A group for contestants and lovers of the Channel 4 game show 'Countdown'.
http://c4countdown.co.uk/
Keep this.Jon O'Neill wrote:Bring back Take Me Out.
Mark James wrote:ITV isn't on the listings with sky digital, it's one of the extra channels you have to tune in yourself
True , Matt. I've heard that it's because ITV have a stake in Skys' main rival over here, Chorus, but it's just a rumour. Can't find anything to back it up. Besides, a lot of ITV programmes are shown on TV 3 anyway.Matt Morrison wrote:
In other news, WTF!??!:Mark James wrote:ITV isn't on the listings with sky digital, it's one of the extra channels you have to tune in yourself
Unfortunately this sort of tedious fluff is in virtually all TV these days. The magician intros seemed very Family Fortunes. With the ad breaks as well it does really spread things rather thinly.Ryan Taylor wrote:Yeah I wish they'd just cut out all the needless shite before a trick and just ditch Jonathan Ross completely. A host isn't needed at all, just get Penn and Teller to do it. Who makes these fucking shit decisions?
I don't get why P&T didn't bring up the fact that his right hand just disappeared under the table for ages in a really obvious fashion. The cards looked pretty weird, I reckon they had iron filings in them or something and he turned on some kind of wacky magnet.Ryan Taylor wrote:The second trick on this week's was pretty impressive I thought.
Yeah that was good too. You can definitely see something a bit dodgy when he deals the 5 flush cards, they don't come from the top of the pack, but still no idea where or how he gets the cards from especially, like you say, the same design as Penn & Teller's deck. They should reveal in full how all the tricks are done I reckon, like Breaking the Magician's Code.Ben Hunter wrote:The royal flush was neat, I've no idea how he managed to get hold of extra cards with the same pattern on them as P&T's cards.
I don't. I sometimes watch those shows, and hate myself a bit for it. I always found that instead of thinking "cor, that's clever" my reaction was more just "oh."Ryan Taylor wrote:They should reveal in full how all the tricks are done I reckon, like Breaking the Magician's Code.
I now what you mean, I do like to be tricked and entertained but then there's that horrible feeling I get which I hate myself for, that desperately wants to know how to do it just so it puts me out of my frustrated misery of trying to work it out. Like with the envelopes one, even though the dice was shown not to be able to get number 1, I still didn't know how JR's phone ended up in number 1. I think maybe he has a stooge off stage who tells him which envelope the phone gets put in and then he signals which number and the magician had 6 dices all with a number that wouldn't show up. He just selects that dice and then makes the switch when JR passed him the dice. He doesn't let JR put the dice in the shaker, it was him who did it and it looked like he palmed the dice that JR had originally.Jon Corby wrote:I don't. I sometimes watch those shows, and hate myself a bit for it. I always found that instead of thinking "cor, that's clever" my reaction was more just "oh."Ryan Taylor wrote:They should reveal in full how all the tricks are done I reckon, like Breaking the Magician's Code.
Like at the weekend, with that first guy's die, they kinda made it obvious it had no "1" on it (or couldn't land on 1 somehow in that special shaker, as that would be less obvious I suppose) but even then my daughter was asking "yeah... but how come his phone was in that particular one anyway, when it was all done at random?" and it could be because he could tell through the envelopes somehow, or it could be that he just switched it at the end, or maybe he forced it some other way. I kinda know that magicians can sometimes force a particular choice when it seems like you had a free choice, I know they can switch stuff very cleverly, and there must be a tonne of other things I don't know about. Personally, I prefer not to know, because they all seem "impossible" to me, until it's actually revealed. I'd rather just be tricked and entertained.
Well you can see him put some cards on the bottom after Penn gives him back the deck and then the magician says something about the cards being face down. But how he got the same pattern on the back of his own cards is still a mystery to me.Ryan Taylor wrote:Yeah that was good too. You can definitely see something a bit dodgy when he deals the 5 flush cards, they don't come from the top of the pack, but still no idea where or how he gets the cards from especially, like you say, the same design as Penn & Teller's deck. They should reveal in full how all the tricks are done I reckon, like Breaking the Magician's Code.Ben Hunter wrote:The royal flush was neat, I've no idea how he managed to get hold of extra cards with the same pattern on them as P&T's cards.
