Why Penn & Teller need each other
Penn & Teller are magicians whose sleight-of-hand is never intended to slight their audience's intelligence. Lee Cowan sought them out in their natural environment for some Questions-and-Answers:
The Las Vegas Strip is home to many a magical performance, but this show -- featuring Penn & Teller -- is magic of a different sort.
"The Bullet Catch fools more people than any trick we've ever done," said Penn Jillette. "I think we have more tricks per hour than -- I don't think just in any magic show now, but any magic show that's ever been."
Penn & Teller have been doing magic tricks together for 40 years. For the last 14 they've been headlining at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
They are as different in style as they are in stature. Penn is tall and loud -- few magicians use a nail gun in their act.
Teller, on the other hand, is short and quiet. In fact, he doesn't utter a word in character . . . which can make for a challenging conversation.
Cowan asked, "Does it ever get awkward for you not to talk? It's awkward for me to do an interview with someone I know isn't going to answer any questions!"
Teller shrugged.
He did, however, agree to explain that later at his hilltop home on the outskirts of town.
"Not speaking is just about the most intimate thing that you can do," Teller said.
"Intimate in terms of ..." said Cowan.
"See? You felt like you had to speak. If we just stop, and look at each other, Oh gosh, that gets intimate fast, and that's what I feel when I'm on stage."
Penn and Teller met in the mid-1970s. Teller, 66, was a high school Latin teacher who did magic in his spare time.
Penn, seven years his junior, went to Clown College and became a juggler.
"We were carnie trash, we were street performers," said Penn. "We would do any show we could get."
They teamed up not because they liked each other, but because they needed each other.
"Teller and I never got along," Penn said. "We never had a cuddly friendship. It was a very cold, calculated relationship where we thought we do better stuff together than we do separately."
"So it was almost a matter of necessity?" Cowan asked.
"Well, it turns out that respect lasts longer than affection."
"So is this opposites attract?"
"Well, opposites -- I don't know if 'attract' is exactly the right word," said Teller. "Opposites do sometimes complement."
Not that their partnership didn't hit a few bumps over the last 40 years, but there weren't many. "All of our real confrontations and unpleasantness was in the first two or three years," said Penn.
"We never disagreed about anything personal, it was never relationship problems," Teller added. "It was always artistic stuff. But to us, artistic stuff is really personal."
Teller, who legally dropped his first name years ago, surrounds himself with magic memorabilia and a lot of books -- some disguising hidden passages.
Penn lives in a more colorful compound about two miles away, and spends most of his time in an office painted bright pink.
What brought these unlikely duo together was a shared approach to magic.
"Something is happening that you know is different from what is true -- pretty beautiful,," said Penn. "Other magicians try to conceal that. And our idea was to lead with that. Lead with that."
They hated magicians who, they say, insulted their audiences by claiming to posses real powers. "The people who claim these powers are liars, cheaters, swindlers, rip-offs," said Penn. "And the tricks themselves are evil, immoral -- and I know how to do them all!"
To demystify magic, Penn & Teller reveal some of their secrets, such as the woman-sawed-in-half trick. Their lovely assistant looks to be positioned just out of reach of the saw blade.
"It's completely safe -- there's a metal rod in place that stops the saw blade," Penn explains during heir stage show.
You think you've got it all figured out - until the blood starts spurting.
"She's okay! She's okay! She's, she's . . . actually, she's not okay, really not okay at all ..."
"We're not dealing with people who believe this is true miracle," said Teller. "We know that we're dealing with people who know this is tricks, so we celebrate the fact that this is trickery."
"And when you do that," said Penn, "you've got to have wicked good tricks!"
Penn & Teller are well-known libertarians, and those views find their way into the show -- making for some provocative moments.
"Other magicians are always looking for a trick, and then find a way to present it," said Penn. "We're kind of looking for an idea and a presentation, and then find a good trick that goes with it."
"So the magic is almost secondary in some ways?" said Cowan.
"Yes, although it's a really good way to say what we want to say."
They promote new talent with TV shows like "Wizard Wars" and "Fool Us." And they're constantly refining their own act. They rehearse new tricks for hours every week.
This day they were trying to perfect getting Humpty Dumpty back in his crushed egg shell.
Some tricks take years to perfect, such as the Red Ball Trick, in which a red ball follows Teller around the stage. "It's a long bit of juggling with me, a ball, and one piece of thread," he said. "That's all it is. There's no off-stage help. Nobody is pulling things from off-stage, there's not mechanism in the ball. There's just a ball, a thread, and me."
Its simplicity gets to the heart of Teller's love of magic: "That great line from 'Sunday in the Park With George,' I think of it and it makes me tear up: 'Look, I made a hat where there never was a hat.' I mean, that just pretty much summarizes anybody who makes something artistic.
"The joy of it is, there was nothing there, and now something that was in my head, is out there."
They are as fan-friendly as they come, sometimes staying for an hour or more after each show to take pictures and sign autographs.
"I work hard, I try to do a good show," said Penn. "You want to have your picture taken with me, you want to meet me, you want to shake my hand? I'm honored! That's just simple."
"Is that why you stay as long as you do?" Cowan asked.
"Yes! They deserve that."
And after 40 years, they fully intend to stay a good bit longer.
Cowan asked, "So how much longer do you guys think you'll keep doing it?"
"I fully intend -- I think Teller does, too -- I fully intend to die in office," said Penn. "We intend to be still on stage when we suck, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
For more info:
- pennandteller.net
- Penn & Teller at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas: Tickets
- Tour/event dates
- "Wizard Wars" (Syfy)
- "Penn & Teller: Fool Us" (CW Network)
- "Penn & Teller: B------t!" (Showtime)