A reed level is an Arabic invention for determining level for the purpose of construction. A hole is put through a long straight reed and water is poured into the center. When the flow out of both sides is equal, the reed is level. The device serves the same purpose as a spirit level.

References

Category:Inclinometers

Coordinates	52°13′″N22°43′″N
name	Penn & Teller
birth name	Penn JilletteRaymond Joseph Teller
birth date	Penn Jillette (March 5, 1955) Teller (February 14, 1948)
residence	Las Vegas
othernames	Asparagus Valley Cultural Society
homepage	pennandteller.com
known for	MagicComedy }}

Penn & Teller (Penn Jillette and Teller) are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard throughout their performance. They specialize in gory tricks, exposing frauds, and performing clever pranks, and have become associated with Las Vegas, atheism, scientific skepticism, and libertarianism.

Careers

On 19 August 1975, Penn & Teller did their first show together at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Penn and Teller were introduced to one another by Weir Chrisimer. From the late 1970s through 1981, the three made up an act called "Asparagus Valley Cultural Society" which played in San Francisco at the Phoenix Theater. This act was sillier and less "edgy" than today's Penn & Teller act. Chrisimer helped to develop some bits that continued, most notably Teller's "Shadows" trick, which involves a single red rose.

By 1985, Penn & Teller were receiving rave reviews for their Off Broadway show and Emmy award-winning PBS special, ''Penn & Teller Go Public''. In 1987, they began the first of two successful Broadway runs. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, the duo made numerous television appearances on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and ''Saturday Night Live'', as well as ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''Today'', and many others.

Penn & Teller had national tours throughout the 1990s, gaining critical praise. They have also made television guest appearances on ''Babylon 5'' (as the comedy team ''Rebo and Zooty''), ''The Drew Carey Show'', a few episodes of ''Hollywood Squares'' from 1998 until 2004, ABC's ''Muppets Tonight'', FOX's ''The Bernie Mac Show'', an episode of the game show ''Fear Factor'' on NBC, NBC's ''The West Wing'', in a two-part episode of the final season of ABC's ''Home Improvement'' in 1998, four episodes during season 1 of ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'' in 1996, NBC's ''Las Vegas'', and FOX's ''The Simpsons'' episodes Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder and The Great Simpsina and ''Futurama'' film ''Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder'' in 2009. They also appeared as Three-card Monte scam artists in the music video for "It's Tricky" by Run-DMC in 1987, and were thrown out of a Las Vegas hotel room in the music video for "Waking Up in Vegas" by Katy Perry in 2009.

Their Showtime Network television show ''Bullshit!'' takes a skeptical look at psychics, religion, the pseudoscientific, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. It has also featured critical segments on gun control, astrology, Feng Shui, environmental issues, PETA, weight loss, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the war on drugs.

On ''Bullshit!'', the duo describe their social and political views as libertarian.

They have also described themselves as teetotalers. Their book, ''Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic'', explains that they avoid absolutely all alcohol and other drugs, including caffeine, though they do appear to smoke cigarettes in some videos. Penn has said that he has never even tasted alcohol, and that his tolerance for certain drugs is so low that his doctor only had to administer a minute amount of anesthetic relative to what one would expect necessary for a man of his size to undergo surgery.

The pair have written several books about magic, including ''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks For Dear Friends'', ''Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food'', and ''Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic''. Since 2001, Penn & Teller have performed six nights a week (or as Penn puts it on ''Bullshit!'': "Every night of the week . . . except Fridays!") in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino.

Penn Jillette hosted a weekday one-hour talk show on Infinity Broadcasting's Free FM radio network from January 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007 with cohost Michael Goudeau. He also hosted the game show ''Identity'', which debuted on December 18, 2006 on NBC.

Penn & Teller have also shown support for the Brights movement and are now listed on the movement's homepage under the Enthusiastic Brights section. According to an article in Wired magazine, their license plates are customized so they read, "Atheist" and "Godless", and when Penn signs autographs, he often writes down, "there is no God" with his signature.

Off-stage relationship

Penn Jillette has told interviewer Larry King that a big part of the duo's success and longevity is due to their never having been close friends. They enjoy working together immensely, but have little in common besides magic. As a result of their drastically different lifestyles and interests, they rarely socialize or interact when not working. Jillette believes that their partnership succeeds precisely because they give each other a great deal of space off-stage.

Tricks

Their tricks include Teller hanging upside-down over a cushion of spikes in a straitjacket, Teller submerged in a huge container of water, Teller being run over by an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, Teller swinging going through Penn's hands. Many of their effects rely heavily on shock appeal and violence, although presented in a humorous manner.

Sometimes, the pair will claim to reveal a secret of how a magic trick is done, but those tricks are usually invented by the duo for the sole purpose of exposing them, and therefore designed with more spectacular and weird methods than would have been necessary had it just been a "proper" magic trick. For example, in the "reveal" of one trick, while Teller waits for his cue, he reads magazines and eats a snack. Another example is their rendition of the cups and balls, using transparent cups.

