Magic and Mystery Tour
Encyclopedia
Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour is a 2003 television documentary
miniseries starring Penn & Teller
. The program was created by the CBC
in association with Channel 4
Film.
The show focuses on street magic, and the subjects of each of the three shows are China
(Chinese Linking Rings
), India
(Indian Rope Trick
), and Egypt
(Cups and Balls
, Gali-Gali men). Unusually for Penn and Teller, Teller speaks in the Egypt episode, even though one of their trademark schticks is that Penn does all the speaking.
, which, until the 1949 Revolution
, had an extensive history of street magic. Modern day "street magic" is performed in teahouses. Besides the basic sleight of hand
work (e.g. Cups and Balls) and carnival stunts (specifically, a man who eats glass and bricks), two tricks with historic ties are demonstrated.
The first trick involves a man who produces various glass bowls filled with water from beneath a large robe. These bowls are of all shapes and sizes, often also contain flowers, and several are quite elaborate; one produced set is a stack of seven bowls of diminishing size.
The second is a mask trick derived from Szechwan opera. The magician, in fractions of a second (the video is not fast enough to register the changes), alters the mask he wears. The performer has ten different masks, and also uses his normal face as a "mask" in the performance.
Their next stop is an acrobatics school, where a "master" is teaching a class of late-year students various basic tricks.
After their trip to the acrobatics school, a place where many of these students will end up is displayed: an empty (and unheated, even in the dead of winter) "Acrobatics World". The performers, be they acrobatics performers or magicians, perform quite admirably, for no audience (save Penn, Teller, and their camera crew).
Finally, the duo proceed to Wanking, a small town in the hinterlands, where a great many residents perform some form of magic. When a family prepares to go to the town center to perform, Teller asks to perform a trick.
is cut out; in another, a stage knife, oozing blood, is stuck in the neck of a child.
Several tricks demonstrated in this episode have injury of a family member as a theme. A magician performs the Basket Trick with his son. These forms of trick are seen as an inspiration for the alleged brutality of the Indian rope trick
, where a small child, most likely the magician's son, is cut up and re-formed.
A magician does, in fact, perform the Indian rope trick
in front of the Taj Mahal; a rope does come out of a basket vertically, and a small child sent to climb it does so. However, the child is not injured or bloodied in any way.
The brutal versions of the rope trick seem to have come from retelling. To show this, Penn and Teller set up a "performance" where a foreign couple enters the auditorium at the end of the trick, when the rope falls down and the child miraculously comes back to life. Rumors about the rope trick started spreading both within the local community and in England, when the couple returned home.
Penn and Teller do feel that one of the actions of street magicians in India is unethical. At the end of the performances, the street magicians attempt to sell magic rings, which the magician represents as a source of good luck or power.
depicts the Cups and balls
trick. Penn and Teller go to Beni Hassan
to see the tomb inscriptions. They decide the scene painted is not necessarily a cups and balls performance, but it might be. However, they see paintings of juggler performances in the same tomb. Penn notes he started his career as a juggler, before becoming a magician; and "jugglers always seem to arrive before magicians."
The majority of this episode is in search of the Gali-Gali men, a group of magicians with an extensive history made popular in the West by Luxor Gali-Gali. They film several Gali-Gali shows and visit the relatives of Luxor Gali-Gali. Luxor Gali-Gali's original cups, seen on The Ed Sullivan Show
in 1949, are still in use by his descendants in Cairo
.
In this episode, Penn and Teller perform their particular version of the Cups and Balls in the tomb with the hieroglyphs, concluding with the revelation of a potato.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
miniseries starring Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...
. The program was created by the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
in association with Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
Film.
The show focuses on street magic, and the subjects of each of the three shows are China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
(Chinese Linking Rings
Chinese linking rings
The Chinese linking rings is considered to be a classic of illusion magic. In the traditional effect, solid metal rings appear to link and unlink, pass through each other, and form chains and other complex patterns and configurations. The rings may even be handed out to audience members for...
), India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(Indian Rope Trick
Indian rope trick
The Indian rope trick is stage magic said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope, and one or more boy assistants....
), and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
(Cups and Balls
Cups and balls
The cups and balls is a classic performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. The effect known as acetabula et calculi was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago...
, Gali-Gali men). Unusually for Penn and Teller, Teller speaks in the Egypt episode, even though one of their trademark schticks is that Penn does all the speaking.
