Penn & Teller

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Penn & Teller are a two-man American illusionist and comedy team, comprised of Penn Jillette and Teller. Penn is a raconteur; Teller (generally) does not speak while performing. The duo specializes in gory tricks, fake exposures and clever pranks, and have become associated with Las Vegas, atheism, skepticism and libertarianism. They call themselves “a couple of eccentric guys who have learned how to do a few cool things.” [1]

1 Career
2 Tricks
3 Television projects
4 Movies
5 Other appearances
6 Books
7 Awards and recognitions
8 Video Games
9 External links

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Career

From the early 1970s through 1981, Penn & Teller were part of a three-man act called Asparagus Valley Cultural Society which played in San Francisco at the Phoenix Theater. This act was sillier and less "edgy" than today's Penn & Teller act. The third member of the AVCS, Weir Chirsamer, helped to develop some bits that have continued on, most notably Teller's Shadow-Flower trick.

By 1985, Penn & Teller were receiving rave reviews for their Off Broadway show and Emmy award-winning PBS special, Penn & Teller Go Public. In 1987, they began the first of two successful Broadway runs. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, the pair 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, The Today Show, and many others.

Penn & Teller had national tours throughout the 1990s, gaining critical praise. They have also made television guest appearances on Babylon 5 [2] (as a comedy team Rebo and Zooty), The Drew Carey Show, Hollywood Squares, The Bernie Mac Show, Fear Factor, The West Wing, Home Improvement, and The Simpsons. They also appeared as scam artists in the music video for "It's Tricky" by Run-DMC in 1987.

Their cable television show Bullshit! takes a skeptical look at psychics, religion, the pseudoscientific, and paranormal frauds. It has also featured segments on gun control, astrology, Feng Shui, environmental issues, PETA, weight loss and the war on drugs. Some have praised the show for its libertarian atheist perspective, while others have criticized it for the same reason, alleging that it sometimes employs the same brand of fallacious reasoning that the show ostensibly opposes.

The pair has 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 perform six nights a week in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino.

Penn Jillette began a weekday one-hour show on Infinity Broadcasting's FreeFM radio network in January 2006 with cohost Michael Goudeau. [3] [4]

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Tricks

Their tricks include Teller hanging upside-down over a bed of spikes in a straitjacket, Teller drowning in a huge container of water, Teller being run over by an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, Teller swinging over bear-traps on a trapeze, and knives going through Penn's hands. Many of their effects rely heavily on shock appeal and violence, although presented in a humorous manner. Often, the pair will claim to reveal a secret of how a magic trick is done, but those tricks are usually invented by the duo for the sole purpose of exposing them, and therefore designed with more spectacular and weird methods than would have been necessary, had it just been a "proper" magic trick. Penn and Teller perform their own adaptation of the famous bullet catch illusion. Each simultaneously fires a gun at the other and then "catches" the other's bullets in his mouth.

In one of their most thoughtful and politically charged tricks, they make a U.S. 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." They normally end the routine by restoring the unscathed flag to its starting place on the flagpole; however, on a TV guest appearance on The West Wing [5] , this final part was omitted for dramatic reasons.

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Television projects

Penn & Teller Go Public for PBS (1985)
Don’t Try This at Home for NBC (1990)
Behind The scenes for PBS (1992)
The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller series for Channel 4 (1994)
Phobophilia for Channel 4 (1995)
Penn & Teller’s Home Invasion (1997)
Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular for FX (1998)
Magic and Mystery Tour (2003)
Bullshit! (2003 - )
Penn & Teller Off The Deep End for NBC (2005)

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Movies

My Chauffeur
Penn & Teller’s Invisible Thread for Showtime (1987)
Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends (1987)
Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989)
Fantasia 2000, introducing The Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence.
The Aristocrats (2005), a documentary film written and co-directed by Penn

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Other appearances

Saturday Night Live Episodes 1101, 1106, 1109, 1112, 1115, 1116, 1207 (1985-1986)
Run DMC "It's Tricky" Music Video
David Letterman (1989)
Pizza Hut Commercial
Sabrina the Teenage Witch Pilot, Terrible Things, Jenny's Non-Dream, First Kiss (1996-1997)
Dharma and Greg - Cats Out of the Bag (1998)
Babylon 5 - Day of the Dead (1998)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Hollywood Squares Dates: 01/08/01, 10/06/03, 10/07/03, 10/08/03, 10/09/03, 10/10/03, 04/05/04
Fear Factor Episode 301 (2002)
The West Wing Episode 608 "In The Room" (2004)
The View Dates: 02/19/04, 10/31/05, 02/23/06
Ford Golf Commercials (2006)