This Match Puzzle Will Fry Your Brain!!
Bar Bets Ft. Brian Brushwood

What’s up guys, we got a very special guest on today’s video. As you can probably know, Chris, that’s nice of you yeah. It wasn’t going to introduce him in a second. No, we have a legendary Brian Brushwood and he’s gone out to his car right now to grab his bag of tricks and stick around. You guys are going to learn something insane. Ladies and gentlemen, cheers Brian for those of you who are uninitiated, or maybe I don’t know, been living under a rock for the last 30 years.

 

This is my friend Brian Brushwood. You may have recognized him from a few Scam School videos from Modern Rogue from all sorts of other things. This. This is one of the most generous teachers in the magic space and pretty much the first guy to do it. Oh you’re, crushing me the weight of all these compliments is breaking my back, we’ll cut them out.

 

Uh Brian Brushwood man, such an honor, we’ve been chatting here for like a while, just getting to know each other, and this is such a treat for me and I hope it’s a treat for these guys as well, because this is a collaboration that should have happened. I think a long time ago I mean it’s only the thing every comment has been asking for for about seven years now: uh, okay, uh! You want to go through my philosophy of how to win a free drink at a bar. Yes, so today we’re going to be learning some barbets, obviously, which I’m super stoked on, and I think you guys are actually going to be able to use these, but Brian’s got really good takes on the psychology of our bets and how to get into it. How to get out of it and how to actually get away do something that leaves a sort of lasting impression on the audience, members of Brian, take it away yeah.

 

So the first thing is and uh this is kind of meta. You won’t talk about this when you’re trying to win a free beer at a bar, but uh Robert Cialdini in the early 80s wrote a book called influence in which he talks about uh. There’S a fixed action pattern where humans hate being in debt to another human and they want to repay the debt. So the goal is you want to start off with a gift? The big mistake I see magicians do: is they start off trying to ask for something?

 

Like pick a card or do a thing or or can I borrow a dollar or whatever right? Instead, you want to begin with a gift that you could, theoretically not even notice. I could be doing this for myself like just looking at this. Thank you. Are you getting that you understand what just happened?

 

It’s something that requires nothing of you. You know that absolutely broke my brain right now, which is like his Jaws on the floor. Okay, have you got it? Oh, this is wonderful uh. This is an old Martin Gardner bit here, uh play along play along, so here’s the thing when you strike a match: yeah whatever the chemicals are, but by the way, I’m pretty sure this kills you just okay, full disclaimer got it, but when you strike a match, Whatever those chemicals are, it does a little bit of smoke during that first flash right.

While it burns there’s almost no smoke and then there’s a little bit of smoke, there’s a lot more smoke at the end right, so it turns out in those chemicals. I believe it’s white phosphorus, which I believe was used in Wartime to kill people, but one of the things is: it draws the water vapor out of your lungs. So what you do is you strike it? First of all, this is the perfect environment, because there’s no wind, you lean forward. You strike it towards your face and you inhale it’s gonna tickle, but you’re gonna act totally cool as your eyes are watering and everything makes you want to get the Wiggles.

 

You go crazy, so what do you do? What I do is, I I say: oh, I don’t know if this is going to work. The reason I’m saying all these words is I’m getting all the air out of my lungs and then finally, I strike it towards my face and I inhale through my nose not through your mouth, because otherwise that’s not gonna fool anymore. So, what’s coming out of your mouth right now, is water, vapor, water, vapor. It’S just like a vape you’re, essentially creating a lung full of Vape water, vapor and killing yourself.

 

This absolutely kills you wow! So don’t do this, but also dude. Sometimes I mean, unless your name is Chris Ramsey, which case you’re gonna. Do it right now, if you want. You want to learn All the Way Forward.

 

Act like you’re worried about the wind uh Closer, Closer, Closer strike it towards your nose and then inhale. As you do the moment, it stops burning, stops inhaling because you want the maximum amount of that poison in your lungs. I understand this is terrifying. Okay, there. It is Flip, Flip hold it pay it to mine yeah.

 

That is a wild dude. That is wild. It does Burn yeah, oh my god, dude. If you’ve done it right, it’s gonna try it yeah dude. I love it.

 

What am I doing? I’M striking you’re straight towards you, you’re emptying your lungs first as you come, you literally just inhale it through your nose, Shake It Up, yeah what the hell! It’S awesome. I think it’s a little match here. So things I’ve noticed is local humidity matters like if, when it’s different, when you’re on the coast versus in a dry area and all that stuff uh, but but just experiment with it, and if you need to sometimes I’ll take like two or even three matches to Get just a pull to get a buzz yeah.

