Welcome to denim wrapped nightmares tipsy exchange Podcast where we explore the supernatural series, episode by episode.
over drinks, we'll discuss the lore of gore and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.
I'm burly, and I'm a new fan of the series.
I'm LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Now let's get to La Hello Burley.
I didn't like it. I don't even want to revisit it. But oh, yeah, it's our it's our whole little outline here. So I'm gonna go for it. Sam and Dean went to investigate the appearance of a young female presumed ghost in a house that was up for market. Someone had been murdered in the house. They totally thought it was a vengeful spirit, but it really wasn't. And things got really complicated. When a new family
was moving into the home. They failed to get the family to leave before they could conclude their investigation. One of the kids got kidnapped through the walls, but Sam and Dean were able to rescue the boy and most of the family. Yeah, that was last week. Very nice. Or not last week. Last episode.
Yes. Today's episode is called Criss Angel is a douche bag. It is the 12th episode of the fourth season it aired on January 22 2009. I did not believe that. That was the name of the episode. You didn't. But it sure is.
I appreciate that. You thought I was so creative that I just came up with that though. Yeah, I did.
Well, this one starts out and we see that it is magic week. There is a magician on the street and he has a heart shaped balloon and he turns it into a white dove and we see the signs up. I'm guessing were or were they in New York, or Vegas, or whatever. Say
it said Sioux City. Oh, oh, I don't know what state that is, though. Okay, we'll
just talk about
where we'll just move past it. Next step, we
see a man at a bar and he's playing with a deck of cards. There's a couple a man and a woman down the other side of the bar. And the guy's a real jerk and keeps like kind of going and poking at the the guy with the cards. And the snack is he's a
nice guy. He's talking with the bartender and she actually asks him for a card trick when he starts to do it the guy the guy that's in the couple comes over and is like doggone on him and comes over and reaches in his jacket pocket pocket which personal space guy stranger and pulls out the card that he was you know supposedly supposed to find that was her card. So ruined his trip ruined it. Yeah.
Dick move.
Yeah, like, mind your own business. Yeah.
The bartender got on to the dickhead his name was fans, right and was like, just leave the old guy alone. And then the guy like looked up. He obviously wasn't a fan of having just been referred to as the old guy. Yeah. So I was like, Oh, great. We've got like a middle age, late age golden years crisis episode on our hands to remind us all that we're aging and dying. I was not wrong. I was not
like that. Well, we find out the guy that was at the bar with the card trick. His name is Jay. And he is now at a theater watching this other magician, a younger magician do like his rehearsal or something. And his two buddies are behind him Charlie and Vernon. And they're kind of reminiscing, reminiscing. They're reminiscing on how back in their day and they're old now. Nobody wants to see their shows. They're like after people like this douchebag that they're watching Jays
words, not mine. And he decides to tell them that he wants to go and do the table of death even though it almost killed him years ago when he tried to do it. So later that evening, he's all dressed up putting on a show his friend. I think it's Charlie helps him put get the restraints on ties him up or whatever. And then above him is a ceiling has stakes coming out of it. Yeah. I think they said like 10
It was like an upside down table hanging from the ceiling. And yeah, it had like 10 spikes. Yeah, things. Yeah.
So the whole thing is that Charlie goes to burn the rope that's holding up the ceiling. And it'll eventually fall on J but j has to get out of the restraints before that happens or he's going to die. Somehow we, we don't see it. But all of a sudden, after the ceiling comes down. Jay opens the curtain and he's fine. Not a wound nothing on him. He's fine. He's He's literally standing in front of the table at this point.
Through the shadow curtain that they had covering it. It looked like he did not slip his restraints in time. So it's like, how the fuck did that just happen? Yeah.
And then it flashes. To our guy from the bar who was heckling J. Vance. Vance. Yes, the he is walking out of a theater or the bar I can't remember. But he's walking and all of a sudden just get kind of stops in his tracks, grabs his chest falls to the ground and we just see like, little blood spurts coming up on his shirt and like different areas.
