Penn and Teller: 'We compare death threats with Richard Dawkins'
Outspoken magicians Penn and Teller have long fought with academics, religious zealots, and Donald Trump. For their next trick, they’d like to make drug laws disappear
By Craig McLean2:30PM BST 20 May 2014
What kind of trickery is this? First of all, Teller struggles to unscrew the cap on the bottle of fizzy water plonked on the hotel boardroom table. Having a couple of decades on the diminutive 66-year-old magician, I give it a go. Failing miserably, I hand it to his hulking partner, Penn Jillette, 59, who is twice the man of each of us. Or, he’s the two of us combined. He can’t open it either.
Penn and Teller quietly harrumph. The temperature in the over-air-conditioned conference space drops another notch.
The magicians have travelled from Las Vegas to a hotel in central London. Also on their schedule: a trip to the BBC’s Manchester studios to visit Blue Peter. They’ve been trying to think of a kiddie-friendly trick. They think “maybe the muffin trick. But adults are very good at underestimating children’s ability to make choices,” says Teller with a hint of reproach, “so they often try to make us do things that seem absolutely innocuous.”
Meanwhile, on the horizon is another auspicious event: the 40th anniversary of the pair’s partnership. Penn and Teller are Las Vegas stalwarts, packing ’em in at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, and the most famous magicians in the world have previously said retirement isn’t in their vocabulary. But as they stare down the barrel of their fifth decade together, is that still the case? “Not today,” states Penn flatly. “Today retirement seems pretty good.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/10836833/Penn-and-Teller-We-compare-death-threats-with-Richard-Dawkins.html
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