Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends

Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends
Video cover
Directed by	Art Wolff
Produced by	Timothy Marx Cindy Valk
Written by	Penn & Teller Eddie Gorodetsky
Starring	Penn & Teller Lydia Lunch Alan Hunter Marc Garland
Music by	Penn & Teller Timothy Marx The Residents
Cinematography	Robert Leacock
Production company	The Mofo Video Corp.
Distributed by	Lorimar Home Video
Release date	July 10, 1987
Running time	59 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends is a 1987 direct-to-video program hosted by magicians Penn & Teller. Produced by The Mofo Video Corp. and released by Lorimar Home Video, the tape features seven different swindles or tricks that the home viewer can use to fool their friends. The tape was a companion piece to their best-selling book of the same name, released two years later. All of the tricks involve using a portion of the videotape.

The tape begins with an odd warning after the usual FBI anti-piracy warning and Lorimar Home Video opening logo:

Penn & Teller assume no responsibility for the misuse of these materials and will not be held liable to anyone who loses money from the illegal misuse of this tape.

After, Penn & Teller introduce themselves, making a huge point about how there are roughly 137.999 suckers to every American who owns a VCR (and can thus buy and use the tape). The only music in the tape is some incidental background music provided by Penn & Teller themselves (Penn on bass guitar, Teller on keyboard). They also filmed the tape almost exclusively in the apartment of co-writer Eddie Gorodetsky. This was supposedly to help reduce the cost of the tape, which, as Penn points out, retailed at $3.95.

The opening trick involved learning a simple effect called a card force. The trick involved distracting the victim and forcing them to select the three of clubs from a deck of cards. The magician asks them to make a simple wager on the outcome, and purposefully picks the wrong card from the deck. After doing so the magician asks the victim to watch some TV. When the TV is turned on, the videotape shows a clip from the old Carole Lombard movie Nothing Sacred. After a TV bumper, a quick segment called "Newsbreak" comes on. The female newsreader reads a news piece about a new government scandal. After reading a few lines, the newsreader is given a breaking headline. She pauses, smiles brightly, holds up a jumbo-sized three of clubs and says "Is this your card?" The magician is then supposed to take the money, and laugh at his victim.