Penn and Teller - Bullet Catching

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spencerhut

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I had an interesting time in Vegas this weekend. I got picked from the audience to go on stage and inspect the Colt Python and 357 Magnum round used on the Penn and Teller stage show. I’m not sure what the trick is those guys use to make it appear like they catch the bullet in their mouths, but it sure looks impressive. They even gave me the spent round (initialed by me before firing) and case. They were hand loads only pushing ~900FPS according to Penn. Just thought it was a neat thing.
Oh the bullet looked like a Speer TMJ.
 
Never saw it live, just on the tube. Their presentation was immaculate, superb patter.
 
Penn and Teller do the best version of that trick i've seen. They know enough about guns to make it believable (almost). As i recall they have someone sign the bullet AND the case. Then allow them to inspect them after firing.
 
I have been up there and done that with them.
1) they really do shoot at each other
2) they really catch the bullet in thier mouths, had Penn spit it out into my hand.
how the trick works
Like most magic it's the mind that gets tricked. They put on full frontal body armor including Kevlar helmets lasers etc. they talk endlessly about how powerful magnums are. The crowd mostly who have never shot a gun let alone a magnum are played rite into their already confirmed mindset from TV, movies that magnums shoot through engine blocks and blow cars up that get shot by them. The sheeple buy it lock stock and barrel. In their mindset here comes dirty Harry with the big bad magnum forget it’s a 357 and not a 44 sheepple know no difference.
Now how the trick works
1st ammo used, I have the bullet and casing so there is no debate. 135gr FMJ Remington LITE LOAD PRACTICE AMMO.
To prove the bullets are really traveling across the line on stage they put up large thick sheets of glass.
The bullets hit glass shattering it there for proving they really shot. One thing though since I am not a sheeple I know half inch thick glass is one of the best bullet stops out there the force of the bullet is entirely absorbed by the glass. Penn almost fell on his face diving foreword to catch the bullet that ended up in my hand.
Now there was a bunch of stuff they did during the show that had me flummoxed But the bullet trick was in my back yard even Penn and Teller no matter how much I am a fan they cannot overcome physics……not yet anyway
 
FYI I signed the tip of the bullet going into the gun Teller shot.
I signed it with a Smiley face and Teller cracked up took almost a minute to recover and called me a sick puppy. MADE MY WHOLE TRIP TO VEGAS!
 
It is a trick....

Having studied magic and actually knowing how this is actually done, you can be rest assured that this is purely a trick..

If someone really wants to know, they can PM me.
 
Very much so - and expressly for the purpose of reminding people that we have a right to own guns in case the government goes sour. More sour, anyway.
 
I dunno if they ever had a show called "Gun Control" but they do run a show called "Bull****" on Showtime. They did an episode on Gun Control, but it was not anti-gun. They're quite accomplished. P&T are Libertarian aethiests, with many years in magic and enterainment. (notice how I separated those :p ) Penn's even been granted a patent: Hydro-therapeutic stimulator - Can you guess what it does?
 
A replay of the "Gun Control Is B***S***"" was avaialable on Xavier's blog site. If you haven't seen it, you should.
 
Like most magic it's the mind that gets tricked.
1. They put on full frontal body armor including Kevlar helmets lasers etc.
2. They talk endlessly about how powerful magnums are. The crowd mostly who have never shot a gun let alone a magnum are played rite into their already confirmed mindset from TV, movies that magnums shoot through engine blocks and blow cars up that get shot by them. The sheeple buy it lock stock and barrel. In their mindset here comes dirty Harry with the big bad magnum forget it’s a 357 and not a 44 sheepple know no difference.
Now how the trick works
3. 1st ammo used, I have the bullet and casing so there is no debate. 135gr FMJ Remington LITE LOAD PRACTICE AMMO.
To prove the bullets are really traveling across the line on stage they put up large thick sheets of glass.
4. ???
5. The bullets hit glass shattering it there for proving they really shot. One thing though since I am not a sheeple I know half inch thick glass is one of the best bullet stops out there the force of the bullet is entirely absorbed by the glass. Penn almost fell on his face diving foreword to catch the bullet that ended up in my hand.
6. Profit!!!
Now there was a bunch of stuff they did during the show that had me flummoxed But the bullet trick was in my back yard even Penn and Teller no matter how much I am a fan they cannot overcome physics……not yet anyway
Fixed. =D
 
I'm developping new methods for the acoustic reconstruction of shooting events. With access to an audio recording of the event, there's a good chance I could determine what is really happening, but the location of the microphone relative to the shooters and targets would need to be known. Anyone know if an audio recording would be available?

If someone is going to the show, a suitable recording could be made with a digital audio recorder in a shirt of coat pocket.

Thanks,

Michael Courtney
 
Cripes, Zen, there's nothing illegal about Bittorent itself.

Go download ABC - It's the client I use. The Bittorent file is just a pointer to clients serving the actual file - You download from your peers over a big distributed network. You open the .torrent file with your Bittorent client.

There, crash course.
 
I use uTorrent myself...it's amazing.
I couldn't find my (Legally owned) Sim City 3k disc last night so I had to download it...
Played it for all of 10 minutes.
woo...
Anyway, thanks for the torrent.
 
My statement that I wouldn't "teach"l people how to use it wasn't based on legality but was to keep my email box from filling up with "how to" questions that could just as easily be answered by a google search. If I could learn to use BT through client site toutorials then others can as well.
 
OK, now that's freaky...

There's at least 3 people from THR that have been on Stage w/ Penn & Teller when they did this...

I got to do it in Vegas in 2003 (My wife had me stand up because they asked for a "gun nut"....

Very Cool and I got to keep the shell and bullet also.
 
Been to their show in Vegas

Two very entertaining, and pro 2A gentelmen. Penn is like 6'7" and Teller is a good 6' tall very articulate, they both hang around after the show to talk with their fans, and sign autographs, I'm just glad they are on our side.:D
 
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