Troy Gabel (Colin Hanks) meets Buck Howard (John Malkovich) for the first time about a job and he has never met him before. He wrongly says that Buck is a magician and is quickly corrected that Buck is actually a mentalist.
The Great Buck Howard is about Buck Howard (John Malkovich) who may seem like a magician… but he's not. He's a mentalist. In his own humble opinion, his talents go far beyond mere sleight of hand; he can read minds, and is capable of hypnotizing an entire room full of people at once. But when Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) tries to explain to his dad (Tom Hanks) why he dropped out of law school to work for a mentalist, it doesn't go over very well. In fact, it doesn't go over at all.