Penn & Teller's First Appearance on Letterman, June 26, 1985

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] my next guests have written and starring currently Tsering in an off-broadway show here in New York that is getting terrific reviews but it also seems to defy description please welcome Penn & Teller [Applause] first of all which one who is who can tell they're nice to have you here gentlemen and I mentioned that the show is getting terrific reviews and been here in New York how long we've been playing about three months now packed houses every night yeah back houses every night sure Late Show we got this Late Show at 11:30 and like nobody with David Bowie comes and gets stars there but no like real people they're moving that through Tuesday nights have less days off oh good I know when I say a defies description is that in a an accurate way to explain the show it's certainly safe right yeah I don't I don't know see we get we get blamed for doing magic an awful lot we started out with the magic background there like a kid you like read a biography of like who journey or anything I was very intrigued by the notion and you like pick up needles with his eyelids and swallow stuff and barf it back up and get out of chains and things and that's what we thought magic was you know any kids growing up and they you know do people call you guys magicians sometimes sometimes not at all because now magicians always seem to be like you know greasy guys and tuxes with lots of birds and aging hippies to shove women into boxes and you don't do any of that we don't do any of that no everything that we do is always to ourselves right and your pan again Bob Penn again still and there Kelly better and you obviously don't speak so you're the one who I understand in the in the act that you don't you don't say anything is that right well I'm asking him but he doesn't not much she says he says very little and I don't think he's going to talk to you so you can give up right now if you want if you want to draw about actually you can work on them if you want really make some noise how long have you gentlemen been together 11 years we've been doing [ __ ] let's how long it took us to get on late night on 11 years of plugging and struggling and all those dumps now where did where did you start with this show it just evolved out of those 11 years uh not really teller was a high school Latin teacher and I was a high school student and we decided that we didn't like live theater anymore than we liked magic and we met and decided to put a show together that we kind of liked and so it has turned into this the penis' mega hits that's filling up 240 seats every night but the late show Friday night alright and we're gonna we're gonna I guess we have we have something planned we'll be right back don't worry we'll be back [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're here at Penn & Teller I mentioned that you get great reviews now what is it that you do and does everybody like it right that well we got great reviews I mean New York Times and all those guys they love this and then as soon as we did that you know like magicians kind of liked us as soon as we got all these good reviews and magicians just turned on us and backlash yeah it was awful it was really not consider myself I don't consider myself a magician but Telly's got that background I want to show you make regular people don't see these these are magic magazines I don't know if you can you can see that but take your buddy am plenty upset on the cover with a with Eric Lewis and this magazine I've shown you the steering that during the break has and there's little de Jeanne speaks is an English article and they call us the they call Penn & Teller the worst slap in the face ever given to magic and they also say how can they sleep at night this is because the big babies are all upset to get away a few of their tricks here's a great one a pair of nauseatingly nasty hypocrites at least the adverb is used properly which is but that's not true domina and teller decided that this would be he's upset by this he's bcc's torn apart I mean we will never work the Magic Castle again I mean we just kissed that good bargain bill Larson wrote one of those things so tellers decide to get back to his roots this is our big break there it needs letters he's gonna do a card trick alright so good and I can help you can that you can help and he's gonna do it what do I do well I would say suggest you pick a card international symbol for picking all this when he did he wouldn't let me pick another you picked this pick a card and shut up okay thanks well this was sort of shoved on me this was actually forced on me the man more or less shoved it on me well he was trying to time that menu you you looked over at me and I have it now what do I do we should show it to that what do you get thee I have the that he forced the de-solder right it was the card for us that I'm sorry about it in the theater you want to force an H so the people in the back can see it sure you're for snakes you know it's not part of the trick but when you're in TV you shouldn't you should I see you to speak up and say that because a lot of people in our audiences they don't give a damn about the responsibility to play along so just play along and nod this is the kind of honesty you can expect you I feel I've done something in tonight actually I'll take care of this and just have him why don't you just pick any card you want don't let me force a card okay okay act as though this wasn't just picking the car but this was actually like all right killed children if you pick the wrong this when I feel like it when I turned around and show it to the monitor you how to do that I think it's this camera okay short short there and then remember that card and please people at home tried desperately to care about that card for about two minutes or so okay okay okay we didn't see it honest didn't now you would say something he hits it okay go ahead put it back in the deck do it let's see how's okay did you okay that look okay to you fine whatever I think I think he had his little finger in there that the card seems lost in the deck to you as far as I'm concerned okay good at it I think just make sure that all he did take the card back all I did was he cut the cars like this she put the card back in he closed the deck up like this stomach were to have a monitor that be able to shoot right in there you just cut it back now if you really want the card here lost in the deck you want to cut it about halfway down yeah then give the cards a shuffle and now that cards lost in the deck or it's gone no dairy use your head no it's not there no matter how nice I pretend to be to you and how - this man here my first allegiance in the world is over here so he wants the card on top it'll be on top so the only way you can actually move the card the guys take the deck yourself and actually lose the card in the deck which I can't even find them know I pawned it off Dave oh this isn't even part of the routine I'm just being malicious here I just levered it off and hand it to you with the same hands he's right in this hand yeah happy now you were checking out this hands okay only a goofball we're gonna walk over here this is where it gets good there but it is built right so we have something over here I'm a major problem with card tricks that most of them are so wimpy we're gonna fix that now see this is this kind of nice to see teller was so prissy over there now with the buck knife even he's really little laying it all out there yeah get a look at those need to pick them up jealous now tell them what you do you just look at the backs of the guards and you're gonna just stick the knife in seems like he's good we put a boy get a little the trappings of a real magic because I'm making good in the racist it almost seems to me David like he's peeking down there doesn't know I think let me just move these around here in every of the market kind of a existential crisis just just go disco telling me this you look like the Elephant Man I'm not from animal magician here we go yeah we got your card there David is that your card was it the six of hearts no no I know damn well it wasn't - but you are [Applause] what about this color [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was terrific that was very nice and I know you guys are doing very well over there and good luck in whatever comes after this I know you have other plans and going on to bigger and better things but you're terrific and thank you very much for being here Penn & Teller folks also my thanks to Lisa I'll Bakker who was here and a Sandra Bernhard will be with us tomorrow night this is her new album remember it contains the hit single everybody's young we have to go upstairs to say goodnight to a grant tinker for a second granite you still up there buddy yes Tom okay well Tom we've had a lot of fun tonight I've certainly dropped a lot of cash too but all for a good cause here's the NBC promise our programming like our institutional meals will remain fresh wholesome and available at low cost good night and please leave the studio and good order okay thank you very much tomorrow folks eddie van halen will be here also actress Valerie Bertinelli all stop whining this was a fine show hi to the folks in Washington good night [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Don Giller

Views: 267,181

Rating: 4.9100304 out of 5

Keywords: Penn & Teller

Id: 75S-HB35Mu8

Length: 10min 24sec (624 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 23 2018