Penn & Teller have been performing at the Rio since 2001 and still the veteran duo’s show remains an utterly unique offering in the Las Vegas entertainment landscape. It’s too sharp and funny to compare to any other magic-based production, too intellectual and good-hearted to be considered among comedy shows. It runs like a well-oiled machine yet feels spontaneous and loaded with potential surprises, probably because it’s always being tweaked and refined if not completely updated.
When they’re onstage, it’s hard to believe Penn is 63 and Teller is 70 as they individually and collectively emit the same robust energy that made their act a Broadway phenomenon in the 1980s: Mr. Jillette as the boundless raconteur and Mr. Teller as a smirking, solemn wizard. They’ve been performing together for 43 years now, established as pop-culture icons through three different decades. They’ve guested in music videos by Run DMC in 1987 (“It’s Tricky”) and Katy Perry in 2009 (“Waking Up In Vegas”). That’s staying power.
And yet their restless creativity keeps the changes constant in their Vegas show. Days after I caught the act, they revamped the entrance sequence. Unlike other magicians, illusionists and mentalists, Penn & Teller have embraced big swings in technology and massive amounts of online content and how those things affect the experience of their audience. The opening trick claims an apprehensive volunteer’s phone, vanishes it several times and transports it to a very unexpected final destination, all while the phone’s video recorder is on. That way the volunteer gets to discover how the trick is done once it’s over. Another impossible feat uses several audience members to create the ultimate, unbreakable password for our many online accounts, randomly generated by different choices but magically guessed by Penn & Teller, of course. Along the way, we learn the most used and most easily hacked actual passwords, one of which is “Password.” What other Vegas show provides such valuable life lessons?
The grand finale invites a large group of showgoers onstage to witness the close-up vanishing of Elsie, the African Spotted Pigmy Elephant, and it’s as terrific an illusion as you’ll find in Las Vegas. If it’s not the most whimsical moment of the show, that would have to be Teller’s interpretation of a classic sleight-of-hand routine originated by The Great Tomsoni, longtime Las Vegas illusionist and comedian Johnny Thompson, a great influence on Penn & Teller who works with them behind the scenes today. This show is essential Vegas, two performers at the top of their game who continue to challenge themselves.
Penn & Teller perform at 9 p.m. Saturday-Wednesday at the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio (3700 W. Flamingo Road, 702-777-2782) and more information can be found at caesars.com.