Penn and Teller - 2 Funny Fellers in Las Vegas

Penn and Teller - 2 Funny Fellers in Las Vegas

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Penn and Teller make their own brand of magic six nights a week at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Iconoclasts to the bone, Penn is tall and verbose, Teller, diminutive and silent. Together they are known as the Bad Boys of Magic.

Recently, I had the unique, slightly unnerving pleasure of seeing the internationally famous duo perform live at the Samba Room, the showroom created especially for them at the Rio.

It's 8:30 p.m. and the show is scheduled to begin at nine. Hot jazz is being played from stage left. There is no curtain. The stage is awash in a red hue over a bright high gloss red and black checkerboard floor with a thin red frame and Penn and Teller spelled out in flame red against a black backdrop. Audience members are trooping on stage, taking pictures in front of two large empty boxes, one Plexiglas, the other wood.

"Feel free to open them up and see what they're made of ? but please, for your own safety, do not try to get inside one of the boxes."

It's the pianist speaking to the audience. Mike Jones, as he will later be introduced, is playing jazz on a baby grand Kawai piano while someone wearing a hat, who looks suspiciously like Penn Gillette, is standing next to him playing the bass.

I take Jones' invitation and venture up on stage. What a heady feeling. How much fun is this to stand on the very stage where magic is about to happen? Like my fellow audience members I lift the lid of the Plexiglas box and it seems to be nothing more nor less than it appears. The wooden box is heavy and well constructed. There are no visible clues.

"I'm going to play one more very fast song giving you time to carelessly run on stage and look at the two boxes that will be used in the box escape challenge tonight." The last group hurries on stage to investigate the props, and to capture the memory on their digital cameras.

Penn and Teller tickets OnlineNine o'clock rolls around and every seat looks occupied. "That's Jonesy ? our friend ? Penn tells the audience as he and Teller burst onto the stage. "This is not your typical Las Vegas show!" he boasts. "Teller and I write our own stuff. We've been doing magic together for thirty years."

Penn and Teller are wearing matching English cut suits with vests, crisp white shirts, and beautiful but unmatched silk ties. Penn sports comfy black shoes, Teller, spats. Aside from the obvious difference in their sizes and personalities, they appear to be benign, well-dressed magicians. Penn plays the bass