Paul Daniels, born Newton Edward Daniels on 6 April 1938, is a British magician and television performer.^[1] He achieved international fame through his television series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran on the BBC from 1979 to 1994.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Daniels was born at 51 North Street in South Bank, Redcar & Cleveland,the son of Handel Newton Daniels and Nancy Lloyd.^[2] Handel (known as Hugh) was a cinema projectionist at the Hippodrome Theatre and a former worker at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Wilton.^{[citation needed]}

During World War II, Daniels was evacuated to the Helmsley area. After Sir William Turners Grammar School on Coatham Road in Coatham, Redcar (now the Redcar & Cleveland College Connections Campus on Corporation Road) and his first job as a junior clerk in the treasurer's office of Eston council, Daniels served as a conscript in the 1st Battalion, The Green Howards, during his National Service and was posted to the British garrison in Hong Kong, before training as an accountant in the Civil Service. Even at this early age he had thinning hair which he claimed to be an act of 'magic'. Daniels later sported a wig for much of his television career.^[3] After working as a junior clerk and then as an auditor in local government Daniels joined his parents in the grocery business they were running at the time.^{[citation needed]} He later set up his own shop – at one point a mobile shop – but eventually gave this up in favour of his growing career as a magician.

Showbusiness career[link]

Daniels' interest in magic began at the age of 11 when, during a holiday, he read a book called How To Entertain At Parties. He has stated that: "From that moment, I can safely say that all I ever wanted to do in life was to become a professional magician". He began performing magic as a hobby, occasionally entertaining at parties and youth clubs and later doing shows for fellow servicemen during his national service.^[4] After returning to civilian life he continued to develop his magic by performing in clubs in the evenings while working at his grocery business during the day. At one point he worked with his first wife Jackie under the name of 'The Eldanis', an anagram of Daniels. It was while working the clubs that he developed what would become his long running catchphrase, "You'll like this...not a lot, but you'll like it." He has stated that he first came up with the line at a club in Bradford as a way to deal with a heckler.^[5]

A major turning point in Daniels' career came in 1969 when he was offered a summer season at Newquay. He decided to sell his grocery business and try magic as a full time career. He made his television debut on the long-running talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1970, and came second. Television producer Johnnie Hamp saw Daniels in that show and later gave him a regular spot on a show compèred by Bernard Manning The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club for Granada Television.^[6]

His first series for the BBC was For My Next Trick, where Daniels appeared with several other magicians and singer Faith Brown. This led to Daniels presenting his own television series, The Paul Daniels Magic Show, on BBC1 from 1979 until 1994. As well as featuring tricks and illusions for pure entertainment, he also included a regular segment (the "Bunko Booth") in which he exposed the confidence tricks of street charlatans. He also replicated the kind of results that have impressed researchers of the paranormal and parapsychologists in a segment called Under Laboratory Conditions, thereby demonstrating his skepticism about claims made in these fields.

Daniels starred in his own stage show, It's Magic, at the Prince of Wales Theatre from 10 December 1980 until 6 February 1982. At that time, the show was one of the longest-running magic shows ever staged in London. By this point he was already working with his future wife, Debbie McGee, whose role as his assistant would become a major feature of his act. She had first worked with him on his summer season show in Great Yarmouth in 1979.

In addition to his magic shows he hosted a number of other television series during the 1980s and 1990s, including three BBC1 quiz shows: Odd One Out, Every Second Counts and Wipeout, and the children's television programme Wizbit (also for the BBC), about a magician called Wizbit and a rabbit called Woolly, who lived in Puzzleopolis.

