Magician Reviews Sleight of Hand and Visual Tricks In Movies & TV | Vanity Fair transcript

- The first time I stole someone's watch off without them knowing, I was about 14 years old. The last time I did it was, I don't know, I would say 20 minutes ago, Fumi, when I was talking to you. [Fumi laughing] That's yours. [Ben laughing] My name is Ben Seidman, I'm a sleight of hand expert. I use psychological magic and pick pocketing to create amazing moments for people. Today, we're gonna be breaking down sleight of hand and pick pocketing in film and TV.

"Ocean's 8". - Follow the Queen, live your dream, but don't sleep, don't sleep, cause she might disappear. Saw that? That's lit, right? - [Customer] Yeah. - She came back though, she likes you. - If you have someone running a con game, like the three card monte, they would never do a magic trick to start off. She makes that card disappear using a back palm vanish. I don't mind tipping that because they actually show how it works in the clip, they kind of reveal it.

But you'd never actually do this in real life. If you're running a con game, you wouldn't reveal the fact that you can do sleight of hand. It's a little like standing in line at the bank and just loudly going, "So I've been watching YouTube videos on how to crack safes! [people laughing in the background] Am I next?" - And we're following the Queen. Where's she at? - The three card monte is one of the oldest con games that we know of.

It uses three cards. One of 'em you wanna keep your eye on, that's the Queen of Spades, and then the other indifferent cards are usually matching. So the idea is, keep your eye on the Queen of Spades. Ignore the red ones, just watch the Queen. And you probably think it's right there, right? On the table, right there? Oh, in my hand, you think it's right here? - [Fumi] Oooooh. [Fumi laughing] Yeah, that's why you never wanna play this game for money.

People always think that the three card monte is based entirely on sleight of hand. That's a common misconception. It's actually based more on psychological pressures. There's conditioning. Every time the operator, that's the person who's tossing the game, throws the cards, for the first bunch of times you see it happen they're actually throwing the game straight. The money card does land where you think it is. So they're peaking interest, but they're working with a whole team of people in almost every scenario.

So the mark, that's the victim who's about to get taken advantage of, will notice the action, come over, see other people winning. That's where FOMO kicks in. And then, there's a little bit of Dunning-Kruger because as you watch this game played, you start to think, oh, I understand how this works. I can beat it. And then, right when you place a big bet, that's when the sleight of hand takes place. Even if you guess the correct one, someone's gonna put more money on a different one.

You'd never wanna play this game on the street. You literally cannot win. - There's no hard feelings. - [Customer] Yeah. - And you're a real one, you know? - She also steals the mark's watch at the end, just immediately has it in her hand. It's a little fast for real a pick pocketing steal. If you're running a three card monte scam, you're also probably not pick pocketing cause all of the focus is on you. So, even though Aquafina is hilarious and does a great job, I don't feel like the direction of the scene really matches a real life con.

"My Cousin Vinny". - He showed you they got straight sides. He showed you how they got the right shape. He showed them to you in a very special way so that they appear to have everything a brick should have. - I love the fact that they did this without any camera cuts. You see one card, and then he's talking. - His whole case is an illusion, a magic trick. It has to be an illusion cause you're innocent. - And then it changes to another card.

We don't cut away, the camera stays on him the entire time. Joe Pesci just nails that. That's about as good a demonstration of sleight of hand that you're going to see from a non-magician. The fact that the narrative works in tandem with the sleight of hand also really helps hide the method because your brain is attracted to what he is saying. And I just think it's fantastic. There's literally thousands of ways to change one card into another.

There are volumes of magic literature written about this specific topic. In fact, there's probably more books on magic and sleight of hand than there are any other performance art in the world. A simple card change that you can learn involves taking the bottom card, the King of Hearts, and then [Ben snapping] changing it to a different card. You're essentially doing what's called a second deal. My buddy Sal Piacente covered this in his VF review on card cheating.

The top card stays where it is, like this. So I'm dealing that second card, but I'm doing that same thing from the bottom. If you wanna learn how to do this, get a deck of cards, hold it in your hand in mechanic script. This is how dealers would deal a game of cards. And what you do is you come in, you show this card, you come in and you push that bottom card out just a little bit and you take that second card and set it on the table.

And that's called the glide. Once again, you take that, that bottom card, apparently, but you're taking the second one. This requires practice. Most card changes are designed for a real life environment, for a live performance. If you're sitting in front of me, I could set down a card, the Three of Clubs, have this in my hand, talk to you, distract you, put my hand on your shoulder, take your attention off of it. I could literally do this, switch the cards, and in a live environment you're not gonna see it.

On camera, of course, that looks terrible. We see the entire picture and so we see that happen. When you're designing magic for TV, you want everything to be burnable. Burnable means the audience can continue to watch it with unblinking eyes, even rewind the footage, and still not understand how the deception works. Keep your eye on the Four of Clubs. If I'm designing a card change for TV, I'm gonna wanna add layers of deception where I can show you that the Four of Clubs is actually not there or on top of the deck.

What I wouldn't do is show you where it ended up, but that's a little secret. We can keep that between us, right? "The Recruit". - The most important thing you need to know is that you don't know shit. What you see, [newspaper tearing] what you hear, nothing is what it seems. - Al Pacino, you're the greatest of all time, but I feel like you were led astray. That really should look much better. We literally see him rip up a newspaper and then we cut away and then we cut back and he opens up a different newspaper.

I don't see the trick here. I think it's safe to say that nobody on set knew how to do this magic trick. You have to at least see the pieces of the newspaper in the same shot before the restoration happens. The restoration is the moment that something broken is put back together. Otherwise, it's just not gonna be impressive at all. "The Take". - Walk up to me and steal my wallet. - I mean, it's ridiculous. I wouldn't have a guy come up to me in the street and ask me to steal his wallet.

It doesn't work like that. - Just do it. - Well, I'd walk up to the guy, avoid eye contact, step to the side, look him in the eye and then I'd be gone. - Still there. - But the money's gone. See, I took the wallet the first time and then put it back the second, only without the money. - Wow, that steal happens quickly. Is it possible? Yes. Is it plausible? Especially doing it twice in a row under repeat scrutiny, that's a little dicey, although I'm not gonna say it can't be done.

It would probably take a little more direction of attention than he did. If the wallet's laying in bed, they call it. It means that the wallet's tilted to the side or it's laying down, that wallet would've had to be in the perfect position. There was very little fanning where he touches his body. He just went right in and right out. You didn't see him kick the poke at all, hitting the person's jacket to flip the wallet back up, which allows you to do the dip in and steal the wallet more effectively.

We are here with Eric. Hey buddy. - Hi. - How's it going? - Good, how are you? - I'm really, really great. Do you know what's gonna happen here? - Not exactly, no. - You know you're here to see something like a magic trick, right? - Yes. Right, right, right. - Perfect. Okay, so let me ask you, I might borrow a few things from you. Do you have your wallet on you? - Yes. - You do, okay. Do you keep your wallet like in your pants pocket or - - No, it's in my jacket pocket. - In your jacket pocket, amazing.

Okay and it's on like this side over here? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Beautiful. Sometimes people carry it on like the outside, but you actually have it right here? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Perfect. And then over here in that pocket, what's that? I saw something in there. - Yes, my phone. - Oh, that's your phone, okay that makes sense. A lot of people, if you're right-handed, you're right-handed? - Yes. A lot of people, if they're right handed, they'll keep it like down here.

But over there is your wallet, correct? - Correct, yes. - Beautiful, would you be amazed? Tell me honestly, would you be amazed, Eric, if I could make your wallet and your phone switch places? - Yeah. - What if I did it standing over here? Would that be amazing? - Of course, yeah. [Eric laughing] - [Ben] Switch places? - Yes. [Eric laughing] No! Okay. - [Ben] Okay. - Okay. - Okay, and those are yours? - Yes, those are mine. - You didn't feel me take those? - No. - Oh, beautiful, okay.

I did see ... Do you have AirPods in your left pocket? - Yes. - Okay. You can always see the shape. AirPods are interesting, actually, because even if someone's wearing skinny jeans, you literally just ride them up and they pop out into your hand. In a crowded area, you can bump up against someone and just swipe those out very, very easily. Just because of the shape. They naturally move through the pocket very easily.

"Focus". - All right, you ready? - Yep. [Frank yelling] - Frank! Frank, oh my god, somebody help! Please, please, somebody help! Baby, will you get someone, okay? Just stay with me! Stay with me, goddamnit! Somebody get someone! Somebody call a doctor! - There is so much goodness in that clip. that's a big testament to Apollo Robbins and Ava Do who are the consultants. Typically, a wire mob is going to all work together to steal one specific thing at a time.

Wire mob is a term for pick packaging team. Typically with the wire mob, you have the steer. The steer scouts the mark and finds what they're looking for. Then there's the stick, that person holds the mark in position. They might ask for directions or pretend to spill something on them. Then you have the shade, this person is going to block the eyeline of the actual steal from happening. Then the mechanic, the dip, or the wire, that's the person who we think of as the pick pocket, they're actually doing the steal.

Then they're gonna toss whatever they steal off to the duke man. And the duke man goes south immediately. They're out of there. And that way, if authorities catch anyone in the crew, they don't have any stolen goods on them. So, in this case you have so many people working together. You probably wouldn't see that out in the street, people doing all of these steals at the same time, but you would see a crew working together to accomplish one steal at a time.

And I love how realistic these steals are. - Doctor, help him, he's just had a heart attack. - The only one that I would question is the Rolex steal at the end. It is possible to steal a Rolex. I've taken many. However, doing it in that context is a little difficult. A Rolex band has to be expanded, and then once it's opened, it's pulled over the person's wrist like this. You see Margot Robbie pull it off of his arm.

Watches that detach and then can just be taken off like this are easier to steal. I'm wondering out of curiosity, I think you're wearing a watch, is that correct? - Yes. - Okay, beautiful. Would you hold out your hands? So, of course you're a righty, that makes sense. [Eric laughing] So Eric, I'm going to give you $50 just to hold onto. - Okay. - Will you hold out your hand? - Okay, yes. - Yeah. Just hold it like this.

I'm gonna just crumple that up. What I would love you to do, hold onto that money, but hold on very tightly, okay, so you can actually feel it in your hand. - I feel it. - Yeah, you don't have to squeeze it so that it hurts, but actually hold onto it and then hold out your other hand like this. - Okay. [smooth jazz music] What I'm gonna have you do next is imagine that the bill is not here, but over here in this hand.

You know that can't happen. And while you're paying attention to the bill that was in your hand. - Yes. - Little gift for you. [Eric laughing] - Oh my god. Okay. - That would be yours. Oh, and I also grabbed your sunglasses. [Eric laughing] You might wanna take these back. - Oh my god, okay, thank you. - "Uncharted". [lighter flickering] - [Nathan] Come on. - You know what, it's for the best. I've been trying to quit. - A pick pocket working solo is often referred to as a cannon.

When you have a cannon with that little amount of shade and it's that quick, I don't know, it's a little too much. I think the idea there is good, but I think that would be, realistically, a nearly impossible steal to do in public. He would've had to study that particular bracelet. I mean, he does block the eyeline with the lighter, which I think is smart. I think they knew what they were doing, but she would've seen that happen, and it happens way too fast.

If he really wanted to steal that bracelet, if he was working with a team, someone pretended to spill something on her, there's a little bit of pandemonium. Someone's like, oh my god, starts patting her with napkins. Someone moves her out of the way because someone's like moving through. If there was a lot more action and a lot more attention splitting, where she's going from one place to another, I would believe that that steal would be possible.

"Modern Family". - Uh oh, here comes the great Snooze-dini. - Keep your eye on the cup with the potato. [cups scraping] - It's under that one, right? - Is the potato here? Is the potato here? Oh, this trick's a real lemon. [Hayley gasping] - I mean, that's just so much fun. That's fantastic. Look, the moment of sleight of hand happens off camera. They use a camera cut. Who cares? They're duplicating kind of a combination of two things.

One is the cups and balls, which is one of the oldest magic tricks that we know of. And also the three shell game, very similar to three card monte. It's a game that you can't win. It uses three, oftentimes, bottle caps. And a little marble goes underneath one of the bottle caps and you have to keep track of it. I'll even show you that it stays in the middle. It stays in the middle the entire time. Just remember that the marble stays in the middle the entire time.

