3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Penn & Teller's Greatest Trick: Making Us Think They're Not Friends
Can a magician be too old to die?
This was the question under debate backstage at the Penn & Teller Theater in Las Vegas after Teller, the silent half of the most famous living double act, suggested bringing back one of his favorite tricks.
The duo first performed it on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1985 when Penn Jillette, now 70, locked Teller, 77, inside a phone-booth-size tank, filled to the top with water. Then he promised to not let him out until Jillette guessed a card picked by an audience member. It's a race to avoid drowning, and the trick is intricately plotted, with escalating tension, several reversals and one dramatic return from the dead.
Even though it's been a crowd-pleaser, Jillette said he thought they had aged out of it. 'The suffering of a young man is heroic,' he told his partner in mid-June. 'For an older man, it can be sad.'
Teller countered politely that little physicality was required of him, so surviving was not 'a heroic gesture.' He described it this way: 'It's about the partnership,' he said, referring to their collaboration, which like 'Jaws' and 'Saturday Night Live,' reached half a century this year. 'That might be an idea strengthened over time.'
Penn and Teller, who will be at Radio City Music Hall on Aug. 21, are one of the great success stories of modern show business. They revolutionized magic, demystifying and modernizing the form, while merging it with comedy. Starring in hits on Broadway and off, they also made two long-running TV shows, 'Penn & Teller: BS' and 'Fool Us,' which is starting its 13th season in the fall and is the most important launchpad for new magicians. Whereas David Copperfield and Criss Angel have faded in popularity, Penn & Teller are bigger than ever. Once billing themselves as 'the bad boys of magic,' they have become its elder statesmen, shifting from ridiculing Vegas magicians to breaking the record for longest-running headlining show in the town.
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