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Penn & Teller now play mentor

Penn & Teller now play mentor

By Mike Weatherford
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The pinstriped business suits have gone from hipster-ironic to age-appropriate. But Penn & Teller still wear them well, as the onetime upstarts of magic become its gatekeepers.

The rebels who pumped fresh (stage) blood into a tired form in the ’80s are now a more direct version of magic’s quality police, playing the mentors on two current TV shows.

“Penn & Teller: Fool Us” is a British import now airing on The CW, in which less-famous magicians try to pull off a trick the duo can’t figure out. And this week, Syfy began airing “Wizard Wars,” in which the two judge magic’s version of a cooking contest, with young magicians developing new tricks from a list of common ingredients.

Both shows are among the ever-flowing books, movies, TV guest shots and punditry (for Penn Jillette) that made the duo’s Rio show more popular than ever. (Along with the new TV shows, Showtime still reruns their “Bullsh*t” every Thursday, and Jillette hosts “Camp Stew” on the Sportsman Channel.)

If everything about their career has been slightly out of kilter, there’s a cool irony to them doing peak business after 20 years in town.

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Scoop: PENN & TELLER: FOOL US on THE CW – Friday, August 1, 2014

Scoop: PENN & TELLER: FOOL US on THE CW – Friday, August 1, 2014

Scoop: PENN & TELLER: FOOL US on THE CW - Friday, August 1, 2014 WORLD-FAMOUS MAGICIANS PENN & TELLER BRING MAGIC TO The CW – Aspiring magicians are invited to perform their best trick to try and fool the world-famous team of Penn & Teller. They will get to see the trick only once and have to immediately try to work it out. There are no camera tricks, secret edits or helpful camera cuts. This is all real magic. Anyone who succeeds wins the right to perform with Penn & Teller in their celebrated show at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The live studio audience and the TV audience watch along with Penn & Teller as they try to figure out the secrets. The magicians featured in the episode include Mark Shorland, Mathieu Bich, Young & Strange and Daniel Madison. British television and radio personality Jonathan Ross (“Friday Night with Jonathan Ross”) serves as host. Josh Levi directed the episode written by Adam M. Reid & Max B. Reid (#102). 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Scoop-PENN-TELLER-FOOL-US-on-THE-CW-Friday-August-1-2014-20140716#

Penn & Teller perform for Prince Charles at Windsor Castle..

Penn & Teller perform for Prince Charles at Windsor Castle..

Las Vegas headliners Penn & Teller were welcomed to Windsor Castle on Monday by Prince Charles. Penn Jillette and Teller were invited to dinner and to perform for His Royal Highness in an evening benefiting his charities in celebration of his 40th year as a member of Britain’ esteemed Magic Circle.

Penn & Teller performed their version of the Cups and Balls, which was the trick Prince Charles performed 40 years ago to gain membership in the Magic Circle. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker was a guest at Penn and Teller’s table. Penn and Teller return to The Rio on June 28 after a two-week sold-out tour of the United Kingdom. At right are Emily Jillette and Glenn Alai, Penn & Teller’s manager. By NORM CLARKE for the
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL..

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That’s not magic: Penn, Teller and Derren Brown reveal all (or do they?)

That’s not magic: Penn, Teller and Derren Brown reveal all (or do they?)

Brian Logan for the Guardian..

In tune with our sceptical times, magicians debunk the supernatural. But are they really as rationalist as they claim?

It’s odd that we use the same word to describe those who merely pretendto make magic happen on stage. Few in their audience – kids notwithstanding – may ever have believed that stage conjurors genuinely dabble in the supernatural, but at least that’s what the acts occasionally purported to do. They called themselves magicians because they enjoyed generating the sense that what they did on stage was real magic.

Not any more. These days, the big magic acts – including the biggest of them all, Penn and Teller, who are in the UK this week – debunk the supernatural. Derren Brown’s another prime example..

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