Hey everyone! I just got back from seeing Penn & Teller Live at Hardrock in Universal Studios. I got the ticket as a birthday present and it was by far the best gift I have gotten in a while! I had floor seats and I was about 7 rows away from the stage!
My god what an amazing show! Ok so the show was around 2 hours longs. I am not positive on the order of the effects but here is what I remember
The show started off with Penn leading Teller on stage with his head encased in a block of concrete. Penn then found a woman with glasses and borrowed her glasses for a moment. He did a very simple effect for her (wand behind the ear) and then went to give her her glasses back but they had vanished. He then smashed open the block on Tellers head and there he was wearing the glasses.
The next effect was a cut and restored cloth effect. They got an adorable little girl to help them out it was cute.
They then did a levitation with a woman. I'm not sure of the name of it, but she was suspended by one chair. What was awesome about this effect was at one Teller spoke playing the "voice" of the spec.
After that they performed their ever famous cups and balls routine. However instead of a potato they substituted it for a baseball.
This is where I get hazy on the order of the effects.
Teller did a needle swallowing routine where he swallowed 100 sewing needles. It was really cool as I have never seen anyone swallow that many before
Penn did a book test with two audience members and then brought up a third with a signed prediction. The books were all joke books and the woman was to read a random joke but not say the punchline. The prediction had been signed by the audience and contained the punchline
Teller did his Miser's Dream, it was really slick! The fish production at the end was just amazing.
Penn and Teller both did a TnR Newspaper. Penn's patter was hilarious.
Penn played bass as he explained Misdirection and Teller demonstrated. I would have to say that Teller has arguably one of the best retention vanishes in the business!
They both did their flag burning routine. I've seen a video of it before but watching it Live was amazing.
Penn then did a knife throwing routine with an audience member. This was more of a comedy bit than a magic effect for the audience However the spec was completely amazed
Teller did his famous "Shadows" routine. I thought it was incredibly beautiful, though the woman behind me was quite sure she knew how it was done (she was a TAD drunk lol)
Penn talked about a memorization routine and then proceeded to use a nail gun to illustrate his point. Some of the nails had been removed so he would alternate, seemingly at random, between nailing the wood and nailing his hand/groin/face
The trick of the night for me was one where they had an audience member come up and film a close up effect while everyone else watched. It was a very Slydini paper balls over the head type of effect. Penn had toy cows vanishing, multiplying, and even had the table/backdrop change. What floored me, as well as the entire audience, is when the spectator turned into Teller. I was shocked as I had followed everything else up to then. Looking back I now know how they did it, but at the time I would've sworn that was real magic
The final effect of the night was Penn talking to the audience about his childhood and watching the fire eaters at a freak show that came once a year. He then did some fire eating to end the show.
I am pretty sure that is everything, I don't think I am missing any. The show was absolutely FANTASTIC! I purchased a shirt and a deck of cards before the show I haven't opened the cards yet but I believe they are a marked deck of some sort. I will post pictures later.
At the end of the show Penn and Teller both stuck around to take pictures with fans and sign autographs. I managed to get both of their autographs to add to my collection and got pictures as well!
I didn't get a chance to talk with Penn as he was swamped, however I did chat quickly with Teller. I asked if there were any plans on a US Version of "Fool Us" and he said that it is "in the works, we are really fighting for it." I am super excited for this. It was kinda funny because he seemed a bit surprised that I knew about the show hahah
Here's the pics!
My god what an amazing show! Ok so the show was around 2 hours longs. I am not positive on the order of the effects but here is what I remember
The show started off with Penn leading Teller on stage with his head encased in a block of concrete. Penn then found a woman with glasses and borrowed her glasses for a moment. He did a very simple effect for her (wand behind the ear) and then went to give her her glasses back but they had vanished. He then smashed open the block on Tellers head and there he was wearing the glasses.
The next effect was a cut and restored cloth effect. They got an adorable little girl to help them out it was cute.
They then did a levitation with a woman. I'm not sure of the name of it, but she was suspended by one chair. What was awesome about this effect was at one Teller spoke playing the "voice" of the spec.
After that they performed their ever famous cups and balls routine. However instead of a potato they substituted it for a baseball.
This is where I get hazy on the order of the effects.
Teller did a needle swallowing routine where he swallowed 100 sewing needles. It was really cool as I have never seen anyone swallow that many before
Penn did a book test with two audience members and then brought up a third with a signed prediction. The books were all joke books and the woman was to read a random joke but not say the punchline. The prediction had been signed by the audience and contained the punchline
Teller did his Miser's Dream, it was really slick! The fish production at the end was just amazing.
Penn and Teller both did a TnR Newspaper. Penn's patter was hilarious.
Penn played bass as he explained Misdirection and Teller demonstrated. I would have to say that Teller has arguably one of the best retention vanishes in the business!
They both did their flag burning routine. I've seen a video of it before but watching it Live was amazing.
Penn then did a knife throwing routine with an audience member. This was more of a comedy bit than a magic effect for the audience However the spec was completely amazed
Teller did his famous "Shadows" routine. I thought it was incredibly beautiful, though the woman behind me was quite sure she knew how it was done (she was a TAD drunk lol)
Penn talked about a memorization routine and then proceeded to use a nail gun to illustrate his point. Some of the nails had been removed so he would alternate, seemingly at random, between nailing the wood and nailing his hand/groin/face
The trick of the night for me was one where they had an audience member come up and film a close up effect while everyone else watched. It was a very Slydini paper balls over the head type of effect. Penn had toy cows vanishing, multiplying, and even had the table/backdrop change. What floored me, as well as the entire audience, is when the spectator turned into Teller. I was shocked as I had followed everything else up to then. Looking back I now know how they did it, but at the time I would've sworn that was real magic
The final effect of the night was Penn talking to the audience about his childhood and watching the fire eaters at a freak show that came once a year. He then did some fire eating to end the show.
I am pretty sure that is everything, I don't think I am missing any. The show was absolutely FANTASTIC! I purchased a shirt and a deck of cards before the show I haven't opened the cards yet but I believe they are a marked deck of some sort. I will post pictures later.
At the end of the show Penn and Teller both stuck around to take pictures with fans and sign autographs. I managed to get both of their autographs to add to my collection and got pictures as well!
I didn't get a chance to talk with Penn as he was swamped, however I did chat quickly with Teller. I asked if there were any plans on a US Version of "Fool Us" and he said that it is "in the works, we are really fighting for it." I am super excited for this. It was kinda funny because he seemed a bit surprised that I knew about the show hahah
Here's the pics!
