Zooty zoot zoot!
Zoot, zoot!
:p:D:)
A little bit of Penn goes a long way. Bullshit! is half a hour too long.
I’ve seen them live twice, in Philadelphia back when they toured. They were very funny and very entertaining. They hung out in the lobby afterwards to meet their fans and Teller actually did talk to fans.
I don’t care for Penn’s politics (I don’t know much about Teller’s), but I have to admire both of them as performers.
My rock doesn’t get internet.
I haven’t seen a good seagull post in a while so thanks for that…
Londo didn’t think they were funny either.
But Londo loved Jerry Lewis. Go figure.
They are both pretty Libertarian.
Their illusion stage show is far better than any of their TV work - where Penn has every opportunity to come off as really obnoxious and they work their strengths - which is illusions, not skepticism. Teller’s silence is more charming on stage when paired with the obnoxious loudmouth than on TV. But then, Penn makes a fantastic distraction, and part of it is the obnoxious loudmouth bit.
I’ve seen them four or five times over the past twenty five years. Their Vegas show is one of the more affordable ones - and the Rio such a great tacky casino.
Well, he has a sex dungeon in his house, so you have to at least applaud the effort.
/hijack
Come to think of it, didn’t Adrianna LaServa of the Sopranos admit to giving a hummer to Penn in one episode of the Sopranos?
maybe that is one of the subconscious reasons I don’t like them.
/end hijack
I heard it said that Teller is the magician and Penn is his big loud misdirection.
I’m trying to remember the names of the two tours I saw. One of them was The Mofo Tour or something like that and had something to do with Mofo the gorilla. I think the other one was something about a bed.
It looks like they still do some touring.
http://www.concertboom.com/penn-and-teller/tour-dates
Either Baltimore or Virginia Beach would be doable for me, but I can’t find the dates from that site.
Damn. They were in Atlantic City this past May. I could have seen them.
For you, now with scratch and sniff.
Okay, one of them was “The Refrigerator Tour”. I guess my brain was thinking “household item” and came up with bed. I still have the signed sweatshirt from that. Teller’s signature is still dark and clear but Penn’s has faded away to almost nothing. 
The other tour was, I think, “Mofo the Psychic Gorilla”.
I’ve seen their show. It is fantastic. Teller is one of the best magicians in the world. Penn is good, but he’s the straight man and freely admits it. They meet the audience after the show and give autographs.
Penn says that he comes into the theater about 30 minutes before the show starts to do makeup and go over the list of tricks. Teller gets there about 4-5 hours earlier and spends that time painstakingly setting up the tricks.
I have worked several of their shows as a stagehand over the years. They’re both great magicians and nice guys. Penn is the voice during the performance, but typically during rehearsals and show prep, Teller is the one on stage planning out the details and blocking everything out. Usually while this is going on, Penn is over at the craft services table hitting on the cocktail waitresses.
Teller talks a lot and is a very intelligent guy. They each have a stage persona that is different from their real personality; Penn’s is just a lot closer than Teller’s is.
You might not like what they do, but humor isn’t their primary goal.
I read an article Teller wrote for Scientific American (?) that listed humor as one of the ways they trick the audience. People who are busy laughing wont think as critically about the illusions. The humor is a means, not an end.
They could get by doing the same tricks over and over till they retire. They don’t. Here is a very good interview with Penn (Ron Bennington is one of my favorite interviewers). He talks about how they pump tens of thousands of dollars of their own money into coming up with new tricks because they enjoy it and think its important to keep the show fresh.