Penn and Teller Australian tour: Magic duo set to return in 2025

To mark their 50th anniversary as a performance team, the famed American magicians will return in the new year for a run of shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

American magic performers Penn & Teller in Brisbane in June 2022. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

When Penn & Teller visited in 2022, there was a sense of pent-up relief at seeing the famed American duo perform on our shores for the first time.

Globally known and acclaimed for their finely crafted, subversive and enchanting approach to the art of stage magic, their Australian debut was twice rescheduled due to the pandemic – yet once here, the performers were surprised at the crowd response to their arrival.

“I was a little bit startled; it was like Beatlemania,” Penn Jillette, 69, told The Australian.

“We get fine reactions in the States, and in Great Britain, and we love doing shows there, but in Australia, it was an even warmer response.

“This may seem very shallow of me, but the fact that Australian audiences were so gracious, and glad to see us, I’ve got to say makes me want to go back.”

Ever since they started performing together in 1975, Jillette has played the part of the boisterous showman and articulate narrator who gleefully describes their elaborate trickery even as it takes place before your eyes.

In stark contrast, 76-year-old Teller – who long ago legally changed his name to a mononym – has remained mute on stage, a choice that has lent a curious magnetism to their enduring double act, which was seen by about 40,000 Australian fans in 2022.

To mark their 50th anniversary as a performance team, Penn & Teller will return in the new year for a run of shows at the Sydney Opera House (January 11–18), the Arts Centre Melbourne (January 21–26) and QPAC Brisbane (January 29 – February 7).

“When Teller and I set out, we thought we could be doing a little show for a couple of hundred people a night, and we accomplished that very soon,” Jillette said. “We were off in our prediction by an order of magnitude: it wasn’t 200, it was 2000.

“It never crossed my mind we’d be on Broadway, or in Vegas, or doing a tour of Australia.

“I’ve never had goals; my goals have always been the ideas, the tricks and the bits.”

Since 1993, the duo has been a popular headlining act in Las Vegas; where they continue to perform four shows each week at a 1475-seat theatre inside The Rio hotel and casino.

Yet rather than merely playing the hits, as it were, the duo is remarkably committed to extending their stagecraft and trick execution by regularly turning over the setlist to keep things interesting, both for themselves and their audience.

“Magicians famously don’t write new material; if you go around Vegas, the other big magic acts are doing, I believe, word for word, their act from 30 years ago,” Jillette said.

“When we come to Australia, we won’t be; it’s almost completely different this time. It’s not that we’re sick of the old stuff, it’s that we love doing the new stuff,” he said. “I want to do stuff that’s really beautiful, and stuff that scares me to death.”