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Teller (magician)

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Teller
Teller - after the Penn & Teller show at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 5, 2007.
Born
Raymond Joseph Teller

(1948-02-14) February 14, 1948 (age 76)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Magician, illusionist, writer, actor, painter
Years active1974–present
Known forHalf of the comedy magic duo known as Penn & Teller
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Political partyLibertarian Party
WebsitePenn and Teller.com

Teller (born February 14, 1948[1]) is an American magician, illusionist, comedian, writer, and the frequently silent half of the comedy magic duo known as Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette. He is known for his advocacy of atheism, libertarianism, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism. He legally changed his name from Raymond Joseph Teller to just "Teller", and possesses one of the few United States passports issued in a single name.[1] He is an atheist,[2][3] debunker, skeptic, and Fellow of the Cato Institute (a libertarian think-tank organization which also lists his partner Penn Jillette as a Fellow). The Cato Institute association is featured prominently in the Penn and Teller Showtime TV series Bullshit!

Early life

Teller was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were of Russian Jewish and Cuban descent. Teller only learned of his Jewish ancestry when he was 50 years old.[4] He attended Central High School and Amherst College and taught English and Latin at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.[5] He was selected to be a member of the Central High School Hall of Fame in 2001.

Career

As a performer

When Teller, the quiet half of the Penn and Teller showbiz team, made one of his monthly Philadelphia visits to see his parents, Joe and Irene ("Pad" and "Mam"), he was shown 100 unpublished cartoons his father drew in 1939. These "wryly observed scenes of Philadelphia street life," as Teller describes them, are in a loose, sketchy style imitative of the great George Lichty (1905-1983), famed for his long-run syndicated "Grin and Bear It." Teller and his father's "memories began to pump and the stories flowed" after they opened boxes of old letters that Teller read out loud (learning for the first time about a period in his parents' lives that he knew nothing about, such as the fact that his father's name is really Israel Max Teller). Joe's Depression-era hobo adventures led to travels throughout the U.S., Canada and Alaska, and by 1933, he returned to Philadelphia for art study. After Joe and Irene met during evening art classes, they married, and Joe worked half-days as a Philadelphia Inquirer copy boy. When the Inquirer rejected his cartoons, he moved into advertising art just as World War II began. Employing excerpts from letters and postcards, Teller successfully re-creates the world of his parents in a relaxed writing style of light humor and easy (yet highly effective) transitions between the past and present.

Teller does not speak while performing although there are occasional exceptions, usually when the audience is not aware of it. For example, he did the voice of "Mofo the psychic gorilla" in their early Broadway show with the help of a radio mic cupped in his hand. In Zoey's Zoo, an episode of Oh Yeah! Cartoons, he speaks in monosyllables while playing cloned store clerks. Teller's trademark silence originated during his youth, when he earned a living performing magic at college fraternity parties.[6] He found that if he maintained silence throughout his act, spectators refrained from throwing beer and heckling him and focused more on his performance.

Other exceptions to his silent act include instances in which his face is covered or obscured, as when he spoke while covered with a plastic sheet in the series premiere of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!,[7] and when he was interviewed while in shadow for the 2010 History Channel documentary, Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery.[8] Teller appears to have said "Science" in a high-pitched voice in Penn and Teller's appearance on the television show Bill Nye the Science Guy, namely the episode "Light Optics," but he rather mouthed the word while Penn used a ventriloquist technique to make it sound as if Teller had spoken whilst keeping his mouth from moving. Teller also has a speaking part in the movie The Aristocrats.

Teller began performing with friend Weir Chrisemer as The Ottmar Scheckt Society for the Preservation of Weird and Disgusting Music. Teller met Penn Jillette in 1974, when they joined a three-person act called Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, which played in San Francisco. In 1981, they began performing exclusively together as "Penn & Teller", an act that continues to this day.

As a writer

He collaborated with Jillette on three magic books, and he is also the author of "When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours!": Joe Teller - A Portrait by His Kid (2000), a biography/memoir of his father. The book features his father's paintings and cartoons which were strongly influenced by George Lichty's Grin and Bear It. The book was favorably reviewed by Publishers Weekly:

Teller is a coauthor of the Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper "Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research" from the November 2008 issue.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Penn & Teller FAQ (Internet Archive)
  2. ^ "Pulling The Wool Off Your Eyes; Penn & Teller Declare War On Magicians' Bull". Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  3. ^ "Atheist Chic". Retrieved 2009-01-07.
  4. ^ "Reparations". Penn & Teller: Bullshit!. Season 4. Episode 7. 2006-05-15. Showtime. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Teller
  6. ^ Lynn Elber (2007-04-25). "'Silent' Teller to magically make 'Macbeth' a 'horror thriller'". Retrieved 2007-05-21.
  7. ^ Penn & Teller: Bullshit!; "Talking to the Dead"; Episode 1.1; January 23, 2003
  8. ^ Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery; History Channel; Viewed June 10, 2010
  9. ^ Macknik SL, King M, Randi J; et al. (2008). "Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research". Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 9 (11): 871–9. doi:10.1038/nrn2473. PMID 18949833. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

  • Jillette, Penn; and Teller (1989). Penn and Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends. New York: Villard. ISBN 0-394-75351-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Jillette, Penn; and Teller (1992). Penn and Teller's How to Play with Your Food. New York: Villard. ISBN 0-679-74311-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Jillette, Penn; and Teller (1997). Penn and Teller's How to Play in Traffic. New York: Berkley Trade. ISBN 1-57297-293-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Teller; and Joe Teller (2000). "When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours!": Joe Teller -- A Portrait by His Kid. New York: Blast Books. p. 128. ISBN 0-922233-22-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Teller; Karr, Todd; and Abbott, David P. (2005). House of Mystery: The Magic Science of David P. Abbott. Marina del Rey, California: Miracle Factory.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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