Penn & Teller Magic Show Features Shorewood High School Alum

SHOREWOOD, WI — A Shorewood High School alum was recently featured on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, a show where magicians show off their greatest tricks while the famous judges try to figure out how the trick works.

Ben Seidman, who graduated from SHS in 2003, was featured in the eighth season of the show. Seidman appeared in front of the two famous magicians Penn and Teller with a shelf full of books and a trick that found grand applause.

"I got into magic because of the friends I'd make along the way," Seidman said in his introduction to the show. "I mean, I've made friends with a rabbit."

Seidman, appearing virtually, showed Penn and Teller his bookshelf stocked with hundreds of books. He then asked the two what book he should buy next. After some back and forth as the judges decided, Seidman pulled off the trick.

He briefly covered the bookshelf from the camera's view with his hand. Seconds later, the bookshelf could be seen again. The hundreds of books that previously populated the shelves were all gone, and only one remained.

The sole book that remained was the one Penn and Teller chose second, wrapped in the dust jacket of the two magicians' first choice. Did the trick fool Penn and Teller?

"We loved this, we loved the fact it deals with magic books," Penn said, "but we don't think it fooled us."

Seidman's appearance on Penn and Teller, his second to date, isn't his first foray into comedy and magic. Through the years, Seidman has garnered a feature on the Netflix original "Brainchild," he was a magic consultant for Johhny Knoxville, and after being the highest-rated performer on Princess Cruises, he won the title entertainer of the year, Shorewood School District posted about the alum.