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Penn and Teller are the dynamic duo known as the Bad Boys of Magic, even though Teller appears to be harmless as well as mute. I interviewed both through the phone lines, Teller via e-mail (keeping up that silent act ) and Penn by voice. Teller's words are his own, Penn's are a close approximate. Catch Penn and Teller this month at Scottsdale Center for the Arts Oct 20-21 and in Tucson at Centennial Hall Oct 24.
Ashes: How many times have you been to the Valley?
Penn: Scottsdale? Twice before I think.
Ashes: What do you think of it out here?
Penn: It was a trip out here that convinced me to move to the desert. I was sitting in a cafe, or a bookstore (you can't tell the difference these days) under some misters, reading the New York Times and I thought...I wouldn't mind getting my own piece of desert. So I bought seven acres in Nevada. I'm building an eccentric mansion with absolutely no resell value.
Ashes: You're near Las Vegas right?
Penn: Yes. I still have my place in Manhattan. Can't be too far away from Time Square, but the (Vegas) strip keeps me from being homesick. Vegas is a cheap place to live as long as you don't get involved with drugs or gambling. You know, in Vegas, you've got all this excitement of the strip, the lights the glamour and then boom - desert. It's such a dramatic drop off. If this were a deep sea dive, you'd get the bends every time. But Scottsdale is very suburban, very Speilburg. I'm a New England Boy but they've got too much damn weather back there.
Ashes: Do you get any great monsoon rain storms ?
Penn: Oh, I love that smell before it rains. It's the second best smell on earth.
Ashes: Is this show going to be 100% new or just 60% new, like last year?
Teller: For this year's edition of the show, we'll be introducing our "World's Heaviest Card Trick", in which we do a classic card trick with a 1400-pound pack of sheet metal playing cards. We shuffle and cut the cards with the help of two fullsize fork lifts. It takes a lot more finesse than working with the dumb little cardboard things...But the big news this year is that we will be doing the Bullet Catch, the most dangerous trick in history (it's killed off twelve magicians). Each show we flip a coin to decide who shoots and who catches. The score is pretty much even. And yes, I'd MUCH rather catch.
Ashes: You are known for promoting the scientific method and non superstitious thought. Penn is a well known skeptic. Is that what inspired you both to perform "magic" for the masses?
Teller: I've been interested in the crooks who pass themselves off as psychic since I was 10 (I got into magic at age 5). It riles me when I see a really cool art form get used to cheat people out of their money and sense. I started off reading all about spirit media, but after we encountered the Amazing Randi, got totally fascinated with all forms of religious hoax, dowsing, "mental telepathy." But my interest in being a "ripoff artiste" is very deep. I love the irony of magic: you think you see what you know can't be.
Ashes: What has been your most thrilling moment on stage?
Teller: I know this sounds sappy, but just being on stage thrills me damn near every time. It's habit-forming. That said, the time we were on "Saturday Night Live," doing an entire segment of closeup magic hanging upside down (unbeknownst to the home viewer), an incredibly difficult piece, and we pulled it off without a hitch -- man, afterwards I was seeing flashing white lights and gasping for joy.
Ashes: Penn, how was it working with Lori Singer in the FOX show VR-5?
Penn: (The censored, paraphrased answer) She's very thin.
Ashes: Teller; you are known as the quiet one. In fact, during your act, you don't even speak. Do you ever get jealous of Penn overshadowing you in the limelight, getting movie roles, etc?
Teller: It's really hard to get jealous of Penn; we are a team and have been together over twenty years. When Penn gets to do something cool, I'm right there with him emotionally (and sometimes in person), cheering for him, as he is when I do something extra cool. Also, in crass commercial terms, anything that makes either of us more famous ultimately brings our team more fans and recognition.
Ashes: Teller, you have done some great things on your own, like the L.A. Times article on Jeffrey Dahmer. What inspired you to tackle that?
Teller: I wrote about Dahmer because I felt like it. I write a lot, usually first addressing my friends on our in-house bbs, about things that excite me. That's how lots of my articles start out. One of these stories became my first appearance doing a reading on National Public Radio. One turned into an article for the Atlantic Monthly. I write things first, then worry about selling them later, generally. That way there's no pressure.
Ashes: You've also co-written two books, and Penn had his own column in PC Magazine. Would you both like to do more writing?
Teller: We've got plenty of writing in the works, including a new book called, "Penn & Teller's HOW TO PLAY IN TRAFFIC."
Penn: It's a travel book.
Ashes: Is another film in the works? Will Uma Thurman get a role?
Teller: Penn is currently in Hackers . I'm playing a nutty Shakespearean actor who makes a specialty of death scenes in "The Fantasticks" due out in February.
Penn: (regarding Uma) It started out as a gag in my PC Computer articles and just stuck. I liked her name and her breasts. I had a chance to meet her but I thought, why burst my own bubble? Then I was reading this article (people send me heaps of Thurman stuff) and she said she was an atheist ..."Where's the phone!" But then I read on and she said she liked to have long philosophical talks...with Robert Downey, Jr.
Teller: Our latest video project is a Hallowe'en TV special for Comedy Central, called PHOBOPHILIA ("The Love of Fear"). It will be the wildest, scariest show ever to be on television. Guaranteed.
Penn: It's taken two years to get the TV show in the U.S. BBC wanted to do it, but the U.S. still has this crazy notion that violence on TV makes people violent...You don't see anyone dressing up like their mother and stabbing people in the shower after watching Psycho. Are we going to lose Oedipus Rex if someone pokes an eye out? And the politicians are all jumping on the band wagon: "Let's blame the artists. They're all gay anyway."
Ashes: If you had one question to ask Penn and Teller, what would it be?
Teller: How the hell did a couple of contrary, self-righteous bastards like you stick together through thick and thin all these years?
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