The Slammer is going out with a bang.
Penn Jillette and his family have moved out of his famous Las Vegas home, where the verbose half of Penn & Teller has lived since relocating to the city in 1994.
This development is no less the end of an era in Las Vegas homeownership. The Slammer is famous across the country for its unique-to-the-desert, A-frame structure and obtuse design effects.
As expected, the Jillettes’ departure will require a selling of many personal items that made the Slammer famous, and this shopping spree will rival that of the current Riviera clearance sale.
For fans of unique artifacts, opportunity knocks. The vast majority of personal items amassed by Jillette over the years are to be sold, yard-sale style, sometime in June.
Such belongings and household effects up for sale are the Jill-Jet (the Jacuzzi with a jet designed to improve a woman’s attempt at self-gratification), the coffee mug collection Jillette amassed during talk-show appearances over the years, his collection of rock albums and posters, sock puppets and the human skeleton Jillette procured from a medical supply company.
Most important to relocate, ASAP, are the dozen red-eared turtles that lived in the family’s backyard. These are large turtles, and the Jillettes love them, so expect frequent visits from the family.
As Jillette says, speaking of the turtles, “They are friendly.”
Unlike those turtles, Jillette is moving fast elsewhere to give the Slammer a fitting sendoff.
Also in the early planning stages for the property is a bacon, doughnut and rock blowout in September. The concept is gaining energy, even as we type. Jillette is mulling a party loosely titled “The Big Bacon and Doughnuts Party” starring Jillette’s side project, The NoGodBand.
There will be rock. There will be doughnuts. There will be bacon. There will be dance moves that are at once aggressive and lacking in rhythm. The NoGodBand features Jillette at the front, on vocals and bass, with the esteemed Mike “Jonesy” Jones on keys and the similarly esteemed Lon Bronson on drums.
The September event would usher in the new purpose of the acreage and buildings. Jillette is in talks to sell the property to “friends” who want to turn the fortress into what he calls “a Church of Bacon Atheist/Libertarian/Community Center type of thing.”
The Slammer would thus be reborn as a Jillette-inspired place of worship, or non-worship, depending on your affiliation.
Also in the mix is a demolition party this summer if no buyer is found. This event would be a real knockdown drag-out and would take place in June, with a wrecking ball or explosives or something similarly destructive taking down the fortress.
The Jillettes formally moved out of the home this month in favor of a two-story, 7,800-square-foot, $3.3 million home in the Ridges that they purchased from Station Casinos CFO Marc Falcone. The sale closed April 30, and the Jillettes — Penn, wife Emily and children Moxie CrimeFighter and Zolten Penn — are now in Summerlin.
This is a far more family-friendly abode than was the Slammer, and Jillette has been mulling how to properly pay homage to that property as he moves into the next phase of his life in Las Vegas.
The Slammer is something of a landlocked island, which is fine for a single and single-minded entertainer who was seeking a Libertarian/atheist church-fashioned dwelling. Jillette now says he wants his family in a less-isolated location.
As for the cost of the Slammer, Jillette has set a price of around $3 million on the home, which is two separate dwellings built on a 10-acre desert plot on West Wigwam Avenue. Jillette spotted the original A-frame house in 1994 and asked his architect friend Colin Summers to work on its design.
The original house was swiftly dubbed the Slammer, which has actually served as a place where one can enter and enjoy a freedom of ideas and adventure. Its trademark effects: A height chart at the entrance, where guests were directed to pose for photos, and a chalk outline, purportedly of Teller, gripping a knife.
A kids’ house, connected to the Slammer, was added as the Jillette family expanded. And as is often the case in Jillette’s world, evolution has taken hold. The time has come to move on.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy