Magician Reviews Sleight of Hand and Visual Tricks In Movies & TV (Part Two)

This? [Kepplinger clicking]

No, no, no, no, this is not for cheating at cards.

This is from my physical therapist.

[onlooker laughing]

Is anyone buying this? [Kepplinger clicking]

My name is Ben Seidman. [upbeat music]

I'm a magician, pickpocket, and sleight of hand artists.

This is my second Vanity Fair video,

breaking down magic and sleigh of hand in film and TV.

But people have a lot of questions,

so today all will be revealed.

Let's get into it.

The wonderful story of Henry Sugar.

Slowly, magically but distinctly,

a black blob becomes a spade,

a twisty squiggle becomes a five.

The five of spades.

Fingers quivering he picks up the card

and turns it over.

[gasps] I've done it he says.

I love this story and I love

that Roald Dahl based the character off a real person.

Kuda Bux, the man with x-ray eyes.

In this great movie, Benedict Cumberbatch's character

learns a skill which allows him

to do this effect without trickery.

If you're gonna fake this effect, the easiest way

to do it would be with a gambler's deck of marked cards.

Think of it as a deck of cards that's face up,

and face down at the same time.

Marked cards were developed to cheat at card games,

but magicians tend to avoid them, and here's why.

One, if you get caught, you lose all your credibility.

Two, sometimes someone hands me a deck of cards

and asks to see magic, and I can't just be like,

Oh yeah, I'd love to do a magic trick for you.

Let me just use my special deck of cards instead.

And three, a really good magician could take any trick

that they would do with a mark deck of cards

and do it with a a normal deck of cards.

So it's just not worth the hassle for any of us.

Oh, and why else do we not use mark cards?

People know about them.

The back of the next card to be dealt,

lay clearly visible, the dealer hadn't touched it.

Yes, Henry said another card.

The dealer shrugged and dealt it.

The two of clubs landed neatly in front of Henry,

alongside the 10 and the 9.

21.

The dealer said evenly.

His black eyes glanced up again into Henry's face

and rested there, silent, watchful.

There are different types of card marking

that have existed in the world of gambling.

First, there's Daub.

Daub is a chemical or kind of oily substance

that you put a little on your thumb,

and as you're playing, you can mark the back

of certain cards.

There are also printed gimmick decks

where you shift your depth of focus

to read the marks like a magic eye poster.

This is what one of those decks looks like.

If I shift my depth of focus,

I can see some of the marking system.

This is a card puncher.

Gambling cheats can use this

to punch little divots in cards, so like braille,

they can feel specific playing cards

as they're playing and identify them.

And if you see someone playing cards wearing a green visor,

that could be allowing them to see a mark

on one of the cards that is otherwise

invisible to the naked eye.

Cards can also be naturally marked due

to anomalies in the printing process.

Phil Ivy famously took advantage

of an observed error within the printing

and used them for a process known as edge sorting,

keeping track of high and low cards in most cases.

Looking back, I have to say, I love Benedict's commitment

to what the superpower would actually look like,

and I think Wes Anderson was the perfect director

to give this story justice.

The Prestige.

Indeed many of you may be familiar with this technique,

but for those of you who aren't, to not be alarmed,

what you're about to see is considered safe.

[drum roll rolling]

[door banging]

In this movie the trick is called the Transported Man.

It's a translocation effect,

which is one of my favorite plots in magic.

Magic is both an art and a science.

One of my mentors, Armando Lucero,

was once performing a translocation effect

with a coin and two cards.

He would place the cards on the table,

put the coin underneath one of the cards,

and it would travel to underneath the other card.

After he performed it, a man in the audience stepped forward

and asked if he could sign his name on the coin.

By signing his name on the coin,

the man was confirming for himself

that there was only one coin being used

because he would be able to verify his own signature.

Signing the coin closes a door very deliberately.

[upbeat jazzy music]

Now, as far as I'm concerned,

that's pretty close to a perfect miracle,

but the man who had signed his name on the coin said,

Oh, now I know how it doesn't work.

For that man, proving that there was only one coin

being used was the tipping point

and the feeling of wonder had decreased

instead of increased.

As always, kudos to Christopher Nolan

and deceptive practices.

The magic in this film is top notch.

Shade.

[dramatic upbeat music]

One of the producers said to me,

Hey, that thing on Stallone's arm

that isn't real, is it?

They made that for the movie?

Nope, that absolutely is a real thing.

It's called a Kepplinger.

Using one of these in a game is known as playing the joint.

These were actually used by crooked gamblers

back in the day, but the Kepplinger,

it became antiquated shortly after its invention.

Why?

If you get caught with one of these things in a poker game,

that's a death sentence.

It would be very difficult to explain your way out of this.

