Known primarily as the silent partner in magic’s most unorthodox act, Raymond Joseph Teller doesn’t have to be as concerned about maintaining his mute persona—apart from onstage and on Penn & Teller’s television show Fool Us—as he used to. He spoke with Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen about the direction he and Penn Jillette’s long-running show at the Rio has taken lately, and new elements that rekindle the joy of discovering magic for both Penn & Teller and their audience.

The addition of new bits such as the participatory “Love Ritual” card trick and “King of the Animal Traps” closer make the show seem fresh. Have you been consciously moving it in a new direction?

This show has a slightly different feel from previous shows, and the sense that I have is that it’s a little more sort of totally inclusive of everybody. Everybody gets to participate in the “Love Ritual” card trick, and then right after that we invite everyone onstage and surround our African spotted pygmy elephant Elsie before she disappears. And so there’s a sense towards the end of the show, everybody is really part of the gang, and it feels really friendly and happy and generous and sort of innocent to me. And I like that feeling a lot. The closing bit in the show, instead of being about the risk of death, which is always fun, is a sort of a sweet reminiscence of childhood, albeit completely fraudulent. Read the whole interview at:

https://lasvegasmagazine.com/interviews/qa/2017/jan/13/qa-teller-rio-penn-jillette-magic-fool-us/#/0