In that bit, was he just meaning that they were too large to be able to that trick?Phil Reynolds wrote:There was only one bit of that one I couldn't quite figure out, which Penn then effectively gave away when he asked the question about "If we knew exactly how that was done, could we do it?" Anyone who's seen The Prestige will know what I'm talking about.
No. (His subsequent comment about being able to keep that part of the secret quiet for the rest of their lives was significant.)Ryan Taylor wrote:In that bit, was he just meaning that they were too large to be able to that trick?Phil Reynolds wrote:There was only one bit of that one I couldn't quite figure out, which Penn then effectively gave away when he asked the question about "If we knew exactly how that was done, could we do it?" Anyone who's seen The Prestige will know what I'm talking about.
In which case I don't get it at all. Does this mean I have to watch The Prestige?Phil Reynolds wrote:No.Ryan Taylor wrote:In that bit, was he just meaning that they were too large to be able to that trick?Phil Reynolds wrote:There was only one bit of that one I couldn't quite figure out, which Penn then effectively gave away when he asked the question about "If we knew exactly how that was done, could we do it?" Anyone who's seen The Prestige will know what I'm talking about.
See my edited post above. Or, if you want it spelled out:Ryan Taylor wrote:In which case I don't get it at all. Does this mean I have to watch The Prestige?
Ah right cheers, I wouldn't have ever got that.Phil Reynolds wrote:[spoiler]Ryan Taylor wrote:In which case I don't get it at all. Does this mean I have to watch The Prestige?
I'm 95% certain that Sam Strange is an identical twin.
[/spoiler]
Tesla coils?Phil Reynolds wrote:Anyone who's seen The Prestige will know what I'm talking about.
Haha, I'd forgotten Bowie and that bizarre subplot.Ben Hunter wrote:Tesla coils?Phil Reynolds wrote:Anyone who's seen The Prestige will know what I'm talking about.
Yep. And shock...he came from Hull. What a fucking disgrace. I quite liked the dragon guy though, even if his act was a bit irritating at times I sitll thought it was all sort of cheesy/different/entertaining/funny all rolled into one. Teller's was quite nice too.Jon Corby wrote:That "trick" with the CD players last week was literally the worst attempt at a magic act I have ever seen. He didn't even try to assure us that the CD players were genuine or that the CDs were different or had anything on them. Awful.
Yeah, likewise. Although I also didn't think he'd have a chance of "fooling them", as there's nothing much else to say than "that's a trick card" - I mean, it turns into a different card a quarter at a time! Same with the newspaper dude. His act was great but I've seen the "restoring a torn paper trick" done before, so P&T will certainly know how it's done, even if he did add cool little bits like the paper coming back up off the floor.Ryan Taylor wrote:Yep. And shock...he came from Hull. What a fucking disgrace. I quite liked the dragon guy though, even if his act was a bit irritating at times I sitll thought it was all sort of cheesy/different/entertaining/funny all rolled into one. Teller's was quite nice too.Jon Corby wrote:That "trick" with the CD players last week was literally the worst attempt at a magic act I have ever seen. He didn't even try to assure us that the CD players were genuine or that the CDs were different or had anything on them. Awful.
)In the biblical sense or just generally?Jon Corby wrote:I don't want to know Phil Reynolds
Haha! Should there have been some kind of punctuation mark in there?Phil Reynolds wrote:In the biblical sense or just generally?Jon Corby wrote:I don't want to know Phil Reynolds
I suppose a comma might have eliminated the ambiguity, but where's the fun in that?Jon Corby wrote:Should there have been some kind of punctuation mark in there?
IIRC the trick didn't fool them. The card was forced on both the woman and Jonathan, which is why the knife was most likely genuine. My housemates and I noticed the force on the woman the first time through (he shuffles through a few more cards before giving her one). The think-of-a-number bit is also a force in that there are several methods of reaching the forced card, the method being different for whatever number Jonathan picks.Jon Corby wrote:I did think the trick that did fool them...
