Penn Jillette: Camera Tricks Are Not Magic

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When the Penn watches televised magic, he has "a very real sense" that he's watching different takes stuck together.

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Closed Caption:

there are performers who have built
their whole career doing magic on TV and
can't really perform live at all
don't really have chops and skills and
people watch those shows and seemed to
enjoy them
I don't think it's magic i don't think
it's valid and not because they're doing
camera tricks which they are and not
because they're using plants which they
are and not because you're using editing
tricks which they are the problem is
simply that what you've seen on that
screen
what you're competing with I mean once
you've shown avatar on video
what does sleight of hand me that means
nothing and you can't keep telling
people we're not cheating no honest we
really mean this
what does that matter when your job is
to lie you know
yeah the most amazing trick I could ever
do for you is to be from one place to
another place instantly and that's done
about three times a minute on every TV
show
even the news so I don't think you can
do that where is in the theater
tell her and I don't have to spend a
moment saying we're not using camera
tricks because what we're doing there in
that room is following the rules of
physics and the rules of time that
you've dealt with since birth and that
makes it
bye pass a certain kind of intellect
that makes it fascinating to me
that's what I think but there are many
people that watch chris angel and go
oof that's a magic trick you know it's
not to me but they go
it is so are there not wrong
they just you know have a different
perception of what video does than I do
I mean there are people that will watch
things on Christmas show that to me are
crystal clear how they're being done and
they seem to fool people i mean if you
want a very simple example if you go out
in the street with your camera and you
take a deck of cards and you let the
person
open the cards shuffle them clean deck
nothing
reach in and pick out a card peek at it
put it down and you say is that
at the seven of diamonds if you go out
on the street new york and do that for
two hours
eventually you'll be right haha
you know you don't have to do any other
cheats other than editing just pick the
time it works you know
show us the time it works and you've
done magic and you don't have to design
any of that
you know I so to me that's really clear
whatever i'm watching TV
I have a very real sense that i'm
watching our different tries at the same
thing stuck together and with that sense
in my heart with my sense in my heart
that when you're watching arm de niro do
it take that he might have done that 15
times it's very different for me than
watching an actor in the theater that I
know is going directly into what he's
doing now from what he did 10 minutes
ago because we were both in the room in
real time
I think it's an entirely different thing
but most people don't
well every night i mean i would say a
hundred percent of the time yeah
it all depends on your definition of
flood our you're always wanted to be a
little better how one of the great
things that michael buteau who's the
head writer on bullshit and also a
juggler in the in the Lance Burton show
uh Michael gudo said that that variety
arts were four people who watch the
movie Groundhog Day and thought it
looked like a good thing
it's wonderful to do things over and
over going to be able to do them right
and you're always striving to them
better
ah we have had tricks not work
are we had embarrassment with that
not often but the thing I'm most proud
of in my career is that in 35 years of
doing shows not tell they're not me but
as importantly no one that works with us
has ever been injured seriously by
seriously I mean hospital overnight
you know you're allowed to cut yourself
you can do that you know you can within
my morality you can even break a bone
we haven't had that happen with my
morality you can but people who get
badly injured in show business that is
that's wrong
and the idea of doing stuff that's
really dangerous is to me
distasteful the idea of magic and
performance is to celebrate life and
health and when you do our movie that is
supposedly full of violence the
representation of violence and no one
gets hurt
that's a celebration everything
beautiful when you do a movie or a
performance where someone really does
get hurt
ah it's it's in a certain artistically
it's a violation of humanity
I don't know about this trend that David
and chris do where they do stuff that is
supposed to convince people they really
hurt
themselves are or that they're really
suffering
ah that to me is is not beautiful
I'm not interested in that what
interests me is the fact that teller and
I do the bullet catch at the end of our
show we fire 357 magnums into each
other's faces and ostensibly catch the
bullets and saying that that's Dietrich
and bragging that we've never been hurt
and bragging that we can't be hurt
is it such a good trick to me is
beautiful