10 Yes, that's like 10 Yeah, perfectly spaced down his torso.
Yeah, the younger magician that they were working. Nope. That they were watching earlier. I think his name is Jeb. Jeb texter. Yeah, he is out on the street doing a card trick. Real. He's real douchey Yeah. And Sam and Dean kind of come up on him and are watching him and Dean even calls him a douchebag but they are on their way to investigate what happened advance they say that there's some guy that died of 10 stab wounds without even a single tear in his shirt. So how the
hell did that happen? Suspicious yells this guy Vance kind of stole from other magicians. He was a magician and then stole kind of their tricks. And he hated card tricks. Which is why I guess he looks kind of heckling j that night. Yeah. Why he was being such an asshole. Yeah. And they find that he had a tarot card on him when he died. I think it was in his pocket. And it was the I don't know the name of it. sward 10 swords.
I think it was 10 of swords. Yeah, something like that.
They think that's odd. Well, actually, they go to talk to his girlfriend or co worker, whatever. And she's the one that shows them that the card was on him, which she says he it was hate. It doesn't make sense since he hated cards. So they're already there. They're their interest is piqued. They're going to investigate.
Before they went and talked to the assistant. I did think it was cute. When Sam and Dean were walking down the street. Dean was talking about how Jeb Dexter was such a douche bag and card tricks are stupid. And magic is dumb. And Sam was just like, Well, I mean, not all of it true. And it was revealed that Sammy went through a phase when he was younger that he was really into magic and had like the wind and the little magic kit and everything. That was cute. I loved that.
I forgot about that. That was really,
really cute.
So next week, CJ again, he's chatting with think, Charlie, I don't know what's going on there. Doesn't matter. And he's talking about how I mean Yesterday, you were sad, old and dying. And now you're like one of the greats like pulling off all these tricks. How is it like what's going on? J shows him that he's shuffles the deck, pulls out three aces from the middle of the deck and tells Charlie, he worked for years to be able to pull one ace from the deck. And now he's just doing
pulling three aces. And then he pulled pulls out the fourth ace from Charlie's pocket. So He's on a roll. Yeah, he is doing good. It was impressive. Yeah. And preparation for Jays show later that evening. It's called the incredible J. We see Jeb and he's on the phone complaining to I guess his manager or something about his career and whatnot. And he sits down with Jay to kind of do an interview with him for some documentary he's working on and he's just flat out rude to him. Like doesn't
even get his name right. And then just tells them Oh, it doesn't matter. We'll we'll change it and post.
Yeah, I was about to say whenever J corrected him, he just totally dismissed him like, it's fine. Like, whatever.
You can't just correct yourself and say my right name.
Yeah. You can't just be like my bad and say and start over. Yeah, it's not like it was a frickin speech, man. He was a douchebag. Again, yeah, he was a total douchebag.
While this is going on DNS chatting up Vernon and Charlie Vernon tells of this other guy that Vance cheated, and tells him that his name is Chief and he comes up with that address right away. Yeah. When Dean asks for it turns out, the Dean goes to this address and shows up asks for the chief. This guy leads him into this room and you can tell there's like, it's like a club somewhere nearby. Like you can hear the music.
It didn't even seem like it was a street it seemed like it was an alleyway that he is walking down like it was shady from the get go. Even though they gave him a street address. It did not seem like he was on a street. It was obviously a private club to begin with.
Yeah. And then we see this guy comes up from this door that's below these little this little set of stairs, which I was like, Oh, is he an angel? Because the way he was coming up he was a little dramatic with the light behind him and I was like, Oh, this is gonna be another age.
That wasn't an angel. That was a bear. No, that was a bear of a man.
Yes, he had a whole big ol whip in his hands and everything
cool leather chaps. Best little motorcycle cap. Is that what they're called? Little driver cap or whatever? Something like that.
He tells Dean you are really gonna get it tonight Boy
Yeah. Big Boy. Oh did a big boy. You're gonna get it tonight big boy. And I was like, I'm sorry, but who you call it a big boy. Boy like how tall was Hey, right oh my god he asks Dean
what is safe word? And genius like, first of all, it turns out apparently Dean stayed find out later because I thought it was just like hightail it out of there. But
we didn't see him leave. We don't know how long he was there.
No. Oh, that's going on sands at the motel. Ruby shows up and she's like, What the hell are you doing? You're wasting time. This isn't important. You know, the world's about to end that she reveals that the 34 seals have now been broken. And the angels she repeat. Like, again, the angels are losing. And she says that, you know, Sam is the only one that can do this. And like, basically cut the head off the snake to stop this look, meaning Lilith. He
doesn't want to do it. He's kind of like no, but she's kind of pressing him and says that he should admit it to himself that he likes it. Yeah, which we don't know what it is
it again what is cannot be good. What is I still think like blood sacrifice, like sounds like that? I don't know, though. What is it? I want to know.
But on her way out, she tells him that you know, oceans of people are going to die if Lucifer rises. So she just like leaves him with that thought. So noodle, that one. Figure out what you're gonna do. So they're back with Vernon and Charlie. And they the boys kind of come up to him and kind of threaten them in a way and I think it's Vernon who's like, we know you're not Feds dude, like we con people for a living. Come on.
Days, like thanks for the chief hookup. Yeah. That was real good. Y'all got me.
But they really learned that Jay is now going to do this other trick called the executioner. And so we're back at his show that evening. And we learned that it is where he's going to be put in a straight jacket with a noose around his neck
and flip everything. But flip everything. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Well, now out of it. I don't know. But this little physical locality that I'm doing over here to demonstrate. This is what I do if I was in a strip jacket to like, slip out of it.
I think that's what you do. Yeah. Well, we see while this is going on, we see Jeff back at his hotel, I guess, hotel room and he is very listening to some pretty hard music. And just staring at himself in the mirror. Yeah, just like checking themselves. So as one does, you know,
I do it every morning. Yeah. Because I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And Gosh, darn it. People like me. That's what it made me think of it. What was his name? Who? That was a skid off of an old Saturday. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I
think you're right. I think you're right. I think it was Stuart Daily Affirmation do it some Smalley
Yeah. Right. And you're right.
I wasn't certain. I I'm thinking that far back. I feel like I confuse characters from Saturday Night Live and mad TV sometimes. Oh, yeah. Like I get mixed up. So that's why I was like my thinking on the right thing. Yeah, you got it. You nailed it. That's what that's what Jeb was doing.
Which, if that is what he's doing. It's sad. What comes next? Because first summer, I mean, well, I say for some reason, he is a magician. I'm sure this coincides with why he had a noose in his hotel room. But there's this noose that we see behind him in the mirror kind of moving on its own, goes up into the ceiling and wraps around the ceiling fan. comes down, goes around jabs neck and hangs them at J show. Of course, he the curtains open magically free again. He is holding the
straitjacket in his hand. He is free. No noose around his neck. Dean thought it was awesome. Yeah, like he was really excited. But Sam was like, that's not humanly possible. So he is. He's like, okay, something's
something shady.
He's on board. So they're kind of trying to figure out what it can be. Is it a spell for like death transference, but the tarot card doesn't fit in. I think it's Dean who starts talking about like, I hope I die before I get old. And you know, they're chit chatting about that getting old like what it would be like if they're still doing this job later on like these guys and Sam mentioned like, what if there was a way to put it into at all like, cut off the head of the snake cluding rubies girl.
Yeah, I do have a problem with this conversation for one reason. Yes. So they were like, you know, what are we going to do be hunting demons still when we're 60 Like it's either going to end bloody or sad. And they were like what you want to be like Travis who we met Travis and metamorphosis. He got eaten alive. And then he was like Gordon I'm sorry, Gordon, played by Sterling K Brown. That was not a 60 year old man. What are y'all talking about?
Well, I mean, they were probably just the baby. How old? Was he supposed to be older than us?
Not much older. I didn't feel like Yeah. How old was he supposed to be?
I mean, I don't know. But I
took offense, when suddenly Gordon's name was thrown in the back. So I was like, wait a minute, Gordon was in his prime.
True. True. I didn't like it when Dean was like, oh, Bobby's a great example. I was like, hey, yeah, that's your sugar daddy, who you were crying for like an episode ago back
from hedonism. And
I didn't like that. So get better examples, boys. Yeah. Well, they decided that Sam is going to track J Dean goes and checks on the tarot card, and they discover that they found the hang demand tarot card on jabz body. When they meet back up. I liked this DNS. What he found on Joe what Sam found on Jay and Sam's like, he slipped me slipped.
