magic theory. Most of the illusions are great, and it's both funny and informative trying to play along. I actually figured out one that stumped Penn (but not Teller, that guy's slick).

All of it's available on Youtube (or elsewhere in better quality). This is only the pilot, so subsequent episodes were slicker and more streamlined.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mb4_65Hq8Q

[bosk1]

This looks really cool.  I watched the first few minutes of it.  Will watch the rest at home later.

[BlobVanDam]

I haven't seen a lot of Penn and Teller, but this looks very interesting. I just watched the opening trick, and I thought it was mostly very obvious how they did it, but it was a neat trick. Do they show the phone video later on?

[robwebster]

Ahhh - I watched this since the pilot! Yes, it's very good. Not all the illusions were entirely up to snuff, but they were all interesting, some of them were superb, and even some of the less impressive illusions were presented really well. Piff the Magic Dragon, for instance: okay trick, fantastic act.

Re: Its cancellation - Fool Us was soooort of competing with a show called The Magicians that was on BBC at the same time, which was a similar idea put into a sort of big, glitzy-tacky, Saturday Night Entertainment format - and regrettably Fool Us, in its slightly later slot, didn't do as well. Clearly the better programme, though. I usually have the utmost respect for the BBC as a broadcaster, but in this case, ITV was producing the programme full of real, entertaining magicians who live this stuff, and BBC was producing the dunderheaded "Let's saw a lady in half, with Ashley Banjo" type thang. It's the difference between an honest show full of real people who genuinely love their trade, (hosts included!) and a bunch of "big names" who are there for ratings and a pay cheque. Fool Us is an utter joy, The Magicians overproduced and very, very cold. Would've been very nice for P&T to have got the second series.

Very much respect how Penn & Teller always find something good to say ("say!") about every act, and try never to ruin the illusion. Occasionally frustrated by, but always respectful of the guest magicians. As you watch more episodes, you do start to recognise some of the tricks, and understand a few of the little codes P&T bounce off the magicians, but I don't think it ruins them. Excellent programme.

[El Barto]

Piff the Magic Dragon, for instance: okay trick, fantastic act.

That's Mr. Piff.    That guy was hilarious.

I haven't seen a lot of Penn and Teller, but this looks very interesting. I just watched the opening trick, and I thought it was mostly very obvious how they did it, but it was a neat trick. Do they show the phone video later on?

P&T are awesome. What you'll find is that a lot of what they do is like the phone trick, in that fooling people isn't of paramount importance to them. While they are both excellent magicians, they're entertainers first and foremost. For every illusion that baffles you, there's another where they'll often flat out show you how they do something, and that's every bit as entertaining. Do a search for Blast-Off or their Cup and Balls illusions for examples. Watching them do the Blast Off routine is in plain sight is far more entertaining than watching some regular magician do it like it's a mystery.

[bosk1]

^Yup.  My kids learned how to do the cups and balls trick by watching that over and over.

[BlobVanDam]

For me, the fun is just how cool the trick looks, regardless of how easy it is to work out. It's just as entertaining to me if I know how it's done or not. I'm half way through, and enjoying it, so I'll probably watch through all of them. It feels a little dishonest for P&T to mostly be like "we knew how you did it" and that's it, although I understand they don't want to destroy these guys' tricks on national TV.

I'm really surprised at the guy who did straight up card tricks. Not a chance you'd fool them with that. Even though I'm not familiar with all of the specifics of card tricks, his hand movements were very mechanical and precise, and his diversion tactics were obvious even to me. I'm really not a fan of card based tricks anyway.

[robwebster]

For me, the fun is just how cool the trick looks, regardless of how easy it is to work out. It's just as entertaining to me if I know how it's done or not. I'm half way through, and enjoying it, so I'll probably watch through all of them. It feels a little dishonest for P&T to mostly be like "we knew how you did it" and that's it, although I understand they don't want to destroy these guys' tricks on national TV.

I know exactly what you mean, and it definitely feels that way at the start, but it ends up being the magician's honesty it relies on, more than Penn and Teller's. It puts a lot of the responsibility for the win into the magician's own hand, and it's therefore up to the contender to gauge whether they're satisfied that they have, indeed, been rumbled. If they aren't satisfied, they are always within their rights to challenge P&T to make a more specific guess. And they've guessed incorrectly. Penn was... fairly grumpy about one act that got through because he couldn't prove them wrong. The contestants end up having a very rare amount of sway, for television.

