Penn & Teller's 'Fool Us' Receives Submission From Magician Whose Entire Act Is Reading the Terms and Conditions

The casting department for the television program Penn & Teller: Fool Us has received an audition tape from a performer whose act consists entirely of reading the Apple iTunes terms and conditions aloud in their entirety while claiming to the audience that 'something magical will happen at the end.' The performer, who identifies himself as 'Contracto the Magnificent,' submitted a 47-minute video in which he stands at a podium and reads the complete Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, pausing occasionally to make eye contact with the camera and say, 'You won't believe what happens next.' Nothing happens next. He continues reading. 'The trick is that they stay,' Contracto explained in an accompanying letter. 'I have performed this act eleven times in live settings. Average audience retention is 83 percent. People sit through forty-seven minutes of licensing agreements and indemnification clauses because they believe a magical payoff is coming. The payoff never comes. And yet they stay. If that's not an illusion, what is?' Contracto's letter argues that his act represents 'pure mentalism' — the manipulation of audience expectations without any physical apparatus. 'David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear,' he writes. 'I make people's free will disappear. They could leave at any time. The door is right there. But the promise of magic — the mere suggestion that something impossible will happen — keeps them seated through seven pages of arbitration clauses. That is power.' A casting producer, speaking anonymously, confirmed the submission was received and described it as 'the most unsettling thing I've reviewed this season.' Penn Jillette has not commented publicly, though an unverified social media post attributed to him reads: 'I've seen a lot of magic. I've never seen anyone weaponize a EULA.'