The Real & The Fake Foolers

There are many ways magicians could go about fooling Penn and Teller. They could truly fool the duo, throw in a complete surprise to an otherwise known trick, do something that has multiple possibilities hoping that the wrong one would be guessed, or they could completely mimic and fake principles that magicians like Penn and Teller would be more than familiar with. One could even get a trophy without even fooling them by receiving one as an honorary award. Altogether, that makes the number of people who obtained the trophy, title and bragging rights bigger than we think it should have been.

We took it upon ourselves to carefully analyze each and every single act in question. Please understand that we could only go by what was broadcasted. Also, keep in mind that it's about Penn and Teller being fooled, in the moment, live, without abilities to watch performances over and over again. Also, many magicians performed marketed tricks, hoping for and gambling on Penn and Teller not knowing about these.

Most foolers need no further explanation. In some instances, it's extremely doubtful that Penn and Teller were truly fooled, in which case we will express our concerns but would also need to give the act the benefit of the doubt. If the act's name is in orange, we don't consider it to be a pure fooler but do think the trophy was valid. If in red, we believe the performer does not actually deserve the title.

The performers that cheated their ways into obtaining a trophy are Brynolf & Ljung, Jay Sankey, Jibrizy Taylor, Leon and Romy, Morgan & West and, despite still fooling them, Rick Lax. Benjamin Earl also deserves to be mentioned here for obtaining the trophy and title without actually fooling Penn and Teller.

None of this takes away from the acts nor from the performers' abilities. Similarly, there have been brilliant acts that did not fool Penn or Teller. But given the very nature of the show, we found it important to point out which acts truly and truthfully fooled Penn and Teller and deserved the trophy and title, and which did not.

Adam Wilber (Season 4 Episode 13)

Benjamin Earl (Season 1 Pilot Episode)

This act clearly did not fool them. Although arguably wording it poorly, Penn was correct in his explanation and then corrected himself perfectly when it came to any possible confusion over the semantics.

Brynolf & Ljung (Season 1 Episode 6)

They clearly fooled Penn and Teller by simulating a move that was not supposed to be there, and that also isn't there in their ordinary performances of the same exact routine.

Chris Rose (Season 3 Episode 12)

Dan Harlan (Season 3 Episode 2)

This is a tough one. Dan worked this exactly as intended, mimicking the original handling to the best of his abilities and surprising Penn and Teller after the guess. However, given that he waited with the surprise and was called out on the one moment differing from the original handling, we would not consider this to be a true fooler.

Danny Cole (Season 5 Episode 4)

David Parr (Season 4 Episode 5)

David Roth (Season 2 Episode 9)

Honorary award. We think they were telling the truth when saying they had a pretty good idea on how David did the coin vanishes, the part that was supposed to fool them.

Emily Victoria (Season 5 Episode 5)

They knew exactly what was going on, just not how. Emily played the game of numerous possibilities and won.

Eric Jones (Seasons 2 Episode 10)

On his podcast, Penn said that he knew the exact prop Eric used given he had one laying on his desk at home, but Teller was certain and overruled him on the show.

Eric Mead (Season 4 Episode 10)

Etienne Pradier (Season 1 Episode 7)

Francis Menotti (Season 2 Episode 12)

Graham Jolley (Season 1 Episode 1)

Greg Wilson (Season 2 Episode 6)

Honorary award for the appearance of his parents, Mark Wilson and Nani, but Penn and Teller knew exactly how this act was done.

Handsome Jack (Season 2 Episode 3)

Helen Coghlan (Season 5 Episode 6)

Fooled them with the first trick.

Ivan Amodei (Season 3 Episode 13)

There most definitely was some confusion going on with this act's judgement, but when the all-knowing judges behind the scenes decide that Penn's explanation did not suffice, it's a fooler.

Javi Benitez (Season 4 Episode 12)

Going by Penn's words, this might very well have been an honorary award. We guess we'll never know.

Jay Sankey (Season 2 Episode 6)

Jay did not actually obtain a trophy but made a huge deal about fooling Penn and Teller and about not accepting the trophy after the fact. This routine included him faking known principles all over, so he would not have deserved the title as fooler anyways.

Jean-Pierre Parent (Season 4 Episode 6)

It's very hard to believe that Penn and Teller were actually fooled by this classic stage illusion, but we cannot prove that they weren't, so we have to give it to Jean-Pierre. Perhaps they were confused about the stage setting or about hostess Alyson being in on the trick.

