Question of the Day - 20 October 2017

The consensus is that the show doesn’t change all that much, though it does get altered from time to time, mostly in small ways.

“You know, when we were just starting out,” Teller told the Huffington Post in 2015, “people told us, ‘Every year, you have to have a wholly different show.’ We tried to write a whole different set of material, but this form we’re working [doesn’t lend itself to] a whole new show every six months. This form is very difficult — it’s about making something look like a miracle, and that’s way harder than playing a tune on a guitar.”

Teller went on to say that he and Penn added a new bit “about two months ago” (September) and have two more that will go into the show “by the end of the year.”

“So when you come see our show,” he said, “you’ll always see a mixture of old favorites and new things. Lots of our patrons come back multiple times over the years and they’re always delighted to find some of their old favorites mixed in with some brand new stuff.”

Two acts that you’re guaranteed to see are the double-bullet catch, in which each fires a .357 magnum round into the other’s mouth through a pane of glass. The other is Teller’s signature piece, “Shadows,” in which he takes a knife to the shadow of a rose and cuts the actual flower into little bits.

This writer can’t speak from personal experience about Penn and Teller’s show, but I can about Mac King, which I’ve seen probably ten times. Other than Mac’s adlibbing, the show hasn’t changed one iota since it debuted upwards of two decades ago. I can see the illusions and gags coming from ten miles away, but have I ever tired of it? Never. I still get as big a kick out of Mac and his magic as I did the first time. So you might try Penn and Teller, just to see if the standards hold up over more than one showing.

If that doesn't interest you, there are a few other shows to see in Las Vegas.