Sarah Silverman Stole a Magic Trick From Columbo

Sarah Silverman discussed her pandemic hobby of watching old episodes of Columbo on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and she admitted that even though she hates magic with an irrational fervor, she nonetheless stole a magic trick from the show.

"My boyfriend and I have just been obsessed with watching Columbo, mostly me, and I love it so much," Silverman said. "You know, we don't spend every night together, I'm a modern woman and I need space. But I was alone one night, and I go 'I really want to watch a Columbo, do you mind?' and he's like 'no, I don't mind.' And I watched this Columbo and it was a magician in it... and they revealed a magic trick, and I'm not a fan of magic, but I was like 'oh my god, I'm gonna do this when Rory's here.'"

The trick was thus: "I go 'pick a number from one to five,' and he said 'three,' and I go 'look under the blender.' He looks under the blender. There's a note, and it says 'I knew you would pick number three.' He was like 'no way!' and we were laughing and I felt pretty cool, and he goes 'what is it, like a psychology thing, like most people pick three?' And I go 'no' and he goes 'what if I picked number one?' and I go '... look under the stapler.' We were laughing so hard because it's so dumb."

Here's a clip from the Columbo episode in question.

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.