[BlobVanDam]

For me, the fun is just how cool the trick looks, regardless of how easy it is to work out. It's just as entertaining to me if I know how it's done or not. I'm half way through, and enjoying it, so I'll probably watch through all of them. It feels a little dishonest for P&T to mostly be like "we knew how you did it" and that's it, although I understand they don't want to destroy these guys' tricks on national TV.

I know exactly what you mean, and it definitely feels that way at the start, but it ends up being the magician's honesty it relies on, more than Penn and Teller's. It puts a lot of the responsibility for the win into the magician's own hand, and it's therefore up to the contender to gauge whether they're satisfied that they have, indeed, been rumbled. If they aren't satisfied, they are always within their rights to challenge P&T to make a more specific guess. And they've guessed incorrectly. Penn was... fairly grumpy about one act that got through because he couldn't prove them wrong. The contestants end up having a very rare amount of sway, for television.

True, although they're still fairly general with their guesses, so there's a bit of ambiguity as to whether they really know how it was done, or just a general technique. And we don't know either way how nitpicky the contestant is being with their technique definition. It's the ones that say P&T were wrong that I'm concerned with, not the ones who submit.

But I don't mind. I just like seeing the tricks. I love their reaction to the first one that stumped them with the letters. I could see the false bottom in P&T's closing trick easily, but then I was caught off guard with the second sawing. Awesome.

[Chino]

This show was excellent.

[El Barto]

Penn was... fairly grumpy about one act that got through because he couldn't prove them wrong. The contestants end up having a very rare amount of sway, for television.

The Victorian guys with the silhouettes. Watched that one last night, and he was right to be annoyed. Something clearly happened with the cards when the host walked in front of him. Also, the guy was incredibly precise in the way he worded his denial; overtly so.

Still, and this is also to address BVD's point, there is a referee on hand, who is provided all of the specs and details of every trick before the show, and he has overruled Penn before. Penn's guess what that they swapped decks, and that was incorrect. Also, Teller tweeted later on that there wasn't a deck swap, and that maneuver wasn't an integral part of the illusion.

As for the card tricks, a couple of them full P&T. Even if they know how card tricks are done, they still have to correctly guess how each specific one was done and a good slight of hand magician can fool them with that. Furthermore, and this is a big part of what intrigues me about this show, there are a lot of people out there creating new illusions, some of which are insanely clever. In the second or third episode is a card trick now known as the spreadwave, which was created by the guy on the show and stumped them both bigger than shit. I actually hunted down some details on the trick, and it's just an absolutely brilliant gimmick. This guy is Einstein.

[Jaffa]

Was this ever released on DVD? 

[BlobVanDam]

Still, and this is also to address BVD's point, there is a referee on hand, who is provided all of the specs and details of every trick before the show, and he has overruled Penn before. Penn's guess what that they swapped decks, and that was incorrect. Also, Teller tweeted later on that there wasn't a deck swap, and that maneuver wasn't an integral part of the illusion.

That satisfies my concern there. When I commented, I hadn't seen that last card trick yet where you could see the host getting info through the ear-piece to clarify the situation, which made that more clear.
P&T seem to be pretty honest when it comes to giving the credit where it's due too.

Just about to start the second ep now.

[yorost]

In the second or third episode is a card trick now known as the spreadwave, which was created by the guy on the show and stumped them both bigger than shit. I actually hunted down some details on the trick, and it's just an absolutely brilliant gimmick. This guy is Einstein.

I'm surprised it stumped them. I'm easily fooled by card tricks but found spreadwave to be just short of obvious after seeing it. The details on how to organize all the words on their respective half faces would take a little to work out precisely, obviously, (and the illusion is cool), but it's pretty straight forward that it's selecting and rotating (and possibly flipping) cuts by memory. Most get discarded to show the cards blank half face while you pick out the cut with the word you want and place it to display the proper half face. Add in the a few full blank whites for show and probably the dividers to help with your counting... not that I could have ever come up with it on my own.

[BlobVanDam]

I just watched episode 5, which had the one that stumped them, where the guy seats three random people at 3 random tables with 3 random meals and hands them 3 random envelopes, and the envelopes give their name and meal etc.
I could tell as soon as they started to give their answer that they were totally stumped, and so was I. The contents of the envelope must have been planted after they sat down, but I can't figure out how. It didn't initially look like it was going to be a very good trick, so that was a surprise.

