Penn Jillette

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{{Infobox Biography |subject_name= Penn Jillette |image_name= Penn_and_Teller.jpg |image_caption= Penn Jillette (left) & Teller. |date_of_birth= March 5 1955 |place_of_birth= Greenfield, Massachusetts |date_of_death= |place_of_death= }} Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts,) is an American illusionist and comedian known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller as Penn & Teller.

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Biography

Penn Jillette, the larger (6'6"/1.98 m compared to Teller's 5'9"/1.75 m), talkative half of Penn & Teller, once attended Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Clown College, for which he has since apologized. Jillette became disillusioned with traditional magic acts that presented the craft as real by watching The Amazing Kreskin on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. At age eighteen, he saw a show by illusionist James Randi (The Amazing Randi), and became enamored of his presentation of magic that openly acknowledged deception as entertainment rather than a mysterious supernatural power. Jillette regularly acknowledges Randi as the one person on the planet he loves the most besides members of his family.

Penn married television producer Emily Zolten during an impromptu ceremony at a Las Vegas wedding chapel on November 23, 2004. They welcomed their first child, daughter Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette, on June 3, 2005 and are now expecting a baby boy whom they will name Zolten Penn Jillette; he is expected to be born on June 6, 2006. On a January 2006 episode of the radio show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Jillette explained that his wife suggested they use "CrimeFighter" because she herself does not have a middle name, people don't generally know other people's middle names, and they might as well "have some fun with it."

He occasionally notes with irony that although he lives and works in Las Vegas, he does not gamble (though he has written a book on how to win at poker), and has never had a drink of alcohol or done recreational drugs.

In April of 2006, a radio host for San Francisco, California station KIFR-FM was fired after his daily broadcast on April 6 included a bounty on Jillette's life. John London offered $5,000 to prospective killers, upping the offer to $7,000 if Jillette's death was unusually painful. London had been involved in a dispute with Jillette over the content of Jillette's radio show, which preceded London's at that station. The dispute stemmed from derogatory remarks Jillette had made about Mother Teresa. After the firing, London claimed that the offer had been made in jest.[1]

Penn is an outspoken atheist, libertarian, and skeptic.

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Projects

  • Penn was also a regular contributor to PC Computing magazine in the early 1990's, having a regular back section column. True to form, the columns were often as much about Uma Thurman as actual PC computing issues.
  • For a brief period of time in 1997 Penn wrote bi-weekly dispatches for the (now) defunct search engine Excite.com. Each column ended with a pithy comment identifying which of the duo Penn was. (For example, "Penn Jillette is the half of Penn & Teller that's detained at airports.") Penn made a habit of linking many words in his online column to wacky sites that generally had nothing to do with the actual words. The columns are no longer available on the current Excite.com site. However, one can view the columns [2] at Penn's actual site.
  • In July of 1999, Penn was granted patent number 5,920,923 for the "Jill-Jet", a hot-tub jet specially angled for a woman's pleasure.
  • Since January 3, 2006, Penn has hosted (along with Michael Goudeau) a live, hour-long radio talk show broadcast on the radio station brand known as Free FM: WFNY-FM New York, WCKG Chicago, KIFR San Francisco, WJFK-FM Washington, D.C., WKRK Detroit, KSCF San Diego, and WHFS Baltimore. The show is also broadcast on KSFN "Spike 1140" AM in Las Vegas. Jillette stirred up controversy during his radio show on April 6, 2006 when he argued that Mother Theresa was a demented, twisted old woman who gained pleasure from watching the sick and poor people of Calcutta die slowly. If one cannot find the show on the radio dial, it's available via the podcast route. [3] Jillette and Goudeau broadcast from Jillette's Vegas area home ("The Slammer") from something Jillette refers to as the Vintage Nude Studio. Apparently Jillette used to collect nude playing cards and when he created his studio he incorporated these playing cards into the décor. The cards are laid out in such a fashion that their order would only be meaningful to a fellow magician.
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Appearance

Speculation arises from Penn's red fingernail on his left hand. From a FAQ from Penn & Teller's official website, there are three common answers:

  1. It means he once shot a man for asking personal questions.
  2. When Penn first began performing, his mother told him to get a manicure because people would be looking at his hands. In response to this, Penn had all of his nails painted red as a joke. The one remaining red fingernail is in honor of his dear mother.
  3. The red fingernail provides excellent misdirection and is just plain cool.
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Books by Jillette

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External links

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