Hi, I'm doing research on the routines P&T have performed in their stage shows over the years - as in which ones they started out with, dropped or added from the time they were at the Westside Arts theatre in 1985 through to their current show in Vegas.

If anyone who's seen them on tour or on Broadway remembers anything about their set list at the time you saw them, I'd love to hear from you. I'm especially interested in what they did during their first Off Broadway show in the mid-80's and in "The Refrigerator Tour" in the early '90's.

Any help is much appreciated!

- TV

At the end of Penn and Teller's book "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends" is a complete script for their Broadway show, "Penn & Teller at the Ritz" (as well as the complete scripts for the film "Penn & Teller Get Killed", the Showtime special "Invisible Thread", the video version of "Cruel Tricks", and several television appearances.
It's a little tricky to find them though. The entire book is a trick. It's bound together like a "Magic Coloring Book". One flip through it can look like a book. Flip through it again and it looks like a bunch of grey and red psychodelic pages with tiny print. If you look closely at each of those "psycho" pages, you'll see that they printed all of the above scripts in tiny hard to read print.
It's not so difficult to read that you can't manage it, it's just annoying after a few minutes.
From what I remember the Broadway show was a tightend and more polished version of the pieces from Off Broadway.
Hope that helps some.
(The pair's other book, "How to Play With Your Food" contains a detailed list of every major appearance the two made from 1948-1992.

We ran into someone last year who actually worked with Penn and Teller when they were in New York years ago. He didn't mention anything about their show but he did say that (at that time) Penn and Teller didn't hang out at all once the show was done. They went their seperate ways and only got back together for work. He said he had a blast selling t shirts and stuff after the show on the street. Penn on one side, Teller on the other standing on crates or something.

Can't think why... Teller is taller than me, and I'm over six feet tall!

I think they started the Refrigerator Tour show w/ a refrigerator falling on them.

Chase, I should have mentioned that the Ritz show is the one show I have a full set list for, thanks to "Cruel Tricks"! The review I read of that show did suggest that the Off-Broadway version closely resembled the Broadway show, so thanks for backing that up. I'll also try to pick up a copy of their other books.

Wrandal, thanks for that. Anybody else remember anything from the Refrigerator Tour?

TV

I saw P&T when they were a trio!!!

The Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, about 30 years ago. There were 3 of them. Loved their vanishing elephant, performed in front of 1500 magician!

Blair Marshall
"ShaZzam!"

Blair, that sounds great. Where was that performed - at a convention? Can briefly you describe the routine?

Not sure if it was New York or Boston, would have been 77 or 78 (Philadelphia was 76, and it wasn't there).

It was at a SAM convention, it was in the hotel Ballroom, a large room with actual loges (boxes, mini-balconies) up the sides. They introduced a large stuffed elephant, put it on a bare table center stage, they were in the process of introducing the illusion, when there was a loud scream, and a body came tumbling out of one of the balconies. When everyone looked back to the stage, the elephant was gone!!!!!

We had all been HAD, big time.

They received a huge round of applause, and lots of laughs, this was, of course, before Penn and Teller turned bad!

(LOL)


Blair Marshall
"ShaZzam!"

Lol, sounds like a great bit. Thanks for sharing that.