Oh, this? [Kepplinger clicking]

Yeah, this, no, no, no, no.

This is not for cheating at cards.

This is from my physical therapist.

[onlooker laughing]

Is anyone buying this? [Kepplinger clicking]

But the engineering is really cool,

and there are certainly card cheats

who have used these things and devices like it.

When it comes to switching cards

in and out of play.

[Kepplinger clicking]

I should also mention that this is worn under a jacket.

You don't just walk into the card game like,

Hey guys, who wants to play a friendly game?

[Dean] Games of chance.

Not the way we play.

Seconds Centers, bottoms, stacking the deck, mucking cards.

In the first few frames of that clip,

we saw Expert at the Card Table, which is a book from 1902

that teaches anything and everything cheating at cards.

Interestingly enough, the author of this book

has remained a mystery for over a century,

but it has plenty of switching techniques

designed for the cheat.

Now, gamblers and magicians switch cards

in very different ways,

but there's a huge similarity.

Both need to appear natural,

but within the context of the situation.

When I'm performing, I create my own context,

which gives me so much more leeway

than someone cheating at cards.

A gambler, for example, would never switch cards like this.

[cards swooshing]

No, if you wanna risk your life cheating at cards,

you would need a method that fits within the natural

movements of gameplay.

[upbeat music]

This is a deep, deep rabbit hole,

but I find it frustrating

because I keep trying to get a card game going

and no one returns my calls.

[onlooker giggling]

Focus.

♪ So you say stop ♪

♪ I say go ♪

Oh sorry.

Derek knows how to treat a lady, married?

You can do better than that, really.

This movie is a great example of producers

listening to experts

and actors actually putting in the work.

But let's back up.

The reason why the pickpocketing in this movie is so epic

and so realistic, it's Apollo Robbins and Ava Do.

This film is really personal to me

because a lot of the pickpocketing that I perform on stage

comes from studying with Apollo.

Let's start with the language here.

Shade, that's covering the steal

and blocking the eye line of onlookers and the mark.

The Stick, holds the mark in position.

Fanning, means to touch the mark looking for the poke.

A poke is the wallet or item of value

that is being targeted for the steal.

A Pratt poke, prat is an old timey British term.

In this case, it's referring to a wallet in the back pocket.

I'm going to break down the steals in the scene,

but please understand this is not a tutorial.

Do not attempt to use any of these techniques.

Doing so may result in your A, getting thrown in jail.

B, getting punched in the face.

C, getting thrown in jail and punched in the face,

or D, a career in the arts.

Let's start with the lens lift.

She acts as both the stick and the shade for the lens lift.

This is very good, realistic blocking.

Then he asks her if she wants to wire,

You want a wire?

Let me wire.

Wire is another term for the tool,

the dip, the mechanic whoever's doing the steal.

Next is the Prat Poke.

The mark is bumped and she does the extraction.

Notice that she's stealing from someone

wearing loose fitting jeans.

When I bring someone up on stage

during my show to steal from,

I'm always looking at the cut of their clothing.

One of the reasons that these types of steals

have become more rare is

that pants have gotten skinnier and skinnier over the years,

which makes pants pockets very tight

and difficult to steal from.

The truth is, stealing from a guy wearing skinny jeans

is hard because it's easier for him to feel it.

So baggy pants are always better.

I think pickpocketing had its heyday in the nineties.

Sorry, MC Hammer.

You can actually touch a lot of things in those pants.

[onlookers laughing]

Next, the steal out of the purse with the chopsticks.

This is actually real.

You can find surveillance footage from some countries

where pickpockets use chopsticks.

Unlike some other tools which can aid in the extraction,

chopsticks can't be prosecuted as a burglary tool,

so I totally buy this.

The hip pack steal is actually one of my favorites

in the entire movie.

It's a hundred percent real, a hundred percent believable,

and we get to see Ava Do make a cameo.

In pickpocket terms, there's often someone

who takes the stolen goods out of sight.

That way, if the steal is spotted by anyone,

there's no proof because the stolen goods were passed off.

The term for the person who leaves

with the goods is the Duke man.

Here we see Ava working as the Duke man.

Oh, oh sorry.

♪ I don't know ♪

That watch steal was way too fast,

but I'm guessing that Margot Robbie

learned the steal for real,

and then the speed was due to a camera cut,

not the choreography.

He knows how to treat a lady.

Married?

[Ben] There's another Prat Poke with some flare,

and we see him catch the wallet and drop it into his hat.

That is, of course, Apollo Robbins on camera.

Thank you boys. Oh, this is a double steal.

She's working his leather and his ring at the same time.

That moment is definitely enhanced for dramatic effect.

You would never see a wire

steal both of those things at the same time,

but they're using this moment to tell the story

of Margot's character growing in confidence and in speed.

