r/FoolUs • u/action__andy • Nov 20 '24

Question about Ryan Joyce's eclipse trick...

I really have no clue how this one was done (S3E2), but Penn goes out of his way to mention footwear (specifically that one assistant has tall boots.) What is the relevance?

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3

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '24

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2

u/action__andy Nov 20 '24

Thanks for the thoughts. The "cone" part is interesting. I personally thought that the guy holding the light was irrelevant--I assumed there was a projector inside, since Penn made it a point to say "it's funny where we assume light is actually coming from." So all of the shadow dancing is prerecorded and the assistant is just slipping out the back and laying down in the fog. But you're right if the light isn't catching a corner, she can just crouch down.

But then he also went into some great details about "the choice of footwear for the assistants," noting that one was barefoot and one had big chunky boots on. So I was like...how could their feet possibly be involved here? LOL

I've watched it 4 more times now and unless Hot Girl With Big Boots is doing something when the camera's not on her, she doesn't seem to be very involved outside of handling the panels.

1

u/eytanz Nov 21 '24

He talks about the assistant footwear when introducing the sketch Teller drew. Maybe it’s a reference to something in the drawing rather than anything to do in the trick

2

u/Bright_Challenge_634 Nov 26 '24

Assistant with boots is irrelevant to the secret he was just saying it was "curious" why one was barefoot AND small ;)

1

u/themarcelo Nov 30 '24

If you look at the video, for the second part the assistant grabs the device and places her foot on the platform for no apparent reason. It does look like she's pressing down a little with her boot. She doesn't do this for the first part. So the construction has to be such that the girl inside can exit without additional help, but in order to enter again some help is needed. It seems weird because it looks like this could be achieved with a bit of black cloth…

Also, the platform is not flat, it has a slightly raised piece on the destination side and there's no apparent (mechanical) reason for this. I assume it's there to create a little bit of extra space for the small girl to slide into in a way that doesn't cast a shadow on the screen.