Thoughts from The Business Magician
Kostya’s Blog
Why You Want To Watch The New Season of "Penn & Teller: Fool Us"
“Penn & Teller: Fool Us” is probably your favorite magic show on TV and it’s my favorite TV show, period. Thanks to the show, just like people know there are different genres of music and different styles of comedians, now they know there are different genres and styles of magic.
How To Catch a Playing Card In Mid Air
Want to learn to catch a playing card from a deck of playing cards that are flying by? I'm happy to teach you. Anyone can do this. It just takes practice.
I decided to reveal the method myself because I think "revealed" videos that are prevalent on YouTube are just terrible. They steal from the artist; they give away their art of craft without permission. And they steal from the viewer, who is given the illusion of knowledge.
I wanted to beat them to the punch this time. Not just by making my own "revealed" video first, but by selecting a magic trick to perform on TV that would only grow in appreciation when "exposed."
Fool Us: No Tricks, I Just Do It
In Season 2 of "Penn & Teller: Fool Us" I fooled Penn & Teller and made Penn pretty mad about it. The performance video went viral and made a huge difference in my life.
Invited back for Season 5, I decided to do something different. Here’s the full video. And, if you're curious about what was going through my mind and what went on right before filming, my wife, Amy, and I discussed what we were feeling, just four hours before showtime in Las Vegas.
After retiring this trick for a decade, I brought it back for Penn & Teller
Without giving away too much, let me tell you a little bit about the trick I decided to perform this time, on Season 5 of “Fool Us.”
The effect is catching a selected playing card while the cards are falling down in a cascade that magicians call a "dribble."
It's the hardest trick I do. I stopped doing it because it brought me too much stress.
So why in the world would I want to perform it when I have just one chance to get it right, in front of Penn & Teller and millions of people watching it at home?
How A Magician Prepares for Penn & Teller: Fool Us
While viewers of “Fool Us” see 5-8 minutes of a particular magician’s performance, let me tell you about the 3 days each of us spends in Las Vegas getting ready for the showtime/showdown with Penn & Teller.
Our first morning began bright and early, with filming for the “bio package.” The total shoot takes about 4-6 hours and is different for each performer. Each of us worked with our own producer on our spot.
How Fooling Penn and Teller Changed My Life
Performing for Penn and Teller changed my life in one way I never expected. Up until then I had assumed I was going to remain, for the rest of my life, an anonymous, local magician. And this wasn’t a bad thing.
My friend and I would talk about how we would retire by the beach and do magic tricks into our last days. We knew that doing magic would always make us happy because it made others happy.
So as a teenager I embraced this fact with aplomb: to be happy in life I wouldn’t need to be famous, I just needed to do magic.
And then came the chance to be on national television and get a taste of national exposure.
Back with Penn & Teller: Fool Us - Season 5!
I’m beyond excited to share with you that I will be back on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” this year, performing on the fifth season of their amazing show. The video of my first performance has almost 10 million views and nearly 4,000 comments. My favorite ones are when people tell me that watching the video brings them immense amounts of joy and they’ve watched it 5, 10 or 20 times with their friends and family.
Live in Vegas with Penn & Teller
On Sunday, November 15th, I received my prize for successfully fooling Penn & Teller on their TV show, “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.” I got to perform at their live show in Vegas.
And not just perform, but close their show. It was wild, sitting in the audience, watching them do their craft, laughing and being astonished like everyone else. And then half-way through the show, Penn pauses and says: “By the way, we’re the opening act tonight, so stick around and after we are done, you’re gonna see the performer that fooled us.”
“Did you really get Penn high?” And Other Frequently Asked Questions
I’m overwhelmed by the positive response to my performance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. I’ve received emails and calls from around the world from friends and clients and have been following the fascinating online comments and posts from strangers on YouTube, reddit and twitter! Here are my answers to the most frequently asked questions:
Was Penn really mad at you?
The reason Penn was so angry is because he and Teller have done versions of this classic trick themselves.
Why I Performed for Penn & Teller
At the beginning of this year I received an e-mail invitation to perform on Penn & Teller’s hit TV show on the CW network, “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.”
A dozen thoughts went through my head. How do I respond? What do I perform? What will Penn possibly say on national television when he and Teller figure me out? How will he expose me in front of millions of viewers? Then I read the last sentence of the email and all those frantic questions flew out of my mind. “You were recommended to us by Johnny Thompson.” Without a second thought, I responded to say I would do the show.
Appearing on Penn & Teller: Fool Us
Tune in to CW on August 17 at 8pm to see me perform for the Las Vegas duo, Penn & Teller.
Here is the trailer where I get to introduce this amazing duo onto the stage.