Illusionists Penn and Teller are back on the New York boards for the first time in 15 years, bringing their unique brand of entertainment to Broadway for the summer with "Penn & Teller on Broadway." NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review.
Hard to believe Penn & Teller started performing together 40 years ago. In their 60's now and immensely successful, they still seem as anti-establishment and freshly irreverent as ever. Returning to New York with their new show "Penn & Teller On Broadway," they mix old tricks with some new ones. And if anything's changed it's that they're finally ok being called magicians.
If you're at all familliar with the pair, one of the reasons for their popularity is their willingness, even an eagerness to tell you there is no magic in their act. It's all tricks they insist and they even offer to show you how they do some of them. But I have to say, even when they slow it down and explain the technique, they're so skilled at sleight of hand, you're still stumped. This trick in particular - spontaneously producing hundreds of gold fish in a tank - is stupifying.
Penn is the big guy who does all the talking. And in a sense, Teller the quiet one plays Harpo to Penn's Groucho. Identifying themselves as libertarians, they brought an airport metal detector onstage to demonstrate their resentment of big government.
A fixture in Vegas these days, they wisely hired Broadway veteran John Rando who seems to have trimmed the show of any Vegas kitsch. But I have to say they're obviously a smart pair; and so adept at mixing genuine humor with an off-handed attitude, they could almost be as entertaining without the magic.
So, alright I'll buy that everything's a trick but in their unique way, Penn & Teller are geniuses at elevating standard magicians' tricks to an art form.