On the magic circuit, Daniels' appeal diminished as the 1980s drew to a close, and in the 1990s the ratings for his TV show slumped. A 1995 magic show for the BBC entitled Secrets, set in a variety club, failed to catch on and was not renewed.^[2] He has, however, made several guest appearances on television, though this has often been as the unsuspecting butt of the joke on satirical comedy shows, such as the Chris Morris show, Brass Eye. Daniels and McGee were the focus of one of the episodes of the 2001 BBC documentary series When Louis Met…, presented by Louis Theroux, with Daniels additionally appearing on Da Ali G Show in an Ali G costume, interviewed by Caroline Hook in her guise as Mrs Merton. In 2004, he and Debbie appeared in the Channel 5 reality TV show, The Farm, and in 2006, they appeared in the ITV show The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars. They were the first act voted off the show, after singing Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams. Daniels and McGee also made a guest appearance in the Wife Swap series in early 2007, with McGee changing places with journalist and presenter Vanessa Feltz. In 2008 Daniels was part of Dec's team in the Ant v Dec segment of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, but was eliminated by Dec after the team lost the Bobsleigh challenge in show 3 (of 6).

Daniels still tours doing live magic and recently presented a show about magician 'Max Malini'. He currently owns a magic and fancy dress shop in Wigan town centre and also has an online shop selling items for magician and fancy dress outfits. He has stated he has an ambition to star in a Hollywood film.^[2]

During 2009 he toured a number of more intimate venues, performing for audiences of around 200.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2010 it was announced Daniels would be participating in the eighth series of Strictly Come Dancing. His dancing partner was Ola Jordan. They were the second couple to be voted off on 17 October.

On New Year's Day 2012 the magician cut off his left index finger and the tip of his ring finger, in an accident with a circular saw, in a shed at his Wargrave home, while building props for his act.^[7] The saw was not one used by Daniels in his act. The index finger has been re-attached.^[8]

Paul is a past President of Hospital Radio Bedside, a radio station that broadcasts to hospitals in Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and Wimborne, UK.^{[citation needed]}

Strictly Come Dancing performances[link]

Awards[link]

Daniels was awarded the prestigious "Magician of the Year’" Award by the Hollywood Academy of Magical Arts in 1983, and was the first magician from outside the US to receive it.^{[citation needed]} An Easter special of The Paul Daniels Magic Show won the Golden Rose of Montreux Award at the International TV Festival in Switzerland in 1985.

Daniels was the first recipient of The Maskelyne, awarded for services to British Magic by The Magic Circle in 1988.^[9]

More recently he was named "World's Greatest Magician" by students at Boston Spa School, Yorkshire. Daniels turned up to the ceremony and gave an impromptu show.^[10]

Outspoken views[link]

Daniels is known for being outspoken on a range of matters, including politics and current affairs as well as magic, entertainment and fellow celebrities.

Daniels is a supporter of the Conservative Party.^[11]

On the subject of criminal justice, he has stated: "...make them afraid of the punishment...when I heard Ian Huntley had tried to commit suicide – I’d have helped him. There are no ifs or buts about Huntley. With him, I wouldn’t even have told him the result of the trial, he'd just have gone to sleep and never woken up".^[12]

Daniels has stated that he has very little sympathy with the homeless since, in his words, "I was always trying to be best, to get ahead of the other guy. And I can't say why, I just knew I could...I saw Peter Stringfellow on TV one time, and we both have a little, but not very much, sympathy for the homeless, because both of us came from very poor backgrounds, got off our arses, and grafted".^[2]

Daniels now refuses to attend magic conferences in the UK since they "...were ruined for me by bitchiness and jealousy...now I only go to foreign conventions where, to be honest, I am greeted with respect and civility AND I have tons of ‘foreign’ magician friends."^[13]

He is dismissive of modern illusionists. He has described David Blaine as "not very original".^[2]

He is also dismissive of modern impressionists – "I don't think much to modern impressionists either. Forget Alistair McGowan."^[14]

On journalism – "I don't really understand why journalism has to be so nasty, so sarcastic and intrusive".^[14] Daniels has often remarked that for his final trick he would like to make "The Sun disappear", a reference to the British tabloid newspaper.