Also, the guy who made Penn and Teller compete against each other, and then accurately wrote down the results on a note in his shoe. My best guess is that an accomplice was maybe behind the dart board and wrote it down and put it in his shoe? The briefcase was a bit of a lame diversion, because there was no need for it to be kept isolated. It was a clear time killer and diversion, but the camera wasn't showing the guy during that time, so I couldn't tell what happened.

[El Barto]

In the second or third episode is a card trick now known as the spreadwave, which was created by the guy on the show and stumped them both bigger than shit. I actually hunted down some details on the trick, and it's just an absolutely brilliant gimmick. This guy is Einstein.

I'm surprised it stumped them. I'm easily fooled by card tricks but found spreadwave to be just short of obvious after seeing it. The details on how to organize all the words on their respective half faces would take a little to work out precisely, obviously, (and the illusion is cool), but it's pretty straight forward that it's selecting and rotating (and possibly flipping) cuts by memory. Most get discarded to show the cards blank half face while you pick out the cut with the word you want and place it to display the proper half face. Add in the a few full blank whites for show and probably the dividers to help with your counting... not that I could have ever come up with it on my own.

Well, the thing is that they're looking for how they would have done it, or what the best way to do it would be, and in that case it actually was using multiple decks. Particularly since until then nobody had seen the spreadwave before. I'm not at all surprised it stumped them. As for the mechanics of it all, I still don't get how one deck can have the necessary 12 permutations. I've figured out how you get half the numbers and the suits are simple, but all 12 numbers is tricky. That guy deserved his trip to Vegas.

And a heads up to Blob, episode 7 which I watched last night had two guys stump them with card tricks. Both happened right under their noses, and in one case right in Penn's hands. The latter was the most exasperated I've seen him yet. He was really confounded by it.

[BlobVanDam]

Whoa, can't wait to see that one. They rarely even need to explain or guess how the card tricks are done, as they know all of the sleight of hand tricks. As you said, the deal with the spreadwave is that they took their first guess based on how they would have done it, and figured was most the likely method. When you're forced to take one guess on the spot, it's no surprise an entirely new trick will stump them.

I'm still not generally a fan of the card tricks for the reason it's the same crafty methods to pull it off, so if they can stump Penn and Teller with one, I'm already impressed.

The funny thing is that I usually have the easiest time figuring out Penn and Teller's tricks, but I still find them the most entertaining. Using the self awareness and openness of deception as the diversionary tactic itself makes it more fun, and gives it more of a spontaneous and less rehearsed feel.

[El Barto]

I just watched episode 5, which had the one that stumped them, where the guy seats three random people at 3 random tables with 3 random meals and hands them 3 random envelopes, and the envelopes give their name and meal etc.
I could tell as soon as they started to give their answer that they were totally stumped, and so was I. The contents of the envelope must have been planted after they sat down, but I can't figure out how. It didn't initially look like it was going to be a very good trick, so that was a surprise.

Also, the guy who made Penn and Teller compete against each other, and then accurately wrote down the results on a note in his shoe. My best guess is that an accomplice was maybe behind the dart board and wrote it down and put it in his shoe? The briefcase was a bit of a lame diversion, because there was no need for it to be kept isolated. It was a clear time killer and diversion, but the camera wasn't showing the guy during that time, so I couldn't tell what happened.

Suspected solutions:

The five dinners: notice that he said each note has a message for each of you. Daniel, read your message. The theory is that he had three sets of notes to choose from, and he selected one based on the order of the trays being laid out. At that point, all three notes from that set were identical and contained a message for each of them. That message was something like, Table 1: I, [State your name] will be seated at table one and will be eating a hamburger and fries."

I think you're more or less correct about the second one, although it had to happen after the RPS part. I couldn't see anything, but you'll notice that there's a pedestal over by where the dart board was, and I suspect that was involved in the plant.

The funny thing is that I usually have the easiest time figuring out Penn and Teller's tricks, but I still find them the most entertaining. Using the self awareness and openness of deception as the diversionary tactic itself makes it more fun, and gives it more of a spontaneous and less rehearsed feel.

That's why they're my favorite magicians. They're just damned entertaining. And I'll also point out that while some of their tricks aren't hard to figure out, some of them are just masterful.

[Fuzzboy]

I could only watch up until the black guy with the fucking awesome old school card tricks, but I had no idea how much I liked this stuff. Penn & Teller are just a bonus, really

[yorost]

It depends if you're using 2 halves or allowing 3 halves (both sides) to be printed on. You have 4 half faces to work with on every card, but at least 1 has to be blank. That's 156 halves to work with. Minus three markers, maybe 3 cards for 'of' and some blank cards, you still have >120 half spaces for 17 words, or ~7 cards for each word on average. The 'suit cards' probably have full halves blank while the 'number cards' can have printing on both sides, or pieces of 3 words. You just have to be careful that when you flash a full face you have a 'blank' in place. That's all details, though, there are thousands of configurations or variations you can use, the goal is just to do it cleanly so you can show the most 'white' in the process and make counting easy. If you let the deck go past 52 cards it's almost a moot point on having enough space to print.

I'd never seen the spreadwave before, either, and it was obvious how the deck had to be printed within seconds of seeing them flashed. I don't buy an issue with it being new because I know next to nothing about this stuff. The way the words show and the need for all possibilities makes it obvious. It was very cool, but the deck just has to be mechanical. There really isn't much complexity in the configurations. The biggest part of the deck holds the 13 numbers, you're just choosing the correct one. maybe 26-30 cards should suffice (3 halves).  Another part holds 4 suits, you're just choosing one, but you can't condense it as well since it's four words, so maybe 12-14 cards (2 halves). ...then the rest. I think it can be managed with 52 cards, just with no room to spare. No compounding complexity, just make two choices and know what can be shown. The trick is simple mechanics, the illusion is the style. You don't want people to know you're counting and avoiding certain cards.

edit: If you assume x letter word requires x card's to be printed, and assume every word requires a fully blank card on each side of it, you can easily put this on a 52 card deck, with only 14 cards with printing on both sides and a total of 14 fully blank cards. Basically, there's some room to spare.

[snapple]

Mr piff was the best.

[robwebster]

Relevant - Teller just tweeted this.

[Elite]

I'm watching the pilot, even though I'm tired. How the hell does that first trick work? Holy shit!
Definitely going to watch the rest now.

[El Barto]

I'm watching the pilot, even though I'm tired. How the hell does that first trick work? Holy shit!
Definitely going to watch the rest now.

Stephanie's reaction to seeing the fish is absolutely priceless. Couldn't have been better.

My theory for the fish trick: when the phone left in the bucket a stagehand vacuum packed it and put it in a Faraday cage.  Before that happened, Penn had Stephanie's friend ring the phone, where they recorded the ringtone. The box that with the fish in it had a speaker and wireless setup to broadcast that prerecorded ringtone when Emily rang it again. While they're retrieving the box from the audience, they tossed the phone back to Teller who stashed it somewhere. Then he just had to produce it while cutting open the fish. 

[Elite]

I'm watching the pilot, even though I'm tired. How the hell does that first trick work? Holy shit!
Definitely going to watch the rest now.

Stephanie's reaction to seeing the fish is absolutely priceless. Couldn't have been better.

My theory for the fish trick: when the phone left in the bucket a stagehand vacuum packed it and put it in a Faraday cage.  Before that happened, Penn had Stephanie's friend ring the phone, where they recorded the ringtone. The box that with the fish in it had a speaker and wireless setup to broadcast that prerecorded ringtone when Emily rang it again. While they're retrieving the box from the audience, they tossed the phone back to Teller who stashed it somewhere. Then he just had to produce it while cutting open the fish. 

^That sounds about correct, yes! Was it me, or could you see Penn actually throwing the cup with the phone to Teller when he was messing with the lid?

[El Barto]

I'm watching the pilot, even though I'm tired. How the hell does that first trick work? Holy shit!
Definitely going to watch the rest now.

Stephanie's reaction to seeing the fish is absolutely priceless. Couldn't have been better.

My theory for the fish trick: when the phone left in the bucket a stagehand vacuum packed it and put it in a Faraday cage.  Before that happened, Penn had Stephanie's friend ring the phone, where they recorded the ringtone. The box that with the fish in it had a speaker and wireless setup to broadcast that prerecorded ringtone when Emily rang it again. While they're retrieving the box from the audience, they tossed the phone back to Teller who stashed it somewhere. Then he just had to produce it while cutting open the fish. 

