October 22, 2024 • 20 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: magician and puzzle creator, David Kwong!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask Chat GPT” and audio rebuses.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, Buzzlers, Welcome to the Buzzler Podcast the sort function
in your puzzle Excel sheet. I am your host, a
Ja Jacobs, and I am here with today's guest, the
legendary David Kwang. He's a magician, a New York Times
(00:25):
puzzle constructor, Ted Talker, author of the new book How
to Fool Your Parents twenty five brain breaking Magic Tricks.
And he's a longtime friend of Greg's, and i'd tell
you a shorter time friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
So welcome David, Thank you so much. It's great to
be here, and it's great to be friends with both
of you in our very durations, each.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In exactly the right amount of time.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So we're going to talk to you about magic and puzzles.
But first, of course, we have a puzzle, and this
is a puzzle we first played with appropriately enough, win Aloo,
who I think you probably know. Of course, she writes
the Connections puzzle for The New York Times. We had
her on and we figured it since we're a podcast,
we gotta do audio connections. So this puzzle will consist
(01:17):
of me asking you to play a clip, and the
clip will contain three songs or sounds or quotations, and
you have to figure out what is the connection. So
play if you would play number one, and that's sort
of the sample one. That is the example that we'll
give you.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Here we go clicking it now, Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
He got it? So were you right? Did you get
it from the first few notes?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I got it from the first few notes. I've
made a puzzle like this before, so I'm trying to
find my zoom so I can look at you.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Was the same Did you have the same clue, the
exact same clue.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I've used Sweet Home, Alabama and Hotel California. The last
one was that was that Wu tang?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That was It's not I think it is not exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And he's got New York, right, is it?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Ny stayed in. I was gonna do Billy Joel New York,
state of mine. But then I'm like, those are three
old white guys. Let me just try to mix it
up a little. And but yes, so they are all.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
They all contained states, so they have states.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
In their in their names exactly. All right, So now
you got it on the see if that'll be interesting.
Can you get it on the first one, the second
one or does it take all three? So play number two.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Okay, number two going in right now.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Ten thousand years. We'll give you such a crick in
the neck. Now, what starts with the letter see Gookie?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Starts with see you, Papa Smurf.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
I'm going to get our food back from big melt
shined brainy.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, No, you got me on this one. So I'm
gonna have to talk this too. Maybe something will emerge.
I heard the ten thousand year old man, right, Is
that right?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Nope, that's all that's great because that threw you off. Nope,
it's not that. Uh, that's the hardest one. I started
with the hardest one. What about the middle one?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
What was one? Sounded like cookie monster?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
That is cookie Monster? In the last one.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
The Smurfs are these blue characters.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
They are blue characters. They are right. So the first
one is Robin Williams as.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, the genie. Okay, the genie I heard mel I
thought it was mel Brooks.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I love. I guess he was channeling mel Brooks, right,
all right, next one, if you can see the numbers,
will go to eleven.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Okay, the first one was spinal tap. From spinal tap,
I didn't get the Oh yeah, now I got the
second one, but I went I got the last one,
which was a Reverie revel. Let me pronounce that correctly
for revel. Oh my gosh, it's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
We have had this problem on the show. We have
had this problem. And I looked, right, yep, I hope not.
I I asked my friends, it should not be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
But I got to taps. It's a bugle call, you go.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I think taps and revel Night Night, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And then the middle I have now worked out it
was tap dancing. So there it is. You got it.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
That's it. I was gonna do a Revelly themed one,
but it was much harder. All right, you're on a roll.
Next one. See if you can get it from the first,
and then the second and then the third. I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Here we go.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
I'm good.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Do you want to be an American idiot?
Speaker 5 (05:48):
That's strange.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
True blood only? Okay? I did not get it in one, two,
three order. I don't think I have it yet at all.
I will tell you Green Day is the middle band.
The the third one is Billy Holliday singing Strange Fruits,
(06:12):
and the first one is Billy Eilish. So that's Billy Billy,
And what's Green Day have to do with billy?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Lead singer you to puzzle out? Yes, the lead singer.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Is uh, Billy Goat. No, I don't know Billy.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It sounds like Billy Joe Armstrong. I think Billy Joe. Okay,
spelled b I L L I E.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Greg. I'm sure you could make this work. Billy Eilish
has very close letters to getting reversed, but not quite.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's yeah, well, the last three letters of the first
name and the first three letters of the last name.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Right. Oh, there's a cool t shirt in there that
billy but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Or a cool puzzle of phrases that have that property.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Let's get on the puzzler next week.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Sure, sure, I'm calling it right now.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So, yeah, it's like a half pound drome. Interesting, all right,
a couple more. I do have a lot, but I'll
just do a couple more. Already, play the next one.