He said that Anne Robinson has hated him ever since his 1987 Halloween special hoax performance.^[14]

On the radio presenter, Chris Morris he commented: "[He's] just nasty."^[14]

On the hereditary system in the House of Lords – "The hereditary peers, the real Lords, have the genetic knowledge so they know what to pass and what not to let through. I believe the gene carries more than physical characteristics. It's more than just education that makes the Lords better at making these kind of decisions than leaving it with the Commons. It's like an animal instinct. The aristocracy may act foolish, but in times of war and riots they have the knowledge and a belief and strength of leadership and instinct that coal miners just haven't got...".^[14]

On pornography – "Porn is fine when it's between consenting adults. The stuff with kids is wrong, but between consenting adults it's fine. There's a lot I like, although nothing weird. There's a group of people who are really into looking at pictures of women in guillotines. Not naked or anything. Just in guillotines. They have a page full of pictures of Debbie in guillotines – I have used guillotines in my routines. How strange is that as a fetish?".^[14]

Family and personal life[link]

Daniels married his first wife, Jacqueline Skipworth (born 1942), in 1960, when she was 17 and he was 21. He has three sons by her: Gary, Paul and Martin. Martin sometimes appeared on The Paul Daniels Magic Show, and Paul's father, Hughie, often made props for the show, such as wooden boxes for the Selbit Sawing illusion. Daniels' nephew James Phelan is a budding young magician.

Daniels married his second wife, long-time assistant Debbie McGee on 2 April 1988 in Buckinghamshire.^[15] The couple met in London in May 1979 during rehearsals for Daniels' summer season show in Great Yarmouth that year. At that time he was 40 and she was 20. McGee went on to work with Daniels in his 1980 summer show in Bournemouth and then his London stage show It's Magic before being offered the role of assistant in his long-running television series. Their relationship gradually became more established until he proposed in 1987. Early in their marriage they lived in a house in Denham, that once belonged to Roger Moore. In 1998 they moved to a house on the banks of the River Thames at Wargrave in Berkshire.^[16][17]

Daniels' autobiography, Under No Illusion, includes descriptions of his and McGee's joking life:

"I was writing and needed to concentrate, so I had a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on my back. Eventually I went to bed and Debbie was lying stark naked on the bed – eat your heart out fellas! She was wearing the sort of sleeping blindfold you get on long-haul flights. Printed on it was Do Not Disturb. But further down her body she had a sign that said Disturb!"^[2]

Daniels also claims in the book to have had, as of the year 2000, sexual relations with more than 300 women.^[2] This figure includes a Chinese girl he met on a Hong Kong ferry during his National Service, whom he recalls as being "rather throaty".^[18]

Daniels maintains a website that includes personal information, a detailed blog and records podcasts. The blog incorporates Daniels's diary entries and day-to-day musings and observations on a range of topics.^[19]

He has an Isuzu Trooper for hauling props and show material with the personalised registration plate that reads 'MAG1C'. He also drives a Toyota Prius for personal use. During his life he has also owned three Bentleys and a Ferrari.^[20]

In 2007 Daniels took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history.

In February 2009, Daniels and McGee appeared in Closer magazine in a picture recreating an image from an Armani advert that featured footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria.^[21]

In January 2011, a wig belonging to Daniels was sold for charity on Ebay for £1,100.^[22]

Paul Daniels Magic Show transmission guide[link]

• Series 1: 4 editions from 9 June 1979 – 22 June 1979
• Series 2: 6 editions from 13 September 1980 – 18 October 1980
• Series 3: 6 editions from 26 September 1981 – 28 November 1981
• Series 4: 8 editions from 6 October 1982 – 20 November 1982
• Series 5: 8 editions from 15 October 1983 – 3 December 1983
• Series 6: 8 editions from 1 September 1984 – 20 October 1984
• Series 7: 10 editions from 7 September 1985 – 9 November 1985
• Series 8: 9 editions from 6 December 1986 – 14 February 1986
• Series 9: 9 editions from 2 January 1988 – 27 February 1988
• Series 10: 8 editions from 7 January 1989 – 25 February 1989
• Series 11: 8 editions from 6 January 1990 – 24 February 1990
• Series 12: 9 editions from 5 January 1991 – 2 March 1991
• Series 13: 9 editions from 11 January 1992 – 7 March 1992
• Series 14: 9 editions from 2 January 1993 – 27 February 1993
• Series 15: 9 editions from 2 April 1994 – 18 June 1994
• Specials

