The Greatest Magic Show of all Time was a Lie

00:00This is world's greatest con. I'm Brian Brushwood.

00:05In many great cons, you got two phases.

00:10You have the expectation, but then there's the excitement.

00:15The expectation, that's story, that's the tableau.

00:18Sometimes you say it out loud, other times you simply show it.

00:23Picture the man who walks in with a hard scrabble tail for the guy at the cash register.

00:30Guy at the register doesn't care, but I mean, it's interesting enough in the middle of a double shift.

00:35But then comes the excitement.

00:38This weirdo customer can't remember anything.

00:41They're suddenly asking for three different denominations of money.

00:45You heard the sad sack tale, you watch the confusion.

00:49At this point you're invested.

00:51You feel bad for him.

00:53This dude is a disaster.

00:56But he's an interesting disaster.

01:01Which is exactly what the con man wants.

01:04Because while you're feeling smug and superior, they just pulled off the short-change scam and walked off with a hundred dollars of the register's money.

01:15You, you didn't even notice.

01:18Here, let me give you another example. Also a story.

01:25And we're gonna do it right.

01:27It's a stylized, light-hearted story.

01:29One of those, think, Wes Anderson movies.

01:33I want to tell you about a man born in the French countryside.

01:42After finishing school, he became an apprentice watchmaker, just like his father.

01:46This boy had a knack for gadgets.

01:49He felt a strong bond with his father, practically guaranteeing he joined the family business.

01:56But fate had other plans.

01:59One day, after picking up some books at a local bookstore, he gets home to discover he didn't get books on watches.

02:07He got two books covering ledger domain, conjuring, magic.

02:13Books that covered everything from sleight-of-hand tricks to gadgets called automatons.

02:18He stayed up late mesmerized by everything he discovered.

02:22And a true passion emerges.

02:27This kid was destined to be an illusionist.

02:32So he leads a double life.

02:36By day, a watchmaker's assistant.

02:38By night, a part-time magician.

02:40Practicing everything from card tricks to the cup-and-balls routine, he immerses himself in a world of magic, discovering an entire secret community of performers right there in Paris, willing to teach him their tricks.

02:53A few years go by, and this boy falls in love with the daughter of, of all things, a prominent clockmaker in Paris.

03:02They marry, and he merges her last name with his to show his dedication.

03:09He is and forever will be Jean-Eugène Robert Goudin.

03:14This boy, now a man, works in his father-in-law's clock shop.

03:19But on the side, he was still perfecting automatons for a stage show that he dreamed he could one day open.

03:29But my friend, dreams are fleeting. Reality is unforgiving.

03:34Sadly for the man, reality wouldn't be denied.

03:39And his wife passed away.

03:44To cope with his loss, he decided that now was the time to make his dream a reality.

03:55And he created his own magic theater.

03:58He wanted his show to exude elegance, so he performed in traditional evening clothes.

04:06No magical cloaks, no incantations or spells, none of that cheesy nonsense.

04:12He wanted people to feel privileged.

04:15Over time, he became one of the best performers in Paris.

04:20And despite his white success, he retires early, his heart still heavy from a life of loss.

04:29He closes the theater and decides to enjoy the rest of his life with his second wife. Great story, right?

04:38Has a little arc and everything.

04:43But as you digest that one, you don't realize that I've secretly been priming you for the explosion. Because guess what?

04:54This ain't no tweet tale about a French clockmaker.

05:00It's a Michael Bay movie about an impossible mission. French countryside, France.

05:06The old clockmaker turned magician sits in his rocking chair, watching the wind blow and the grass grow.

05:14When all of a sudden, there's a knock at the door. It's the postman.

05:20And he's got a letter from the French military.

05:23My dearest Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon, you are the greatest magician in France.

05:29We know you're retired, but there's been a recent series of violent uprisings in Algeria.

05:35And there's only one way to stop them. A magic show. Smash cut!

05:39Houdan in Algeria watching the military lead local warlords into a theater. Smash cut!

05:46Houdan sweats as he does his act.

05:49No one in the crowd is reacting.

05:53There's nary a clap in the house. Smash cut!

05:56A man screams as he points a loaded gun at Houdan's chest, flexes his trigger finger.

06:01Wait, how did we get from there to here?

06:04How do we go from Amelie to bad boys?

