Teller
Teller
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntertainer
Date of Birth14 February 1948
CountryUnited States of America
backs hairs magic penn people stuff teller
People do not come to a Penn & Teller show to see a magic show. They just don't. They come to see weird stuff that they can see no place else, that will make them laugh and make the little hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.
art form lie magic people
Magic is an art form where you lie and tell people you are lying.
audience engaging experiment hell magic perform time
Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology. If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful.
almost appear blood continue cut head indian knife magic magician money says street takes tends trick wanders
Indian street magic tends to be very gory, blood and guts. One trick is for a magician to take a knife and appear to cut his kid's head almost off. The magician then says to the crowd, 'Well I can continue to cut off my son's head or you can all give me some money.' Then he wanders around and takes 10 rupees from everyone and restores his son.
controlled human magicians thousands
Magicians have done controlled testing in human perception for thousands of years.
crap holding magicians redundant
Generally, magicians don't know what to say, so they say stupid and redundant crap like, 'Here I am holding a red ball.'
confront conversation forced onstage shut
The silent thing onstage allows for a kind of intimacy that no conversation can have. If I just shut up, we're forced to look at each other and really confront that moment.
fan foremost penn teller thinks
Nobody who is a Penn & Teller fan thinks of us first and foremost as magicians, but as a comedy team.
good intrinsic merely people tv
To most people who have a point of view, merely being on TV is an intrinsic good.
america entirely hijacked people scouts
The Boy Scouts of America is no longer entirely what people think it is. Essentially, it has been hijacked by religious conservatives.
assumed happily life
I always assumed I'd spend my life happily performing in artsy-fartsy little theaters.
gore
If you read Shakespeare's stage directions, all the gore and violence is right in there.
joke merely people street time work
People come up to me on the street and make some little joke - like they'll say, 'Excuse me, sir, what time is it?' And I'll say, you know, '5:15,' and they'll say, 'Hey! Made you talk!' And that's merely a way of saying, 'I know your work and I like you.'
art threat
If there isn't at least the threat of violence in art, it tends to be kind of tiresome.