Jeans like he's a 60 year old man. And Sam just repeated like, flatmate. Haislip me. Yeah. Quit being ageist, Dean. Right?
So they go to Jay's apart or apart I guess they're living in the hotel this place? Like,
I think when you're like an act in a hotel, that's probably common. Yeah. But they have you stay there while you're performing.
They go to Jay's hotel room and meet him start chatting with him talking to him, and really dramatically
kicked in the door because you Oh, that's true.
You did. commented on that was a bit much.
He didn't even lock the door behind him. You guys could have just opened it and gone right in. They already had their guns.
Well, I was gonna say I didn't think about it. But then you were like your guns, right? It's like really good. Yeah.
What are you angels down? These angels are a bad influence on the Winchester boys. Yes.
They started kind of interrogating him and tell him like they're like, oh, what you You you killed Vernon. And now you've killed Jeb and Jays like whoa, jibs dead. So he doesn't know anything about it. They decided to tie J to a chair while they go over and chitchat and think this over. Of course, after they're done saying whatever they are saying to each other, they turn around and J is gone. Just just the ropes and the chair left. They run out go looking for him. They're like he
couldn't have gotten far. But we will we see that he he still no hotel room. You just went in like a closet or the bathroom or something. The cops pull up and Jay runs down the stairs. And he's obviously called the cops on Dean saying that he tied him. He's the one that tied them up or tied him up and everything. So then Jay goes to Charlie, and he's talking that he's talking about what's happened to Vance talking about what happened to Jeff like, how is this
happening? How out of nowhere is he all of a sudden like so good at ill is tricks again.
He even admitted like, I don't even know how I slipped my restraints in those two performances. Like I know I did it and I lit but I don't know how I did it. I don't remember actually getting out. Right? So he's realizing something. Something's not adding up.
Right. And then he sadly reveals that he was actually planning on killing himself with that table of death that night.
Yeah, that he wasn't planning to slip the restraints. And so how the fuck did I do it? I was trying, which is just so sad.
Charlie's like, kind of telling him like, No, you're crazy. Like don't don't throw this opportunity away. You know, they only have so long because we're we keep talking about how old they are. But they're not really little old. So they proceed to go and do I forget what are they they're doing the table of death again this evening for this act. And we see Vernon watching while Charlie goes to the back after he's set everything up for J. And same
thing happens. But this time, it's poor Charlie that gets stabbed with the table of death steaks or whatever. And J calls Vernon later on to meet with him because he wants to cut here. At this point. He talked to the boys they think you know, the only thing common denominator would be Vernon that is involved in this. Yeah, that's the only thing that makes sense. So Jay calls Vernon to meet meet him in his room. Oh, no, I'm sorry. They meet up while the boys are searching his room. Vernon's
room. Vernon meets Jay at the stage and tells them he just got off the phone with like the I don't know the head honchos or whatever and that the headliner gig is now hits. So Jay is doing real well. And Vernon's like this is our shot. But Jays like stops him right there and it's and starts accusing him of being the one behind all of this. And Vernon's like you're crazy. I don't know anything what you're talking about. Behind Jay,
somebody walks up. And I should have probably mentioned this in the beginning that Charlie had a very noticeable birthmark right above one of his eyebrows. And so this guy that shows up behind Jay is a young guy but he has the same birthmark. And we find out that this is young Charlie, what he would have been 28. But he has he's immortal somehow. And he says he's been he's been around long enough to have showed it for Barnum and Bailey.
And at the same time, the boys are in Vernon's room and they see an old poster from one of their shows way back when they were younger. And it's Charlie with the birthmark as his young self
too far back to justify what Charlie's age was. Right. Right. So like they put two and two together that it's actually Charlie. Fun fact, the two actors that play Charlie in this episode are father and son. Oh, really? Yeah.
Oh, that's cool. Love it.
The other thing that Charlie young Charlie is talking to Jay and Vernon because, you know, there's always the villain speech of like, of course, this is my blog. This is how I did what I did. He said that PT Barnum actually gave him a powerful grim war that contained a spell for immortality, and the enchanted pack of tarot cards.
And he used the he tells him that he used these things to give this gift to J and he wants Vernon and J to join him. He wants them to be immortal with him. And he's like, you know, you think the first times fun? The second times even better going around, but J and Burton, they don't want to start all over again. Sam and Dean show up? Of course, they kind of, or did they come in guns blazing again?