Finally, let's talk about eye contact.

A thief on the street never wants

to make eye contact with their mark.

If they get caught, they could be identified later.

That being said, I think if most people were grabbed

by Margot Robbie, they would remember it.

There's a term for accidentally making eye contact

with your mark.

It's known as kissing the dog.

When I steal things from people, it happens on stage

during my show, so I don't need to avoid eye contact.

So for me, this is kissing the dog.

[lips kissing]

That's Juno.

She's my everything.

Arrested development.

My eye!

Ah! [breathing heavily]

Enjoy the Hanukkah cookie, man.

Arrested is one of my all time favorite shows,

but any magic we see is intentionally

the worst version of that trick.

Could Ben Stiller have learned to do something

that was truly impossible?

Of course he could have, he's super talented,

but it's not the right choice for the character.

Pulling something out of your eye, badly,

definitely is the funny choice.

If I was gonna pull a Hanukkah cookie out of my eye,

it might look something like this.

[upbeat music]

That's actually a non religiously affiliated winter cookie.

It's a gluten-free secular treat.

I think you should leave with Tim Robinson.

Alright, Charlie, I just want you

to focus on which hand the ball is in.

Okay.

And I'll give you a hint, it's not this one.

Right here.

God damn it, Charlie, you had one job.

Give you one last chance, which hand is it in?

Right here.

No, Charlie, it's in your pocket.

Give him a round of applause, it's Charlie.

[spectators clapping]

Jerry Seinfeld once said, All magic is,

here's a quarter, now it's gone.

You're a jerk.

Now it's back.

You're an idiot.

Show's over.

Jerry, you're wrong.

That's not all magic.

That's just bad magic.

People in film and TV love to represent magicians

as clueless, and I have a theory about this.

I think that this is the fault

of another trope from the eighties.

During that time period,

magic took the same turn as standup comedy.

In the eighties, tons of comedy clubs opened

and there was so much money to be made.

So you had a lot of hacky performers.

It's pretty clear that the sequence was written

by a non magician,

and the actor who played the magician,

shout out to Gerry Katzman,

had to match the choreography to whatever was in the script.

Most of the sequence is intentionally simple

and therefore condescending.

If the effect in execution was more sophisticated,

the narrative just isn't as good.

So how would this look if it was a bit more like a

traditional magic routine?

Lily, Lisa, do you know what this is?

Trick question, no one does.

It's a ball for your nose.

Well, yeah, it looks like a clown nose.

Yeah, it's just a ball of sponge,

but you can create sort of an optical illusion.

So it looks like

there's more than one if you put your finger on it.

Does that make sense?

No.

Yeah, if you hold your finger down,

here, I'll show you.

If you do this with your finger.

Oh, wow.

[Lily giggling]

It definitely looks like there's two.

Lisa, do me a favor.

Hold one of your hands up for me.

Yeah, I want you to hold onto the ball, but tightly,

and then if you watch this one

and look, I'll even roll up my sleeve

so you don't think I'm cheating.

Look.

Okay.

[Lisa and Lily laughing]

And the crowd goes wild.

[onlookers laughing]

Lily, would you hold out one of your hands for me?

Beautiful.

Hold on to both of them, but really tightly.

Really tightly.

Put your other hand on top, beautiful.

[fingers snapping]

Okay, turn your hand over and open them.

[Lily gasping and shrieking]

[both laughing]

That's the desired response, is right there.

I've spoken before about how magicians actively try

to cancel out an audience's possible theories as they go.

There's an old adage that magicians hide

things in their sleeves.

So often we roll up our sleeves to disprove that.

I think it's fine performing sponge ball magic

in long sleeves because the audience realizes

that an object like this would get

caught going up the sleeve.

So there are many other methods

that have been devised to do a vanish.

Besides magicians don't really use their sleeves.

That's a bit of a myth.

Another misnomer?

The hand is quicker than the eye.

It's almost never speed unless the magician is on speed.

I did say that this character was inspired by the eighties.

God damn it, Charlie.

The notion that it's up his sleeve,

the hand is quicker than the eye,

I think these bits of misinformation were created

by magicians who wanted to steer your thinking

away from how the trick actually worked.

The hand is quicker than the eye was always a straw man,

just waiting to be torn down,

because now I can move slowly

and fool you on a deeper level.

It's just like that sign, Beware of pickpockets.

When you see that sign, you pat yourself down

and the pickpocket who hung up that sign

sees where you put your valuables.

These ideas were printed, posted, and repeated

by people who want you to believe something

that is completely false.

It's all part of the deception.

As far as I'm concerned, more magic on screen,

the more magic we see, the better.

I hope this video gave you a deeper look

at the world of mystery

that I get to live in every day.

Thank you for watching.