 

Sometimes I do it just for me, not by myself. If you do this right, the next thing they’ll say is: do that again and that’s instinctual people can’t help it they’re like that. So what I do is an old salesman’s trick, which is: did you like that? And basically, what I’m doing is answering a question with a question so we’re still on par with you not asking them for anything, but you uh, making them ask you for more and then confirming that they want more exactly right. Specifically, they asked me to do it again, which I don’t want to do, but what I want to do is Pivot, that answer into a confirmation that this is good magic.

 

So you ask me to do that again. Can you do that again and I say: did you like that yeah? Would you like to see another? Yes, now we have a contract, you’ve and you’d and you’ve you’ve you’ve changed my Lane right exactly feels so organic, and so now you have volunteered your full attention for just a little bit more and so again we’re in the theme of matches. So I’m going to strike it towards me and I say, and I say uh this one I’ll offer a hint as to where it’s going this one’s called the human Jack-o-Lantern.

 

So now you’re thinking like what could it be, what could it be and then foreign right so again, if I was doing it at the bar, that would be the end of it. But since we’re talking, the secret to the human jack-o-lantern is the reverse of fire. Eating fire is all about slowly exhaling, so that all of that heat and toxins goes out of your mouth for the jack-o-lantern. You actually want to very slowly inhale. This one is best practiced uh, maybe in a bathroom in front of a mirror, you can turn down the light strike.

 

It uh again strike it towards yourself to get a little bit of flame there. You’Re going to draw in your breath slowly enough that it won’t burn the top of your mouth and your lungs will feel warm now, keep in mind, uh, cellulose and hydrocarbons. They all burn at about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. So this really will, if you just bite down on it, it will cook the roof of your mouth. So that’s a bad idea.

 

You don’t want to do that, so instead, I’m just gonna bite down and you probably want to try it with an unlit one. First and you’re breathing in, have you ever burned yourself, oh yeah, and usually you don’t notice it at the time. It’S the next day, it’s like a pizza Burn, yeah, exactly it’s like you. Wake up and you’re like and there’s just skin from an extra all right. Are you gonna?

 

Try it yeah uh! First, try it without it lit to make sure that, because everybody’s teeth are different right, yeah, that’s good, so uh! If anything, what people usually do is they inhale too quickly and everything goes out so uh. It should feel warm, but not hot. Okay, like a slow, yeah, okay, this is terrifying.

 

I’M very scared of this. I did not expect it. I was like we’re gonna learn, napkin stuff dude, I’m literally setting myself on fire inhaling toxins. This is very fun, so you want to get to burn a bit. That’S perfect, that’s perfect, inhale inhale, inhale, inhale, you got it, you got it, you got it, you got it yeah.

 

That is cool. I actually tastes like barbecue right yo in Texas too. Yes, do you want to try to get over here? The West has been melting for years and is gonna melt. I’M not gonna lie.

 

I I I I I did this way back when I saw it on scan school, and I don’t know if I ever successfully did it. This is gonna be great all right all right. It’S very scary: oh okay, okay and then with the stunts. That’S good. It’S good, amazing dude!

 

This is so cool. So hopefully, at this point you have their attention and they’re willing to do uh, something that requires a little bit more effort. Um uh here, Wes grab me a couple glasses here now, when Brian says grab me a couple glasses. We didn’t set this up. This isn’t a magician being like hey hand me that uh unlit match over there or something these are legit glasses, yeah.

 

As a matter of fact, it’s worth noting that people ask whether or not I carry magic stuff on me. The more I did: Scam, School and Scam Nation, the more I liked my Pride. I wanted to learn how to live off the land of course. So it’s like I’d walk into a space impromptu like for me. I always think there’s two types of impromptu magic, there’s impromptu. First of all, when they know you’re a magician right and there’s a problem too, when they don’t yeah right.

 

So when they know you’re a magician, a card trick can be quote unquote, impromptu right, but you can’t do an impromptu card trick if they don’t know you’re a magician right, it’s impossible. So you have to learn how to use the things around you or the things on your person or on them and yeah. That’S right and again uh the only price to being able to do that is to make 500 episodes of Scam School and incinerate your lungs with a sulfur, okay, okay, here, let’s go ahead and throw this in here, both yeah, both of us all right, just foamy, Like that eh have you ever poured a beer uh. I like it foamy, because then it takes a little while to go down and the aromatics are in there and oh there’s a science to it. Yeah, this is on Modern Road.

 

No, this is alcoholism. I’M not sure if I’m subscribed to that channel. Yeah, okay, so uh we’ll wait for the foam to go down, but Meanwhile we’re gonna play a game. Now, keep in mind, I gave you two gifts that required very little of you. Now I’m asking for a small ask, I say: we’re gonna play a game, but we’re gonna face each other. So now I’m asking for the two of us to look like a mirror image.

