The Venetian

We're presented with three audio clips of sorceress Medea auditioning for the role of Peller in the "Ken & Peller" magic show at the Venetian: the first clip is her initial audition, the second her callback, and the third her final audition. However, because Peller is a silent role, Medea is forced to cast spells by using gestures only, which cannot be seen in the clips. Each clip features a similar structure: Medea casts five five-gesture spells, the results of which are described. Ken then "critiques" what she "should have done," and then directs her to alter some of the gestures she used into new gestures.

Each "spell" is a series of five gestures, and it quickly becomes clear that these are five-letter words that Medea is spell-ing (get it?) using ASL letters. From Ken's commentary—in which he discusses gestures that should have been in different places in the spell, and those that can stay where they are, we intuit that each batch of spells is a game (or "frame") of Wordle. Our goal is to figure out what feeder words are used using the descriptions of the gestures and the spells' effects, and then use the commentary to figure out the solution word for the game.

Recording 1

We start with the initial audition. Medea casts five spells, with the following commentary:

Based on Ken's commentary, we can assemble the following Wordle grid:

(Logic: We know E is the second letter; S isn't in position 1, 2, 3, or 5, so it must be the fourth letter; T can't be 1 or 3, while 2 and 4 are taken, so it must be 5; B can't be in 3 and 2, 4, and 5 are taken, so it must be 1, leaving A in slot 3.)

If we're observant enough, we'll note that Ken says "Wow! You're an animal!" to Medea after she casts this frame of spells, which is an additional clue for BEAST.

Ken then gives instructions to Medea on how to create a new Wordle frame from her old one using different gestures. Seeding it with just the gestures Ken takes from the first frame yields:

The descriptions Ken gives for the other gestures are the descriptions of ASL letters:

This yields the instruction:

Applying this instruction to the initial grid yields:

Which are referenced by the descriptions:

Ken then "scores" this new grid (referencing the answers in this grid specifically, so we know he's not referring to the "instructions" grid):

(Logic: Everything is placed but the last letter; by default it must be the P)

We also may have observed that Ken uses the phrase, "a little bit crunchy to the bite," cluing CRISP.

Recording 2

We can now move on to Recording #2, which follows an identical structure to Recording #1 in that Medea performs five spells, receives scoring and alterations, then performs the new set of five spells. However, in this round, the initial descriptions are more vague, so we'll have to rely more on the descriptions of the gestural changes to extract our two Wordle answers.

The first set of spells is as follows:

From Ken's scoring, we get the following color grid:

We can determine many of the letters in the first two words from Ken's description of how they should be changed:

This gives us the following grid:

From these letters, and the descriptions, we can intuit that the first answer is STAND and the second is CANOE. The combination of "insect" and "hair" should be enough to imply "LOUSE" for the fourth answer. We note that Ken mentions only two letters are used in the fifth word, and given that plus the description, we can intuit that the fifth word must be ESSES. This gives us the following grid:

Note that this isn't enough on its own to definitively establish the final word, but it can help us determine the makeup of the second grid (we could also have begun with a back-and-forth between the first and second grid earlier). So let's look at the second grid and see what we can fill in based on this incomplete first grid:

Thus the first two words are PIV?T and FRAME. For the third (and part of the fourth) word, Ken says he's getting "Mystical" (a reference to palmistry). By looking up palmistry, we can identify the ASL letters, while the rest of the descriptions illustrate the rest of the fourth word:

Lastly, we can also get the letters for the final (fifth) spell from Ken's comments:

This gives us everything but the blue square in the grid below; from context, process of elimination, and - if we've solved in a different order - Ken's line "there was a gesture you used fourth in two of the first batch of spells you did today. Put that fourth here." we can tell that square is an O.

This gives us the instruction, "PIVOT FRAME THREE RIGHT TURNS," or 270 degrees clockwise (90 degrees counterclockwise). That wouldn't yield anything from the letters in this frame, so it must refer to the previous frame. Sure enough, we can see that turning the first 5x5 grid 90 degrees counterclockwise gives us the setup for a new batch of words that correspond to the second set of spell descriptions:

From here, it's pretty easy to fill in the missing letter in each based on the descriptions of the spells' effects, even out of order:

So, skipping back to the prior frame, with the now-completed grid, we can see that the answer to this frame is GRUEL:

(Logic: Green squares give us ??UEL and the only English word with this pattern that contains a G is GRUEL. Ken's comment "pretty thin soup" provides confirmation)

Now we can also solve the fourth grid of spells based on Ken's feedback:

(Logic: SCO?E are filled in, with the N as the only remaining unassigned letter. Ken's comment "a tasty treat" provides confirmation)

We now have our two answers, GRUEL and SCONE, and can move on to Recording #3.

Recording 3

Things are a bit different this round with the addition of the character of Peller, but we can still start off, as usual, by attempting to ascertain the spell words. This round, however, they're a bit more vague:

However, we can still get the accurate grid coloration:

Likewise, Ken's descriptions of what goes where are more vague in this round:

All the rest of Ken's notes reference relative positions to the next set of spells, but this is enough to start with. For Spell 1, we need a gemstone that contains the letters P, T, O, and Z, with the missing letter in fourth position: TOPAZ. For the second, a venomous snake containing P, I, R, and V: VIPER. And the third answer is something that smashes things flat in cartoons that contains a V: ANVIL. So here's our grid thus far:

We're not quite there yet. But in this round, instead of doing the second batch of spells all in a row, she casts them one at a time. Ken has also let us know in his notes that some letters in some answers are the same.

