Magic takes on a different glint under the stewardship of Penn & Teller.
Penn Jillette says he’s not really interested in illusions.
Mirrors and cleverly built boxes don’t do it for him.
“I like to do tricks because tricks are intellectual; tricks are letting people’s minds do the work,” Jillette said in a recent phone interview. “Tricks is the more, to me, accurate and erudite term for what we do.”
He and his partner will demonstrate their Emmy-winning, label-defying craft at an 8 p.m. July 8 show at The Venue in Horseshoe Casino, Hammond.
On stage in real time, magic does not have the benefit of camera manipulation, edits and other tools that allow performers to “really do miracles” on television, according to Jillette.
“When all is said and done, we do a magic show,” the 61-year-old magician said. “On the live show, we really concentrate on doing magic and as many tricks as we can get in — really, really good tricks. They have that style, of course, that’s a little different from other magicians.”
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Jillette believes magic can have a condescending aspect.
“Jerry Seinfeld said all magic is: ‘Here’s a quarter, now it’s gone, you’re an idiot. Now it’s back, you’re a jerk. Show’s over,'” Jillette said. “We try to do our magic show on the same side with the audience, showing respect.”
During roughly four decades of performing, Penn & Teller gave the genre of magic a new spin and have been rewarded.
They’ve performed to packed houses on Broadway and earned more than a dozen Emmy nominations for their Showtime series “Penn & Teller: BS!” — a debunker of fakes and frauds on such topics as alien abduction and psychic powers.
Jillette is a Las Vegas resident, as is Teller — a single moniker celebrity.
“His legal name is Teller,” Jillette noted.
A mammoth run at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino has made their show one of the longest-running in Vegas history.
Jilette said he basically got the moral compass for his career from The Amazing Randi — a magician and analytical skeptic known for putting myths to rest and challenging claims of paranormal presence.
“James Randi taught me that you could be honest while doing magic, which I did not understand when I was in high school,” Jillette said. “He taught me that you could be respectful to science, respectful to other people, and still do things that would amaze and astound people.”
Among Penn & Teller’s fans is magic man and extricationist Matt Kalita of LaPorte County.
“Penn & Teller combine their personalities to form their completely unique and novel act,” said Kalita, who met the pair in the 1980s at a Star Plaza appearance in Merrillville.
“Following their performance they allowed me to come backstage and speak to them for a while,” Kalita recalled.
When he later performed in Las Vegas, Kalita again hooked up with Penn & Teller, who helped him incorporate a refrigerator escape into his act.
“We set it up and I performed the stunt several weeks later,” Kalita said. “I certainly appreciated their input.”
Like many other magicians, Jillette extends his own appreciation to Harry Houdini.
“Houdini was really, really important,” Jillette said. “He really cared that people not use magic to lie to people.”
He said he is especially moved by the time in New York City when Houdini was “about to be hoisted up in a straitjacket over a Times Square full of immigrants, and saying the sentence, ‘I defy the jails of the world to hold me.'”
Jillette applauds the statement’s spirit: “I mean, that is the American dream as fully capsulated as it’s ever been in succinct poetry.”
While Jillette praises the verbal flair of Houdini, the silent routine still applies to the 68-year-old Teller at performances.
In keeping with tradition, he doesn’t talk — at least not much.
“We always have him — just as a little kind of wink — say a sentence or two under his breath or in an important part of the show,” Jillette said.
The magic man wrote the screenplay for a horror-tinged new movie called “Director’s Cut” in which Teller talks away.
At Horseshoe Casino on Friday, Jillette will be the one talking away, as he and his comrade are scheduled to let the audience in on some secrets of the trade.
“We will be doing tricks that we give away,” Jillette said. “We still do that once in a while because sometimes it’s a beautiful thing to do.”
Bob Kostanczuk is a freelance writer.
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Penn & Teller
Where: The Venue at Horseshoe Casino, 777 Casino Center Drive, Hammond
When: 8 p.m. July 8
Tickets: $29-$59; must be at least 21 years old to attend
Information: 219-473-7000; horseshoehammond.com