Wow, sounds so much different to how I thought he would. I just figured he had a high pitch voice or something that wouldn't be great for stage presence.
wow, he just summed up the best part I love about magic. It doesn't matter if you know how the tricks work - it's all about misdirection, the showmanship, playing off what you think you know. A magician that knows their audience well enough to fool them like this, even if it's the reverse of what the "trick" normally is, is wonderful.
My Dad was a magician (I was a ventriloquist - but I got well), and I would go to magic conventions with him. And there is magic that magicians have for each other, stuff that wouldn't impress the general public...kind of like how "The Aristocrats" is for comics.
my dad went to vegas once, and saw teller advertising a show or something, and he said when teller isnt "on duty" so to speak, he's really quite the chatterbox. he just doesnt talk in performance-mode.
There was a houdini special on last week and they had teller talking but they backlit it so you couldnt see his face. It was kind of funny they did that but was cool to hear him speak for once.
He speaks and even sings in their Vegas show during a bit about a "spirit cabinet" and Houdini. But you don't see him singing. And he was the voice of "Mofo, the Psychic Gorilla" an expose of "clairvoyants". And of course, they run to the back of the hall and stand on either side of the exist, and people can talk to either.
He slipped and talked when Penn and Teller were on Fear Factor. He got so excited when they won a competition he said "YES!" and Joe Rogan didn't even catch it...Penn was the one that made a comment about it...it seemed like it didn't happen often.
He started performing silent before he met Penn. When he was performing for college kids, he found they paid more attention to his act if he stayed silent throughout, and it stuck as part of his schtick.
Saving this video from queue deletion, sending it to the top of the queue for one more try. Originally submitted on Sunday 20th May 2007 (save called by gold star member gorillaman)
I spoke with Teller (yeah, spoke) in Vegas one time after I'd seen them live, and he's just a very fantastic person. He's really amazingly nice. If you EVER see him, make sure you say "hi," because he'll say "hi" back ... and it's a shock.
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Great find!