Meet Teller, the 'luckiest guy in the world'
While it may seem that the huge success of Penn & Teller is a relatively recent development, the silent member of the team insists it was achieved much earlier
BY ANY measure, Penn & Teller reside in the upper echelons of show business.
With 14 years under their belts at Las Vegas' Rio casino, the one-of-a-kind, comedy-magic duo reigns as that town's longest-running resident act ever. They have been TV staples as both ensemble cast members ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch") and headliners ("Penn & Teller: Bullsh-t!" on Showtime, The CW's "Penn & Teller: Fool Us"). They are published authors, both individually and collectively. And their current run (through Aug. 16) at New York's Marquis Theatre is one of the Great White Way's hottest summer tickets.
But, according to the mono-monikered Teller, such across-the-board success is no different from what he achieved even before he first met Penn Jillette 40 years ago in Princeton, N.J.
"From the first time I did a street performance that enabled me to pay my rent, I considered myself successful," offered the Center City native late Saturday afternoon, as he grabbed a between-show dinner of dover sole, broccoli and a giant, blue-cheese-dressing-slathered lettuce wedge at a Theater District steak house. "That was the biggest change: I was no longer a Latin teacher - which I liked being - but somebody who made his living doing what he loves.
"It's what I want to do. It's how I want to spend my life. I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be able to do what I want the way I want to do it and actually make a living at it.
"The commodity of life is time, that's what you have to spend. You can spend it either doing something you like doing or not. That's the whole game plan. I don't see [Broadway] as different from the Walnut Street Theatre 5."
The venue - now known as Studio 5 - is the small space on the fifth floor of the Walnut Street Theatre, where Penn & Teller (who even then refrained from speaking onstage) appeared in mid-1979 as part of a trio called the Asparagus Valley Cultural Society. While the group's act included elements that remain staples of Penn & Teller's program (including Teller's logic-defying trick of swallowing 100 needles and retrieving them with a piece of dental floss), AVCS emphasized music (with Jillette on bass guitar and third member, Wier Chrisemer, on keyboards) and included juggling routines among other long-gone bits.
"What Penn has pointed out, and I think he's absolutely right, is that we always thought that wherever our show is happening is the most important place in the world," he said. "And whether that's [in front of] 50 people in the Walnut Theatre 5 or [at the Marquis Theatre], there was never any humility involved. We never particularly cared what the venue is.
"All we've cared about is we're doing the show we wanted to do. We were exactly as belligerent and insistent on getting our own way here as we were at the Walnut Theatre 5."
If Teller sounds somewhat arrogant, be advised that is not the case at all. To the contrary, the soft-spoken Central High School alum (class of 1965) claimed bafflement at how his career has played out.
"As Penn has said repeatedly, we are much more successful than we ought to be or deserve to be - or certainly more than we ever envisioned we would be," he said.
According to the 67-year-old Teller (his first name is Raymond), the current Gotham shows are the result of many years of bargaining with the powers-that-be at the Rio who, understandably, were reluctant to lose their popular headliners for such a long stretch (the show opened a week ago).
"This has all been a very long process of negotiation," he said. "The Rio is very generous to let us take this time, but what I believe is that they, like we, [feel] it would feed the Rio for several years to come. When you come to New York, you're coming to the media center of the world. And so, all of a sudden, it just has a huge impact" in terms of promotion.
With four decades under their belt, Penn & Teller are among the longest consecutively running duos in national show-biz history. So, when can we expect the partners to finally call it a day?
Teller answered that question by mentioning the large, onstage trunk from which he makes his first appearance in their shows. "I would like some night," he said, "for [pianist-announcer Mike Jones] to say, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Penn & Teller' and for Penn to walk out and for the box not to open because I'm dead inside."
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