(applause)

- Welcome back to Fool Us.

Penn and Teller have already been fooled once.

Let's see if this next magician can do it a second time.

Take a look.

- My name is Jimmy Ichihana.

I started out as a high-school math teacher.

I taught Algebra Two, statistics, and AP Calculus,

and really there's a combination of

the math that can apply to magic

and probabilities in particular with playing cards.

While I was teaching math, I met my fiancée, Lois.

I talked so much about the magic of Spain

that she's like, "We should just move to Madrid."

We moved to Madrid, spent a year there.

If you love card magic, that's the place to go and study.

She doesn't like to take credit for it,

but Lois has really driven me to pursue my passion.

We've been planning our wedding for months and months now,

and we get the email for Penn and Teller Fool Us.

Please don't make me choose between a wedding date

and being on Penn and Teller Fool Us.

But it worked out perfectly,

that I come down here, and then five days later,

go home and get married.

(applause)

- All right, with randomly selected world-famous magicians,

here is Jimmy Ichihana!

- Thank you very much everyone.

Thank you guys.

Alyson, would you please join us at the table?

Everyone, let's welcome Alyson here.

- Hi.

- Alyson, nice to see you, pleasure.

Gentlemen.

Thank you so much for having me here.

It's an absolute pleasure to be here.

And I should tell you guys that

previously I was a math teacher,

and so I'm passionate about both mathematics

and playing cards.

I'm fascinated by the link between the two.

How a deck starts in an order we know,

or a pattern we recognize, new deck order,

but with each shuffle,

you start to create different patterns

and so of course the two colors, the four suits,

the 13 values kind of create different patterns

every time you give them a shuffle

and to truly mix a deck of cards,

you should shuffle about seven times.

This is what they say.

Any fewer than that, and patterns will still exist.

And of course you may have noticed,

I've shuffled fewer than seven times.

This is good, this is good.

This means that if you look through the cards,

you see patterns and chunks, groups of playing cards,

that will help us out here in a moment.

So using the skills of the gambler,

I'll attempt to use these patterns

to find what we're looking for.

Teller, one, two, or three?

Just one.

Because Teller said one,

notice that's one red card followed by one black card,

one red card followed by one black card.

They go in groups of just one.

Penn, give us a number,

one, two, or three, what would you like?

- Three.

- Three.

Now that would be one, two, and three red cards,

now followed by one, two, and three black cards.

That's one, that's two, that's three red cards.

That's one, that's two, that's three black cards.

Groups of one, then groups of three.

Alyson, go ahead and give us a number,

one, two, or three, what would you like?

- Three.

- You'll stick with three.

Okay, so that would be one,

that's two, that's three red cards.

That's one, that's two, that's three black cards.

One, two, and three red.

One, two, and three black.

But, of course, I'm deciding when you guys switch, right?

So, we'll try this.

Alyson, give me a number, one, two, or three.

- Three.

- You'll stick with three?

Okay.

But this time, Penn, when you'd like Alyson

to change her mind, you just say the word switch.

- Okay.

- As soon as he says switch, you'll give us a new number.

Are you clear?

- Yes.

- Okay, perfect.

So we'll start with three.

That's one, that's two, that's three red cards.

That's one, that's two, that's three black cards.

That's one, that's two, that's three red.

That's one, that's two, that's three black.

Whenever you say switch, she'll change her mind.

That's one, that's two, that's three.

- [Penn] Switch.

- [Alyson] One.

- That's one red, one black, one red, one black,

one red, then one black.

(applause)

A perfect balance here.

Thank you.

Oh, I appreciate that, guys.

That means a lot.

Just so everyone knows that we're on the up-and-up here,

this time, Alyson, you'll say the word switch,

and when you do, Penn, you'll give us a new number,

one, two, or three. - Okay.

- Teller, just point for us, red or black.

Those are for you.

We'll come back to you in just a moment, okay?

Here we go.

And Penn, where should we start?

One, two, or three, your choice.

- Uh, two.

- Two.