We can also get some of these letters from Ken's descriptions:

Ken mentions that her spells got progressively better, with no green letters in the first spell and 4 in the fifth spell, and no yellow letters at all. With this information, we can fill out the sixth grid:

(Logic: no letters in TORTE are correct, but three letters in HORNS/MUSIC are correct, which would have to be H??NS in HORNS, but none of those letters are in those positions in BASIN, so the fourth word must be MUSIC. For two different 5-letter words to contain 3 and 4 correct letters, respectively, at least two of their letters must be the same, and both correct. S and I are the only letters in the same place in BASIN and MUSIC, so they are correct. This means the first S in GASSY is also green, but the second S is gray. In order for a second letter in GASSY to be correct, it must also appear in the same place in either BASIN or MUSIC. The only such letter is the A in BASIN, which means A is the second letter, and thus also the only correct letter in MAMMA. If A is the only correct letter in MAMMA, then the M in MUSIC must be incorrect, meaning the third correct letter in MUSIC is the C. This means the fourth correct letter in BASIN must be the B, and thus the answer is BASIC. Ken's comment "even a modicum of… whatever!" clues this word).

With this grid solved, we can now backtrack to complete our fifth grid:

So, our fourth spell is a breakfast food spelled TOAS? (TOAST), and our fifth is A?A??, where the other three letters are F/W, R/U/V, and D/I/L/Y, meaning a trophy (AWARD). This gives us:

(Logic: We had ?AV?R; the S cannot be fourth, therefore it's first; leaving the O in fourth. Ken's comment, "I can enjoy the good feeling in the moment" is confirmation)

Extraction

So now we have our six words:

• BEAST
• CRISP
• GRUEL
• SCONE
• SAVOR
• BASIC

But what do we do with them? Fit them into another grid? Well, there's one bit of information we haven't used yet, and that's Peller's statement: "Like that last spell: you did it in just five gestures, but I think I can suitably replicate its effects in 25. Observe: web, pinky, ring, heel pad, index, index, thumb pad and middle base, index, along heel pad, web to wrist, crossed pinkies, index, thumb pad and middle base, index, palm and palm, middle, palm and palm, heel pad, along heel pad, ring, interlaced, ring, along heel pad, index tip and base, crossed pinkies."

These "gestures" he references don't seem to describe ASL gestures, but rather parts of the hand. The clue is in Peller's voice: he's described as having (and will have in the audio version) "a British accent." So, naturally, he uses BSL instead of ASL. BSL primarily features the index finger of one hand touching various parts of the other hand, so his sequence lists the parts being touched: (here's a chart) but the best way to see these is in a video like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkTeqA4kwUQ.

Or, "QUOTE EVERY SEVEN INTRO WORDS." How would this approximate Medea's final spell? We look at Ken's intro to find out. Taking every 7th word, skipping the stage directions:

Howdy, Folks! Welcome to the very first show of this new era. In five minutes, we're gonna start providing the answers to the universe's mysteries, plant the seed of a great idea for the Final Illusion, and maybe even try to frame your ex for murder, Miss. (chuckles wordlessly) Not to brag, but I'm fantastic. Before we get started, anybody need a pair of shades? They could come in very handy for protection from my incredible brilliance! Fan letters can be written on money: just turn them in at the bank on Sixth Avenue and say they're for Ken. In case you're wondering who this is, to you I present my assistant, Malia! (sotto voce) Turn to face the audience, please. Whoa! Air out those pits, would you?! They reek! I'm kidding! I'm kidding! You're an ode to beauty and grace. Not sure where she came from, to be honest. One day, she wanders in asking, "Where is the bathroom?" and just stuck around. Gold coins couldn't convince her to leave, and believe me, I've offered! Finally, after two months, I said, "Look, Lady, what is it you want?" She says, "I'm green but I'm talented. I want to apply to be your assistant." I said, "To be my assistant?" She deals out rows of cards and says, "Just pick one." I do. She guesses it! So, per our wager, she speaks nary a line, but gets to be onstage.

Or, "First five answers seed final frame. To get shades for letters, turn sixth into ternary code ("turn air reek ode"), where one is gold and two is green. Apply to rows, one per line." Our final frame, seeded by the first five words, is:

Converting the word "BASIC" to ternary code yields:

• 00002
• 00001
• 00201
• 00100
• 00010

As instructed, we color the twos green and the ones yellow to get the following grid:

So, we're looking for a five-letter word with pattern ??U?T, where the other three letters are L, O, and P, and it's something that could end up, per Peller, "on the casino buffet." The only English word that fits this pattern is POULT (Note: PLUOT is ruled out by the yellow O in SAVOR), defined as "a young domestic chicken, turkey, pheasant, or other fowl being raised for food," which satisfies the definition, and thus our answer is POULT.