I am a longtime fan of Penn and Teller. Have seen them live several times, and consider them my favorite live performance.
Saw them most recently a couple of weeks ago after not having seen them for maybe 2 years. IMO, their presentation was slightly different than before. Wondered if anyone else noticed the same, and if so, what your response was and what you feel might contribute to it.
I love magic of all kinds, and I find P&T’s version hysterical. I also am a skeptic, and appreciate that aspect of their show. I find it hysterical when they say they have progressed beyond magic tricks and will now do miracles – explaining that the move from magic to religion is essentially a lateral move. And I liked the fact that they were commercially very successful act while offering some rather controversial viewpoints.
But the other day Penn seemed a little more aggressively bombastic than before. He seemed to say “goddammmit” more frequently than before – at times twice in the same sentence. When he used a kid from the audience to help in their “miracle” – he ended by shouting at him “What do you think of that you godless bastard?!”
I repeat, I found it hilariously entertaining. But it troubled me a bit that they seemed to be intentionally antagonizing a huge percentage of their audience. (This show was in the quite conservative DuPage county, west of Chi. I guarantee that atheists, skeptics, and humanists did not make up the majority of the audience.) I feel that a huge percentage of the religious folk in the audience would likely be offended by much of what went on. And I wondered why P&T felt the need to be so confrontational. In my experience they used to be far more subtle in their approach.
I wondered if it was a result of their having worked in Vegas for the past several years. Does a Vegas crowd call for a more raucous and outrageous approach? Or did P&T figure they are successful enough that they don’t need to be subtle in their beliefs anymore?
So much of what they offer is IMO fantastic and educational. They had one routine I had not seen before where they put a handkerchief in a rolled up tube of paper, and made it disappear. Then they said the trick is different if the materials had meaning. They proceeded to put an American flag in a rolled up Bill of Rights, and burn the flag making it disappear. Then Penn went on about how great the Bill of Rights is that it protects their free speech, and did the trick again with a clear piece of plastic which he referred to as China’s Bill of Rights. And at the end he demonstrated how they did the trick. IMO some pretty neat stuff presented as entertainment. But it bothered me a bit that I suspect a large percentage of the folk who would be the most appropriate audience for such messages would simply dismiss them out of hand due to language which they consider offensive, and which I believe adds little if anything to the act.
Any other P&T fans out there who have an opinion on this?
Well, P&T have never made a secret of their atheism–take a look at their books, for example. I remember a skit they did on their “Rot in Hell” tour several years ago which wasn’t dissimilar to the one you described with the “miracle,” and their tone was also pretty similar.
Actually, I think their real change in attitude recently has been their embrace of patriotism. This wasn’t a post-9/11 stance, either. When I saw them in Philadelphia last January, they did the flag and Bill-of-Rights skit, and my friends and I were kind of surprised at their overt patriotism, which they haven’t really displayed before. I can’t imagine it’s a crowd-pleasing gimmick, because I can’t imagine that most of their fans would be impressed by it. I don’t know what it’s from. <shrug>
Thanks for the perspective and links. I suspect the shows in the Chi burb Penn speaks of included the one I saw.
You may say nothing has changed, but both my wife and I perceived a “stepping up” of the tone. In fact, I have seen the same “miracle” (healing polyester) skit at least twice before.
I have long been aware of P&T’s philosophical perspective. IME, in the past it was at times the equivalent of a sly joke - believers and gullile persons in the audience would enjoy the show without even noticing the additional level - that they and their most sacred beliefs were being held up as objects of ridicule. IMO the tone was more confrontational this time - almost as tho inviting responses as Penn received from that lady. I wonder what the effect will be? Will they convince some people that their religions and superstitions are without foundation, or will more people be offencded such that they dismiss P&T and their talents and messages in their entirety.
Man, the opening skit was hysterical. Penn went on and on about the various ideas you could have about how Teller might be able to escape from the box, and rematerialize on the other end of the stage. Or, in the alternative, if you refused to delude yourself, you could see nothing more than a middle-aged man crawling out of a box. What a stitch!
Personally, in this conservative county west of Chi, it is tough enough being an atheist/skeptic/humanist. I always enjoyed having P&T being successful while advancing a challenging subbtext. The subtext seems to have moved more into the forefront. On one hand, I was a little disappointed that after the show my kids main impression seemed to be a perceived freedom to bellow 'goddammit" and “godless bastard.” (We have no big problem with our kids having “swear” words as part of their vocabulary, but we do urge them to acknowledge appropriate times and places for using certain language, and do not encourage indiscriminate use of profanity.) Moreover, I now fear that if I am honest with my neighbors about my appreciation for P&T, it will give them additional reasons to judge me unfavorably.
I would guess that’s exactly why they were over-the-top, because they knew they were playing to a more conservative audience and wanted to rattle their cages a bit.
I’m not entirely sure where P&T’s political views are, but maybe being annoyed at the current stuff coming from the conservative right might have something to do with it. Just a guess, at any rate.
Eh, I don’t care for confrontational atheists much more than confrontational religious nuts, despite being an atheist myself. In fact, I think I dislike them more. Religious people at least believe in something really big and important - immortality and where you’re going to spend it, the fate of the world, etc. If I believed in all that I’d probably be pretty enthusiastic about it myself. They have a bit of an excuse. I expect something a bit more rational and effective from people I have to assume share a bit of my way of thinking.
