Penn & Teller

A double act in which one man talks continuously and the other never says a word on stage. Penn & Teller have sustained that extreme arrangement since 1975, and the half-century is itself the proof that it works.

Performance from an official channel

From Penn & Teller: Fool Us (Season 6)
Penn & Teller（公式チャンネル） — Embedded from an official channel. Pressing play connects to YouTube.

Key achievements

1. The duo of Penn Jillette (born 5 March 1955) and Teller (born 14 February 1948), performing together since 1975.
2. Teller has consistently maintained a stage persona that never speaks.
3. Widely known through a long-running Las Vegas residency and their television work.
4. Also known for a sceptical stance that examines claims of the paranormal.

Half a century together

Penn Jillette, born 5 March 1955, and Teller, born 14 February 1948, have worked together since 1975.

They did not perform as a duo until 1981, though — several years passed between forming the partnership and taking it on stage. The way they used that time says something about their carefulness.

In 1985 they mounted their first off-Broadway show, and their standing spread from there.

Two people staying in partnership for fifty years is rare in any branch of show business. Rarer still, they never swapped roles; the original design has been kept intact.

Silence as a position

Teller does not speak on stage, and he has held that persona consistently.

Silence is not simply the subtraction of talking. While one performer drives the scene forward, the other has to go on existing by some other means.

The consequence is that the audience’s attention is pulled toward movement rather than words. It is this structure that lets a two-man act redistribute attention so freely. When Penn speaks, the room listens; when Teller moves, the room looks. Two kinds of attention, available on one stage.

A sceptical stance

Penn & Teller are also known for examining claims of the paranormal from an explicitly sceptical position.

This is the present-day form of a tradition that began with Maskelyne and was carried on by Houdini. Being a professional manufacturer of the impossible is precisely what makes a person alert to counterfeit impossibilities. A magician knows, as a matter of trade, the conditions under which people misread what is in front of them, and is therefore well placed to catch anyone exploiting that.

Magicians have held the role for more than 150 years. Penn & Teller hold it now.

Las Vegas and television

In 2001 they began a residency at the Rio in Las Vegas, and became the longest-running headliners at a single venue in the city’s history.

Las Vegas turns its attractions over quickly. What it takes to stay in one room there for decades is not hard to imagine.

In 2010 the television programme Penn & Teller: Fool Us began, in which guest magicians try to outwit the pair. The notable thing about it is the refusal to expose methods. Penn conveys whether they have worked something out in language that never gives the secret away.

That is, in its own way, a statement of respect for the art.

Now

In 2015 they returned to Broadway after thirty years for a six-week run.

They hold an Emmy, an Obie and a Writers Guild award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Simply lasting is among the hardest achievements in this profession. Two people who joined forces in 1975 are still working in the same format. That alone is worth the telling.

Notable works

• The Las Vegas residency at the Rio (from 2001)
• Penn & Teller: Fool Us (from 2010), in which guest magicians try to outwit them
• Emmy, Obie and Writers Guild awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Chronology

Only years that could be verified are listed.

1. 1948 Teller is born on 14 February
2. 1955 Penn Jillette is born on 5 March
3. 1975 The two begin working together
4. 1981 They perform as a duo for the first time
5. 1985 They mount their first off-Broadway show
6. 2001 Their Las Vegas residency at the Rio begins; they become the longest-running headliners at a single venue in the city's history
7. 2010 The television programme Penn & Teller: Fool Us begins
8. 2015 They return to Broadway after thirty years for a six-week run