See what happens on the next one.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Okay, here we go, clip five, going in.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
One.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay, they're all candy bars.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
No, but I like that you said that with such confidence.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
All Right, I heard three musketeers. Here we go for
let me get the second clip out of it.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
One.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Okay, it's not at all what I thought it was. Okay,
well it came to me a little a little bit late.
But that yuck yuck is the three Stooges exactly. So
I'm thinking three musketeers and then the middle one. I
can't remember who it is, but I'm hoping it's a
trio of some kind.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, it is hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Famous said by the.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Three It doesn't matter who said it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It is let's have trio.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, I guess it is three words. Yeah, you got
your right, kidd Cheers, three cheers, three cheers, three stooges,
even though there were like seven stooges overall, right, but
they were.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Only four musketeers ultimately, really, d'Artagnan, he's the fourth one,
the fourth one.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, interesting, well, yes, but that's it. You got it.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Three.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's a little tricky because one of them is things
said by the three Musketeers, the other's things said by
the three stooges, and the third one is things we
say that have three in them. So yeah, this.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
One is. I think this one my be the turkey est.
So I'm gonna Okay, I'm gonna see if you can
get it. I have a hint. I have a hint
if it doesn't work for you.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay, here we go, going in. Now Barry Bonds comes up.
Let's listen to we Faced the Chatter as God in
Sportsman Life, No twicks, no weapons. Okay, I think I
(09:30):
got it. Last one who sounds like from the Princess
Bride Andre the Giant.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So I'm working back to say Barry Bonds was a
San Francisco giant, and I'm just gonna guess the middle
one is that they might be giants.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
You are correct, they might be giants. I think that's
their most famous song. I mean, I think of them
from the Mickey Mouse theme song the Mickey Mouse Club
that my kids watched.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
But oh I think of their istanbul not constantly. Yeah,
that's the one.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I I haven't loved that song.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So but but that was classic puzzle solving where you
took I know this one, and I'm guessing this is
you knew Barry Bonds was a giant. And then it's like, well,
I don't know the band, but the band with giants
in the name is this.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
One, right?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And I'm impressed he got on it. Originally I had,
and uh, what you've gotten? There was a sound clip?
Ho ho ho?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Is that mel ot.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Cross the puzzle giant?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Man, that was right, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That joke works once and it's with us. Otherwise it's
never fun.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Okay, Charlie green Giant exactly? Who's apparently just the green giant?
We assume he's jolly given that, but he is. Just
don't don't pigeonol them all right? Last one also a
little tricky. Also a little tricky, but I thought it'd
(10:57):
be interesting. Uh, play number eight, I guess play the
last one. I think it's eight.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Okay, number eight? Here we go. Boooo, great, just great.
The better took us. William climbed a tree reader, I
married him. Okay, I think Scheres turned back time. Can
(11:28):
I get verification? Okay? Yeah? So boo boo? Is that
Yogi Bear?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
It is Yogi Bear? So you gotta share? What Yogi bear?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Between share and Yogi Bear? Are they both like Yankees?
Both like picnics?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Well?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What was the last one?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Was the last one? Again? It was so quick?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Hold on, well, I can say it in my I
can do an impression if you want, reader, I married him, Reader,
I married him.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Oh, I don't know what that is. You got me,
So I'm going to try to figure out a connection
between share and.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And let me know if you want to hint, reader,
I married him was it's a line from a famous book.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Okay, I'll take your hint.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
It's by Bronti, one of the Brontess. I'm not even
gonna guess which one, but you just said, what is
the connection between share and Yogi?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Bear?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Share and yogi?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Those two? Those two rhyme?
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And then what's a book by one of the by
one of the two word title Wuthering? Not that.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Jane.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I like the fun spelling of that sound of air excellent. Yeah,
there you go. We talked about cryptic puzzles before. I
think I was think of the word emit when I
think of turning back time.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
So you are very good.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You have like that disease where you turn We talked
with Mike Grease from the Simpsons about that he's got
that disease. Well, you did fantastic. You found the connections.
