Magician Chris Capehart.
A Delaware magician who in 2021 fooled Penn & Teller on their show “Fool Us” has filmed a second appearance.
Of course, Chris Capehart, who lives in the Wilmington suburbs, can’t talk about what happens in his encore.
The episode has not yet been scheduled for broadcast. The long-running CW show, also available (free!) on CWTV, involves magicians attempting to fool veteran magicians Penn & Teller.
Capehart started doing magic more than 40 years ago (with just one trick – disappearing silk) on the streets of New York, he writes on his website.
His accolades include winning the The Magic Castle’s Parlour Magician of the Year (2019), being on the cover of Genii (the “conjurors’ magazine,” 2008) and being part of the “New Stars of Magic” monograph series (celebrating his perfection of the three-ring routine, 1981).
Capehart “performs at stage shows, does close-up, parlour, cruise ships, corporate shows as well as lecturing to other magicians,” he writes. On his website, he lists three weekends of performances at the Dickens Parlor Theater in Ocean View: Oct. 19-21, Nov. 24-25 and Dec. 22-23.
In his first appearance on the 17th episode of the seventh season of “Fool Us,” he described himself as “being 70 years young.” He grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness, in a strict household where he wasn’t even allowed toys. “I’ve been making up for that ever since,” he said. “I have trains, planes, drones.”
Why he became a magician
His first job was in a law-office mailroom. “While I was delivering a package in Harlem, a poster caught my eye. It had the first Black magician I had ever seen. … That day changed my life. I quit my job, and I’ve been a magician for almost 50 years now.”
In the post-performance interview during his first appearance, he told host Alyson Hannigan that “Magic saved my life. I grew up in the ghetto, and I would have been running with a bad group of people.”
When she asked for advice for young magicians, he said “There’s always a performer in everybody. You just have to find what it is.”
In his first appearance on “Fool Us,” he showed off three tricks.
The first was making playing cards move without touching them.
The second was having a lightbulb turn on in a clear glass vase or his (empty?) hand.
The third used two blown-up balloons, one inside the other. And by “concentrating on it,” the inner balloon burst.
Penn Jillette began the judging by noting that they knew each other when performing in Philadelphia in the mid-1970s. “One of the greatest street performers I have ever seen in my life,” he said, adding that he probably has seen Capehart perform 100 times.
Capehart didn’t expect to fool Penn & Teller with the first two tricks, Penn said, and Capehart agreed.
But the third? “We think that the outer balloon has a little pin in it, and you jostle it a little bit or drop that pin to get that to break the balloon,” Penn said.
“You’re wrong,” Capehart replied, winning the trophy.
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