Rational news and knowledge for the everyday atheist
These biographies highlight famous atheists, celebrity atheists and famous skeptics or freethinkers who have made or are making their mark on history.
Welcome to the biographical page of Penn Jillette. If you would like to nominate an article for appearance here, or have a submission, please send an email to rational@rationalatheist.com.

Penn & Teller - Off the Deep End

Penn & Teller's how to play in traffic

Penn and Teller's How to Play with Your Food

Penn & Teller - Bullshit - The Complete Fourth Season

Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour

Penn & Teller - Bullshit - The Complete Third Season

 


Penn Jillette
Penn and Teller.com
Penn Jillette Quotes

From Wikipedia
Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts) is an American illusionist, juggler and comedian known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team known as Penn & Teller.Penn Jillette, the larger (6'6"/1.98 m and 300 pounds compared to Teller's 5'9"/1.75 m), more talkative half of Penn & Teller, became disenchanted with traditional illusionist acts that presented the craft as authentic magic, such as The Amazing Kreskin on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. At age eighteen, he saw a show by illusionist James Randi, and became enamored of his approach to magic that openly acknowledged deception as entertainment rather than a mysterious supernatural power. Jillette regularly acknowledges Randi as the one person on the planet he loves the most besides members of his family.
Jillette worked with Greenfield, Massachusetts high school classmate Michael Moschen developing and performing a juggling act, in the years immediately following their 1973 graduation. He met Teller in 1975, where they formed part of a three-person act called Asparagus Valley Cultural Society which played in San Francisco. In 1981, he and Teller teamed up as Penn & Teller, and went on to do a famous off-Broadway show. (more)


Penn and Teller
From Wikipedia
Penn & Teller are an illusionist and comedy duo from the United States. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller (generally) does not speak while performing, although his voice can be heard as the narrator throughout their performance. They specialize in gory tricks, exposures of fakers and of some magic tricks, and clever pranks, and have become associated with Las Vegas, atheism, scientific skepticism, and libertarianism. They call themselves “a couple of eccentric guys who have learned how to do a few cool things.” (more)

Penn and Teller Videos

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! War on Drugs

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Recycling

Penn and Teller: Bullshit!
Environmental Hysteria

Peta BULLSHIT!

Penn and Teller: Bullshit!
The Business of Love


Writings by Penn

There Is No God
I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?



 

 

“...being pro-science is one of the oddest things you can do in show business. Which is very strange, because it was science that, oh, cured polio. I could list others--isn't that enough? [Laughs.] Oh, Western medicine doesn't work; I'm sorry, we cured polio. What more do you want? Your herbalism has done jack; we cured polio. And guess what? It cures polio even if you don't believe in it. We don't have it on Earth anymore. And then there's also small pox, and then there's mostly dysentery, and we haven't even gotten into the stuff we're good at, which is physics. We're not good at medicine; we're good at physics. We were good at physics in the 20th century; in the 21st century, one would hope, we'll be good at medicine. But we [Penn & Teller] are pro-science, and when you're pro-science, that means you're an atheist, by definition, because religion... No matter how much they put "10 Top Scientists Talk About Why They Believe In God" on the cover of TIME magazine, you kind of have to look and go, "How come these 10 top scientists are all teaching at community colleges?”
Articles on Penn

Penn Jillette: There Is No God
by Austin Cline

Penn JilletteThe magician-comedian-writer's secrets revealed!
by Bryan Curtis

This is the manic magic house that
Penn built
by Marco R. della Cava

Voodoo and Violence
Magician Penn Jillette sees through the censors' tricks.
by Steve Kurtz

Penn and Teller Hate Juggling... As Much As Magic
by Dave Jones

World Juggling Day honors cheap, timeless form of entertainment
By Kristen Peterson

Columnist Joe Delaney: Penn & Teller lead a magical roundup of stars

Tricks and Treats
These are not your parents' magicians
by Mark Hughes

Duo cut from different cloth
Penn & Teller find an audience despite straying from the PC-mold
by Mike Weatherford


Miscellaneous

Two of my most favorite people together!!! Penn Jillette interviews
Richard Dawkins
on his radio show.
Click here for the audio.


Atheism | Evolution vs. Creationism | Politics and Religion | Science | Theology and Philosophy

Home | Articles | Book Reviews | News | Quotes | Links | Buy Books | Email Us | Biographies