For a half-century, masters of the comedy-magic universe Penn & Teller have seemingly defied the physical laws of nature with many of their you-gotta-see-’em-to-believe-’em feats of prestidigitation. But so far, the loquacious Penn Jillette, 71, and his silent (onstage, that is) partner, the mono-monikered Teller, 78, have yet to figure out a way to halt the aging process. As such, noted Jillette during a recent Zoom chat occasioned by the brilliantly hilarious (or is that hilariously brilliant?) pair’s May 14 and 15 visit to Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, some of their most beloved bits have been shelved.
Keeping things age-appropriate
However, he suggested, it’s not the physical limitations imposed on them by the passage of time that are necessarily the cause (more on that later), but audience’s perception of what is age-appropriate.
“There’s stuff which we can do, but which I feel that the audience doesn’t wanna see us do,” he reasoned. “When you take a 25-year-old guy, tie him up, put him in a trunk and throw him in the river, it’s not only entertaining, it’s also a little bit sexy. But when you get to, I don’t know what the magic number is, 45, maybe, when you cross that, the audience [doesn’t want to see it]. At least when I see it, I have a little bit of a ‘No, no, don’t do that to him!’
“We’re seeing this happen with [magician] David Blaine. He’s having to change his show because a 25-year-old sticking a needle into his arm is different than a 50-year-old sticking it into his arm.
“When I was on Broadway the first time [in 1987], I jumped from the balcony box onto the stage. And even if I could do that now, the audience doesn’t want to see it.”
However, he continued, this doesn’t mean the team is coasting through their gigs — including those they do some 40 weeks a year at the Penn & Teller Theater inside Las Vegas’ Rio Hotel & Casino. “I believe, and I think I have to believe this even if it’s not true, that we’re doing more braver intellectual stuff than we’ve ever done in our lives, which is saying a lot.”
A recent injury
This is not to say that actual physical issues haven’t forced P&T to alter their game plans; In January, Jillette broke his ankle in two places. So, what happened?
“It was either fighting ICE agents, or I fell down the stairs. I don’t remember,” ragged the vehement anti-Donald-Trumper.
“It’s been tough. It was six weeks not being able to put any weight on it. And I was doing a bunch of shows in a wheelchair, and then I went to kind of standing in place and sitting on a stool. And last night I did the first show without even telling the audience I broke my ankle. So that was a big milestone.”
No fear of the future
Injuries or not, the time when Penn & Teller will have to decide to call it a career is growing ever closer. But no matter how their remaining years play out, they face the future unafraid of what lies ahead.
To illustrate that point, Jillette closed out the interview with the following tale:
He began by explaining that, sometime in the late-1980s or early-’90s, they had booked an engagement at the old Trump’s Castle Hotel-Casino (now Golden Nugget Atlantic City) where the lounge was hosting the comedy duo of Marty Allen & Steve Rossi, whose laugh-filled, but dated, act was a poor-man’s version of that with which Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis achieved show business domination in the 1940s and ’50s.
Having arrived the night before their first show, Jillette and Teller were invited by Allen & Rossi to see their show.
“So, we went in and it’s what I think many people would call sad, but that’s kind of the point of the story. We went in and there were probably 35 people in the room, and they came out and spent the first, I don’t know, two minutes reminding people who they were. They had a TV set up on stage playing clips of them on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ And they had [Allen’s wife, Katie Blackwell] playing piano and singing or something.
“And then they settled into doing their old routines. And the audience’s reaction was good. But where the story goes — and maybe this is all you need to know about Penn & Teller — is that we’re watching the act. And I leaned over to Teller and I said, ‘You know, this is us in a very few years.’ And Teller looked at me and said, ‘I’m OK with that!’”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
