Penn & Teller: Fool Us (TV Series) Knife of the Party (2015) User Reviews

Part-time magicians? Just a filler episode.

[fabiogaucho · 6/10 · 1 August 2015]

They must have spent all the good material in the last episode, one of the best in the series. The only thing relatively interesting was Mac King "swallowing" the Guinea Pig. Wow, what an effect!! I think I figured out how it was done, but it is still surprising and impressive.

The first two were people who admitted to be part-time magicians. What? I think this is the first time it happened. Both came with tricks that were half-interesting, but that Penn said they had seen before many times (that is, they are standard tricks). The mentalist that showed the "square", however, had a nice effect. I would love to be able to do it at a party.

The last one who "bent a fork" made a routine with too many "fishy moves" to be effective.

Finally, the P&T routine was just comedy, no magic. The kind of thing you would see sometimes in "The Strange world of Penn and Teller". So-so.

Almost a filler episode, with nothing amazing, except for the Guinea Pig. And even that one was only surprising, but not making a lot of people who are accustomed to the show wonder how he did it (I mean, the box must have been there for a reason...)

Fun but Predictable

[justinboggan · 7/10 · 2 August 2015]

Austin Janik wasn't bad, but in the end when Penn said it was a store-bought trick, how on Earth did Janik think he was going to fool Penn AND Teller with a store bought trick? That's like Gordon Ramsay going to a restaurant and the owner cooking him a TV Dinner and trying to pass it off as something bigger.

And was I the only one put off by Amazing Allison? She was too purposefully feminine; there's a difference between being feminine and strongly faking it. Especially when you're dealing with Penn & Teller, who know people will use such a thing for misdirection. Even I know as a non magician, just somebody who's seen a lot of Penn & Teller, that there wasn't anything in her act they wouldn't know easily.

Most confusing of all was the hilarious Mac King, who said in his introductory video that he had a new trick to fool his old friends Penn & Teller. Then he not only proceeds to get up there and do a multiple tricks, but we learn from Penn at the end that King borrowed the "new" trick from another magician. One does not come up with a new trick if they borrow it. If he had said his new trick owed credit to another magician or that he was inspired by another trick, that would be another thing, but he claimed he came up with a new one. Now, I enjoyed the few words audience member DelMaro gave, like his answer, "Pet food."

and I got to admit, Norman Ng was boring. Thankfully the routine was short. I feel bad for him -- I'm sure he's fun. I knew, even though I didn't know how he did it, this was probably going to be a cake walk for Penn & Teller.

And finally, the "trick", or comedy routine, at the end with Penn & Teller, would have been hilarious if I hadn't seen then do it (much better) to Conan O'Brien on his show about ten or so years ago. I understand it's unfeasible to expect the duo to come up with a new trick every show, but I don't' expect to see ones they've done over and over again, especially for a decade or more. Well, at least the girl was cute.

Other than that, I guess it was entertaining enough. It wasn't like I wanted to rip my hair out over some guy literally blowing smoke to loud unrelenting music, like in a previous episode.