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Penn & Teller
Penn Jillette (left) and Teller (right) in 2012
Born	Penn Fraser Jillette (1955-03-05) March 5, 1955 (age 69) Raymond Joseph Teller (1948-02-14) February 14, 1948 (age 76)
Occupation(s)	Magicians, entertainers
Years active	1975–present
Known for	Magic, comedy, skepticism
Website	www.pennandteller.com

Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.

The duo has been featured in numerous stage and television shows such as Penn & Teller: Fool Us and currently perform in Las Vegas at The Rio, the longest-running headliners to play at the same hotel in Las Vegas history. Penn Jillette serves as the act's orator and raconteur. Teller generally does not speak while performing, and instead communicates through mime and nonverbals, though his voice can occasionally be heard during their live shows and television appearances. Besides magic, the pair has become associated with the advocacy of scientific skepticism and libertarianism, particularly through their television show Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

Career

Penn and Teller were introduced to each other by Wier Chrisemer, and they performed their first show together at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on August 19, 1975. From the late 1970s through 1981, Penn, Teller, and Chrisemer performed as a trio called "The Asparagus Valley Cultural Society", which played in Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theater, and in San Francisco, California, at the Phoenix Theater. Chrisemer helped to develop some bits that continued, most notably Teller's "Shadows" trick, which involves a single red rose. The group disbanded in 1981 after Chrisemer quit show business, leaving Penn Jillette and Teller to work as a pair on a show called "Mrs. Lonsberry's Seance of Horror".

By 1985, Penn & Teller were receiving positive reviews for their Off Broadway show and Emmy Award–winning PBS special Penn & Teller Go Public. In 1987, they began the first of three Broadway runs. The same year, they appeared as three-card Monte scam artists in the music video for "It's Tricky" by Run-DMC. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, the duo made numerous television appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live, as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Today, and others.

Penn & Teller had national tours throughout the 1990s, gaining critical praise. They have also made television guest appearances on Babylon 5 (as the comedy team Rebo and Zooty), The Drew Carey Show, a few episodes of Hollywood Squares from 1998 until 2004, ABC's Muppets Tonight, FOX's The Bernie Mac Show, an episode of the game show Fear Factor on NBC, NBC's The West Wing, in a two-part episode of the final season of ABC's Home Improvement in 1998, four episodes during season 1 of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in 1996, NBC's Las Vegas, and Fox's The Simpsons episodes "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" and "The Great Simpsina" and the Futurama film Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder in 2009. They appeared in the music video for Katy Perry's 2009 single "Waking Up in Vegas", in which they are thrown out of a hotel room by Perry.

Penn and Teller made an appearance on Bill Nye the Science Guy season 2, episode 7 - "Light Optics".

From 2003 to 2010, their Showtime television show Bullshit! took a skeptical look at psychics, religion, the pseudoscientific, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. It has featured critical segments on gun control, astrology, Feng Shui, environmental issues, PETA, weight loss, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the war on drugs.

The pair have written several books about magic, including Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends, Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food, and Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic. Since 2001, Penn & Teller have performed in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino.

Penn Jillette hosted a weekday one-hour talk show on Infinity Broadcasting's Free FM radio network from January 3, 2006, to March 2, 2007, with cohost Michael Goudeau. He also hosted the game show Identity, which debuted on December 18, 2006, on NBC.

Their television series Penn & Teller Tell a Lie premiered on the Discovery Channel on October 5, 2011.

Since 2010, Penn & Teller have hosted Penn & Teller: Fool Us, originally on ITV, moving to The CW in 2015.

Penn & Teller credit magician and skeptical activist James Randi for their own careers. During an interview at TAM! 2012, Penn stated that Randi's book Flim-Flam! was an early influence on him, and said that "If not for Randi there would not be Penn & Teller as we are today."

In early 2022, Penn and Teller competed in season seven of The Masked Singer as "Hydra" of Team Bad. Because of Hydra's three-legged design and large size, the costume had to be assembled back stage while "Hydra" had to be wheeled out on a special platform to get it to and from the stage. Penn operated the left side of "Hydra" while Teller operated the right side of "Hydra". They were eliminated on the week of April 6 where it was shown that Teller used a puppet of a rabbit in a hat to "operate" the central head of "Hydra". Teller was given most of the singing due to how rarely people hear his voice and the possibility of people recognizing Penn's voice. Nicole Byer, who was the guest panelist of the night, successfully guessed the duo to be underneath the "Hydra" masks.

Off-stage relationship

Jillette stated in a video where he and Teller responded to questions from members of Reddit, and also in a video interview for Big Think, that while he and Teller share few interests outside magic, Teller is his best friend, and his children treat Teller as a close relative. He stated that while most entertainment partnerships such as Martin and Lewis and Lennon–McCartney were based on a deep affection for each other that lends to a certain volatility when things go wrong, their business relationship and friendship is based on a respect for each other. Teller has made similar statements. In an NPR interview, Teller said their disagreements often lead to better artistic decisions because they bring out new ideas and expand the range of discussion.