• Special produced by Granada TV: 31 December 1977
• Christmas Special: 22 December 1979
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 25 December 1980
• Paul Daniels Magical Christmas: 25 December 1981
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 25 December 1982
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 26 December 1983
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 25 December 1984
• The Paul Daniels Magic Easter Show: 6 April 1985
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 26 December 1985
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 27 December 1986
• Paul Daniels Live at Hallowe'en: 31 October 1987
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 26 December 1987
• Paul Daniels Live at Hallowe'en: 31 October 1988
• The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show: 26 December 1988
• The Paul Daniels Magic Show: 26 December 1989
• The Paul Daniels Magic Show Christmas Edition: 24 December 1990
• The First Ten Years: 22 March 1991
• The Paul Daniels Magic Show Festive Edition: 28 December 1991
• The Paul Daniels Magic Show Festive Edition: 24 December 1992
• The Paul Daniels Christmas Magic Show: 28 December 1993
• Secrets Festive Special: 29 December 1994
• Compilations

• The Best of Paul Daniels 1981: 12 April 1982
• The Best of Paul Daniels 1982: 4 April 1983
• The Best of Paul Daniels: 3 April 1984
• Paul Daniels Magic Moments: Best of Series 6: 3 January 1985
• Paul Daniels Million Pound Magic: Best of Series 7: 5 May 1986

Paul Daniels Secrets Transmission Guide[link]

• Series 1: 8 editions from 15 November 1995 – 17 January 1996
• Secrets Festive Special: 29 December 1994

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Paul Daniels, Under No Illusion, Blake Publishing (May 2000), ISBN 1-85782-314-1

External links[link]

• Paul Daniels' homepage
• Paul Daniels' weblog
• Paul Daniels Magic Party Shop Online
• Paul Daniels' Ebay Transactions a blog about Paul Daniels' buying and selling activities on Ebay
• Paul Daniels on IMDb

Videoclips[link]

• Chimpanzee card trick
• Advertising Heineken
• Let Me Entertain You – Celebrity X Factor 2006

Debbie McGee (born 31 October 1958) is an English television, radio and stage performer who is best known as the wife and assistant of magician Paul Daniels. McGee is a former ballet dancer and, for three years, she was artistic director of her own ballet company. She currently presents a Sunday morning show for BBC Radio Berkshire.

Early life and magic career[link]

McGee was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, to an English mother, Lillian 'Bubbles' Howes, and a Northern Irish father, Patrick McGee.^[1] Her sister is a banker in the City of London and her brother is an accountant. When McGee was young her parents ran a corner shop. Later, her father worked for a large gold manufacturing firm making rings and other jewellery.^[2]

McGee enjoyed music and dressing up from an early age, so her mother enrolled her in a dance school when she was seven. She attended Our Lady Immaculate RC Primary School in Tolworth, Surrey followed by Tolworth Girls' School, a secondary school also in Tolworth, Surrey. At 16 McGee auditioned for and won a place at the Royal Ballet School. After graduating, she joined the Iranian National Ballet in Tehran. Aged 19, she became part of the Corps de Ballet and later a soloist, but her ballet career was brought to an abrupt halt by the Islamic Revolution. She was forced to flee the country and ended up returning to the UK with little in the way of money and possessions. Seeking new work she auditioned for the Bernard Delfont Organisation, which was responsible for a number of big summer resort shows and touring productions.^[3][4][5]

Delfont found her a job performing on stage with magician Paul Daniels in his 1979 summer show in Great Yarmouth. She first met Daniels on 23 May 1979 at rehearsals for the show, which were held at a church hall in London.^[2][5][6]