I just want to get back to the magic for
a second, because you we have a lot of puzzlers
(13:34):
on but not as many magicians. You wrote your Harvard
thesis on magic, So what was that these I know
you wrote it, but what was the thesis of the thesis?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The thesis of the thesis? Well, this is many moons
ago now, But I was a history major in college.
I loved I've loved magic since I was a kid,
so I wasn't just practicing sleight of hand, but I
decided to make it my college major. Now, they don't
let you major in or concentrate, as they say, at Harvard,
in magic, so I became a history concentrator. But they
(14:10):
what a wonderful department. They let you study what you're
interested in. And I focused all of my work and
research on those great magicians from the Golden Age of magic,
Houdini and Thurston and Keller and all those great magicians
from the colorful era of the Grand touring shows. Okay,
what I focused on for my thesis was the great
(14:33):
Chinese magician ching Ling Fu, and then his imitator, Chung
Ling Sue. So ching Ling Fu sparked this craze for
Chinese magic at the turn of the last century, and
then all these imitators came out of the woodwork, including
Chung Ling Sue, who became the most famous of them
all because he was an incredible illusion builder, and Chung
(14:57):
Ling Sue, the second guy famous for catching a bullet
on stage, a trick that he called condemned to death
by the boxer rebellion, and that very historical.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
He was an original cultural appropriator. Like he was. He
was a white guy pretending to be Chinese as part
of his act, even though there was already a Chinese
magician who was doing the same kind of act.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's right, yep, that's exactly what was going on. And
the dramatic way to tell the story is that the
audience finds this out after his death, and his death
was on stage trying to catch that bullet. So the
gun was the gun misfired. It wasn't supposed to fire
(15:49):
a bullet, but a screw had bore a tiny hole
through the part of the gun that was blocking the gunpowder,
and little grains of gunpowder see into the wrong area,
fired the bullet. It hit him in the chest. He
collapsed on the stage. He died that evening. But that
was largely when the public found out that Chung Lingshu
(16:11):
was brilliant illusion designer and magician William Robinson.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
And a total fraud. I mean, it's an amazing story.
I actually knew that story because I went to the
Museum of Chinese Culture in New York and they featured that,
and I was always found I'm like, that is a movie.
That is such a it is so cool. And the
fact that he was such a charlattan that people he
(16:37):
would be interviewed by the newspaper and he would pretend
to be speaking Chinese, but really it was just like
racist imitation of Chinese, and then the translator would actually
say what he was saying. I mean, what a story thing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
On stage he would speak Chinese gibberis, have it translated.
But when he was shot in the lung, he collapsed
on st age and said, in perfect English something to
the effect of something terrible has happened, bring the curtain down.
I can't remember the exact quote, but.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
He just learned English all of a sudden. It was well,
that is an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
The bullet catch trick is not in Thank.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
God, What an oversight.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Maybe in the sequel, but I bet you could do
a version of that trick for kids that you know,
a safe a safe analog.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I've I've thought about because I'm trying to turn this
history into a narrative, a one person narrative about my
experience of being both Chinese and white at the same time.
And and I've thought about, well, I have to do
the bullet catch trick the check it's it's Chekhov's bullet
catch if you have to do it right? Exactly. Yeah.
(17:54):
So am I going to like sign a playing card
and have a travel across the stage? Or what's the
what's the nerdy cross version of fitball?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Can you like someone's spitting the ball?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Well, if I'm right, your other parent is Jewish, so
it should be like a bleeding or something that's nice.
A matza ball, Yes, exactly, I will catch the mats
of ball would just be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
All right. So before we wrap up, folks, I'm going
to play an extra credit for you at home.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
When is the next bust to Bikini Bottom? Oh round
your partner, Docito, I think, Paul.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, thank you, David, you did great and everyone. By
the way, if you have thirty seconds in between now
and tomorrow, please go rate the puzzler on your favorite
podcast platform. Because it does make a huge difference in
the algorithm finding us, and we are ruled by algorithms nowadays.
So with that, I'll say, uh, we'll meet you here
(19:12):
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzling.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Lydy Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here one more time
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. David Kwang,
magician and author, joined us for a magic themed puzzle
we called hocus pocus, where we turn a letter at
(19:36):
the beginning of a word into a p to make
a new word. And your extra credit clue was this
magical puzzling hocus pocus magician took something you might use
on a dangerous dog and turned it into a teaser
for your brain. It's kind of a meta answer there.