Notice how that's two spades followed by two clubs

because there are two suits within the black cards.

That's two spades, followed by two clubs.

Whenever you say switch, he'll change his mind.

That's two spades, followed by two clubs.

That's two-- - Switch.

- And two.

- Three.

- Three, that's one, that's two, that's three spades.

That's one, that's two, that's three clubs.

- [Alyson] Switch!

- One.

- One?

So that's just one spade, that's one club.

That's one spade, that's one club.

Those were perfect choices, guys.

(cheers)

Oh, thank you.

Now, some people may think I'm using extra cards

or a partial deck, but I'm not.

I mean, I'm just using exactly 13 cards.

That's two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

10, 11, 12, and that's 13 there,

and likewise with the clubs.

That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

10, 11, 12, and 13 clubs,

and Teller, we're gonna add one of these to your packet.

Would you like to add the clubs or the spades?

Your choice.

The spades, we'll add those to yours,

and give us a number, one, two, or three.

One.

And one, two, or three?

- Two.

- Two.

And one, two, or three?

- Three.

- Three.

And I will go around here.

Keep it going here.

Three again.

Perfect.

- [Penn] One.

- [Jimmy] One.

- [Alyson] Three.

- Oh, we've got three left just for you.

Okay, that works out well.

And what we've done here is

we've actually simulated a shuffle, right?

So when you mix cards, they fall from side to side

and they make an alternating pattern.

Here we've got a group of three, then one,

three, two, two, and one.

But of course, this isn't random at all, right?

You guys decided how the cards would fall.

There's one final pattern to find.

That's the ace followed by the two,

followed by the three, the four, the five,

the six, the seven, the eight, the nine, the 10,

the jack, queen, king. (applause)

That's all of the clubs in perfect order.

But wait, hey, hey, hey.

You know the funny thing about patterns?

Patterns repeat.

See it's not just the clubs.

That's all of the diamonds in perfect order.

That's all of the hearts in perfect order.

That's all of the spades.

That's all 52 cards, back to the beginning,

back to the perfect order.

Guys, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

- Wow.

Jimmy Ichihana! (applause)

Wow!

Oh my goodness.

That was crazy.

- Thanks.

That's what we're striving for.

- I'm surprised they let you in Vegas.

So math.

- Yeah, yeah, so I used to be a high-school math teacher.

I absolutely loved it,

and there's definitely a connection between

kind of the problem-solving of math

and the world of magic when you're getting it, so--

- And did you ever do card tricks for the students?

- Yeah, I absolutely did.

Absolutely, so shout-out to--

- Oh my god, they must have thought math was like the best.

That was awesome.

You, like, made kids love math with it.

- Hopefully, hopefully.

- Yeah!

So did you come up with this trick for the show

or have you been doing this for a while?

- I've been working on it for about two years

so it's a routine that's been out there

and I've tried to add one or two little wrinkles to it

that hopefully they haven't seen before.

- All right.

Well, let's check in with the guys.

- I love this act.

The first thing I said when I sat down,

was I just love this.

I love this because this is, as Teller said,

the junction between juggling and magic.

You have such control over the deck.

It's essentially juggling,

the control you have over the deck,

but it comes off as supernatural.

It's a Rubik's Cube of complexity.

I will also say we were really calling out those numbers.

The way you performed that would be different

every single time you do it.

The real lie about this is the fact that you're doing it so,

so naturally and comfortably.

- Thank you. - Whereas the,

the physical handling, and even more so the mental handling

is so complex.

You just know that inside out.

This is not some sort of simple children's game

like Simon Says.

This is magician's code.

Nobody would say it outright.

We happen to know about Call the Colors,

and it's a, it's just beautiful,

and your handling, and the math tie-in,

and the kind-of-sort-of-ish telling the truth

at the beginning (laughs) is kind of wonderful,

and if I am wrong, and those words don't mean anything

to you, you fooled us, and we are happy if you did,

'cause that's the kind of magic we love to see.

- No, you hit the nail on the head.

- Aww.

- But I also had a blast here.

Guys, thank you so much.