She later joined Dougie Squires's Second Generation troupe as a dancer, which involved touring Europe with acts including Chris de Burgh and James Last. After winter work in pantomime, McGee joined Daniels again for his 1980 summer season in Bournemouth. She then went on to perform in his London stage show It's Magic, which opened on 10 December 1980 and which, by the time it closed 14 months later, had become one of the longest running magic shows ever to play in the West End.^[3]

McGee achieved national and international fame through subsequent television appearances with Daniels. After seeing her on stage in the West End, BBC producer John Fisher asked Debbie to appear in the BBC One series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which had begun in 1979. That series continued until 1994 and regularly attracted audiences of 15 million in the UK as well as being sold to 43 countries.^[7] Daniels regularly referred to McGee on his TV shows as "The lovely Debbie McGee", a phrase that entered popular culture as a stereotype for magicians' assistants.^[8] Daniels and McGee were married in Buckinghamshire^[9] in April 1988.^[5][10]

In recent years, McGee has performed some magic herself, usually on the corporate cabaret circuit.

Debbie McGee's pastimes include golf and she has played in celebrity charity events.^[2]

Other work[link]

Dance company[link]

In 2000, McGee and Daniels set up Ballet Imaginaire to produce ballet shows and tour them around the country.^[5] Due to the Fuel Crisis occurring at the time, ticket sales were reportedly poor as audiences couldn't get to theatres. Preparations were recorded by Louis Theroux but were not broadcast until well after the company had stopped touring.

Radio[link]

In 2004 McGee presented Box Jumpers, a two-part radio documentary about magician's assistants for BBC Radio 4.^[8][11] She currently works as a presenter for BBC Radio Berkshire, where, since 8 June 2008, she has hosted a regular Sunday morning show from 9am to 12noon.^[12]

Television and film[link]

In 2000 McGee and Daniels were the subjects of an episode of a documentary filmed by Louis Theroux. The episode, titled When Louis Met... Paul and Debbie, was broadcast on BBC Two. It resulted in a boost in the pair's profile and has led to other TV work for the duo.

In 2001, McGee appeared in a documentary, that challenged Daniels to be recognised as a famed magician in the United States within one week, called Paul Daniels in a Black Hole.

McGee was a guest on The Mrs Merton Show when she was famously asked, "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"^[13]

In October 2004, McGee and her husband appeared on The Farm, Five's version of the RTÉ show Celebrity Farm. In May 2006, she appeared on The X Factor: Battle of the Stars with her husband singing Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams. Debbie and Paul were knocked out in the first round of the talent show.

On 1 April 2007, McGee appeared along with husband Paul, Vanessa Feltz and her fiancé Ben Ofoedu in a celebrity edition of Channel 4's hit reality television show Wife Swap. In 2008 McGee was part of Ant's team in the Ant v Dec segment of Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, but was eliminated after the indoor bowls challenge in show 5 (of 6). On the 14 September 2010, McGee appeared on the celebrity version of Come Dine With Me.

In addition to her television work, McGee was an extra in the Oscar-nominated 1981 film The French Lieutenant's Woman.

In 2012 McGee made a cameo appearance as herself in an episode of the UK TV comedy drama Stella.

Other activities[link]

McGee continues to work alongside husband Paul in venues around the world. Also, according to the biography on her personal website, she has been writing a book for a long time. A cookery and party book written by the star has appeared on both WH Smith and Amazon websites called: Dine with Debbie but isn't currently for sale.^[4]

As of 1987 McGee has held the patent for the adhesive used in all name brand Sellotapes.

In 2006 she and her friend Sue Simons started a modelling and casting agency called Debbie McGee Models. The firm was criticised in several British newspapers for taking fees from prospective models but not being able to find them work.^[14] Sue Simons later resigned as a director and in December 2007 a one-line statement appeared on the agency's website saying the firm had been taken over. The website closed down soon afterwards. McGee has said she left the business to concentrate on life with her husband.