It is muzzle turning into puzzle. So join us here
(19:59):
next time for more muzzling muzzles that will muzzle you muslingly,
Hello, Buzzlers, Welcome to the Buzzler Podcast the sort function
in your puzzle Excel sheet. I am your host, a
Ja Jacobs, and I am here with today's guest, the
legendary David Kwang. He's a magician, a New York Times
(00:25):
puzzle constructor, Ted Talker, author of the new book How
to Fool Your Parents twenty five brain breaking Magic Tricks.
And he's a longtime friend of Greg's, and i'd tell
you a shorter time friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
So welcome David, Thank you so much. It's great to
be here, and it's great to be friends with both
of you in our very durations, each.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
In exactly the right amount of time.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So we're going to talk to you about magic and puzzles.
But first, of course, we have a puzzle, and this
is a puzzle we first played with appropriately enough, win Aloo,
who I think you probably know. Of course, she writes
the Connections puzzle for The New York Times. We had
her on and we figured it since we're a podcast,
we gotta do audio connections. So this puzzle will consist
(01:17):
of me asking you to play a clip, and the
clip will contain three songs or sounds or quotations, and
you have to figure out what is the connection. So
play if you would play number one, and that's sort
of the sample one. That is the example that we'll
give you.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Here we go clicking it now, Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
He got it? So were you right? Did you get
it from the first few notes?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I got it from the first few notes. I've
made a puzzle like this before, so I'm trying to
find my zoom so I can look at you.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Was the same Did you have the same clue, the
exact same clue.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I've used Sweet Home, Alabama and Hotel California. The last
one was that was that Wu tang?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
That was It's not I think it is not exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And he's got New York, right, is it?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Ny stayed in. I was gonna do Billy Joel New York,
state of mine. But then I'm like, those are three
old white guys. Let me just try to mix it
up a little. And but yes, so they are all.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
They all contained states, so they have states.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
In their in their names exactly. All right, So now
you got it on the see if that'll be interesting.
Can you get it on the first one, the second
one or does it take all three? So play number two.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Okay, number two going in right now.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Ten thousand years. We'll give you such a crick in
the neck. Now, what starts with the letter see Gookie?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Starts with see you, Papa Smurf.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
I'm going to get our food back from big melt
shined brainy.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Okay, No, you got me on this one. So I'm
gonna have to talk this too. Maybe something will emerge.
I heard the ten thousand year old man, right, Is
that right?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Nope, that's all that's great because that threw you off. Nope,
it's not that. Uh, that's the hardest one. I started
with the hardest one. What about the middle one?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
What was one? Sounded like cookie monster?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
That is cookie Monster? In the last one.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
The Smurfs are these blue characters.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
They are blue characters. They are right. So the first
one is Robin Williams as.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, the genie. Okay, the genie I heard mel I
thought it was mel Brooks.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I love. I guess he was channeling mel Brooks, right,
all right, next one, if you can see the numbers,
will go to eleven.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Okay, the first one was spinal tap. From spinal tap,
I didn't get the Oh yeah, now I got the
second one, but I went I got the last one,
which was a Reverie revel. Let me pronounce that correctly
for revel. Oh my gosh, it's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
We have had this problem on the show. We have
had this problem. And I looked, right, yep, I hope not.
I I asked my friends, it should not be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
But I got to taps. It's a bugle call, you go.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I think taps and revel Night Night, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And then the middle I have now worked out it
was tap dancing. So there it is. You got it.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
That's it. I was gonna do a Revelly themed one,
but it was much harder. All right, you're on a roll.
Next one. See if you can get it from the first,
and then the second and then the third. I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Here we go.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
I'm good.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Do you want to be an American idiot?
Speaker 5 (05:48):
That's strange.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
True blood only? Okay? I did not get it in one, two,
three order. I don't think I have it yet at all.
I will tell you Green Day is the middle band.
The the third one is Billy Holliday singing Strange Fruits,
(06:12):
and the first one is Billy Eilish. So that's Billy Billy,
And what's Green Day have to do with billy?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Lead singer you to puzzle out? Yes, the lead singer.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Is uh, Billy Goat. No, I don't know Billy.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
It sounds like Billy Joe Armstrong. I think Billy Joe. Okay,
spelled b I L L I E.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Greg. I'm sure you could make this work. Billy Eilish
has very close letters to getting reversed, but not quite.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
It's yeah, well, the last three letters of the first
name and the first three letters of the last name.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Right. Oh, there's a cool t shirt in there that
billy but I don't know.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Or a cool puzzle of phrases that have that property.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Let's get on the puzzler next week.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Sure, sure, I'm calling it right now.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So, yeah, it's like a half pound drome. Interesting, all right,
a couple more. I do have a lot, but I'll
just do a couple more. Already, play the next one.
