Comedy Magician – Penn and Teller Are the Kings!
I have long admired the comedy magician act of Penn and Teller. They initially impressed me with their totally unique act from numerous appearances on David Letterman, and later on their Showtime series. It’s incredible that nobody in the history of entertainment (as far as I know) successfully intertwined comedy with magic. The fact they have done so successfully for so many years is even more astounding.
A little background:
Jillette Penn was born on March 5, 1955, in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Teller (originally Raymond Joseph Teller) was born on February 14, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
They met as young men in the mid 70’s as part of a comedy ensemble called Asparagus Valley Cultural Society. The trio (there was a third member at the time, named Weir Chrisimer) performed to packed houses at the Phoenix Theater in San Francisco up through 1981. Reportedly this act was somewhat sillier than the current Penn and Teller shows, and substantially less edgy.
It was just a few years later that the 2 comedy magicians (Weir Chrisimer having dropped out a few years earlier) found themselves in New York as Broadway performers. The unusual pairing of the loud, towering Penn and silent, smaller Teller really really seemed to find their niche with their show, Penn & Teller Go Public.
From this point on, Penn and Teller became big-time comedy magician performers. Case in point: throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, the duo could be found performing on Late Night with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, as well as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Today Show, and many others. They appeared in their own television specials, and had their own television series (briefly) called Penn & Teller’s Sin City Spectacular. By most measurements of success, Penn and Teller reached their peak at this point.
Although they haven’t been able to sustain this incredible run of success, they are still very popular, and still play to packed houses in Las Vegas and around the country. They can be seen on TV from time to time, but their bread and butter is their permanent booking at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Footnote: Penn and Teller recently incorporated something new into their comedy portfolio: the iPhone!
“We wanted to do something someone can do without any instructions and really really fry people,” Penn said in an interview. “The fact that I’m doing tricks for people and I don’t even know about it just destroys me.”
It’s actually a card-trick app, in which they appear to guess cards remotely. Here’s the way it works: You or your friend are invited to name a card, you press a simple code on iPhone screen, which will pull up a fake SMS screen. This screen makes it appear as if you know Penn & Teller and that you text with them regularly. You hand the phone to your friend and invite the person ask either Penn or Teller what the card is. After some randomly generated small talk, “Penn” or “Teller” will correctly guess the card.
How cool is that?
This new twist in their magical comedy empire is indicative of why Penn and Teller continue to be successful. They seem to know how to maintain their core comedy strengths, while effectively incorporating new and fresh material that no one else has tried. They are truly an entertainment icon!
By: Melanie Maloy
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Filed under Arts And Entertainment by on Sep 8th, 2010. 