China
This episode begins in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, which, until the 1949 Revolution
History of the People's Republic of China
The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since October 1, 1949, when, after a near complete victory by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China from atop Tiananmen...
, had an extensive history of street magic. Modern day "street magic" is performed in teahouses. Besides the basic sleight of hand
Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
work (e.g. Cups and Balls) and carnival stunts (specifically, a man who eats glass and bricks), two tricks with historic ties are demonstrated.
The first trick involves a man who produces various glass bowls filled with water from beneath a large robe. These bowls are of all shapes and sizes, often also contain flowers, and several are quite elaborate; one produced set is a stack of seven bowls of diminishing size.
The second is a mask trick derived from Szechwan opera. The magician, in fractions of a second (the video is not fast enough to register the changes), alters the mask he wears. The performer has ten different masks, and also uses his normal face as a "mask" in the performance.
Their next stop is an acrobatics school, where a "master" is teaching a class of late-year students various basic tricks.
After their trip to the acrobatics school, a place where many of these students will end up is displayed: an empty (and unheated, even in the dead of winter) "Acrobatics World". The performers, be they acrobatics performers or magicians, perform quite admirably, for no audience (save Penn, Teller, and their camera crew).
Finally, the duo proceed to Wanking, a small town in the hinterlands, where a great many residents perform some form of magic. When a family prepares to go to the town center to perform, Teller asks to perform a trick.
India
In India, where street magic is very alive, a family of street magicians take center stage. The tricks performed are of an exceptionally bloody nature; in one trick, a tongueTongue
The tongue is a muscular hydrostat on the floors of the mouths of most vertebrates which manipulates food for mastication. It is the primary organ of taste , as much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds. It is sensitive and kept moist by saliva, and is richly...
is cut out; in another, a stage knife, oozing blood, is stuck in the neck of a child.
Several tricks demonstrated in this episode have injury of a family member as a theme. A magician performs the Basket Trick with his son. These forms of trick are seen as an inspiration for the alleged brutality of the Indian rope trick
Indian rope trick
The Indian rope trick is stage magic said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope, and one or more boy assistants....
, where a small child, most likely the magician's son, is cut up and re-formed.
A magician does, in fact, perform the Indian rope trick
Indian rope trick
The Indian rope trick is stage magic said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope, and one or more boy assistants....
in front of the Taj Mahal; a rope does come out of a basket vertically, and a small child sent to climb it does so. However, the child is not injured or bloodied in any way.
The brutal versions of the rope trick seem to have come from retelling. To show this, Penn and Teller set up a "performance" where a foreign couple enters the auditorium at the end of the trick, when the rope falls down and the child miraculously comes back to life. Rumors about the rope trick started spreading both within the local community and in England, when the couple returned home.
Penn and Teller do feel that one of the actions of street magicians in India is unethical. At the end of the performances, the street magicians attempt to sell magic rings, which the magician represents as a source of good luck or power.
Egypt
In an Egyptian tomb, it is alleged that a 4,000 year old hieroglyphEgyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
depicts the Cups and balls
Cups and balls
The cups and balls is a classic performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. The effect known as acetabula et calculi was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago...
trick. Penn and Teller go to Beni Hassan
Beni Hassan
Beni Ḥassān were a nomadic group of Arabian origin, one of the four sub-tribes of the Maqil Arabian tribes who emigrated in the 11th century to the Maghreb with the Bani Hilal and Banu Sulaym Arabs.. They originally lived with their Maqil relatives in the area between Tadla, Moulouiya River...
to see the tomb inscriptions. They decide the scene painted is not necessarily a cups and balls performance, but it might be. However, they see paintings of juggler performances in the same tomb. Penn notes he started his career as a juggler, before becoming a magician; and "jugglers always seem to arrive before magicians."
The majority of this episode is in search of the Gali-Gali men, a group of magicians with an extensive history made popular in the West by Luxor Gali-Gali. They film several Gali-Gali shows and visit the relatives of Luxor Gali-Gali. Luxor Gali-Gali's original cups, seen on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
in 1949, are still in use by his descendants in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
.
In this episode, Penn and Teller perform their particular version of the Cups and Balls in the tomb with the hieroglyphs, concluding with the revelation of a potato.