Honors

On April 5, 2013, Penn & Teller were honored with the 2,494th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their achievement in the category of Live Performance. Their star is a few steps away from the star of Harry Houdini and down the street from The Magic Castle. However, they were refused membership of The Magic Circle due to their tendencies to reveal how magic tricks are done during performances.

They are also recipients of a Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award.

In 2014, they were nominated for a BAFTA Award for their documentary Tim's Vermeer.

For their contributions to the West End production Magic Goes Wrong with Mischief Theatre, they were nominated for a 2020 Olivier Award.

Tricks

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Penn & Teller perform their own adaptation of the famous bullet catch illusion. Each simultaneously fires a gun at the other through small panes of glass and then "catches" the other's bullet in his mouth. They also have an assortment of card tricks in their repertoire, virtually all of them involving the force of the Three of Clubs on an unsuspecting audience member as this card is easy for viewers to identify on television cameras.

In one of their most politically charged tricks, they make an American flag seem to disappear by wrapping it in a copy of the United States Bill of Rights, and apparently setting the flag on fire, so that "the flag is gone but the Bill of Rights remains". The routine may also feature the "Chinese bill of rights", presented as a transparent piece of acetate. They normally end the trick by restoring the unscathed flag to its starting place on the flagpole; however, on a TV guest appearance on The West Wing, this final part was omitted. The methods of the trick were revealed by the duo in an episode of Fool Us.

One trick involves a powered nail gun with a quantity of missing nails from the series of nails in its magazine. Penn begins by firing several apparently real nails into a board in front of him. He then proceeds to fire the nail gun into the palm of his hand several times, while suffering no injuries. His pattern builds as he oscillates between firing blanks into his hand and firing nails into the board, and fires one blank into Teller's crotch. Near the end of the trick, he says that it is a trick and that he and Teller believe that it is morally wrong to do things on stage that are really dangerous—it makes the audience complicit in unnecessary human risk.

A trick introduced in 2010 is a modern version of the bag escape, replacing the traditional sack with a black trash bag apparently filled with helium. Teller is placed in the bag which is then pumped full of helium and sealed by an audience member. For the escape, the audience is blinded by a bright light for a second and when they are able to see again, Teller has escaped from the bag and Penn is holding it, still full of helium, above his head, before releasing it to float to the ceiling. The duo had hoped to put the trick in their mini-tour in London; however, it was first shown to the public in their Las Vegas show on August 18, 2010. In June 2011, Penn & Teller performed this trick for the first time in the United Kingdom on their ITV show Fool Us.

In one of their TV appearances on The Tonight Show, they performed a trick that involved all members of the audience. Each person received four cards which were torn apart and "mixed" so as to have two out of the eight halves selected in a process that seems random, as each person has freedom of moves throughout the process. Yet in the end, everyone ends up with two halves of the same card. Some mathematicians made a deep analysis of the trick and generalized it so it would work with any number of initial cards, using mathematical induction; their complete analysis was published in the Journal of Magic Research.

Politics and personal lives

On Bullshit!, the duo described their social and political views as libertarian. In addition to disbelief in the paranormal and pseudoscience, Penn & Teller also take a view of doubtfulness to government authority. In various episodes of their show, they have heavily criticized both the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as taken stances against circumcision and gun control, and in support of ideas such as freedom to eat fast food, private property, and lower taxes. Penn & Teller were both H. L. Mencken research fellows with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank and research organization. Penn disavowed libertarianism in 2020 and is no longer affiliated with the Cato Institute.

Penn & Teller have shown support for the Brights movement and are now listed on the movement's website under the Enthusiastic Brights section.

They have described themselves as teetotalers.

Filmography

Television

Books

Penn & Teller:

• Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic (1997, ISBN 1-57297-293-9)
• Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food (1992, ISBN 0-679-74311-1)
• Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends (1989, ISBN 0-394-75351-8)

Penn without Teller:

• Sock (2004, ISBN 0-312-32805-2)
• How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker: The Wisdom of Dickie Richard (2006, ISBN 0-312-34905-X; Co-author: Mickey D. Lynn)
• God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales (2011, ISBN 1451610378)
• Every Day is an Atheist Holiday!: More Magical Tales from the Author of God, No! (2012, ISBN 1469276887)
• Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales (2016, ISBN 1501140183)

Teller without Penn:

• When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours: Joe Teller—A Portrait by His Kid (2000, ISBN 0-922233-22-5)