You do indeed remember correctly (Ben, not Jon). This was the first week when nobody managed to fool P&T, although I genuinely think Piff the Magic Dragon deserves a shot at Vegas - great act, made somehow more enjoyable for being performed in that terrible costume.Ben Hunter wrote:IIRC the trick didn't fool them.Jon Corby wrote:I did think the trick that did fool them...
The other week someone had something as blatant as trick CD players and Penn and Teller guessed that right, and in this case there was the possibility that the person he picked out of the audience wasn't at random at all but they just assumed that she was (even though the rubbishness level of each possibility is about the same). The way he picked her wasn't very good. Surely if you could pick someone randomly, you would.Jon Corby wrote:Only got halfway through Saturday's show, but that trick with the guys and the meals and the tables (which fooled P&T). How the hell?
My solution is that the predictions didn't come from the envelopes at all, but the guys were prepped with instructions to tear off a piece of paper being fed off a tiny remote printer just under the table and pretend it came from the envelope.
Nothing else makes sense.
Hmm. You could then extend that to say that the three guys were also actors, and there was fuck all on the bits of paper, and they just read out their rehearsed lines. Actually, the guys reactions were kinda weird - none of them looked at all amazed or laughed or even smiled at seeing their names on bits of paper. I think there was some definite level of coercion going on, such as the paper informing them to read their own names in the sentence or something. You probably would, wouldn't you? You're part of the trick, you've got one up on everyone else. Kinda like hypnotism but without all the preamble.Gavin Chipper wrote:The other week someone had something as blatant as trick CD players and Penn and Teller guessed that right, and in this case there was the possibility that the person he picked out of the audience wasn't at random at all but they just assumed that she was (even though the rubbishness level of each possibility is about the same). The way he picked her wasn't very good. Surely if you could pick someone randomly, you would.Jon Corby wrote:Only got halfway through Saturday's show, but that trick with the guys and the meals and the tables (which fooled P&T). How the hell?
My solution is that the predictions didn't come from the envelopes at all, but the guys were prepped with instructions to tear off a piece of paper being fed off a tiny remote printer just under the table and pretend it came from the envelope.
Nothing else makes sense.
True. The woman was just there to make it more interesting in my view, it was only a tiny woman harnessed inside a box. The tie stuff was cool as was most of the rest of the trick.Mark James wrote:Why isn't anyone talking about the dudes with the box? I thought that was amazing.
Oh yeah I really liked that too. But it went on far too long. I sort of got bored of it after a while and was just hoping they'd wrap it up soon.Mark James wrote:Why isn't anyone talking about the dudes with the box? I thought that was amazing.
The more I think about it, the more I think they're just coerced into reading something from the paper that wasn't really there (e.g. - "If you're sat at table 1, say .... [inserting your own name here]..."). None of the guys looked remotely impressed, if anything they looked a little uncomfortable. I think if they were acting they would have done a better job at being surprised themselves. There was also a cut where they got name-badged and mic'd up (which is quite unusual for this show) where he could have easily said something along the lines of "all right lads, you've got a big part to play in this, follow your instructions fully and I reckon we could fool them" or somesuch bollocks. I do think you're more likely to play along than to ruin everything.Ryan Taylor wrote:My solution to that trick was that they were all stooges. Nothing was random about it and I don't know why Penn stated that they believed the selection process was random.
Just watched this again, and it's exactly as I thought - there is no way the guys are just reading from the paper. They look really awkward as if they're wrestling with whether they should play along or not. Magician dude before the first guy (who presumably is the clincher - if he plays along the others probably will) actually bends down and says "please" right in his face before asking him to read "his" message from the paper (not the contents on the paper, not "read exactly what it says" or anything). Not the usual smug, confident "eat that, motherfuckers" reveal. No showing the paper to anyone.Jon Corby wrote:The more I think about it, the more I think they're just coerced into reading something from the paper that wasn't really there (e.g. - "If you're sat at table 1, say .... [inserting your own name here]..."). None of the guys looked remotely impressed, if anything they looked a little uncomfortable.
Yeah they definitely go through an audition process for the show and I would also hope that this trick was not achieved by such a crappy way.Craig Beevers wrote:I'd have thought the acts would have to go through an audition and they'd weed out anything as lame as that. Unless they spent all the budget on Jonathan Ross.
There's too much of a chance that the three dudes wouldn't participate. You couldn't risk it. It's more likely the girl doing the picking is in on it. If she's not the magician should've let Penn and Teller pick a random person from the audience.Jon Corby wrote:Just watched this again, and it's exactly as I thought - there is no way the guys are just reading from the paper. They look really awkward as if they're wrestling with whether they should play along or not. Magician dude before the first guy (who presumably is the clincher - if he plays along the others probably will) actually bends down and says "please" right in his face before asking him to read "his" message from the paper (not the contents on the paper, not "read exactly what it says" or anything). Not the usual smug, confident "eat that, motherfuckers" reveal. No showing the paper to anyone.Jon Corby wrote:The more I think about it, the more I think they're just coerced into reading something from the paper that wasn't really there (e.g. - "If you're sat at table 1, say .... [inserting your own name here]..."). None of the guys looked remotely impressed, if anything they looked a little uncomfortable.
Please watch it again with this in mind. The guys are clearly not just reading the contents of a note. They are implored to read "your message" (he bends right down and virtually begs the first guy to go along with it). Once the first guy plays along, the others are much more likely to follow. Plus we've already had a cut where they get microphones and name badges on. The magician can easily say at this point "okay guys, you need to follow some simple instructions of mine to make this trick work and I reckon we can fool everyone together, you okay with that?" or something, which doesn't explicitly give anything away, but if anyone's looking unwilling they can be sent back to their seat as "not wanting to join in anymore" without it blowing the trick.Mark James wrote:There's too much of a chance that the three dudes wouldn't participate. You couldn't risk it. It's more likely the girl doing the picking is in on it. If she's not the magician should've let Penn and Teller pick a random person from the audience.
I don't think the cut in filming is particularly important. I do think your reason is the most plausible.Jon Corby wrote:Once the first guy plays along, the others are much more likely to follow. Plus we've already had a cut where they get microphones and name badges on. The magician can easily say at this point "okay guys, you need to follow some simple instructions of mine to make this trick work and I reckon we can fool everyone together, you okay with that?" or something, which doesn't explicitly give anything away, but if anyone's looking unwilling they can be sent back to their seat as "not wanting to join in anymore" without it blowing the trick.
Yep. My friend who had been "hypnotised" had said it was a weird feeling because you felt you just had to play along with the other people on stage.Jinxy Jon wrote:(It's my belief that stage hypnosis works in exactly the same way.)
Get what you say but I still think Penn and Teller have effectively not been fooled. Everyone knows how the vanishing handkerchief trick is done but just 'cos you don't see the bit where it goes, doesn't mean you've been fooled.Jon the Jester wrote:But if that were the case, they'd have taken Michael with his "genuine" card trick (which was absolutely fucking amazing, and quite frankly from what I could understand from Penn's "explanation" should count as a fool - it sounded like he was basically saying "I know the moves and knew what you were gonna do, but couldn't see how/when you did it". I mean, it's kinda obvious WHAT he's had to do, but if you don't see him do it, well then that's the trick isn't it?)
Yeah these guys were not only shit but they were fucking annoying too with their horrible facial hair growth. Definitely a bit of a flaw.Magician Jon wrote:And the last guys that went through were fucking shit, and possibly exposed a bit of a flaw in the rules of the programme, namely that if Penn & Teller only get ONE guess, you do a fucking shit trick with loads of equally plausible (and shit) ways of achieving it, and hope they don't say the right one. FWIW I think while he didn't "switch decks" altogether, he did dump a load of cards on the top (and possibly bottom) as he denied the switch and was careful to say "all the cards JR shuffled were there in the order he did so", which doesn't preclude adding some. But even if he didn't do that, I can think of many ways of achieving the same effect. Rubbish.
Someone's jealous of puberty.Ryan Taylor wrote:Yeah these guys were not only shit but they were fucking annoying too with their horrible facial hair growth.Magician Jon wrote:And the last guys that went through were fucking shit
And you've ruined the magic for everyone else. I'm distraught.Jon Corby wrote:I've convinced myself that's (pretty much) what has gone on.