Do you think it's under one? Do you think it's under two? Or do you think it's under three? And most people would guess number three. Once again, not a game you should play for money. [Fumi laughing] According to Sam Sharpe in "Neo-Magic" which was published in 1931, there's five different types of effects. There's a vanish. A vanish, something disappears. There's a production. The production, something appears. A transposition, two things change places.

A transformation, one thing turns into another one. And then, natural laws defied, and this can be a levitation, something floats, a penetration, one solid object passes through another. What's great about the cups and balls is it covers every single one of those effects. So there's a lot of bang for the buck. When you're talking about the cups and balls, you're talking about loading, a term for getting one item into another item without anyone seeing or hearing it happen.

That would be a load. A vanish, obviously, putting something into your hand and having it disappear. There's plenty of vanishes in the context of this routine. - Goodnight, everyone. - When Phil vanishes at the end, it's a take on like a trope of magic tricks, just disappearing in a puff of smoke. This is a very funny and great execution for a fun magic moment on camera, even if it's not actually being performed. "The Prestige". - Maybe one day I might get your attention.

Ask, are you watching closely? Maybe a magic word or two. And then I'll be gone. [chains clattering] [guard laughing] - How'd you get so famous then, eh? - Magic. [chains clanking] - [Guard] Oi! - It's a great use of a red herring. It's a great way of taking the person's expectations and using them against them as a weapon. An interesting point, Christian Bale's character is using sloppiness to cover his skill. In other words, if I show you a card, the Ace of Spades, and I cut it back into the deck, I might not show off in this way.

Anytime I see a magician showing off, doing really fancy cuts, I feel like they're revealing the fact that they're skilled as sleight of hand performers. If you shuffle the cards how they would be shuffled in an actual environment. Like if you were in a casino, people would shuffle them on the table. If you handle the cards in the way that are right for the situation, then when that card is controlled, it makes a little bit more sense.

Also, the sloppiness, there's a great idea where the cards can be shuffled on the table like this, mixed around like that, and the performer appears to not have any skills with the cards. Shuffling like this makes the handling look a little more professional. When you shuffle and you use a more sloppy technique, it helps hide the skill. And that way, when cards are controlled, it seems a little more impossible. The truth be told, I'm not actually focusing on any of those Aces or this one right here, I've been controlling the entire deck.

[people laughing in the background] Hear that laughter? That's why we do what we do. There's a great piece of sleight of hand theory, which is known as, if you can't change the move, change the moment. Christian Bale knows that he's gonna try to put that ankle cuff on the guard. And that's a difficult thing to do. He's under heat, right? The attention is on him, but he's going to distract by changing the moment. Like a pick pocketing move, he's moving the guard's attention to something else.

And that draws the guard's focus. That way, his expectations are confirmed. He relaxes. When his guard goes down, that's when Christian Bale's gonna attack. So that's how he changed the moment and used it to his advantage. I'll also, say Christian Bale did learn how to palm a ball. It's not the most advanced thing to do in magic, but it certainly does require practice and I think he did a great job executing it. "Now You See Me 2".

[Officer speaking Chinese language] - I do like how they're using real methods for concealing cards. You can keep the card in palm and move it around and show both of your hands empty. There's certainly a lot of jumping the shark here, I think, but there's also some realism. You can certainly hide cards around your hands. You can throw them. People who get really good at card throwing can scale them very, very far and very hard.

Alexander Herrmann, Howard Thurston, those are two great historical magicians, both used card throwing on stage as stunts. Also the late great Ricky Jay wrote a great book called "Cards As Weapons" and he was famous for throwing cards on stage and doing amazing stunts with them. There are different grips used when throwing cards. The Herrmann grip, which is holding the card at one of the corners like this with the thumb on top, then the wrist is snapped and the card flies off, using the index finger as a pivot point, I prefer the Thurston grip where the card is clipped like this.

Ricky Jay had his own grip. But when you're throwing cards, you hold on, you snap the wrist. And I just made our cameraman duck. [Ben laughing] Sorry to scare you. You all right? "Mission: Impossible". [Ethan flicking CD] - Oh, you mean this? - That's not on the list. - What's the matter, you've never seen this trick? - It's possible that CG was used, it looked that great. I mean, Tom Cruise is so committed to his roles that it's possible that he did it for real.