Other media

Music

• "Penn & Teller Present: Music to Look at Boxes By" (With Mike "Jonesy" Jones)
• "It's Tricky" by Run–D.M.C. (Penn & Teller shown throughout the video and at the end appear to take over the persona of Run–D.M.C.)
• "Something to Believe In" by The Ramones (Penn & Teller are seen supporting the fictitious "Hands Across Your Face" charity)
• "Waking up in Vegas" by Katy Perry (Penn & Teller are kicked out of their hotel room by Perry and her boyfriend.)
• "This Time I've Got It" by The Great Tomsoni & Co. (Penn & Teller in lab coats, Penn playing bass guitar)
• "Donna Everywhere" by Too Much Joy (Teller directed the video which features the band spending their entire budget as the video plays out. Teller features as a security guard and Penn as the band's representative)

Video games

• Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors 1995 – Absolute Entertainment for Sega CD & 3DO (unreleased)
• Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair 1996 – Knowledge Adventure for PC & Mac – As Leroy Paine and Sigmund Terrore
• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Spellbound 1998 – Simon & Schuster for PC – Voices for Drell & Skippy
• Penn & Teller VR: Frankly Unfair, Unkind, Unnecessary, & Underhanded 2019  – Gearbox Software for PC
• Borderlands 3 2019 – Gearbox Software for PS4, Xbox One & PC - Voices for Pain & Terror

The 1995 video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors featured a mini-game called Desert Bus in which the player drove a bus route between Tucson and Las Vegas. Once reaching the destination, the player gets one point and, if desired, can then drive the return route. The game was considered by some to be long and boring yet found a cult audience. The entire set of games was actually more of a collection of tricks and pranks, rather than games meant to be actually good to play. Both in-game and in interviews Penn states that Desert Bus was a reaction to the controversy of violent video-games going on at the time. In essence making fun of this controversy, by creating a simulator "stupefyingly like reality".

The game has since been used in an annual charity event called "Desert Bus for Hope" run by the Canadian internet comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun. The fundraiser involves members of LoadingReadyRun (and occasional guests) playing the game and streaming that live online, while interviewing celebrities via Skype and accepting challenges for the audience, with all proceeds being donated to Child's Play. On November 14, 2011, an iOS port of Desert Bus was created and released in the iTunes Store. The game was developed in conjunction with the Desert Bus For Hope event and all profits from the game are donated to charity.

Attractions

• "Penn & Teller: New(kd) Las Vegas 3D" was a 2012 Halloween Horror Nights maze collaborated at Universal Orlando. It featured a backstory of Las Vegas being destroyed by Penn & Teller's latest magic trick involving a nuclear warhead gone wrong.

Theatre

• Magic Goes Wrong - a 2019 comedy play in collaboration with Mischief Theatre following their highly-successful West End and Broadway hit The Play That Goes Wrong.

