Anyone see the History Channel with P&T in China. It was really interesting some of the Chinese magicians only do one single trick all their life and the master teaches it to one student so it passes from generation to generation over hundreds of years. I felt sorry for the little kids who practice hour after hour day in and day out but they are good. There were some real cool card manipulators also, young girls in fact. You do not know the meaning purist until you have seen these Chinese guys.

Tommy

I saw that... Teller did his version of the Hindu Needle trick and Penn did a lof of juggling (yawn). No offense but tricks those chinese magicians did were crap. Imagine if some of those dedicated students had access to a modern magician's library.

That would actually be a terrible thing. Can you imagine how good they would be? We would all look really bad over night.

The Chinese guy with the mask changes was wonderful; it really doesn't get better than that. I think even Jeff McBride must have been drooling at the skill of this man. And the guy makes all his own masks. Tommy, I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this topic, although I'm sure that, 'They who must be Obeyed', will redirect eventually.

I was kinda hoping that P&T would STAY IN CHINA.....but alas, I must now continue to purposefully avoid them.

Yeah...Too bad. Who needs true professional magicians who put on a great show and who create and produce one of the best shows on tv (BULLSHIT!)
Oh yeah, and are behind (Penn) one of the funniest films in years. (The Aristocrats)

Too bad they came back...

To teller the truth, I am not to keen on them. However I enjoyed seeing how the the Chinese magicians work.

The Chinese magic documentary was part of an excellent three-episode documentary, "The Magic and Mystery Tour". The other episodes were in Egypt, where Penn and Teller searched for true "galli galli" men, and India, where they pursued the Indian Rope Trick, all the while following around Naseeb, the street performer who is one of the subjects of Lee Siegel's book on Indian magic.

Is there any replays of that show? I missed out on it.

I would love to see that show. I live in Hong Kong and I didn't even see it!

I wish I knew -- I keep waiting for it to pop up somewhere, as I have never seen the first 20 minutes of the Egypt episode.

If it helps, this was a Canadian production, done for the CBC. When I have seen it, it has been either on the CBC's main network, or on CBC Newsworld. It's been on once a year for the past few years, though it appears without warning, and the CBC website only provides an old listing (two or three years old). Unfortunately, it does not appear to be available on video.

In other words, you may have to rely on luck to catch this. However, if I do hear about it being aired, I'll be sure to mention it here.

In the scene where P&T go to the village street show, the dad magician has his homemade gimmicks with a little doll on a spray can, and a worm coming out of a gourd. Are these tricks that have names? Are they classically known as something, or are they just little folk art that the dad made?

If anyone can point this newb in a direction I'd appreciate it!

Thank you.

Its on YouTube...

The Indian rope trick episode was a fascinating watch. Didn’t know all the history of that. You could tell they genuinely hoped to see it done that way.