I think, though, this is a combination of sleight of hand and also a gaffes. A gaffes, or a gimmick, is some sort of trick apparatus that contributes to the effect. One thing I love is that Tom Cruise closes a door when he flicks the CD and we hear the sound. Closing doors, this is a magic and sleight of hand term, it means canceling out possible methods in the audience's mind. In other words, if I have three coins and I wanna make these coins disappear, the first thing I might do is show you that they are solid silver coins, by showing you both sides.

Next, I would probably explain that my sleeves are rolled up. I wanna point that out so you actually see that my sleeves are rolled up. I'm going to keep all of the coins in view, in frame, and I'm going to move slowly. And with all of those things in mind, if you watch the three coins, your brain actually starts to trick itself into thinking that what you're watching is real magic because if enough doors are closed, that is the only answer, which is why I show you the front and back of my hands.

Watch that second coin right here, that one is gone. And while you're busy thinking about that second coin, the third one has already left. And that's how you close doors. The best type of magic uses combinations of methods layered on top of each other. Makes it much more difficult to deconstruct a trick and figure it out. Action replication with method alteration is also another one. I might take a coin, show it to you, make that coin disappear, like this.

I might repeat that action over and over and over again. I know that I'm going to do a sleight of hand move, but by putting the coin from one hand to another, I'm conditioning you to believe that the coin is where I want you to think it is. And I do that by replicating the same action, but varying what I'm doing. "Jackass Forever". - Today, I'm going to wow you with my supreme skills of crested digitation. Oh fuck! Oh god!

Oh shit! - I know for a fact that there was a magic consultant who worked on that film and that's because I am that magic consultant. Every now and then I got a call from Knoxville saying, hey, I wanna pull flowers out of my pants, or something like that. And then I help him out. I designed that hat for them. This is not sleight of hand, this is a use of a prop, it's apparatus. I literally designed the hat so it would do the work for him.

Not all of the milk stayed in the hat. Look, there's only so much I could do. When that bull hit him, it was a lot of force. But it was a fun magic trick to include, and anytime he calls me I'm happy to help work on the weirdest project imaginable. "Ant-Man and the Wasp". - Hey, you try and entertain a 10 year old when you can't leave the house. You know the lengths that I've gone to? Close up magic. I learned that. - Vanishing a card and then bringing it back.

This is a classic piece of sleight of hand. This is published in a lot of beginner books on sleight of hand. I don't use it because a lot of people already know how it's done, but there are great card manipulators who take this and use completely different methods to achieve the same effect, but by showing their hands completely empty the entire time, and it adds those layers of deception and makes it really, really amazing. - How'd you do it, Scott? - Do what? - The card trick. - Seriously? - I think that most people who would learn this would be able to do it with just a few months practice, probably. - Can you knock? - Three years later, Randall Park's character learns this.

He performs it. - James E. Wu, FBI. - But I think they both did a relatively good job. "Cruella". - [Cruella] Stealing stuff. - Awfully sorry. Do you know if Piccadilly is - - [Cruella] Really, really, really good. [bell dinging] - Oh, this is me. - What's that expression from the movie "Jerry McGuire"? You had me at Chihuahua with an eye patch. It's a fun scene. I mean, the pick pocketing, he probably wouldn't actually make eye contact as he was stealing because he wouldn't wanna be identified later.

He's acting as the entire team himself, the wallet steal on the outer jacket pocket, I do buy that. I think Emma Stone did nail that. But it's just a fun scene, overall. I mean, come on, that dog. Who doesn't want that dog? [Buddy swallowing] - Buddy, don't eat those. [Buddy swallowing] - Oooh. - Look, the sleight of hand here, you could barely call it sleight of hand. It's pretty simple. But he did learn it and execute it well.

I mean, there was technically a vanish and a reproduction. Will Ferrell nailed it. It's very funny. I was just asked by our director Fumi to spoil this [Fumi laughing] and tell everyone how it works. He pretended to take one and then he did it and then he showed his hand empty, and then he had one in his hand and he pretended to take it out of his ear. We good? Never tell the secret! Thanks so much for watching. I hope if you see a magician performing, you can appreciate the deception that they're trying to put into the world.

And I hope that if you see someone who's trying to con you out of money, playing three card monte, trying to pick your pockets. I hope you're a little more cautious when that's happening.