I think they were a little more subtle this time. Now
that there's three of them, they're like, Oh, we don't Yeah, guns. Just the one guy we need the gun though.
They did have their guns out. No, they did. I got out because I remember. I remember Dean using his gun to like, do like this. To like Vernon and Jay to like, oh, yeah, move. I remember that. Hands.
Charlie hangs Dean with a new the news from the show. And Sam shoots Charlie. And then all of a sudden Sam is on the table of death or whatever it was. Charlie catches the bullet with his mouth. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Yeah. And just like, spits it out. And he's like, that's the trick I've been working on.
And then Sam is on a table and oh, he's restrained.
I haven't seen that before. It's been a while. God by the time. As this is all transpiring, we see Charlie and he grabs his stomach and he starts bleeding out of nowhere. And then it pans over to J and J has this very fabulous dagger.
It was a dagger. Yeah, it wasn't like a knife a pocket knife. It was like this fancy ass dagger. adhesives that come from
I don't know, but I liked it. Well, I noticed he stabbed himself with it. But when he pulled the knife out, it was very clean.
Well, he had the immortality remember? He? Yeah. And he had put he pulled out that he had the enchanted tarot deck here. Oh, that's right. Yeah, he got it out of Charlie's pocket. And then Charlie reached in his pocket and pulled out a tarot card was like, oh, and then when he fell down dead, it zoomed in and it showed that the tarot card he had was the magician.
So the guys are released Sam and Dean, and they go to meet Jay at the bar again and Jay is sitting there playing with his deck of cards, looking real sad. And he tells them that Charlie was like my brother and now he's dead. All because I did the right thing. And burnin doesn't want to talk to him anymore. Yeah, burden just took off. Yeah, because he killed Charlie. He says like now he has to be old and alone, just so he could save those guys and do the right thing. And he's pretty down
about it. He leaves his cards on the table and the bartender even yells at him to that he left him and he's like, doesn't want him? Yeah, just super sad. I feel like he's probably just, he's not headed in a good direction.
Yeah, it was a really sad ending. Yeah, I just kind of left it at that.
Yeah, Dean. No, empathy really is like I could do it. I could go for a beer. It seems like I'm going to take a walk after hearing all that depressing shit. But of course, he's not gone going on a walk. He meets Ruby in the alley in her car. And he says that he's in. He's in now. She asks what was the change of heart? And he says that he doesn't want to be an old man doing this. Yeah, that was that.
This was written by Julie siege and directed by Robert singer. No gore. I mean, I guess the glorious thing would have been the 10 of swords victim at the very beginning. Yeah, I don't remember anything else being gory. It was just sad. I know. It's just a depressing sad episode. Like it was fun but sad. Yeah. That soup that special supernatural cocktail that they seem to mix together so often where it's like it It was funny and depressing at the
same time. Yeah. Did you adore anything about this episode?
I don't know.
I don't know that I adored it. But I did like Jay Charlie and
Vernon. That's what I was about to say I liked their little friendship or little dynamic,
not the typical people that we see Sam and Dean coming to save. Yeah, it was fine. It was a cute episode. I liked it. But it was also really depressing. And just like, I didn't need to be reminded that we're getting old and dying like, Thanks, guys. True, real cool.
