Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/101712
...because when Teller remains silent... ...they're forced to look at each other and "confront the moment." 72 March to raise money for Opportunity Village as part of Donald Trump's all-star cast. As a side project, Teller has developed the off-Broadway spook play Play Dead. Of course, the six-foot-seven Jillette narrates (at high volume) the duo's stage show, while Teller, almost a foot shorter and a great deal smaller in frame, is forever muted onstage. "I actually think it helps, my silence, because of my almost annoying level of clarity when I talk," Teller says. "When I turn that off, it turns into a clarity of action onstage. The silent thing onstage allows for a kind of intimacy that no conversation can have. If I just shut up, we're forced to look at each other and really confront that moment." He pauses and adds, "Onstage, I find absolutely nothing but exhilaration in not talking. And also, I have a guy who talks in fire as my co-conspirator. He is great, and I love listening to him. The audience loves listening to him, but I also think the audience loves the breath of being able to stop and say, 'Now I need to figure out what's going on.'" There is a great curiosity about how Penn & Teller actually get along, personally. Gone are the days they shared an apartment in New York, which eases tension on the relationship because, as Jillette says, "We only see each other when we want to." They meet weekly, on Tuesdays (unless rehearsals break the schedule), usually at a Starbucks, to swap ideas. "We sit and we talk about all the things we've been reading or learning, all of the little ideas or tricks that have inspired us, and we have a conversation," Teller says. "Out of that conversation emerges ideas—or half an idea. That half-idea will sit out there in space for a while, until the other half comes in. It very often happens that one half of the idea will come from one guy and will sit there, and six months later, the other half of the idea will come in." Their most groundbreaking career move came from Teller, who originally broached the idea that the duo should relocate to Vegas full-time. "There was never a plan to play here more than a month a year," Jillette says. "But we found that in New York it was too hard to build stuff, too hard to get rehearsal space. And it was really expensive to use as a headquarters: We owned places in the most expensive real estate market in the country, yet we'd be on the road for eight months. So Teller finally said, 'We should live someplace cheaper and warmer. It needs to have a good airport that flies everywhere.'" That decision, to make Vegas the in-fact home of Penn & Teller, changed their career. They have full run of the Rio theater, bringing in their own support team to rehearse new acts—three are always in some stage of development—and are constantly tweaking the production. The cerebral, methodic duo who once titillated the New York elite have now been around long enough that they have fans spanning generations. Teller recalls the moments when parents bring their children to see them perform in Vegas. "We've had this happen, someone coming to us and saying, 'I just want to tell you that 25 years ago I saw you on off-Broadway in New York, I was six years old, and you brought me onstage… And I want to introduce you to my six-year-old kid,'" Teller says. There is a long pause, and tears well in his eyes. "That's pretty hard to beat, as a compliment, for someone to bring their kids to see what we do. It's pretty special." There is a word for it, and it's called magic. V PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY MARANO/GETTY IMAGES (BOX TRICK) Penn & Teller play off each other on stage... "I ACTUALLY THINK IT HELPS, MY SILENCE, BECAUSE OF MY ALMOST ANNOYING LEVEL OF CLARITY WHEN I TALK."—TELLER VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 068-073_V_Feat_CoverStory_Win13.indd 72 1/2/13 3:04 PM