06:12That's the gap, the shadow, the place where the mark invests themselves.

06:18And in that little bit of chaos, there's just enough wiggle room for the manipulation of a con man.

06:27The two stories I just told you are real.

06:30And yes, they are both the same story.

06:35At least according to the autobiography of the grandfather of search of a final legacy.

06:41Someone who performs the single highest pressure magic show of all time.

06:50With a gun pointed at his chest, Houdan needs to convince this audience that magic is real.

06:58And that's no small task.

07:01Because remember, cons don't fool us because we're stupid.

07:06They fool us because we're human.

07:10And this, this might just be the world's greatest con.

07:16Houdan is sitting in his chair.

07:20He's working on his life story.

08:05And he's wondering how it will end.

08:07I mean, we know the beginning.

08:09Then the middle there, there's some really fun and clever magic.

08:14Even before we get to this story, Houdan has earned his place in the pantheon of the greatest magicians in all of history.

08:22His contributions to the thinking of magic, the presentation of it, the involvement of technology, cutting edge stuff with his automaton work.

08:30There's one trick that's a real hoot.

08:33You use an electromagnet, it was novel at the time, to stick a box to the stage.

08:39You get a dad and a kid up there, little girl easily lifts the box.

08:44The dad grabs it.

08:45And then all of a sudden, the electromagnets turned on, he can't lift it.

08:49Haha, dad be weak. It's funny.

08:51Then you flip off the electromagnet and the kid lifts it again.

08:55And it was like, little girls born strong than the dad.

08:59Other tricks are less family friendly.

09:01I mean, like the one where a loaded gun is fired at the magician, but the bullet like stops in the middle of an apple.

09:09At any rate, word arrives from a French military officer, Colonel Francois Edouard de Neveu.

09:14Just like the magician, this military man was born and raised in the south of France in the 1800s.

09:23His position though, earns Houdon's immediate attention.

09:27The colonel wants Houdon to come on over to Algeria, where he's serving as the director of the Bureau of Arab Affairs.

09:37That to a retired magician, this is ridiculous.

09:39But it only gets weirder from here.

09:44The more Houdon reads this letter, he realizes that de Neveu thinks that Houdon could act as a deterrent to Algerian uprisings.

09:54He could reduce the bloodshed in Algeria by proving of all things to any and all tribesmen that French magic is more powerful than anything of the so called occult powers that Algerians might have up their sleeves. French magic?

10:14I mean, Houdon was a lot of things, but he wasn't a military officer.

10:22And the idea of pretending to perform real magic on Algerians.

10:26I mean, that's absolutely absurd, right?

10:29Robert Houdon was an entertainer, not some kind of wizard.

10:36And besides that, Houdon saw no evidence that this plan would even work.

10:41He wasn't coming out of retirement to travel all the way to Africa.

10:45So Houdon politely refuses, all the while wishing the French colonel, good luck with your Bureau's mission in Algeria.

10:53And thinking everything was done, leans back and reads maybe French Playboy, or as the French call it, the news.

11:01And then it's 1855.

11:03And of course, once again, de Neveu reaches out with the exact same offer.

11:09This time, Houdon wasn't just relaxing around the house.

11:12He's waiting on word from the 1855 Paris Exposition World's Fair.

11:19He's about to find out if his electric clock designs were award worthy.

11:24Finding himself completely occupied with clocks, Houdon says once again, No, thank you. I'm good.

11:31I don't have the time at this moment. Now it's 1856.

11:38De Neveu, always persistent, just writes one more letter.

11:45Hey, man, it's not just about you showing the Algerians your act.

11:51This is about taking your French illusions, the tricks that you've mastered, and turning them on their head.

11:59Take a punchline and turn it into a threat.

12:03I mean, that all sounds well and good.

12:07But when you're a magician, you know how the tricks are done.

12:11And you know, you've been playing them for laughs.

12:14The idea that you could alter the geopolitical landscape and shape wars by finding a coin behind some kid's ear.

12:21That must have sounded preposterous.

12:23But it's those small tricks that are often played for laughs, that could carry powerful secrets to them.

12:31For example, most magicians consider the discovery of witchcraft, published in the 1600s, to be the canonical first book of magic tricks.

12:44But when I read it, there's one trick that the author says to himself, this one is so good.

12:54I don't even feel good about writing this down.