See what happens on the next one.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Okay, here we go, clip five, going in.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
One.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay, they're all candy bars.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
No, but I like that you said that with such confidence.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
All Right, I heard three musketeers. Here we go for
let me get the second clip out of it.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
One.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Okay, it's not at all what I thought it was. Okay,
well it came to me a little a little bit late.
But that yuck yuck is the three Stooges exactly. So
I'm thinking three musketeers and then the middle one. I
can't remember who it is, but I'm hoping it's a
trio of some kind.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, it is hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Famous said by the.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Three It doesn't matter who said it.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It is let's have trio.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, I guess it is three words. Yeah, you got
your right, kidd Cheers, three cheers, three cheers, three stooges,
even though there were like seven stooges overall, right, but
they were.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Only four musketeers ultimately, really, d'Artagnan, he's the fourth one,
the fourth one.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, interesting, well, yes, but that's it. You got it.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Three.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's a little tricky because one of them is things
said by the three Musketeers, the other's things said by
the three stooges, and the third one is things we
say that have three in them. So yeah, this.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
One is. I think this one my be the turkey est.
So I'm gonna Okay, I'm gonna see if you can
get it. I have a hint. I have a hint
if it doesn't work for you.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay, here we go, going in. Now Barry Bonds comes up.
Let's listen to we Faced the Chatter as God in
Sportsman Life, No twicks, no weapons. Okay, I think I
(09:30):
got it. Last one who sounds like from the Princess
Bride Andre the Giant.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
So I'm working back to say Barry Bonds was a
San Francisco giant, and I'm just gonna guess the middle
one is that they might be giants.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
You are correct, they might be giants. I think that's
their most famous song. I mean, I think of them
from the Mickey Mouse theme song the Mickey Mouse Club
that my kids watched.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
But oh I think of their istanbul not constantly. Yeah,
that's the one.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I I haven't loved that song.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So but but that was classic puzzle solving where you
took I know this one, and I'm guessing this is
you knew Barry Bonds was a giant. And then it's like, well,
I don't know the band, but the band with giants
in the name is this.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
One, right?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And I'm impressed he got on it. Originally I had,
and uh, what you've gotten? There was a sound clip?
Ho ho ho?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Is that mel ot.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Cross the puzzle giant?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Man, that was right, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That joke works once and it's with us. Otherwise it's
never fun.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Okay, Charlie green Giant exactly? Who's apparently just the green giant?
We assume he's jolly given that, but he is. Just
don't don't pigeonol them all right? Last one also a
little tricky. Also a little tricky, but I thought it'd
(10:57):
be interesting. Uh, play number eight, I guess play the
last one. I think it's eight.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Okay, number eight? Here we go. Boooo, great, just great.
The better took us. William climbed a tree reader, I
married him. Okay, I think Scheres turned back time. Can
(11:28):
I get verification? Okay? Yeah? So boo boo? Is that
Yogi Bear?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
It is Yogi Bear? So you gotta share? What Yogi bear?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Between share and Yogi Bear? Are they both like Yankees?
Both like picnics?
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Well?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What was the last one?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Was the last one? Again? It was so quick?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Hold on, well, I can say it in my I
can do an impression if you want, reader, I married him, Reader,
I married him.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Oh, I don't know what that is. You got me,
So I'm going to try to figure out a connection
between share and.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And let me know if you want to hint, reader,
I married him was it's a line from a famous book.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Okay, I'll take your hint.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
It's by Bronti, one of the Brontess. I'm not even
gonna guess which one, but you just said, what is
the connection between share and Yogi?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Bear?
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Share and yogi?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Those two? Those two rhyme?
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And then what's a book by one of the by
one of the two word title Wuthering? Not that.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Jane.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I like the fun spelling of that sound of air excellent. Yeah,
there you go. We talked about cryptic puzzles before. I
think I was think of the word emit when I
think of turning back time.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
So you are very good.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You have like that disease where you turn We talked
with Mike Grease from the Simpsons about that he's got
that disease. Well, you did fantastic. You found the connections.
I just want to get back to the magic for
a second, because you we have a lot of puzzlers
(13:34):
on but not as many magicians. You wrote your Harvard
thesis on magic, So what was that these I know
you wrote it, but what was the thesis of the thesis?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The thesis of the thesis? Well, this is many moons
ago now, But I was a history major in college.
