PENN & TELLER We're Not DONE YET

The illusionists are celebrating 50 years of making magic

- Katie Bruno

There are magicians, and then there are Penn & Teller. The stars of The CW’s long-running hit TV series, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, also remain one of Las Vegas’ most popular headlining resident acts. In the 50 years since the pair began working together as buskers on the streets of Philadelphia, they’ve risen to heights that Harry Houdini couldn’t dream of. Beyond Las Vegas, they’ve appeared in movies, guest-starred on everything from Friends to Hollywood Squares, written best-sellers, sold out runs on Broadway and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “I don’t think so much about honors,” Teller, 77, tells Closer. “The thing that’s most intriguing for me is being able to work on new stuff.”

The performers admit they never expected to become so well-known or successful. “We are very rare in show business, in that we thought we'd achieved all our goals by 1977,” Penn Jillette, 70, tells Closer of the moment when they realized they no longer needed day jobs. “Everything else has been kind of a surprise to us.”

How did you first get into magic?

Teller: I got terribly sick as a 5-year-old kid with toxic myocarditis, which is next-order rheumatic fever. I had to stay home and there was this kids’ show Howdy Doody, which had a magic clown named Clarabell. He did magic tricks which I thought were fascinating. I was sucked in. The magnets of my brain connected with the magnets of magic forever.

Penn: I really didn’t like [magic]. I always wanted to be a musician and I do play upright bass, but I didn’t think I was talented enough. I thought that if I got to be a really good juggler — which is just pure practice — I might have a chance of being able to get a job in show business. So I practiced juggling.