Magicians Penn and Teller to perform at Sydney Opera House

They have wowed audiences around the world but now famous magicians Penn and Teller are set to perform in Sydney for the first time.

Famed US magicians Penn and Teller have always dreamt of performing in Sydney, falling in love with Australia after trips over the years that saw one half of the duo learn to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef — a skill that Teller says is not dissimilar to the art of magic.

“That was the one of the top experiences of my lifetime,” Teller tells Insider on a break from rehearsing for their Las Vegas show that has been running for 21 years — the longest running headliners to play at the same Vegas hotel.

Teller is silent during their shows, letting the magic speak for himself. He is even mute for TV interviews, so Insider’s exclusive chat is a rare insight from the pair.

“Instead of rushing around New York streets, I was walking barefoot on the deck of a boat and diving and doing all that great life and death stuff — and that’s what’s great about scuba,” Teller says.

“It’s the life and death you want to play with in the theatre, but in real life you want to do it safely but in scuba, you must do it correctly or you will be in danger, so it really grabs your focus.”

Legendary magic duo Penn and Teller will bring their record-breaking Las Vegas live show to Sydney.

And previously exploring Sydney, Cairns and MONA in Tasmania, he calls Australia one of his favourite places in the world — so performing at the Opera House is a pinch-me moment, even for the men who have graced the best stages around the world.

“It really was one of the best experiences of my life because I had been under tremendous stress in New York, and just to be around the difference between the New York attitude of, ‘everything’s about to explode and I have to get it all done today’ to ‘no worries mate’ in Australia, helped me come back totally refreshed,” Teller continues.

“I’ve done magic since I was five, and I have done shows as an adult for a long time, but I always worked silent.

“It was my rebellion against what I perceived as a horrible element of magic to me - I had seen a whole lot of people who would tell you the obvious.

“They’d hold up a little ball and they’d say, ‘here I am holding a red ball and place it in my hand’ — but why do that?

“Could they lead the audience to those conclusions without telling them what to think?

“That was the challenge, and I became very interested in that.”

Penn and Teller have worked together on live shows as well as on TV projects.

The lifelong friends, with a career together spanning almost half a century, have redefined popular magic with their unusual mix of mind-blowing magic tricks, comedy and ‘blunders’, some of which can take up to three years to perfect.

They star in Showtime series Penn & Teller: BS!, which received 13 Emmy nominations and was the longest-running series in the history of the network, and their highly anticipated return to Broadway was the highest-grossing non-musical on Broadway for its entire six-week run.

They’ve even performed on hit television shows Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and The Simpsons.

“I’m just so eager to finally be down there in June and do shows,” Penn says of their upcoming tour.

“The Sydney Opera House is so beautiful and perhaps the most famous theatre in the world and then to go to Melbourne and Brisbane will be a lot of fun and I’m so looking forward to it.”

He tried to be conscientious during Covid — writing a book, another season of their show and two TV specials as well as learning a language — but coming back to the thrill of the stage cemented him what he loves about magic, even after all these years.

“Before I walked back onto that stage in Vegas I was just so terrified,” he says.

“So scared, full of stage fright and full of anxiety about the show.

“And it was so wonderful to feel fear about something that wasn’t important, you know? “After feeling fear for people that I loved dying and Covid - to just be afraid of going on stage, what a wonderful luxury that was.

“To be trembling with fear that you’re just going to go to a show was a beautiful feeling.”

Penn and Teller said they are excited to perform at the Sydney Opera House.

And Australian audiences will be privy to new and exciting mastery, like nothing we’ve seen before.

“We’re real life performers and anything you’ve seen on TV is nothing like what you see on stage,” Penn says.

“We’re magicians and that’s what we’ve been doing together now for 46 years.

“When you’re watching television, you’re watching us in the same machine that you saw the Marvel Universe, the same machine you saw Star Wars.

“And when you see us live, you’re seeing us without a machine where you live your life.

“So your sense of time, your sense of space, your sense of gravity, your sense of reality is just absolutely bare when you sit in the theatre and there really is no comparison.

“And that’s the interesting thing about magic.

“I try to skew it towards the audience but really, there’s no audience member that’s happier about the show than I am - I will guarantee you, we will walk on stage at the Opera House and the two happiest people to be in that building will be Penn and Teller.”

Penn and Teller’s record-breaking Las Vegas live show will come to the Sydney Opera House from June 1-11 before going to Melbourne and Brisbane; sydneyoperahouse.com

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