^That sounds about correct, yes! Was it me, or could you see Penn actually throwing the cup with the phone to Teller when he was messing with the lid?

Sure. That was part of the joke. Stephanie was the only person in the theater that didn't catch it, because she was fumbling with the lid.

[BlobVanDam]

I finished up Fool Us last night.  It's a shame it was so few episodes, but it killed some time.

[bosk1]

I love this show.  Watched a few episodes over the weekend, but I still have a few more to go.  I'm generally lousy at trying to figure out how these tricks work.  Honestly, I'm just not into magic acts all that much, so I'm pretty ignorant of a lot of the techniques.  I just like to be entertained by it all.  That being said, a couple of things:

*SPOILERS BELOW*

(and I'm not going to use smaller font because I personally hate that)













Regarding Young & Strange's trick (I think this was ep. 2, but I can't remember now):  Obiously, the screen was the diversion.  And I'm not familiar with how the locks work on devices like the big red box, but I am assuming that the box is not truly locked at all and can easily be opened from either inside or outside even when it appears "locked."  The guy in the box getting out and running back around the other side of the screen is easy.  He justs gets out of the box as soon as the screen is in place because the box isn't really locked (or the woman is inside the screen, gets out as soon as the screen is in place, and unlocks the box to let the guy out--not sure which).  That's simple.  The woman in the box could potentially happen either way.  Either box is actually big enough for two people and she is in it to begin with, and there is still space for the guy to get in as well, or she is in the screen.  The other guy, who runs around the screen and "disappears," only to reappear in the back of the theater is a bit trickier.  But this seems to be simply a duplication of Christian Bale's "teleporting man" trick from The Prestige.  If I am correct, this is actually a four person trick:  Young, Strange, the woman, and Young's double.  When he "disappears" behind the screen, he just gets inside the screen.  His double then "appears" at the back of the auditorium, where he has been waiting all along.  Penn's question and the answer seem to confirm this.  When he asks whether it would be physically possible for he and Teller to perform the trick if they knew every single one of the moves, Young refuses to answer the question and concedes that they have figured it out.  The reason is that the answer is, "no"--they could not physically duplicate the trick even if they knew all the moves because neither one of them has a twin that could fill in as their double, and answering "no" would be a huge tipoff (although I think anyone who has seen The Prestige would have figured that out regardless; and although I'm sure Penn wasn't trying to be a jerk, he inadvertently tipped off anyone who had seen The Prestige but not made the connection when he basically loosely quoted the movie and said something along the lines of, "as long as you can keep that secret, you will have one of the best tricks ever).  Correct?

The one I have a question about is teller's fish tank/coin/goldfish sleight of hand trick at the end of one of the earlier episodes (I think it was also ep. 2).  I get that it's all just sleight of hand.  But how in the world does he get the goldfish in the tank?  That blows my mind.  The only thing I can figure is that the back of the tank is not truly transparent and is a false back with the goldfish concealed behind it.  When he is "putting the goldfish in the tank," he is actually just stirring up the water and obscuring your view of whatever hidden trapdoor is opening at the back of the tank to spew the goldfish into the tank, making it look as if they are comming from Teller.  So, really, the tank is a much more elaborate prop than it appears to be, if that is the case.  Am I right, or are the fish concealed somewhere else and I have completely missed it?

[El Barto]

Solution to Young & Strange: First off, it was a great act. Those kids are damned amusing. The way those boxes work is that the hinges in the back aren't afixed. You can use however many locks you want on the front and it opens easily from the rear. The bag that he stepped into had no bottom; note that they never removed it from the trunk. When Strange left to get the screen, it was his twin brother that returned with it and he bolted for the back of the auditorium. That way the twin didn't have to do any of the talking or the interview. All he did was wave the flag, and either sneak off or hide back in the box. Having an identical twin brother is about the single best asset a magician can have. And I'll now take a second reiterate my vote for adding spoiler tags to SMF.

As for the goldfish, I've got a few notions, but I'm really not sure. The fish were definitely in there all along. Also, the color of the tank changes dramatically once the fish appear. Given how freakish the refraction of light is in tanks of water, I'm not sure what the actual mechanics would be.

[Elite]

The French dude in Episode 2, with the blank cards. How the fuck? 