 

So if I raise my left hand, you raise your right hand. Yes, and so we’re just doing a mirror image right now. I’m not going to do any crazy, fast moves or anything, but this is about you paying attention. So if you, if you were to try to mirror me yeah, this is the part where you read the other person and get a sense of whether or not now is the time to tap out move on to something else or whether you’re just doing one of A series of Tricks, each one building up the value right to where you finally get the free drink. So let’s say let’s say I get the sense that you’re hungry for more of these so I’ll say: well, here’s a fun game that you could play I’ll. Even if I teach you how to do it, all you have to do is mirror my actions.

 

If you do it I’ll buy you a drink. If not, you could buy me a drink. Don’T worry, we’re not really playing for drinks, yet uh, all right, ready, yeah foreign, if you’re playing with somebody who you suspects knows this game, you could do the spit thing and then they’ll do the spit thing and then you’ll act, surprise and then you’ll spit out. Some more because they definitely weren’t right so that one could be for a free drink in and of itself. Do we have quarters or yep four identical coins uh? I may have a quarter somewhere millionaires that can’t find four quarters now we’re in the section where it’s like.

 

Do the card tricks be the magician, the amazing charismatic personality that you know you are, you could do match tricks or what have you, but when it comes time to win the free beer, I found that nothing works better than a very simple puzzle. Now the hard part is letting somebody twist for a very long time so that they get so frustrated that they would rather buy you a drink for the answer than go one more. Second, not understanding how to solve it right, so they’re buying a trick not because they lost a bet, they’re buying a trick to find out what the answer is and that feels more transactional. It doesn’t feel like they got, they’re not being embarrassed or dunked on. It’s their own.

 

You know, uh volition, like it’s it’s themselves who decide this right. It gives them agency rights. Yes, so in this case, here’s the puzzle. We got four coins in a diamond pattern. Here are the rules.

 

You can only move one coin at a time; they only move in the two dimensions on the table: no picking it up, no pushing other coins with it and you within those rules. You can only let go of a coin when it’s touching two other coins. So, for example, this would be a legal move sure this would be illegal. You can’t, you can’t do this. That would be illegal, right or or even um like that would be illegal, because it’s not touching too within those rules.

 

You want to start like that and end like that, get it you get as many tries as you want. Okay, this is the part where you really want to have some jokes to tell yeah, because while they’re, while they’re like mustering over this you’re, just sitting back and acting cool and and being a cool guy, while I’m sitting here like a like, helpless, go ahead and Try it I’m trying to work it out. The other thing I do is, I make sure to make it clear: you have infinite resets. So as many times as you want to try something we can reset it at any time. So that was a legal move, you moved it and you got three in a row foreign that is also a legal move.

 

Okay backwards, and the best part is, will you notice that I’ve made no promises? I only set up the challenge, so it could be that you solve it, in which case I will say, oh clearly, you’re intelligent. I think you’re really gonna dig our final challenge or you might get frustrated in which case I’ll sell you the answer. So the rules are basically, I can only move. I can only touch one at a time yeah and moving on a two-dimensional plane, and every time I move it, it has to touch two other coins right uh and I have to make a straight line because every other one I take out brings me back to where I started so it’s got to be.

 

It’S got to be this one, it’s the only one that doesn’t matter. Maybe I put it over here. That’S illegal right, yep, something like that! Yeah, it’s three in a row. It’S three in a row.

 

I see, I see. Okay, so leaving a gap is important. Leaving a gap is important, so good, it’s doubly good because there are so few pieces to it right there. It is a good job. I don’t know if I can recreate what I just did so I felt like I figured out that there was only one of those coins that I could move.

 

That would make an actual difference right, so uh there are four moves. First is to make a line of three. Second is to create a gap. Right third is to walk it out, and then fourth is so. You gotta make more space yeah right.

 

That is so cool. Now, in one reality I would have said yeah this one’s for a beer and then I’d be screwed, because I made a specific promise right, you’ll notice, I didn’t make a promise in one branch you might have gotten so you’re talking to the puzzle. Guy, that’s why yeah exactly exactly so! Instead, I’m like good. That was a great warm-up yeah.

 

You know so now that you’ve solved it yeah. Now we get to the real look into something yeah that they’re not gonna solve all right. Let’S go look at this. Look at this, this is not my cup. No, it’s from your house, yes, which do you think, is more the circumference around the top the length around here or the height from here all the way down to the countertop.

 

Oh, I feel instinctively. This one seems taller, but I can understand how that one could be longer and I think most people would smell a trap coming right. So let’s do this now it’s magic time. It brings up nine decks of cards, but you know what, let’s do three. So in the olden days you would use packs of cards for this, but right now, circumference or height ooh definitely height is longer.

 

Definitely, I would say definitely: okay, you know what I’m gonna stunt then and I’m gonna say get out of town. It’S still circumference. No, it’s not, yeah. So at this point you grab a napkin from the bar I’ll. Even let you do the measuring okay.

