On Saturday, Jason, Amy and I went to see Penn & Teller at the Paramount theater. When I first saw they would be in town on the Paramount sign, I squealed and very nearly drove off the road in my excitement–they hardly ever tour, and come to the Pac NW even more rarely; this was their first show here in more than a decade! Sure, I COULD go see them in Vegas, but that would require more effort on my part. A lot more.
As it was, we put in the bare minimum effort possible and didn’t bother to make reservations for dinner anywhere as none of us thought getting a table near huge shopping venues during the busiest shopping season of the year would be an issue, which meant we spent some time wandering around looking for somewhere that didn’t have people stacked out the door, and ended up eating at a restaurant simply called “Mexico”. The food was indeed vaguely Mexican, which meant delicious margaritas for all.
After dinner, we went to the theater and found our seats. Amy and I were on the fourth row in the second mezzanine, which was pretty ideal in terms of being able to see the stage–had even a basketball player parked himself in front of me, it’s unlikely he would have blocked my view. However, we were seated next to The Amazing Crow Woman who could not be merely satisfied with laughing and clapping, she had to caw like the world’s largest and most obnoxious bird. There’s always one. And that one is always next to me. Well, this time there were at least two, because after the show, some dude who just stepped out of mom’s basement and away from his collection of serial killer fingernail clippings for the first time in a decade tried to strike up a conversation with us. I’m not quite sure where his goggles were, but his conversational skills included a vacuous stare and a spit-filled pronouncement of “I liiiiike maaaagic”. He then proceeded to ask Teller to sign the backs of his credit cards.
The show itself was wonderful–they did some tricks I remembered from when I saw them in 2005, but also added quite a few new parts to their performance. I tried NOT to be drooly goggle-eyed boy when I approached them, but I swear to you it was difficult, because I adore Penn and Teller in a way that’s probably not entirely healthy. Nonetheless, I don’t think they had a conversation on the plane on the way back home about that frigging weirdo chick they met…I hope.
I like turtles.
I hate every ape I see from chimpan-A to chimpan-Z.
Well now I know what I’ll be singing all day.
No, you’ll never make a monkey out of meeeeee!
Is that tall guy from Sabrina the Teenage Witch? I don’t know much about them as you can tell, hehe .
He was on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, yes!
Your posts are always amazing and delightful!
I’m glad to hear it, I hate to think I’m boring people to death. 🙂
OMG OMG I MISSED THEM?!!
Yeah. 🙁
Well, I’ll just keep breathing the air molecules they’ve exhaled.
Sounds like a great time. Admit it, though – you considered tucking yourself into one of his pockets and sneaking home with him. (He’s HUGE!)
I did, but I was afraid things would get awkward.
Oh, man, that is awesome. I would love to meet those guys some day.
cheers,
Phil
I’d love to have an opportunity to sit and chat with them sometime. 🙂
I’m mostly disturbed that Teller isn’t wearing his signature black-and-white checkered tie. Something has gone wrong in the multiverse.
Did you ever listen to Penn’s radio talk show? It was pretty fantastic.
I LOVED his radio talk show. That’s actually what I asked him about on Saturday, if there were any plans for continuing that show at all. He said he was simply too busy to do it. 🙁
It was amazing, wasn’t it? Even though I don’t always agree with Penn’s hardline libertarian stance on economic issues, I was always impressed at the level of intelligence and civility that characterized the show. I’ve still got most of the podcasts saved, since they’re all worth re-listening to.
I only have the ones available on itunes, which is a very small portion of them–a hard drive crash claimed the rest.
I don’t always agree with Penn, either, but you’re right, the show exuded intelligence and civility…except on Monkey Tuesdays. Then it was mostly just silliness.
Oh man, so jealous! I wish I had known they were in town.
It wasn’t advertised very well at all. :\
Completely and thoroughly jealous
I didn’t know you were a P&T fan!
Oh em gee you got photos with both of them I am so jealous I want to slap you!
But I’m so delicate, a serious slap might bruise and/or kill me!
No. Fucking. Way.
I’ve learned a lot from Penn and Teller over the years. All of it is dirty, underhanded, and scandalous, and I can’t thank them enough. Penn was ahead of his time, pre 9/11, when he pondered writing laptop batch files that threatened to detonate a bomb posing as the laptop even when the security demanded stupid procedures more scripted than practical. Through their book, “cruel tricks for dear friends”, they taught me how to pull a fortune cookie fortune out that says “That lump is cancer.” to the horror of those surrounding me. I’m still not sure, when I saw they were coming, why I didn’t buy a ticket. Delerious, I must’ve been. Or between payday. Or something.
I don’t know when I first became cognizent of their genius, but my world is definitely a better place with them in it, particularly with all the work they do on Bullshit to debunk psychics and the like.
I friggin’ love Mexico. It’s not really authentic or anything, but everything is pretty tasty and hey, it’s two blocks from my apartment. 😛
Shit, I don’t require authenticity, just tastiness, which was had. My love of the California Burrito at El Indio (carne asada, cheese, and that most Mexican of ingredients, french fries) demonstrates just how concerned I am with authenticity.