|
|
Ellen Kotzin Loyal user UPSTATE, NY 280 Posts |
Hey yall!
Has anyone seen Penn and Teller's new series called BS on showtime? They already did one on exposing psychic readers etc.. It looked really interesting on the B***S**T page. Do tell! Ellen harryandersonfan.com |
cfrye Special user Portland, Oregon, USA 940 Posts |
According to http://www.sho.com/ptbs/, the series premiers at 11pm et/pt on Friday, January 24. Each episode will be replayed the following Thursday at 10pm.
|
roguemagic New user bizarre iowa 96 Posts |
This may seem like a ludicrous question, but does anyone know why Penn wears red fingernail polish on one finger? I've always wondered.
Take care, Craig |
cfrye Special user Portland, Oregon, USA 940 Posts |
From the P&T FAQ, posted on http://pennandteller.com/sincity/penn-n-teller/faq.html :
What is the significance of Penn's one red fingernail (left ring finger)? There are three common answers to this question. 1) It means he once shot a man for asking personal questions 2) When Penn first began performing, his mother told him to get a manicure because people would be looking at his hands. In response to this, Penn had all of his nails painted red as a joke. The one remaining red fingernail is in honor of his dear mother. 3) The red fingernail provides excellent misdirection and is just plain cool. |
David de Leon Elite user Sweden 418 Posts |
Or perhaps he just picks his nose with a little too much vigour!
|
John Smetana ???? - 2009 499 Posts |
The show was rated very poor in both the NY Daily News and The New York Post.Gee...ain't it a shame
Best thoughts, John Smetana |
RangeCowboy Regular user Long Beach 198 Posts |
1/24/03 The show was verbally quite vulgar because as Penn states at the beginning they intend to expose all the TV personalities who currently feed and profit on folks gullibility and personal tragedies in their e.g. cold readings.
Therefore rather than call someone a liar/cheat/charlatan/fraud Penn called them BS merchants and MUCH worse! which apparently is steering clear of slander lawsuits. Teller never spoke directly during the entire show. Your auntie would not like the language. As to the show itself, they explained loosely how a cold reading is done and exposed a few hot readings through the use of audience preparation and even how some invitees were selected by an agent with prior knowledge. One dupe who cried during the show later stated he realised after the show how vague the 'contact' with his late mother actually was. Future shows promise to deal with with blood and guts issues - a la faith healing. I think we can trust that P&T will certainly not behave in any way similar to the vile FOX11/masked-man exposes. I give it 4 stars and an R adult rating |
ELS Regular user Chicagoland area, IL 191 Posts |
I seen it and had my wife watch it as a learning experiance for her about J.E., who she tunes in to watch once in a while.
It was Ok, and I give it an OK becuase of the little over doing it with the cuss words, I'm not a prude, just seemed a little useless at times. But for us who do cold readings, what P & T showed on their show, for years and years has always been said, but people still come to see or hear what has to be said by one who is good at performing (be it a psychic reader or a preacher who heals with touch and knows your sins ). Ed
Were the border between the natural and the supernatural will be nothing any more but fuzzy. http://edwardshanahan.com
|
Scott Xavier Inner circle 3672 Posts |
I enjoyed it, only not enough audience members participated in the readings. I was a littled annoyed. The guy crying like a girl (sorry ladies no offense) was a lame example of a reading gone well. All though they pointed out how the medium picked up on hits and misses quickly and changed her reading accordingly.
|
David de Leon Elite user Sweden 418 Posts |
So why are P&T not getting any stick for ”exposing” cold reading (I didn't see the show, I'm just going by what has been said here)? Remember the flack that Mr. Rowland got for his foray into TV land? Again, I have seen neither of the shows, but I’m curious.
|
MisterE21 Elite user Salt Lake City, UT 426 Posts |
If I were to venture a guess (which I guess I am) about why they're not getting slammed for exposure it would be simply that, in my mind, they didn't expose much. Keep in mind I know very very little about how cold-reading actuallys works (which, I suppose, makes me more of a layperson than mentalist while watching). The main thrust of their exposure seemed to be:
a) they exposed that they aren't even COLD reading most of the time; there is a lot of warm and even hot reading going on; and b) they exposed that they are very good at covering up misses and swinging a topic around and around. They went specifically after mediums, no card, rune, palm or tea-leaf readers. Also, and this isn't super applicable, I think they're obvious, passionate hatred towards mediums actually made them less credible; it created a "I hate these guys and so I'm just going to sabotage them and rain on their parade" kind of attitude. Overall, I didn't really feel much had been exposed/compromised. I know P&T are not strangers to exposure controversy, so perhaps they were more careful...perhaps I'm just doofy. ::shrug::
Your EFFECT is only as good as its AFFECT.
|
cfrye Special user Portland, Oregon, USA 940 Posts |
In this case P&T didn't go into many cold reading techniques; the only things they really "exposed" were:
o That cold readers make a lot of guesses and general statements. o That audience members fill in details and credit the reader with a hit where there wasn't one. o That in many cases the reader has prior knowledge of who will be coming to the session. o That you can turn a "miss" into a "hit" using a verbal finesse. o That you can get false hits by making statements the sitter wants to be true. All in all, they didn't expose much, and nothing that wasn't already out in the open. The most interesting parts of the piece were when the readers struggled during a cold reading, and when P&T compared the edited and unedited tapes of a reading. |
Scott Xavier Inner circle 3672 Posts |
They exposed that it exists, not how it is performed. Only a trained performer could pick up the little nuances that were in there. I personally enjoyed how the medium/psychic changes her train of divination after a miss, I do not think an average layperson would really pay too much attention to that. It was also enjoyable to watch how they pieced together a reading, of course edited.
|
RangeCowboy Regular user Long Beach 198 Posts |
1/31/2003 Another hilarious episode.
This time Penn and Teller tackled Reflexology, Magnetology and the misuse of Chiropracty including one situation of quackery where a chiropractor was bone-cracking a six year old little girl, claiming it cured acne ! Hooray for exposing these snake oil salesmen ! re- last weeks episode on cold readings, these dudes who were exposed were not performing mentalism as you know it here, but merely a vehicle for parting sad people with their money 'contacting' the dead. Full marks for exposing these disgusting members of our western civilised society. 2/7/2003 The Aliens aren't coming. This episode was rather boring. and dull. They went to a convention of those who believe in alien abduction and found mostly dull boring people selling crystals and books about abduction to people who believe in alien abduction and similar dull boring people. Dull show man, better be more interesting next week. |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The spooky, the mysterious...the bizarre! » » Medium...Medium RARE...P&T with their BS special: Anyone have showtime??? (0 Likes) |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.03 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |