Interview With

INTERVIEW WITH PENN & TELLER

Magic Goes Wrong reappears in London this October, Penn Jilette talks about the initial trepidation and ultimate joy of collaborating with Mischief.

When I go to the theatre, I want to see long, slow, pretentious, and depressing. My family have different tastes and when in London wanted to see The Comedy About a Bank Robbery. I knew they were going to like it, the shock was that I loved it. Our family sees a lot of theatre together and this was our best experience ever. The very next week we rushed off together to see The Play that Goes Wrong. I told Teller that he had to see it. He went, loved it and went backstage and met the cast. That’s where Magic Goes Wrong started.

The first day of working together we could barely tell Henry from Henry. Teller and I were referring to them among ourselves as ‘big guy’, ‘little guy’, and ‘other guy’, letting other people into our oblong circle was still kind of a new thing for us and very scary. Fortunately, on the first day of our arranged marriage - we fell in love. I’d like to believe they were on their best behaviour in front of us because they were perfect, and they can’t be that good all the time. They didn’t argue for anything unless they were right. They didn’t shoot down any idea unless it wasn’t wrong in the right way. We knew they would be funny and smart because we’d seen their shows. We didn’t doubt they were geniuses. The surprise was that they weren’t assholes.

Working with the Wrong Boys has been awe-inspiring joy. I’ve talked music with Bob Dylan. I’ve played in a band with Lou Reed. I’ve done magic with Amazing Randi, Johnny Thompson and Paul Daniels. And now I can add to that list that I’ve done comedy with the Wrong Boys.

To be in the room with that amount of raw skill and inspiration takes one’s breath away. What you won’t see is the sweetness, sanity, hard work and kindness of Shields, Jon and Henry but I promise you that’s even more impressive. I’m proud to say our business partners are now our friends.

Sometimes arranged marriages work out.

www.magicgoeswrong.com