It had been eight years since I had been on the west coast, but it had been even longer since I had seen Penn & Teller perform live, ten years having passed since I last saw them locally at the Fraze Pavillion in Kettering. So the one request I made of Jimmy was that we go to Las Vegas and catch the bad boys of magic live at the Rio – and he obliged. In fact, when Bob heard that we were going to head out to Vegas, he decided to forego his weekend at Lone Pine and go along with us. Maybe he didn’t like his friends venturing out onto his turf without him, or maybe he thought the city would swallow us alive – but nonetheless he decided that we would all go to Vegas together.
Bob worked for half of a day on Friday, October 7, so I waited around his house all morning. I had gone home with him the night before from our visit to Disneyland, so I was exhausted enough to sleep in for a while and then tinker around his house, rooting through the mess in search of buried treasures. He came home early that afternoon and Jimmy drove to his house to meet up with us (leaving the notorious and psychotic Bob’s pool message on my cell phone along the way). Once we had loaded up the car, we set out for the three-hour journey to Las Vegas, Nevada.
On our way into town, we stopped off for a visit with silent Our Gang star Jack Hanlon. Our visit with him will be covered in the next Vegas posting.
The first and only sign of trouble came when we checked into our hotel, The Royal, and found that they had only supplied us with two beds and had no rollaway available. Although neither Jimmy nor I was thrilled about this, we were secure enough in our respective manhoods to allow us to get a good night’s sleep despite having to share a bed. Bob made a point to remind us that ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!’
After heading over to the Rio via motorcar, we briefly considered a buffet meal, then opted for the more traditional All-American Bar & Grille. The show began at 9pm. Bob had secured us very good seats in the second row off to the left side of the stage. Before the show began, as opening piano act Mike Jones played his oddball tunes, we were invited to go up onto the stage and examine an empty crate, as well as sign our name to an envelop tacked to a wall. The latter item would come into play later in the show as they performed their ‘ESP’ trick involving selecting a passage from a joke book and revealing the punchline sealed inside said envelope. The first item mentioned came into play right away.
Penn casually sauntered onto the stage promptly at 9pm, but Teller was nowhere to be seen. All at once, the crate that we had all just examined opened up and out popped Teller. It was over in a flash, but in all of the illusions that I had ever seen them perform, that is the only one that has absolutely baffled me – and still does to this day.
Throughout the evening, they regaled us with a combination of classic routines that I had seen live before, some bits that I had seen on TV – but not live, and a few all new illusions. To wit, the routines we saw were Penn juggling broken glass, Penn fire eating, the Bleeding Rose, Teller’s fish bowl, the chipper shredder, the mind-reading jokebook act, King of Animal Traps (which Teller performed mostly right in front of us), and of course, the Magic Bullet.
After the show – as I was accustomed to from seeing them twice before – both Penn and Teller came outside the arena to meet the audience. I had come equipped with several items for them to sign: the DVD cover to their special Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour, a nice color photograph that I had purchased earlier in the week, the program that I had just purchased at the show (seen at top), and a photo that I had had taken earlier in the week and printed out on Jimmy’s computer.
I made this particular photo mainly to spark a conversation with both Penn and Teller. Yes, if you hadn’t already guessed it, Teller does talk – and quite fluently. The photo was of me with the grave (actually a cenotaph) of Penn & Teller, which shows the three-of-clubs and the inscription “Is This Your Card?” This was placed in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills and served as the ‘punchline’ to a card force that they taught you how to perfrom in their book Penn & Teller Play in Traffic.
I first approached Penn for the autographs. He’s such a tremendously large guy that he is rather intimidating, even if very nice. He told me that the photo of me and the grave was ‘very cool’ and then noticed my Sons of the Desert t-shirt and also told me that that was ‘very cool.’ If I would have been clear-headed at the moment, I would have asked him about the Hal Roach documentary that he narrated for the Disney Channel.
As it was I moved on to Teller. He was shorter, but not nearly as short as he appears when standing next to Penn. He also appreciated my photo of the grave and signed it, saying “I’m under here.” I then went on to ask him for a little bit more information about the grave. He explained that they had to put the word cenotaph on it when no one was actually buried under the marker. He also told us that the original intention was to place these in cemeteries all over the country so that everyone could enjoy the trick and joke. Unfortunately, the cost was so high for the one, that they decided to place it in a busy ‘tourist’ destination.
We were the last people talking to Teller, so I asked if he would wait until Penn finished so that I could get a photo with both of them – same as I had done in 1995. He agreed and when Penn finished up and walked by, Teller called out something to the effect of “Oh Penn – come get a picture with our cemetery friend.” To which he did. When I returned to Las Vegas and the Penn & Teller show at the Rio in 2007, I had them autograph that photo as well – as seen below.
After the show, Bob, Jimmy, and I drove over to the Strip to walk around for a bit on the hoppin’ and happenin’ Las Vegas Boulevard. We marveled at the lights, the Eiffel Tower reproduction at the hotel Paris, and the fountain show that went off every 15 minutes at the Bellagio. Bob also took us to Westward Ho, a casino that would soon be closing – which was home to the enormous 99-cent hot dog and strawberry shortcake. It had been a fun evening in Vegas, but the trip wasn’t quite over. We had one more busy day with which to contend…
Below are the sights, sounds, and smells of Vegas…
The 2005 Hollywood trip will conclude in the next posting…
Continue to my next meeting with Penn & Teller…
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