12:57And he goes on to describe an incredible illusion, one in which the wizard would display a book written entirely in French, cast an incantation over it, and then spread the pages to display that now they were all written in English.

13:13Another incantation, and suddenly, the pages are displayed to be written in Latin.

13:20If you have $5, and if you've ever been to a magic shop, this is now called the fun magic coloring book trick.

13:31And nowadays, it's a staple of every children's birthday party magic show.

13:37But think about it.

13:39There was a time that same trick was considered a very powerful illusion.

13:47This moment, this moment right here, this might be the most pivotal moment of Houdon's life.

13:56He's audience expectations, thinking about how an artist can turn a moment of levity into an insult.

14:04It leads him to write De Nouveau back and say, Yeah, I would indeed love to come to Algeria.

14:11Now begins the hard part.

14:13How much of his light hearted entertaining magic show can he weaponize?

14:18The sinus passages of the back of the throat and the eye are connected to watch others.

14:24They wouldn't let us do this because it was too dangerous. Watch it.

14:27The closest I've ever come to this question was when I saw Penn and Teller on the David Letterman show.

14:32And they did one simple gag, less than a minute long.

14:35Where they throw a bean in their mouth, and it squirts out their eyes.

14:45They snort a whole bunch. Everyone gasps.

14:47You can see David Letterman's face kind of chuck.

14:51And so very quickly, the bean pops out of the eye and everyone's relieved.

14:57Years and years later, and because of the exact written words in that exact autobiography from Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon, I would see that that bean trick didn't have to be a 30-second gag.

15:12It could be six minutes, a theatrical piece of genius.

15:16The moment I read his words, his version of it, I knew I wanted to see how the original would actually play. It's October.

15:26Houdon stands on the bow of a ship surrounded in pirate-infested waters, the Alborian Sea.

15:41Also on board, his wife, his loyal assistant, and an arrangement of all of his very best tricks and automatons, everything from his old stage show.

15:52Standing by his side, eyes on the horizon, De Nouveau fills Houdon in on the terrible situation in Algeria.

16:02In a pre-mass media world, Houdon knows as much as you or I would in the exact same environment, which is jack-freaking-nothing.

16:09It's only on this boat ride that he finally gets the real backstory.

16:14He explains the types of warlords he's going to encounter, the fraught relationship Algeria had with France.

16:21For more than two decades, France's attention had become more and more focused on its foreign neighbor to the south.

16:30After all, Houdon, De Nouveau says, Algeria offers an easy entrance into North Africa, a gateway into an entirely new continent, an easy chunk of land for military forces to occupy.

16:42And I'll not lie, my friend, while the Algerian pirates are no joke at sea, on land they can't hold a candle to France's military might.

16:53It was back in 1827 when everything started blowing up.

16:57Algeria's leader, Hussein Dey, met with our French navy consul, Pierre Duval.

17:14They were negotiating disbursements to the Jewish wheat sellers in the region, but during that discussion, a question over exactly what France owes the Algerians became an argument.

17:26The raining day of Algiers, he grabs his fly whisk.

17:31Fly whisk is a combination of a fly swatter and a scepter.

17:37It's something to hold to make you feel awesome and powerful, but also you can kind of whip it around your face to keep the flies away.

17:47In the middle of these negotiations, it's used to slap Pierre Duval right in the face.

17:52The result of that slap is an astonishing 100 years of bloody French rule that extended all the way to 1962 before Algeria is finally able to declare independence again.

18:11Now, once word got out about the Fan Affair, as it came to be known, King Charles X of France immediately seizes on the opportunity.

18:24He sets up a blockade against the port of Algiers, demands an apology for his poor French consul.

18:31Three years go by without any progress from the Algeria leaders, and the piracy continues to run out of control.

18:39Finally, the French just full on invade Algeria.

18:42They force Hussein Dey to surrender and they exile the Algiers leader.

18:47Now from 1830 onwards, yes, the French military does have control of Algeria, but not without plenty of pushback from the natives.

18:57When the French generals get in charge, the Algerians are faced with land confiscation.

19:02They're left to have to entirely surrender to the colonizers or to have full seizure of everything they've owned.

19:09The only people living in Algeria at this time who didn't find themselves under the thumb of French forces were obviously French civilian colonizers.

19:17The people who had sailed across that same sea who dawns on now to this new territory with hopes and dreams of making themselves a new home.