Penn and Teller perform their own adaptation of the famous bullet catch illusion. Each simultaneously fires a gun at the other, through small panes of glass, and then "catches" the other's bullet in his mouth. They also have an assortment of card tricks in their repertoire, virtually all of them involving the force of the Three of Clubs on an unsuspecting audience member as this card is easy for viewers to identify on television cameras.

The duo will sometimes perform tricks that discuss the intellectual underpinnings of magic. One of their acts, titled "Magician vs. Juggler", features Teller performing card tricks while Penn juggles and delivers a monologue on the difference between the two: jugglers start as socially aware children who go outside and learn juggling with other children; magicians are misfits who stay in the house and teach themselves magic tricks out of spite.

In one of their most politically charged tricks, they make a U.S. flag seem to disappear by wrapping it in a copy of the United States Bill of Rights, and apparently setting the flag on fire, so that "the flag is gone but the Bill of Rights remains." The act may also feature the "Chinese bill of rights", presented as a transparent piece of acetate. They normally end the routine by restoring the unscathed flag to its starting place on the flagpole; however, on a TV guest appearance on ''The West Wing'' this final part was omitted.

One of their more recent tricks involves a powered nail gun with a quantity of missing nails from the series of nails in its magazine. Penn begins by firing several apparently real nails into a board in front of him. He then proceeds to fire the nailgun into the palm of his hand several times, while suffering no injuries. His pattern builds as he oscillates between firing blanks into his hand and firing nails into the board. While performing he states that the trick is merely memorization, and explains that the fact that he does not flinch when he could be firing a nail into his hand should be a sign that the trick is not actually dangerous. A later revision to the trick replaced the false claims of memorization with a more open explanation, allowing the audience to enjoy the rhythm of the nail gun without fear of a serious mishap.

A trick introduced in 2010 is a modern version of the bag escape, replacing the traditional sack with a black trash bag apparently filled with helium. Teller is placed in the bag which is then pumped full of helium and sealed by an audience member. For the escape, the audience are blinded by a bright light for a second and when they are able to see again, Teller has escaped from the bag and Penn is holding it, still full of helium, above his head, before releasing it to float to the ceiling. The duo had hoped to put the trick in their mini-tour in London; however, it was first shown to the public in their Las Vegas show on 18 August 2010. In June 2011, Penn and Teller performed this trick for the first time in the United Kingdom on their show ''Fool Us''.

Filmography

Film

! Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
	''Penn & Teller Get Killed''	Themselves
	''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends''	Themselves
		Themselves	Penn also co-directed the film

Television

! Year(s)	! Title	! Role	! Notes
1985	''Penn & Teller Go Public''	Themselves	On KCET Los Angeles
1985 - 1986	''Saturday Night Live''	Themselves	7 Episodes
1993	''FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman''	Themselves	They taught one of the show's contestants, Rubye, to perform magic tricks.
1994	''The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller''	Themselves
1995	''Phobophilia''	Themselves
1995	''The Drew Carey Show''	Archibald Fenn & Geller	2 Episodes: "Drew Meets Lawyers" (1995) and "See Drew Run" (1997)
1995 - 2008	''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''	Themselves	4 Episodes: 14 November 1995, 27 November 1998, 13 May 2004, & 25 November 2008
1996 & 1997	''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch''	Drell & Skippy	4 Episodes: "Pilot" (1996), "Terrible Things" (1996), "Jenny's Non-Dream" (1997), & "First Kiss" (1997)
1997	''Muppets Tonight''	Themselves	Episode: "The Gary Cahuenga Episode"
1997 - 2003	''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''	Themselves	3 Episodes: 16 October 1997, 7 June 2000, & 23 January 2003
1998	''Babylon 5''	Rebo & Zooty	Episode: "Day of the Dead"
1998 - 1999	''Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular''	Themselves	24 Episodes
1998 - 2000	''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''	Themselves	2 Episodes: 13 August 1998 & 5 June 2000
1998 - 2004	''Hollywood Squares''	Themselves	60 Episodes
1999	''Home Improvement''	Themselves	2 Episodes: "Knee Deep"
1999 & 2011	''The Simpsons''	Themselves	2 Episodes: "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" (1999) and "The Great Simpsina" (2011)
2002	''Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic''	Themselves	Discovery Channel documentary: Penn & Teller present 200 years of the history of stage magic
2002	''Fear Factor''	Themselves	Episode: "Celebrity Fear Factor 3"
2003		Themselves	Episode: "Luck Be a Lady"
2003	''Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour''	Themselves	3 Part mini-series
2003	''The Bernie Mac Show''	Themselves	Episode: "Magic Jordan"
2003 - 2010		Themselves	85 Episodes
2004	''The West Wing''	Themselves	Episode: "In The Room"
2004 - 2010	''Last Call with Carson Daly''	Themselves	6 Episodes: 13 July 2004, 16 November 2005, 5 April 2007, 16 June 2008, 5 April 2010, & 5 May 2010
2007 & 2008	''Late Show with David Letterman''	Themselves	2 Episodes: #15.32 & #15.113
2009	''Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder''	Themselves
2009	The Great American Road Trip	Themselves	Guests
2011	''Penn & Teller: Fool Us''	Themselves	7 Episodes (ongoing), ITV1 (UK)
2011	''Penn & Teller: Tell a Lie''	Themselves	Starts Fall of 2011