In February 2009, McGee and Daniels appeared in Closer magazine in a picture recreating an image from an Armani advert that featured footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria.^[15]

In summer 2009, she appeared in a fringe theatre show in London called Frank's Closet.^[16]

See also[link]

• Magician's assistant

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Debbie presenter profile on BBC Berkshire
• Debbie's BBC Blog
• IMDb

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

Constance Vera Browne, Baroness Oranmore and Browne (14 February 1916 – 24 September 2006), commonly known as Sally Gray, was an English movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s.

Her mother was a ballet dancer and her grandmother was a "principal boy" in the 1870s. Born Constance Vera Stevens in Holloway, London, Gray made her stage debut at the age of twelve in All God's Chillun at the Globe Theatre in London, playing a little black boy.

She then went back to school for two years, training at Fay Compton’s School of Dramatic Art and then became well established in the theatre before embarking on a series of light comedies, musicals and thrillers in the 1930s.

Gray began in films in her teens with a bit part in School for Scandal (1930) and returned in 1935, making nearly twenty films, culminating in her sensitive role in Brian Desmond Hurst’s romantic melodrama Dangerous Moonlight (1941). She was off the screen for several years owing to an alleged nervous breakdown and then returned in 1946 to make her strongest bid for stardom.

This latter involved a series of melodramas. They include the hospital thriller Green for Danger (1946), Carnival (1946), and The Mark of Cain (1948). She made two films that, in different ways, capture some of the essence of postwar Britain: Alberto Cavalcanti's They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) (as a gangster's moll) and the stagebound Silent Dust (1948). She also appeared in Edward Dmytryk's film noir piece Obsession (1949), in which she plays Robert Newton’s faithless wife. Her final film was the spy yarn Escape Route (1952).

RKO Executives, impressed with Gray, authorized producer William Sistrom to offer her a long-term contract if she would move to the United States. John Paddy Carstairs, director of The Saint in London, also thought she could be a star. However, she declined the offer and instead retired in 1952 after secretly marrying Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne and lived in County Mayo, Ireland. In the early 1960s, they returned to England and settled in a flat in Eaton Place, Belgravia, in London. They had no children.

Selected filmography[link]

• School for Scandal (1930)
• The Dictator (1935)
• Cafe Colette (1937)
• Lightning Conductor (1938)
• Over She Goes (1938)
• Sword of Honour (1939)
• The Lambeth Walk (1939)
• Dangerous Moonlight (1941)
• Green for Danger (1946)
• Obsession (1949)
• Escape Route (1952)

References[link]

Film Star Who's Who on the Screen 1938.

External links[link]

• Sally Gray at the Internet Movie Database
• Obituary in the Daily Telegraph
• Obituary in The Independent

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Penn & Teller (Penn Jillette and Teller) are American illusionists and entertainers who have performed together since the late 1970s, and are known for their numerous stage and television shows. Their current Las Vegas show is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally does not speak while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance. They specialize in gory tricks, exposing frauds, and performing clever pranks. More recently they have become associated with atheism, scientific skepticism, and libertarianism, particularly through their television show Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.

Career[link]

Penn Jillette and Teller were introduced to one another by Weir Chrisimer, and they performed their first show together at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on 19 August 1975.^[1] From the late 1970s through 1981, Penn, Teller, and Chrisimer performed as a trio called "The 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[2] 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^[3] (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 the 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! took a skeptical look at psychics, religion, the pseudoscientific, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. It has 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 described 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 put 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.^[4][5] He also hosted the game show Identity, which debuted on December 18, 2006 on NBC.

Their new television series Penn & Teller Tell a Lie premiered on the Discovery Channel on October 5, 2011.

Penn & Teller have also shown support for the Brights movement^[6] and are now listed on the movement's homepage under the Enthusiastic Brights section.^[7] 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 "there is no God" with his signature.^[8]

Off-stage relationship[link]

Penn Jillette has told interviewer Larry King that a big part of the duo's success and longevity is due to them 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[link]

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.^{[clarification needed]} 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

One of their more recent tricks^[when?] 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.^[11]

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 ITV show Fool Us.^[12]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]