19:28The Arab Bureau's main mission remains solely dedicated to France.

19:32They got marching orders.

19:33It's their job to bring modern French culture to what they see as an undeveloped region.

19:42Back on the boat, as they get close to port, Denuvo reminds Houdon that his hands are tied.

19:51He has a job to do, but Houdon has the chance to pull it off without a shot fired.

19:59Houdon and company arrive in Algiers perfectly timed with the annual autumn festival.

20:04The timing is so perfect, Houdon is going to serve as a headliner of sorts.

20:16He gets to fill the role of distinguished foreign performer.

20:20Even better, he's given the perfect venue, the wonderful brand new Babazon Theater.

20:24It's got a glorious stage and big arches welcoming in visitors.

20:30It is the most regal part of the city.

20:35Whatever Houdon thought Algeria would be like, he wasn't prepared for this.

20:41The colonel has everything set up from the jump.

20:45Houdon could use the theater three nights a week.

20:51He'll get paid for every performance.

20:53Near the end of the month when the autumn festival is about to wrap up, he'll give back-to-back performances with Algerian chiefs in attendance.

20:59Using the reputation he's built from his public shows, he'll not just wow the leaders of this French colony, he'll convince them that following France is the only option. Just one problem.

21:11Before Houdon can even kick off his string of performances, a minor uprising from Algerian rebels kind of catches him off guard.

21:24Outside of the theater, a group of protesters fill the streets, and they're kind of trying to chase French forces away from their annual festivities.

21:35And then the events broken up by the military officers, a small group of Algerian soldiers, are placed in custody while others make their way out of the scene.

21:46It's a small event, but enough to, I don't know, maybe upset Houdon's wife.

21:51After all, I don't think he pitched it to her as, who wants to go see an uprising?

21:57I'd imagine this has to be a pretty bad first impression for Houdon as well.

22:04I mean, what has he gotten himself into?

22:07Over the course of the next two weeks, Houdon pulls out all of his world-famous tricks, the best he's got, and he plays to houses filled with, like, dozens of people, maybe.

22:20He's getting a little bit concerned about whether or not the locals are going to show up.

22:27But those who do show up leave as awestruck as any packed house in Paris did.

22:33In one trick, Houdon would showcase his portfolio of fantastical drawings and then pull out impossible objects from the folder, stuff like a cage full of birds from the seemingly flat package.

22:47The Algerians loved him.

22:49And over these next few performances, Houdon felt something awakening in him.

22:55It was on stage that the magician felt truly alive.

23:00But, of course, he's not there to have a good time.

23:04He's there to impress, fool, and terrify Algerian chiefs into believing he has actual French wizard powers.

23:14I mean, first of all, how is he even going to get them into the theater?

23:22No matter how many times his assistant is trying to persuade passers-by on the street, Come inside. Miracles abound.

23:29The incredible Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon.

23:30Please, sir, sir, can you...

23:32The crowds always at least half empty.

23:35And even worse, those crowds were usually the French officials, not the Algerian civilians that he needed to impress.

23:43Thankfully, De Nouveau, always looking to help Houdon where he could, had an idea.

23:50Rather than waiting for Algerian chiefs to make their way to the theater of their own will, oh, I don't know.

24:02What if they were ordered to attend?

24:05He sends a military summons to 60 Algerian chiefs across the country, ordering them to attend a performance at the Barbizon Theater under French law.

24:15There's no choice here.

24:17You come see the great, the powerful, and the very French Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon, or you go to jail.

24:27That's a cozy audience, right?

24:29People ready for some laughs?

24:31And so there we are on that fateful night.

24:35The crowd is stirring.

24:36Some of them French nationals who've heard of the great Houdon.

24:44Others are Algerian civilians forced into seeing the show by military might.

24:48Tonight, though, will be a show like no other.

24:52If Houdon ever cared about his legacy, and I'm going to bet anybody writing their own autobiography probably does, then tonight is about cementing it.

25:04As he begins the show, remember this.

25:07I told you a great con has two phases, the expectation and the excitement.

25:14I learned that on stage by accident.

25:18By performing that trick that I learned from Houdon's autobiography, the same one Penn and Teller played for laughs.

25:25It's 1998, and we're in downtown Austin.

25:28Right next to the Austin power plant, the source of all of our electricity, is a little ironically named club called the Electric Lounge.

25:40Every Wednesday night, they host the Asylum Street Spankers, a giant ensemble band that plays old school blues music without the use of demon electricity.

25:51Every Wednesday night when the band would take their break, I got to take the stage.

25:56Now this part's important.

26:01Nobody came to see a magic show.

26:08This is a hostile audience, and I have to win them over, earn their respect, because I know three tricks in, there's gonna be one effect that required absolute silence.

26:18If I had their attention, I would sit down and explain.

26:22You know, a lot of people ask me where I get some of the weird ideas for the stuff I perform, and the truth is I do a bunch of reading.

26:37Right here in Austin, Texas, over at UT, they have the Harry Ransom Center.

26:41They have all of Houdini's original letters, and it was in that library that I discovered the most amazing trick I'd ever heard of.

26:48It was from a book written in the 1850s called The Autobiography of Jean-Eugène Robert Houdin.

26:55And in this book, he describes a trick so good that it totally froze me in my tracks.

27:01The chapter was called The Nail in the Eye.

27:05I'm not even gonna try to summarize this.

27:09I'm gonna read for you exactly what he wrote in his book.

27:14The corn curer who taught me to juggle also showed me a very curious trick consisting in thrusting a small nail into the right eye, which is then made to pass into the left eye, thence into the mouth, and by the end, returning to the right eye.

27:36It made me imagine how I burned with the fire of necromancy since I had the courage to practice this trick, which I found charming.

27:46A very disagreeable circumstance, however, deprived me of my faith in it.

27:49I sometimes spent evenings at a lady's house who had two daughters.

27:54I thought I could not select a better place for my performance and asked leave to do the trick.

28:01Of course, permission was granted, and a circle was formed around me.

28:05Ladies, I said, with a certain degree of emphasis, I am invulnerable.

28:08To furnish you with proof, I could simply stab myself with a dagger or a knife or any other sharp instrument, but I fear lest the sight of blood may produce too agitating an effect upon you.

28:24Hence, I will offer you another demonstration of my supernatural powers, and I performed my famous trick of the nail in the eye.

28:32Well, the effect of this scene was most unexpected, for the performance was scarce over before one of the young ladies was taken ill and fainted.

28:45The evening's amusement was disturbed, as may be supposed, and fearing some recriminations, I bolted without saying a word, declaring I would never again be caught at such tricks.

28:54Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon was one of the most important magicians who ever lived.

29:01Houdini named himself after him, and this is the trick he only tried once.

29:12I would get two volunteers up from the audience, one to be the play-by-play narrator, the other one to hold a flashlight and make sure everything was fair and above board.

29:28I would hold this nail and bring it towards my eye, and the horror of people realizing exactly what was about to happen would wash over the crowd.

29:37I pulled down my eyelid, and I stuck the nail in my right eye.

29:43The narrator would get upset and freak out.

29:46They described as I pushed.

29:48and pulled, and the flashlight moved from my right eye to my left eye.

29:54They described as I picked up a piece of silver crystal glassware and held it prominently.

30:01I tapped the bottom of my left eye, drag it down, and the entire room hears the same trick, but played serious.

30:09The first time I performed it, I had no idea if it would play in this kind of crowd.

30:21I had no idea if anybody would care.

30:33I mean, who could see anything happening from four rows back?

30:37But one of the members of the Asylum Street Spankers came up excitedly after the show and said, holy cow, man, I'd never seen that pin in the eye thing.

30:47And of course, my first concern was, well, could you see it?

30:51And he pointed a finger right in my face and he says, no, but I believed it.

30:56And so I believed it.

30:58Starting now, you're going to hear an approximate recreation of one of the most famous magic performances in all of history.

31:08We're talking about a magic performance, a single show that magicians are still talking about nearly 200 years later.

31:17If you are a magician, you'll know what tricks are being done and exactly how is subverting all the joyful presentations.

31:25If you're desperate to know how it's done, here's a hint. Google.

31:29But only look it up after you've heard this, because right now, I want you to be in the audience.

31:37I want you to be side by side with those tribal elders, and I want you to see what those Algerians saw.

31:45All right, here we go.

31:46We're back on stage with Robert Houdon.

31:48He's swallowed his fright and center stage, he's looking down at the meanest, roughest audience of his entire career.

