This interview was originally published in Creative Loafing.
“We have been doing magic together for twenty-five years, and are so sick of it we could spit. So, in the new show, we are moving into the field of religion and will be performing real miracles.”
Penn & Teller arrive in Greenville on January 18 for an evening at the Peace Center that promises, if not miracles, at least some brushes with death.
“There’s plenty of death,” Teller told me in a recent telephone interview. “Good, funny death.”
Teller is the shorter, usually silent half of the team. Penn, on the other hand, is tall and (as Teller puts it) “brilliantly articulate.” Together, they’ve been mystifying audiences for more than two decades. After catapulting to fame in the mid-eighties with fabled appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman” and their Obie award winning (“For Whatever It Is They Do”) Off-Broadway show, the pair have dabbled in books, television specials, their own movie (Penn & Teller Get Killed) and even an appearance in Walt Disney’s Fantasia 2000. But recently they’ve been focusing most of their attention on their live show.
neil shurley 