 

Go ahead, get that right there yep there you go mark it as tight as you can. Oh it’s! Oh did I go too far A little bit uh. Actually, it’s pretty identical, so uh. Those are exact that that is wild, ah see now uh.

 

In this case, I flew too close to the sun right. I was a little baby Icarus what you should uh. That is crazy. You never want to go in totally blind, which is what I did. But if you just take a measurement with your fingers, you can get a loose estimate of just how much more the circumference is than the high, but that is uh like unbelievable, like that is a very cool optical illusion, all right.

 

It feels like those two bowls that are side by side or and the shapes are side by side, but this one looks bigger until you put it here, it’s really an optical illusion. That is crazy. All right! Look, I flew too close to the all right. I flew too close to the Sun, so I have to go out on a win.

 

I’M gonna give you one of my favorite, simplest Matchstick puzzles. Okay, so right now we have an equation. This is one plus two plus three equals four. This is not true starting now. Everything on this side cannot be changed.

 

Okay, everything after the equals. That’S correct! Okay, everything on this side, you get to move one match right and make it true. Okay, I understand now in real life, expect silence like this right. That’S been the hardest thing to do.

 

Scam School is something I have to do before. We start. I say whatever you do, don’t just sit there and stare at it because that’s bad TV, yeah, okay, so uh in my head. Initially, I’m thinking one of two things: either one of these matches is going to um we’re gonna we’re gonna flip. One of these matches making it like a minus symbol.

 

This is like initially my thought, but this does not work out because it adds up to three, which is not four, so that does not work but you’re already thinking non-linearly, which is yeah. My second thing is so far outside of the box um, and I I mean I don’t know if this is even possible, but if I could make the shape of a number using. Sometimes that is the answer right, but to save time I’ll tell you it’s not in this case. Okay, all right, we’re sticking to single hashes. I can just move one match one match: that’s the real pisser right, yeah, it’s just one match!

 

I have to move. I can’t take it away. I have to move the match. I will tell you and again you learn to be a lawyer in your language in this situation. Yeah, I will tell you that my solution has you moving the match.

 

This is my favorite part, because I know Chris is an experienced YouTuber and if he was pretending to not know the solution, he would have done it by now. You know, I’m really trying to figure this out. Wes are you? Is your brain going as well? Oh!

 

No! I figured this one out a long time ago. No, you did yeah, you did yeah, I’m way smarter than you Chris, oh wait. Okay, so hold on this is the move one one plus four one plus one. Two.

 

Three! Four! Minus two is three one plus two plus three: the solution’s gonna be divided by a fraction uh. Sometimes that works dude yeah right. I gave up and spent far too long trying to think about this answer.

 

I think I’m in the realm of somewhere and I think given enough time, I could figure it out. I I I do believe that this is where I torture you and say. Well, if you need more time, yeah yeah, it’s so easy. I didn’t expect there to be another Edition. Now.

 

Imagine an alternate reality where I walked up to you. Dude another Edition made it a bigger number in my head right right. You were trapped in it and the moment I heard you fixate on that minus. I knew I had won ah, but imagine if I walked up at the bar and tried to start with this. Nobody would give me a free beer, yeah you’d, just be some [ __ ], you know, and and what, if I’m still an [ __ ] right.

 

But now I get a free beer, but now you get a free beer, so man they’ve seen some dope stuff and they’ve learned some dope stuff. So let’s get this man I’ll, get you a beer? Okay! Thank you. Thank you, my God, you have one of these zero percent.

 

It’S still a beer. Technically, oh, who got scammed now. Brian’S got scammed like non-alcoholic you’re killing me. No, that’s a great Punch-Out DNA. That’S awesome!

 

Amazing uh was that good dude that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, learning magic uh having a private teacher, Brian Brushwood, being our private sort of a scam school teacher. I mean it’s something that most of you I mean have probably dreamed about, including myself honestly, I am super baffled by the amount of things I’ve learned today. Uh and you have such a dope way of teaching things. You’Re very articulate – and you clearly have given everything you do – the maximum amount of thought and justification to where it’s not weird at all. It’S a little tricky to call getting.

 

Oh you get good at this stuff uh Chris man. It has been an absolute joy to watch your career flourish over the years and I’m so glad that this moment finally happened. Man cheers hey, you guys want to go check out, Scam, School, go check out. Modern Rogue, obviously links below oh uh scamstuff.com is where I sell actual magic stuff, uh, locks, picks, uh ways to cool puzzles, boxes and stuff, so check that website out.

 

If you guys want to find some cool gadgets, trinkets puzzles, magic tricks, whatever it is. You know you’re in good hands with this guy. Thanks so much for joining me. Dude dude, Chris, it’s been an honor. Let’S Crush these beers yeah if you’re an alcoholic one all right, foreign