I did like that. Vernon sent Dean to the club to get to meet up with Chief though. That was
funny. All right, well, we'll move on to the lore. For today's law. We're talking about magicians. Yay. You don't say? Yeah. Becoming a magician means committing yourself to a code of ethics, and never revealing your secrets. Oh, wowing audiences means finding exciting illusionary ways to keep them enticed and wondering exactly how you even managed your last trick. Here we're going to explore some of the most unbelievable magic secrets ever
performed. Houdini and the upside down Water Torture Cell. Was Houdini like seeing pictures of him like practically naked and just like in handcuffs and restraints and stuff. And I'm just like, what was his acts like? Oh, some of them he looks pretty buff to just saying yeah, I have to get it out and all that wiggles around, around and he's all topless. Like a loincloth on I'm like what is going on? Houdini? Goodness anywho the magic of Harry Houdini is still revered today
and for a good reason. It's not his body. Maybe it's partly his body was like
confused me there first, like
his most difficult and dangerous magical escape trick was known as the Water Torture Cell. And this insane escape, Houdini had his feet locked into a pair of stocks, and then he was lowered down into a tank of water. The tank of water or cell would then be concealed in a curtain cabinet. And then, after a few suspenseful packed minutes, who Dini would burst out from the cabinet, arms and legs free, the cell would still be securely locked. When
checked. Houdini's cell was purpose built in England and cost 1000s of pounds to create. The apparatus weighed over 650 kilograms, and held over 1100 liters of water. Houdini first performed the Water Torture Cell at Circus bush and Berlin in 1912. It became a core part of his act, and remains perhaps his best kept secret. Next up, we've got Copperfield and the Statue of Liberty. David Copperfield remains one of the most popular contemporary magicians and his tricks fascinate audiences of
all ages. His standout performance remains when he's made the Statue of Liberty disappear. I remember this. Actually, there's no way I could remember this now that I'm seeing the year but I remember seeing this somehow you might have seen something like yeah, something on TV about it. Yeah, he made the Statue of Liberty disappear in front of live in front of a live television audience back in 1983. A real feat of innovation and intrigue.
The trick involves raising a giant sheet to hide the Statue of Liberty, and then lowering it to reveal it had completely vanished. A helicopter equipped with a camera crew passes through the space to prove 100% That the statue was truly gone. explaining away this trick seems completely impossible. And of course, Copperfield was sure to restore Lady Liberty look, Lady Liberty while the audience
looked on in amazement. When asked about the trick, Copperfield commented It was a statement about freedom, explaining how precious liberty is and how easily it can be lost. Now we've got Penn and Teller catching bullets, a trademark of us illusionists and renowned magicians, Penn and Teller is the crowd pleasing bullet catch. Penn and intelligence are one of the most famous and successful magical Duo's of all time, performing as
a double act since 1975. The bullet catch trick keeps audiences coming back to their Vegas show year after year. Both members of the duo are equipped with handguns and each fires a bullet at the other. Remarkably, both Penn and Teller catch the bullets in their mouths. People of course, have called hooks on this trick, but the duo go to great lengths to prove it. It's legitimacy. They have even asked audience members to load the initial bullet in advance in order to prove they are being
fired. About that. Yeah, I was gonna say like, couldn't you just hide the bullet in your mouth somewhere,
right? And then blanks in the bullet.
Anyhow, next one. We've got Dynamo walking on water. Dynamo is the 21st century's answer to Harry Houdini. And as audiences become more wise to illusions, he's had to work a little harder to capture your audience's attention. A global star dynamo has shows worldwide and a mass following yet he still managed to amaze almost everyone when he appeared to walk on water in 2011. Audiences watched on as Dynamo took to the river themes raymor taint river teams
themes, I think it's time something like that. It's not famous. I know that. To Hames. I don't know Tamizh I just know I used to say the the river themes and then I heard somebody say and I was like, oh, boy, that was I was wrong.
But anyways, he walked on that cool, he walked on that shit. explanations for this trick simply do not stack up. And of course, Dynamo isn't about to tell us how he managed it. One of the most amazing things about magicians and their work is its ever evolving nature. Houdini's tricks are still performed, modified and enhanced to this day, and there is always something new, exciting and mysterious to try
and understand. Magic is an ancient art form that consistently attracts new talent and gives audiences even more opportunities to push their minds and imaginations to the limit. Several of the magicians in this episode appear to be named as an homage to real life magicians, particularly performers who are well known in the field of magic, but not necessarily to the general
public. J likely referred to J. Marshall, an author, performer and historian, as well as a founder of magic inc. Vernon refers to die Vernon, one of the most notable close up med. Close up magicians of the 20th century. And Charlie likely refers to Charlie Miller, who is considered one of the best performers for pure sleight of hand.
Oh, cool.
That's all I got.
Nice. To close it out. We have a little combo between Dean and Sam where Dean says
what a douchebag Sam says that's Jeb. Dexter Dean says I don't even want to know how you know that. He's famous. Kind of. For what douchebaggery he was a douche bag. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you for listening to denim wrapped nightmares.
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