What's your favorite routine by Penn and Teller

[Josh Burch]

I love Penn and Teller and I find their magic to be exceptionally original. I wanted to jump on here and share some of my favorite routines of theirs, also I'd love to hear yours. I tend to like the more violent stuff.

I left out the solo stuff though I love all of Teller's stuff as well as the fire-eating and juggling stuff Penn does. These are my top favorite Penn and Teller pieces:

I guess Penn has said that they don't do pranks anymore because they got too good at it. I love this stuff though. Here they are scaring the crap out of David Letterman:

One of the best flight of the paper balls/powers of darkness out there:

More prank oriented stuff, and outside of Derren Brown, one of the few roulette routines I actually enjoy:

The animal traps are a ton of fun. It's so visceral:

This isn't really magic but I love it so much!

My favorite stuff of theirs is pretty old I guess. Am I the only who feels like they are getting softer? I feel the same way about Derren Brown sometimes. I love the shocking stuff. The nail gun trick is one of the good new ones and there's not a ton of their new material I love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jko5BGhc-Ys

 

[010rusty]

Blast off will always be in my top 10 favorite routines by anyone, but my favorite ever might be their rendition of Casey at bat that they did for PBS, where that satirized PBS, And magic in general in a single hilarious routine.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Personally, I went to Vegas specifically to see Shadows and The Red Ball performed live. I also think Teller's Miser's Dream with the goldfish is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on stage.

Penn's nail gun routine is great and expresses his beliefs on what should and should not be done on stage. They've repeatedly spoken about how doing something that seems dangerous and real is unethical. They are one of the few acts that can tell you that everything is fake and still keep you on edge the whole time.

Generally speaking, I'd guess there's two main reasons they aren't doing as much of the shocking material as they used to. The first being simply that they don't have to. They're famous and successful, they can perform what they find satisfying rather than what keeps people thinking about them.

Second I'd guess they're getting tired of the effects on their bodies. As someone who does a lot of real stunts I can attest that it adds up. They're both up there in age and Teller's had several issues that were probably directly related to their stage work. Personally I'm happy to see them moving in more artistic and expressive directions.

 

[Dtop]

Definitely the one I saw in person. Turned a cow into a chicken

 

[Josh Burch]

Personally, I went to Vegas specifically to see Shadows and The Red Ball performed live. I also think Teller's Miser's Dream with the goldfish is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on stage.

Penn's nail gun routine is great and expresses his beliefs on what should and should not be done on stage. They've repeatedly spoken about how doing something that seems dangerous and real is unethical. They are one of the few acts that can tell you that everything is fake and still keep you on edge the whole time.

Generally speaking, I'd guess there's two main reasons they aren't doing as much of the shocking material as they used to. The first being simply that they don't have to. They're famous and successful, they can perform what they find satisfying rather than what keeps people thinking about them.

Second I'd guess they're getting tired of the effects on their bodies. As someone who does a lot of real stunts I can attest that it adds up. They're both up there in age and Teller's had several issues that were probably directly related to their stage work. Personally I'm happy to see them moving in more artistic and expressive directions.

First question, is this Christopher? Did you change your name?

Also, yeah I completely understand the need to get less physical. I love all of Teller's solo stuff as well.

 

[DavidL11229]

I love Penn and Teller and I find their magic to be exceptionally original. I wanted to jump on here and share some of my favorite routines of theirs, also I'd love to hear yours. I tend to like the more violent stuff.

My favorite stuff of theirs is pretty old I guess. Am I the only who feels like they are getting softer? I feel the same way about Derren Brown sometimes. I love the shocking stuff. The nail gun trick is one of the good new ones and there's not a ton of their new material I love.

Yeah, Teller dies in my favorite (Water Tank).

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

First question, is this Christopher? Did you change your name?

Yep. I took a bit of a break and when I came back I couldn't change back to my old user name.