Jeff McBride (Season 4 Episode 8)

This seems to be an honorary award. By the explanation, it's clear that Penn and Teller have a very good understanding of how it was done.

Jibrizy Taylor (Season 3 Episode 4)

Clearly simulated a specific principle to throw off Penn and Teller completely. He did not deserve the trophy and title.

Jo De Rijck (Season 4 Episode 2)

John Archer (Season 1 Pilot Episode)

They were close but the more Penn elaborated on the guess, the further it got from the actual method and the clearer it became that they didn't get it.

Jorge Blass (Season 4 Episode 9)

Joshua Jay (Season 2 Episode 8)

Kostya Kimlat (Season 2 Episode 7)

Interestingly, Teller knew about Kostya and this happens to be the one thing Kostya is known for within the magic community. Still, he was clearly stunned so this is a pure fooler.

Lee Hathaway (Season 1 Episode 8)

Given the way this was performed, Lee might have gone with a certain action to give the routine multiple possible methods. However, we do think that the rest of the performance canceled out the wrong guess to a great extent.

Leon and Romy (Season 2 Episode 2)

They clearly simulated a principle directly leading to the wrong guess.

Mahdi Gilbert (Season 3 Episode 3)

Penn and Teller would know exactly how this was achieved but went for an another (additional) method given that it made sense and would have been making things a lot easier for someone with no hands.

Mathieu Bich (Season 1 Episode 2)

Obviously, Mathieu did use the box to his advantage and even prepared for it in the most brilliant manner, but it still would not have explained much if anything anyways.

Morgen & West (Season 1 Episode 5)

The guys claim that they did not try to mess with Penn and Teller, but West clearly mimicked a move that was not supposed to be there.

Nick Einhorn (Season 1 Episode 5)

Ondřej Pšenička (Season 4 Episode 7)

Paul Gertner (Season 3 Episode 6)

Paul Gertner (Season 5 Episode 2)

Rebecca Herrera (Season 5 Episode 7)

Richard Bellars (Season 1 Episode 4)

Richard Turner (Season 4 Episode 1)

This might have been an honorary award, but the final part might just as well have truly fooled them.

Rick Lax (Season 2 Episode 11)

Rick very much tried to mislead them and was called out on that (which he actually cut from his personal upload of the broadcast). He fooled Penn and Teller regardless, but this double dishonesty has definitely turned his act more towards the red spectrum.

Ryan Hayashi (Season 5 Episode 3)

They apparently got carried away by the entertainment. We think they would be able to dissect the routine otherwise, despite the number of principles included in the end.

Shawn Farquhar (Season 1 Episode 7)

Shawn Farquhar (Season 3 Episode 1)

Shin Lim (Season 2 Episode 2)

We do not believe that Shin fooled them but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt for Penn and Teller said so. Given the sheer amount of methods involved, it would be ridiculous to expect them to dissect the entire routine anyways, so they might very well have been fooled by some of the things.

Shin Lim (Season 4 Episode 3)

This routine would've been a lot less difficult for Penn and Teller to dissect than Shin's first Fool Us appearance, given the fewer amount of methods involved, but they didn't even give it a show, so we have to believe them about that Shin fooled them fair and square. Either that, or this is an honorary award that we don't know about.

Siegfried Tieber (Season 4 Episode 4)

Definitely a trick that could've been achieved in numerous ways, but Siegfried handled it very fairly and by doing so he more or less canceled out the guess.

Simon Coronel (Season 3 Episode 7)

Simon received his trophy on the April Fool Us special. Apparently, they expected special trick chips to be used. However, nothing they said originally pointed in that direction and they were spot-on on the explanation. It seems that they confused themselves.

Steven Brundage (Season 2 Episode 1)

Stuart MacDonald (Season 4 Episode 11)

Penn and Teller got carried away by the entertainment.

Suzanne (Season 2 Episode 13)

This is a very interesting case in that Penn and Teller should have been able to guess the method easily. They were on the right track, but derailed themselves because of a specific thought they had, making this an actual fooler.

The Sentimentalists (Season 5 Episode 1)

Timon Krause (Season 3 Episode 10)

The guess was alright had Timon stopped halfway. The last two sequences canceled out this possibility, so this was a valid fooler.

Vinny Grosso (Season 3 Episode 5)

Vinny Grosso (Season 5 Episode 2)

Vitaly Beckman (Season 3 Episode 7)

Wayne Hoffman (Season 3 Episode 8)

Wes Barker (Season 2 Episode 5)

Wes was extremely fair with the judges and most definitely did not try to mislead them.