One of the "foolers" on this week's Penn & Teller Fool Us is Garrett Thomas, who is in my opinion one of the three-or-so best magicians working today. And I'm talking here of magicians who excel as magicians, as opposed to those you love to watch because their delivery, timing, patter, style and/or personality are delightful. There are plenty of guys who are a joy to watch not so much because of the magic but because of how entertaining they are, even doing a trick you've seen a jillion-and-a-half times.
I've seen and spoken with Garrett at the Magic Castle and watched as he's fooled not only non-magician guests but some of the best magicians I know. He invents all his tricks and some of them have stumped Penn & Teller in the past when performed by others without (apparently) Garrett's consent. He told me a year or three ago that he was not inclined to go on the show himself so I was surprised (and pleased) to see that he finally did.
Penn & Teller are not fooled as often as viewers of this program might think. Often, they — and by "they," I mean mostly Teller — can think of five different ways a feat could be done but the rules of the show don't allow them to guess all five ways. So they say they think it was done by Method A or B and it was really C or D so the performer gets a trophy. But this time, I think they really were baffled. So was I, just as you will be…