He attended
Amherst College and taught Latin at Lawrence High School
in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He is an expert on the
history of magic. He had his name changed legally to
Teller. He began his trademark of not speaking as a
way of dealing with audience hecklers.
Penn Fraser Jillette, the talking magician, is the larger
of the two (6'6"/1.98 m to Teller's 5'9"/1.75
m), and was born March 5, 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
He attended Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Greatest
Show on Earth Clown College - but he's apologized for
this. He became disillusioned with the type of magic
acts that present magic as "real" by watching
The Amazing Kreskin on the Johnny Carson show. He attended
a performance by The Amazing Randi with Teller at the
age of eighteen which suggested the idea of presenting
magic as an openly acknowledged trick rather than as
a mysterious power.
Teller began performing with a friend, Weir Chirsamer,
as the Ottmar Scheckt Society for the Preservation of
Weird and Disgusting Music: they joined up with Penn
Jillette and renamed themselves the Asparagus Valley
Cultural Society.
Their tricks include Teller hanging upside-down over
a bed of spikes in a straitjacket, Teller drowning in
a huge container of water, Teller being run over by
an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, Teller swinging over bear-traps
on a trapeze, and knives going through Penn's hands.
In one of their more thoughtful and politically charged
tricks, they make a U.S. flag seem to disappear by wrapping
it in a copy of the United States Bill of Rights, and
apparently setting the flag on fire, so that "the
flag is gone but the Bill of Rights remains." They
normally end the routine by restoring the unscathed
flag to its starting place on the flagpole; however,
on a TV guest appearance on The West Wing, this final
part was omitted for dramatic reasons.
They have also made television guest appearances as
a comedy team on Babylon 5 and The Simpsons, and Teller
has played Mr. Boots on Dharma & Greg. Penn appeared
as "Drell" on the TV series Sabrina the Teenage
Witch and was a voice announcer for the U.S. based cable
network Comedy Central.
Their cable television show Bullshit! exposes psychic,
religious, scientific and paranormal frauds in a comedic
fashion, and has featured segments on astrology, Feng
shui, and weight loss.
Penn married television producer Emily Zolten during
an impromptu ceremony at a Las Vegas wedding chapel
on November 23, 2004.
Movies
My Chauffeur
Penn & Teller Get Killed
Books
- By Penn and Teller
- Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends
(1989, ISBN 0394753518)
- How to Play with Your Food (1992, ISBN 0679743111)
- How to Play in Traffic (1997, ISBN 1572972939)
By Penn Jillette
- Sock (2004, ISBN 0312328052) By Teller
- "When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours!":
Joe Teller -- A Portrait by His Kid (2000, ISBN
0922233225)
External link
Penn
and Teller's official website
