MovieChat Forums > Phenomenon (2007) Discussion > I've seen Ehud's live show...

I've seen Ehud's live show...


So I'm actually pretty incredulous by the "supernatural" and whatnot, but it is quite fun to watch and try to figure out the "trick".

A couple years ago I was in NYC and got free tickets off Craigslist to see Ehud's show. A lot of the tricks in the show were kind of "eh"--in fact, I think he performed the same "ESP - where did I touch you" trick that he did on the first episode of this show.

Despite all this, there were a few of his tricks that made me go "HUH?" In fact, I was chosen to be the audience participant on one of his tricks and I'd definitely like some input from others as to how this trick he did with me was done! I have no idea!!!

It started out as a standard spoon-bending thing. He'd hand me a spoon; I'd examine it before the audience--make sure it was hard to bend and then he'd bend or twist it; or I'd hold a spoon with both hands while he bent it without touching it; blah blah (not sure how either trick was done but spoon bending is pretty standard, right?) BUTTTTTTTTT that wasn't all! That was just the start! After the first couple demonstrations, he made me hold a spoon in one of my hands while he busied me with something else going on with my other hand. The details are kind of vague b/c this was a couple years ago and not the amazing part of the trick... so let me go on... while he's busying himself with my other hand and the trick there, my free hand was slacking at my side holding the STRAIGHT spoon. The real surprise, however, was after he had done his original trick, he made me bring my slacking hand back up where (GASP), the spoon i was idly holding was now also BENT! Actually, to be quite specific, the spoon head was TWISTED.

How did this happen? It was just slacking in my hand at my side!!! 100% it was a normal spoon. In fact, he let me keep the spoon (I still have it, somewhere...). It's a standard spoon--probably stronger than most. I can't even untwist it so how the hell did it get bent while I was just holding it, unnoticed, at my side?

Myself and the audience were all quite surprised. I'm sure most ppl in the audience thought I was in on it, but assuredly, I was not.

I'm sure there's no real "magic" to it, but I'd be curious to hear how some of you might think this was done??

Anyhoo, considering I was at his live show where he amazed me, I'll be rooting for Ehud to win the title. I wonder if he'll reperform the trick he did with me on this show! That would be great to see.

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The details are kind of vague b/c this was...not the amazing part of the trick
That's the key. It's all about misdirection, making the audience think the most important part of the trick is not worth paying attention to.

I have too much respect for magic and magicians to reveal how he did that, but I'd bet anything it was simple sleight of hand.

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Well, that's what you'd think except--and this I remember--he had me sign the spoon when it was still straight with a sharpie marker so that I'd know it was the same spoon. And, of course, the twisted spoon still had my signature.

I will try to find the spoon tonight to re-examine it.



I mean, I definitely agree there was a diversion while he performed a trick on my non-slacking hand, but there is no way I couldn't have noticed pressure being applied to my slacking hand if he was twisting the spoon physically. Quite bizarre.

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Magicians have people sign things all the time as a means of identifying objects. I've done magic at children's shows before, and one trick I did was to have a child sign a coin, which I placed in my pocket, and I pulled out another unsigned coin. With a wave of a handkerchief, the signed coin switched places with the unsigned coin, which I pulled from my pocket for inspection.

It's all about making the audience think you're showing them something you really aren't. On a recent episode of Cold Case, a character demonstrated how to pass someone a $10 bill but make them think you passed them a 20. Same concept.

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Oh, and another thing... He performed a couple of tricks similar to the "Phone Book Guy" trick at his show. One included finding a missing puzzle piece... (the audience was allowed to go up and inspect the puzzle pieces to make sure they were not all identical, etc.). I know a lot of you are claiming that it was staged.. that the actors were in on tricks like that, etc.

BUT, when I was at Ehud's live show, the audience was fairly small. There couldn't have been more than 100 ppl. Literally every trick he'd have one+ audience member(s) go up to participate in a significant way, so much so that if everyone he had participate was "in on the trick", there'd be like hardly any actually paying customers.

So I don't know... I really don't think that Carmen, Rachel, and that other dude were in on the tricks... I mean that's an easy accusation to make, but I really doubt the truth in that. There's definitely some other sort of trickery afoot.

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The audience was not in on the trick; only his assistant was. The phone number chosen was not shown to us in the phone-book. The audience picked the book, page, and column, and all of that was discarded when his assistant “picked” the number—that we were not shown.

I’ll bet that when you saw a similar trick in person, after the audience made all of their random choices, he had an assistant or something (a single person who was in on it) made some choice that cancelled out all of the randomness—and that you were not shown that final choice.

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Synetech

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Yeah, I know that's what you're getting at but I highly doubt Rachel Hunter was in on the trick. That would be beyond cheap! I'm sure there was some way that the randomness was eliminated... but I don't think it was with Rachel's role... and if it is, that's just terrible.

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I don’t understand why you think it would be so deplorable for her to be in on it. She was his assistant, and that is her role.

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Synetech

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I doubt that she was not on it that would mean all the other celebrities and audience were on it as well which renders this show pointless. I guess there was other trickery involved. ;)

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How does it render the show pointless? The millions of viewers are the ones to trick, not the few audience members. Besides, it’s not hard to make it look like there’s a big audience in the same room as a performer even if there isn’t.

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Synetech

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