Episode Recap: Magic Carpet Ride

The first team of challengers on Wizard Wars includes Joel Meyes, a magician from St. Louis, Missouri. He is joined by Nathan Kranzo, a comedian magician from Michigan. They square off against California-based magicians Chris Oberle, a close-up magician and Alex Ramone, large-illusion magician.

Host Ellen Fox reveals tonight's three everyday objects for round one: a guitar, jumbo-sized dominoes and a tutu.

Alex and Chris take the stage and promise the audience they intend to saw a magician in half - with a tutu, which they both impressively pull off. As they act out a scene of common problems faced by magicians, Alex pulls out a full sized guitar from an impossibly small briefcase. Chris then makes dominoes appear from a single piece of paper, pouring them into a bowl.  An audience member then picks a domino at random from the bowl and writes her name on the back of the domino.

Chris makes the domino vanish from his hands. Alex asks for quiet as everyone listens for a sound: and it's the sound of a domino falling into a guitar that's remained untouched on stage. The volunteer comes on stage and shakes the guitar, and lo and behold: it's her signed domino. Not only that, but Alex then reveals, it's not a "real" guitar at all: the sound hole is actually just a black sticker and it's a solid sealed guitar body!

The pair reveals they've made a prediction and hidden it in the room. They have Penn and Teller play a quick game of dominos against each other at the Judges' table. Using the last two numbers played, the magicians reveal a giant domino hidden under the Judges' table that matches those same two numbers.

The Judges thought the tutus were a bit neglected, but otherwise loved the rest of their routine.

Nathan and Joel head to the stage to talk about their dreams of becoming musicians. Joel pours a tray of dominoes into a paper bag to select one at random, but pulls out a guitar pick instead. He then dumps the bag to reveal they've all been turned into guitar picks: except for a double 2 domino, or a two-two (tutu) - get it? Nathan pulls out a tutu from under the table.

Then, Nathan eats the tutu while Joel holds up a screen in front of him, and in just seconds, Nathan swallows, Joel drops the screen and Nathan is wearing the tutu.

They then reveal a guitar in a guitar case on stage and have Penn sign the back of a pick, then Teller signs the other side. Keeping the pick in full view, they place it into the strings of the guitar. They slam the guitar case shut and the guitar vanishes, replaced with a pile of dominoes. A stagehand hands Penn and Teller a guitar case they magicians haven't touched and inside is the guitar with the signed guitar pick in the strings.
 
The Judges thought this routine could have used more tutu, but they really loved the deception. In a close call, Nathan and Joel make it to round two to face the Wizard Team.

It's Shimshi and Gregory who will face off against the challengers in the Wizard War. Their 1970's-themed round two objects include a bean bag chair, fuzzy dice, 8-track tapes, and a leisure suit.

Nathan and Joel take the stage, cutting a string from a pair of fuzzy dice. Joel lights the string on fire and tosses it to Nathan, who catches the pair of dice, magically strung back together. They have an audience member roll the dice. They count down that same rolled number down a stack of 8-track tapes, and find one by Sonny Bono. They reveal a prediction and unveil a covered mannequin dressed in a leisure suit as Bono.

They cut off a button from his suit, which Nathan eats then magically restrings with his mouth. Joel then tosses the button into the audience as it reappears on the leisure suit. They then borrow a cell phone from an audience member and place it into a bag. Folding the bag over and over, Nathan makes it vanish only to have Joel pull it from the inside jacket pocket of Sonny Bono! For one last trick, they manage to turn the stuffing of a bean bag chair into candy. The Judges loved their presence and tricks in their routine, but thought the routine was lacking a little in creativity.

Shimshi and Gregory are up next and take the audience into the world of the seventies. Gregory bursts through a shiny mylar strip curtain dressed in the leisure suit. After revealing that there is nothing behind the curtain, Gregory reaches through the curtain with a hat and pulls out an 8-track tape instead. Shimshi then walks through the curtain with a stack of 8-tracks and comes through holding an iPhone instead.

Gregory walks through the curtain and comes out with a seventies wig. They have an audience member sit on a bean bag as they toss some fuzzy dice into the audience. They line the dice on a ledge on top of the curtain, displaying the number 6 3 3 3 2 6. They cut open the bean bag chair and rip out the tag, revealing a number written on it. They tell the audience member to read it aloud and it is in fact, 6 3 3 3 2 6. For one last trick, Shimshi wants to match Gregory in the leisure suit. Approaching the portal, Shimshi makes his shirt change color. He then walks around it and is dressed head to toe in purple leisure!

Despite the chemistry that Nathan and Joel brought to the stage, it's the chic seventies styling along with a consistent theme that the Judges deem worthy of the win tonight. No $10,000 cash for Nathan and Joel, but a great night of fun magic for all.