Most successful act in Vegas coming to Sydney

Ask a magician his origin story and you’ll likely get a tale of a childhood magic set that blew their mind and set them on the path to fame and fortune. Not so Penn Jillette.

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Ask a magician his origin story and you’ll likely get a tale of a childhood magic set that blew their mind and set them on the path to fame and fortune. Not so Penn Jillette.

The loud half of wildly successful double act Penn and Teller (Teller doesn’t talk on stage), who announced this week they are bringing their popular Vegas show to Sydney early next year, hated magic. Despised it.

If a magician turned up on a show he was watching, he couldn’t reach for the channel changer fast enough.

“When I was about 12 I thought magic was despicable,” he tells Insider. “I thought the idea of lying to people was repulsive. When I’d watch the variety shows I’d see the Rolling Stones or The Beatles and then afterwards some dipshit would come out and do a magic trick and I just turned the TV off.”

US magicians Penn and Teller are coming to the Sydney Opera House in January. Picture: Hugh Kretschmer

That distrust only grew when a street magician claiming to read minds had him fooled.

“Early on I saw someone claiming psychic powers saying they were doing experiments and I believed them for a while,” he says. “Then I saw in the library how that trick was done and I was furious and I hated the idea that there was a supposed art form where adults lied to children — it was despicable.”

But when he was in his late teens — and fresh out of clown school — Jillette met Teller, who along with renowned magician and skeptic The Amazing Randi — James Randi — convinced him there was good in the art form.

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“Randy said that magic could be done honestly, that you could say you were doing tricks and talking about lying and you didn’t actually have to lie,” he says.

“Well you did actually have to lie but but it was in a frame that it became no more immoral than an actor claiming he’s somebody he’s really not.

“Teller convinced me that magic didn’t have to be lies and didn’t have to be insulting and could be intellectual,” he adds.

Penn and Teller have a complicated relationship, albeit one that has seen them work together for 45 years, including the past 18 in Vegas where they are the most successful act on The Strip. Jillette has spoken often about their partnership being based on respect rather than affection. But when discussing their bond, it was obvious even he has some confusion as to how best to describe it.

“My daughter insists that I call Teller my BFF,” he laughs.

The pair have been a partnership for 45 years but have a complicated relationship. Picture: Hugh Kretschmer

“It certainly is true when our parents died and when my children were born that Teller was the first one that we went to, he certainly is my best friend, but you’d never know it by seeing us together. We work together and we go very very separate ways.”

So no after-work drinks (neither of them drink alcohol so they’d have to be Cokes)?

“We work together every day, what’s the conversation going to be like? ‘What did you do today, Teller?’ ‘Well exactly the same f...ing thing you did Penn’,” he laughs. “I think that what we found is that it’s possible that respect is more enduring than affection.”

After a brief pause, he does an about turn — this is why it’s confusing.

“Having said that I take all of it back because all of our working together is socialising, right?” he says. “When we get together for our work sessions, it’s not like there’s a boss breathing down our neck. We say whatever we want, make whatever jokes we want and f... around, there’s nothing we’d rather do.

“We argue loudly and very aggressively but only about art, only about the show,” he says.

sydney opera house, 11-19 January 2020, presale now open, general public tickets on sale Friday, sydneyoperahouse.com