References

1. "Teller". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
2. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (June 23, 2018), Penn & Teller Give a Lesson in Misdirection Using a Vanishing Chicken, archived from the original on December 12, 2021, retrieved June 25, 2018
3. Collins, Glenn (December 4, 1988). "Up to New Tricks". The New York Times.
4. @pennjillette (August 19, 2011). "36 years ago today, Teller and I did our first show together at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Had done a few shows together before that" (Tweet). Retrieved August 31, 2013 – via Twitter.
5. ^ Rea, Steven (June 28, 1985). "Penn & Teller -- What A Team". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
6. "Chris Jones on How Teller Got His Magic Back". Esquire. September 17, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
7. "Penn & Teller Booking Agent – Book Penn & Teller Comedian For Corporate and Private Events Worldwide". Artists > Comedy. Entertainment Booking Agency. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
8. Cox, Gordon (March 19, 2015). "Penn and Teller Conjure a Broadway Run This Summer". Variety. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
9. "Penn & Teller on Babylon 5". July 13, 2004. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
10. Bill Nye the Science Guy - S02E07 Light Optics, archived from the original on December 12, 2021, retrieved August 4, 2021
11. Katsilometes, John (January 28, 2013). "Penn & Teller: Two decades of real Las Vegas magic". LasVegasSun.com. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
12. "Infinity Broadcasting article on Penn". Archived from the original on March 21, 2006. Retrieved March 27, 2006.
13. "Penn & Teller website". Archived from the original on March 17, 2006. Retrieved March 27, 2006.
14. "Penn & Teller Come to Discovery Channel". The Discovery Insider Blog. Discovery Channel. April 15, 2011. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2011.
15. "Can You Guess the Lie?". Discovery Channel Shows Listing. Discovery Channel. September 15, 2011. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
16. ""38 Years of Magic and B.S.: A Conversation with Penn & Teller" - TAM 2012". Youtube.com. James Randi Foundation. May 10, 2013. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
17. "The Masked Singer Hydra Costume Out Of Control ... Celebs Worried About Safety". TMZ. March 23, 2022. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
18. Penn & Teller (October 4, 2011). "IAMA: Penn and Teller | reddit's top ten questions". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
19. Penn Jillette (June 13, 2011). "Penn Jillette: Penn and Teller Are Not Lovers". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
20. "For Penn & Teller's Magical Partnership, the Trick is Telling the Truth". NPR. August 1, 2015.
21. "Magicians Penn & Teller get star on Hollywood Walk of Fame". Mercury News. April 5, 2013. Archived from the original on June 13, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
22. "Magicians Penn & Teller Get Star On Walk Of Fame". CBS News. April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
23. "Magicians Penn & Teller Honored With Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame". Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
24. Cavendish, Dominic (January 5, 2020). "Magic Goes Wrong: Backstage with Penn, Teller and Mischief Theatre company". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
25. "Penn and Teller Speaker Biography". Executive Speakers Bureau. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
26. "Penn and Teller", Center for Performing Arts Memorabilia, 2002
27. Guardian Staff (February 16, 2014). "Baftas 2014: full list of winners". the Guardian. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
28. Gray, Tim (December 3, 2013). "Oscars: 15 Documentary Features Make Shortlist". Variety. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
29. Duizabo, Eléonore (October 27, 2020). "The winners of the Olivier Awards 2020". Baguette on Broadway. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
30. Penn & Teller on force trick
31. Guide to West Wing on Penn & Teller
32. Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Season 1. Episode 5. July 16, 2011. ITV.
33. Penn Says: Nail Gun Trick
34. Twitter / MrTeller: Helium went in tonight. It
35. Teixeira, Ricardo (September 8, 2020). "Mathematical Explanation and Generalization of Penn and Teller's Love Ritual Magic Trick". Journal of Magic Research. 8: 21–32.
36. Shermer, Michael (May 22, 2009). "Michael Shermer - Science, Skepticism and Libertarianism". Point of Inquiry. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
37. "Cato Institute fellow's page: Penn Jillette". Retrieved January 29, 2010.
38. "Cato Institute fellow's page: Teller". Retrieved January 29, 2010.
39. "'You have one job, Joe'". CNN. November 9, 2020. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
40. "The Brights' Net – Enthusiastic Brights (Page 2)". The-Brights.net. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
41. "The Brights' Net - Enthusiastic Brights (Page 2)". www.the-brights.net.
42. Mangu-Ward, Katherine (December 21, 2016). "Interview: Penn Jillette". Reason.com. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
43. Beard, Alison (October 1, 2016). "Life's Work: An Interview with Penn Jillette". Harvard Business Review. ISSN 0017-8012. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
44. "The Eyes Scream: A History of The Residents | BAMPFA". bampfa.org. December 22, 2014.
45. "New Honor For Penn, Teller". Los Angeles Times. May 15, 1986. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
46. "Don't Try This at Home! (TV Movie 1990) - IMDb". IMDb.
47. "WitWi Carmen Sandiego? (1991) | PILOT #1: The Purloined Pooch | Jerrylynn vs. Prashant vs. Mike". YouTube. March 26, 2015. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021.
48. AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ (1993). "AT&T Archives: Live from AT&T Bell Labs (1993)". AT&T. AT&T Tech Channel. Retrieved April 30, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
49. "Phobophilia: The Love of Fear (1995) - IMDb". IMDb.
50. "Home Invasion (TV Movie 1997) - IMDb". IMDb.
51. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Penn and Teller Magic Trick on Blue Peter - CBBC". YouTube. May 9, 2014.
52. @DeceptionABC (March 12, 2018). "Oh! Hi, @pennjillette and @MrTeller!..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
53. "Penn Jillette Discusses Unreleased Sega CD Game". Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
54. ^ "Desert Bus (Sega CD) - Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN)". May 28, 2014 – via www.youtube.com.
55. "Comic-Con 2010: Penn & Teller discuss their videogame 'Desert Bus'". July 27, 2010 – via www.youtube.com.
56. "Desert Bus". App Store. November 15, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2020. Originally conceived by Penn, Teller, and Eddie Gorodetsky, this game was made in support of the annual Desert Bus for Hope charity fundraiser for Child's Play, hosted by the crew from LoadingReadyRun.
57. Brigante, Ricky (August 3, 2012). "'Penn and Teller New(kd) Las Vegas' 3D haunted house revealed for Halloween Horror Nights 2012 at Universal Orlando". Inside the Magic.

External links

• Official website

• American comedy duos
• American magicians
• American skeptics
• American atheism activists
• American critics of alternative medicine
• American critics of creationism
• Las Vegas shows
• Magician duos
• Nevada Libertarians
• Academy of Magical Arts Magician of the Year winners
• Academy of Magical Arts Performing Fellowship winners