Books

''Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic'' (1997, ISBN 1-57297-293-9)

''Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food'' (1992, ISBN 0-679-74311-1)

''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends'' (1989, ISBN 0-394-75351-8)

''Sock '' 2004, ISBN 0-312-32805-2 (Penn Jillette sole author)

''How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker: The Wisdom of Dickie Richard'' 2006, ISBN 0-312-34905-X (Penn Jillette and Mickey D. Lynn)

''When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours: Joe Teller—A Portrait By His Kid'' 2000, ISBN 0-922-23322-5 (Teller sole author)

Other Media

Music

''The horse you rode in on by Pigface'' (Penn Jillette only)

''Penn & Teller Present: Music To Look At Boxes By'' (With Mike "Jonesy" Jones)

''Never Mind the Sex Pistols, by Bongos Bass & Bob'' (Penn Jillette with Dean J Seal and Bob "Running" Elk)

''Tattoo of Blood by the Captain Howdy'' (Penn Jillette with Mark Kramer)

''Money Feeds My Music Machine, by the Captain Howdy'' (Penn Jillette with Mark Kramer)

''It's Tricky video, by RunDmc" Penn and Teller shown throughout the video and at the end appear to take over the persona of RunDMC

Jillette also toured with the Residents during the Mole Show, and hosted Ralph Records' 10th Anniversary Radio Special (1982). There is some mild controversy and confusion surrounding this. While the premise of 10th Anniversary Radio Special revolved around Jillette having never heard of the label or any of the bands on it (the Residents included), he was credited as a collaborator on the 1981 album Mark of the Mole, and he can be heard giving news bulletins in the first track. This has led some to speculate that Jillette may have been a Resident at one point.

Penn and Teller also appear in the video of Katy Perry's single, ''Waking up in Vegas'' in which they are kicked out of their hotel room by Perry and her boyfriend. They later kick Perry out again.

Theater

In 2008 Teller co-directed a production of ''Macbeth'' in Red Bank, New Jersey and Washington, DC.

Video games

''Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors'' 1995 - Absolute Entertainment for Sega CD & 3DO, Unreleased.

''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Spellbound'' 1998 - Simon & Schuster for PC - Voices for Drell & Skippy

References

External links

Penn's "Hydro-therapeutic stimulator" (aka Jill-jet) patent

A man, a ball, a hoop, a bench (and an alleged thread)… TELLER!

Category:Living people Category:Magician of the year Award winner Category:Celebrity duos Category:American magicians Category:Comedy duos Category:Duos Category:1955 births

de:Penn & Teller es:Penn y Teller fr:Penn & Teller id:Penn & Teller it:Penn & Teller lt:Penas ir Teleris nl:Penn & Teller pl:Penn & Teller pt:Penn & Teller fi:Penn & Teller sv:Penn & Teller ta:பென் அண்டு டெல்லர்

:''This article is about Paul Reed Smith, a luthier. For the article about the company that bears his name, see PRS Guitars.''

Paul Reed Smith (born February 18, 1956), is a luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars.

Smith is originally from Bowie, Maryland. He made his first guitar while at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and continued to build guitars after he finished college, making them one at a time, one a month. Together with another local, John "Orkie" Ingram, they formed the nucleus of what would become Paul Reed Smith Guitars.

Smith would often bring his guitars backstage at concerts, and eventually got his break when Derek St. Holmes, of the Ted Nugent Band, agreed to try out #2, the second guitar Smith had ever made. St. Holmes played the guitar for the first few songs of his set, and Smith told him that after he showed it to some other musicians, he would fly out to Detroit and give it to him. St. Holmes eventually sold the guitar for $200.

Smith then contacted Ted McCarty, former president of Gibson and creator of the Explorer, ES-335 and Flying V guitars, and McCarty became his mentor and adviser. The result of their collaboration was the current line of PRS Guitars, which include solid- and hollow-body guitars. The Private Stock line of PRS guitars are made utilizing a vast range of exotic materials including various stones, elaborately figured tone woods, and intricate shells for inlays.

External links

Paul Reed Smith Talks Guitars - Guitar Jam Daily

Paul Reed Smith Interview at Modern Guitars Magazine

"Innovative Lives" at the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation

Interview With Paul Reed Smith at Sweetwater Sound

Paul Reed Smith Music Musician Paul Reed Smith Recorded Music/CD's

Category:American musical instrument makers Category:Luthiers Category:People from Bowie, Maryland Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:St. Mary's College of Maryland alumni

de:Paul Reed Smith nl:Paul Reed Smith ja:ポール・リード・スミス