It is not just for their politics -- though there is that -- that they are worthy of our attention. It is not just for the fun in knowing that illusion is just that -- though, that, too, is a factor. In their work, they are clear, clean and crisp. Most magicians play a traditional mystical role, but they do not. They are up front, right in your face, and they doubledog dare you to figure out how they did it. That is pure enjoyment for a rational, questioning mind.
"And along the way, Penn & Teller have made the hardest trick of all – a remarkable career that ranges from stage to television to three best-selling books – look easy. And they’ve done it all on their own, distinctively offbeat terms."
Known for their libertarian political opinions, they defend the First Amendment and they expose Mother Theresa. In a West Wing episode, they burn an American flag in the White House... or seem to... "What's the difference?" Penn Jillette asks. In their Showtime series, Bullshit!, they take on animal rights, environmentalism, alien abduction, and other irrational, non-rational, anti-rational nonsense that permeates our culture. First of all for me, though, is the epistemology of illusion.
Their website is here:
http://www.pennandteller.com/
And the Showtime about them is here:
http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/home.do
Added by Michael E. Marotta on 5/27/2007, 10:28am
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enn & Teller