[yorost]

That's what I was discussing with El Barto above. It boils down to printing things on half faces for the cards, so that all of the cards have significant white space. The performer memorizes the locations of 'words', cuts them out of the deck with bracketing full white cards, the flips or rotates it to make the correct word show int he final display. The dividing cards are likely for reference poitns for counting, but it's just two selections and flip/rotate, The illusion is in hiding the counting and flipping going on, while not making it obvious what you are avoiding showing.

Think about picking the number...

blank card

3 cards which carry on two half faces "one" and "two"

blank card

3 cards with half faces holding "six" and "ten"

blank card

blank card

4 cards holding on half faces "four" "five" and "nine" (these cards require more care since both side have some printing, only half a face of white)

blank card

blank card

...

You have your 'of' in there and repeat the idea on the suits. Count down to the right group, split it off using the blanks to hide the lettering, and place it properly. There are more than enough cards in a deck to do it if you are roughly 1 letter per card, but there's room to make the words a little bigger. How the deck is exactly designed, who knows, there are a ton of ways to do it, but it's simple to come up witha  workable deck for the trick.

[Elite]

Thanks for that explanation; that makes sense!

Solution to Young & Strange: First off, it was a great act. Those kids are damned amusing. The way those boxes work is that the hinges in the back aren't afixed. You can use however many locks you want on the front and it opens easily from the rear. The bag that he stepped into had no bottom; note that they never removed it from the trunk. When Strange left to get the screen, it was his twin brother that returned with it and he bolted for the back of the auditorium. That way the twin didn't have to do any of the talking or the interview. All he did was wave the flag, and either sneak off or hide back in the box. Having an identical twin brother is about the single best asset a magician can have.

I don't think there was any twin brother involved. The girl walked with Strange when he took the screen out, behind the screen. Young crept out, girl went in. Strange went behind the back with the flag, Young appeared. Note how Young makes a very elaborate move to remove the screen; my guess is Strange just went backstage from behind the screen and appeared at the back of the audience.

[El Barto]

The Spreadwave explanation is essentially correct, but there are more cards involved to make the words. Still, he's essentially got 85 or so to work with, so it shouldn't be a problem. The missing part in my head was that all of the back sides are blank, which is what leaves so many empty cards when he spreads them out. Only about 35 of the 52 cards show writing, so that seems about right. Where I disagree with Yorost is the ease with which it's created. People have been doing card tricks for hundreds of years. This guy created this thing about 6 years ago, and received huge acclaim for doing it, including one of the major awards in the industry. Everybody who bought the thing said it's just brilliant in it's innovation. I agree that it's a simple enough thing to figure out how it works, but the guy earned legendary status for figuring it out, and it's well deserved, IYAM.

I don't think there was any twin brother involved. The girl walked with Strange when he took the screen out, behind the screen. Young crept out, girl went in. Strange went behind the back with the flag, Young appeared. Note how Young makes a very elaborate move to remove the screen; my guess is Strange just went backstage from behind the screen and appeared at the back of the audience.

Three problems. First off, he didn't have enough time to get to the back of the auditorium. He need the flag waving time to make the trip. Second, people have been doing that trick for ages, and twins are how they've always done it. Lastly is Penn's question at the end which was honestly probably a bit too overt. He asked if P&T could have pulled off that trick, and the boys comically avoided the answer, to wit Penn added "that secret, well kept for the rest of your lives, can make you world famous."

[yorost]

I never, not once, said it was a trick that was easy to create. I even explicitly said I never would have come up with it. I have complimented the illusions multiple times, too, I think it is very cool.

All I have said is that once the cards are displayed I thought it was obvious how the deck would have to be constructed. As someone that is clueless at magic and doesn't figure them out when I see them, it shocks me that Penn & Teller got stumped.

I have also gone out of my way to say that I do not have the configuration he is using, just that I know how to create a deck that could be used for the illusion. The details just aren't important, I can demonstrate the essential structure to the trick. ...for one, if he has more than 52 cards as you say, I question if any card has 3 half faces used since that does restrict how much white can be flashed. Second, I don't know if the actual deck used keeps one side fully blank when two words are on a card or if he keeps half of each side of the card blank. I do figure he must have two words per card, though, it would save counting and likely keep the deck reasonably sized.

[El Barto]

I wasn't suggesting it was more than a 52 card deck. I was accounting for using both halves of each face which would give him 104. Then knock off 20 or so for the of and the suit. BTW, it looks like two cards per letter is pretty consistent.