31:57It takes a deep breath. And.

32:00Ladies and gentlemen, I begin my act by first inviting a volunteer upon stage.

32:06May I select you, good sir?

32:09Houdon points to a tribesman sitting in the front row, the biggest of the bunch.

32:21He grins and approaches the stage, a willing participant in whatever trick Houdon has planned for him.

32:28Later, Houdon would describe him as nothing less than Herculean.

32:31My dearest Algerians, he speaks in his native French.

32:35Tonight you will see something truly marvelous, for in front of you stands a man twice my size, a warrior who could best anyone in the great theater in any challenge of strength. Dude grins.

32:51He knows Houdon's right.

32:52In fact, I dare say that the only way to defeat him is not in combat, but is with my own skill.

33:02And so my newfound opponent, I present to you a challenge.

33:08Houdon sets out in front of him a small wooden box.

33:12There's a single handle on the side.

33:15He sets it on the ground with all the delicacy of giving a Christmas morning gift.

33:24If you don't mind, sir, could you pick up this chest?

33:29The Algerian easily leans over, picks up the box, stands up and holds it over his head.

33:36It's nothing to him.

33:38Light as a feather.

33:40Thank you, my friend.

33:42You can set the box down in front of you.

33:46Now, now, I must admit you're even stronger than you look.

33:51The audience lets out a small laugh, relieving some of the tension in the room.

33:58Why, I think the only way I could possibly defeat you in a fight is if you lost all your strength.

34:06Now the guy on stage isn't laughing.

34:08He squints his eyes, tilts his head and stares at Houdon.

34:12Sir, I'm going to take your strength away from you, leaving you as weak as any woman in the room, as weak as a newborn child.

34:31And with a gesture from Houdon, it was as good as true.

34:36The Algerian never breaks eye contact.

34:37Please, Houdon says, try and lift the box.

34:41So when the Algerian bends over and wraps his left hand around the entire box in one go, something feels different.

34:56He straightens and it won't budge, not even a bit.

35:00He grabs the box with both hands and still nothing.

35:04Some of the crowd chuckle at this point because the guy is getting angry and everyone can feel it.

35:12And at that moment, Houdon, an old man, reaches down, slides his fingers around the handle and with no effort at all, lifts the chest.

35:25The audience is stunned.

35:27It's just as light as before.

35:30The dude looks at Houdon with a hybrid of rage and confusion.

35:36Once it's back off the ground, Houdon does it again.

35:41The Algerian looks more confused than ever, simply staring at the magician, the crowd, the box over and over again.

35:50The magician, the crowd, the box.

35:53Houdon tells him again, he's as weak as a woman. Try it again.

35:57Try to pick up the box.

36:00He tries again, this time putting his entire body weight into the chest on the ground, but it's no use.

36:06It might as well be part of the stage he's standing on.

36:09A warrior in a war is neutralized, humiliated in front of his brothers at arms.

36:14The crowd's on the edge of their seats.

36:17They can't believe what is happening.

36:20During one final attempt to pry the box off the ground, Houdon triggers the final piece of the act.

36:27The chest's handle sends an electric shock straight into the Algerian's body.

36:31He startles and lets go, falling backwards from the box and nearly tumbling over from the seat.

36:39This guy isn't angry anymore. He's terrified.

36:42He looks at Houdon and he sees a demon, a summoner sent to earth to strike him down.

36:54And in a single moment, he falls to his knees.

36:59He cries out for God and goes running in fear from the room.

37:04Nobody is laughing now.

37:07And it's enough to earn Houdon an audience with another man in the crowd, a man angry enough to want to murder the French magician.

37:18This new Algerian, a heckler, begins to scream at Houdon about his fake magic abilities, telling him he could never measure up to the magical priests that held such high regard throughout all of Algeria. Probably Houdon's sweating.

37:39I mean, this isn't part of the act.

37:42And if this guy is as mad as he appears, his life could end right now.

37:48I like to think that he would have a fleeting thought.

37:53Well, this would be a good end to the book, at least.

37:59Houdon takes a deep centering breath, trying to keep his composure.

38:03Tell me, he prompts the Algerian.

38:05Are these the same priests that showed me a simple card trick outside the theater this very night?

38:13The guy on stage rages.

38:15You are my enemy.

38:17He screams at Houdon.

38:19And I will kill you.