I loved I've loved magic since I was a kid,
so I wasn't just practicing sleight of hand, but I
decided to make it my college major. Now, they don't
let you major in or concentrate, as they say, at Harvard,
in magic, so I became a history concentrator. But they
(14:10):
what a wonderful department. They let you study what you're
interested in. And I focused all of my work and
research on those great magicians from the Golden Age of magic,
Houdini and Thurston and Keller and all those great magicians
from the colorful era of the Grand touring shows. Okay,
what I focused on for my thesis was the great
(14:33):
Chinese magician ching Ling Fu, and then his imitator, Chung
Ling Sue. So ching Ling Fu sparked this craze for
Chinese magic at the turn of the last century, and
then all these imitators came out of the woodwork, including
Chung Ling Sue, who became the most famous of them
all because he was an incredible illusion builder, and Chung
(14:57):
Ling Sue, the second guy famous for catching a bullet
on stage, a trick that he called condemned to death
by the boxer rebellion, and that very historical.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
He was an original cultural appropriator. Like he was. He
was a white guy pretending to be Chinese as part
of his act, even though there was already a Chinese
magician who was doing the same kind of act.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's right, yep, that's exactly what was going on. And
the dramatic way to tell the story is that the
audience finds this out after his death, and his death
was on stage trying to catch that bullet. So the
gun was the gun misfired. It wasn't supposed to fire
(15:49):
a bullet, but a screw had bore a tiny hole
through the part of the gun that was blocking the gunpowder,
and little grains of gunpowder see into the wrong area,
fired the bullet. It hit him in the chest. He
collapsed on the stage. He died that evening. But that
was largely when the public found out that Chung Lingshu
(16:11):
was brilliant illusion designer and magician William Robinson.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
And a total fraud. I mean, it's an amazing story.
I actually knew that story because I went to the
Museum of Chinese Culture in New York and they featured that,
and I was always found I'm like, that is a movie.
That is such a it is so cool. And the
fact that he was such a charlattan that people he
(16:37):
would be interviewed by the newspaper and he would pretend
to be speaking Chinese, but really it was just like
racist imitation of Chinese, and then the translator would actually
say what he was saying. I mean, what a story thing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
On stage he would speak Chinese gibberis, have it translated.
But when he was shot in the lung, he collapsed
on st age and said, in perfect English something to
the effect of something terrible has happened, bring the curtain down.
I can't remember the exact quote, but.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
He just learned English all of a sudden. It was well,
that is an amazing story.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
The bullet catch trick is not in Thank.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
God, What an oversight.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Maybe in the sequel, but I bet you could do
a version of that trick for kids that you know,
a safe a safe analog.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I've I've thought about because I'm trying to turn this
history into a narrative, a one person narrative about my
experience of being both Chinese and white at the same time.
And and I've thought about, well, I have to do
the bullet catch trick the check it's it's Chekhov's bullet
catch if you have to do it right? Exactly. Yeah.
(17:54):
So am I going to like sign a playing card
and have a travel across the stage? Or what's the
what's the nerdy cross version of fitball?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Can you like someone's spitting the ball?
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Well, if I'm right, your other parent is Jewish, so
it should be like a bleeding or something that's nice.
A matza ball, Yes, exactly, I will catch the mats
of ball would just be fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
All right. So before we wrap up, folks, I'm going
to play an extra credit for you at home.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
When is the next bust to Bikini Bottom? Oh round
your partner, Docito, I think, Paul.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, thank you, David, you did great and everyone. By
the way, if you have thirty seconds in between now
and tomorrow, please go rate the puzzler on your favorite
podcast platform. Because it does make a huge difference in
the algorithm finding us, and we are ruled by algorithms nowadays.
So with that, I'll say, uh, we'll meet you here
(19:12):
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzling.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Lydy Hey, puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska here one more time
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. David Kwang,
magician and author, joined us for a magic themed puzzle
we called hocus pocus, where we turn a letter at
(19:36):
the beginning of a word into a p to make
a new word. And your extra credit clue was this
magical puzzling hocus pocus magician took something you might use
on a dangerous dog and turned it into a teaser
for your brain. It's kind of a meta answer there.
It is muzzle turning into puzzle. So join us here
(19:59):
next time for more muzzling muzzles that will muzzle you muslingly,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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