38:21Imagine a small smirk on Houdon's face.

38:24Please, my friend, he says to the Algerian, allow me to prove a point.

38:32It is not my time to die yet.

38:45Allow me to give you the very gun, the very bullet that could result in my unnatural death.

38:53Houdon hands the man a revolver and a single bullet, telling him to mark it however he wants.

38:59He crosses the stage, whips out a knife, stabs it into an apple and holds the apple in front of his chest.

39:13Should God want me to die, that very bullet now loaded within the gun you have pointed at me will strike me down for good.

39:24The crowd gets uneasy.

39:26I mean, a guy getting weak is one thing, witnessing a murder a little bit different.

39:32Plus, nobody had really heard of Houdon doing these death defying tricks over his weeks in Algeria.

39:43Please, Houdon simply says, fire when ready.

39:47And the entire room hears.

39:51The bullet strikes the apple right in the middle, freezes during its tracks.

39:58And when this French magician retrieves the bullet from the apple, the Algerian volunteer on stage confirms that, yes, those were his markings.

40:21That is, in fact, his bullet.

40:25Allah is great, the Algerian shouts, and I am vanquished.

40:30The crowd cheers, Algerians and Frenchmen alike.

40:34This is no unliftable chest.

40:37Houdon had come face to face with death and lived to tell the tale.

40:46He bows to the audience, and they recognize finally the power and the might of the great French magician.

40:54And as he leaves the stage for the final time, behind the curtain, he traces the long, long journey that brought him to this moment.

41:03His watches, the clockwork, the lessons with his father, the chance mistake of receiving magic books instead of watchbooks, the loss of his wife, the rise of the theater, and a single tear rolls down his cheek.

41:23He is now the greatest magician, a performer who transformed a simple gag into an act of nonviolent warfare.

41:29And in doing so, he's found perhaps the greatest ending to his all important autobiography.

41:38A few days after the show, 16 Algerian chiefs, some of whom had been in the audience the night of the marked bullet, they present Houdon with a scroll of tribute, each marking the document with their own individual seal.

41:59Colonel Deneuve is right there alongside Houdon, representing the French and to the Algerians, it's proof that maybe French magic is just a little bit more powerful than anything their citizens had managed to come up with to this point.

42:23Wait, how did we get from there to here?

42:30How do we go from Houdon sitting in his chair, working on his life story, wondering how it will end to a guy conquering real warriors with magic?

42:43I mean, make no mistake, this is one of the greatest parables about art ever told, a true tale of creativity becoming reality, where a man's greatest triumph comes when he gives himself just one more chance.

42:58And it's no wonder magicians tell this story over and over and over.

43:02And now you have it in your head.

43:05And that's why we have to wonder whether or not the realistic expectation of an old man thinking about his career and the explosion of that same old man creating the best, most important magic show of all time.

43:19Does this seem a little bit, uh, on the nose to you?

43:24The reason we still know this story is because dozens and dozens of books have retold it, but they all cite one primary source, the autobiography of Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon.

43:37Nobody else wrote about the event but him.

43:40Look, maybe all of this happened exactly the way he wrote it down, at which point it's kind of interesting that it plays out, I don't know, exactly like a scripted movie.

44:00Or maybe it happened, but we're getting kind of a goosed up version of it, embellishing a little.

44:07Maybe some of the random people weren't exactly so random.

44:12Or maybe all of this is just French military propaganda.

44:16Or maybe that old dude that we were talking about in the French countryside, sitting on his porch, maybe he just wrote down how he would love the story to have ended.

44:34Whether it was the Algerians being fooled, whether we're the ones who are fooled to this very day by something that maybe never even It goes in the running for what just might be the world's greatest con.

44:52This episode of World's Greatest Con was written by Will Sattelberg and me, Brian Brushwood, your humble host.

45:04The show was executive produced by Justin Robert Young, production and research by Dog and Pony Show Audio in Austin, Texas.

45:27Credit goes to Hiding the Elephant, How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear, and What We Hide, Problems in Algeria, both by Jim Steinmeier, as well as Memoirs of Robert Houdon by Jean-Eugène Robert Houdon, which made for the bulk of our research.

45:55Of course, you have questions that we want to answer as many as we can, so hit us up directly at worldsgreatestcon at gmail dot com.

46:03Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

46:06Dog and Pony Show Audio.