Penn Jillette Quotes

Magic has both feet planted in cheap vaudeville and childish posturing; in dishonesty and therefore not in art.

I always liked magic. I was always embarrassed by liking magic because I liked the fact that they're just lying.

For me, the most exciting thing is to create good magic that's entertaining for an audience, and it would be lovely if a magician was fooled as well.

Magicians will always tell you the trick is the most important thing, but I'm more interested in telling a story.

But when I go off stage I don't have a deck of cards with me all the time.

I don't think you can say something is or isn't magic. That's what was cool about Houdini, because he was a magician who had a magic show, but he was also an escape artist, and they kind of, over time, blended together. They both kind of enhance each other, I think.

Magic is the oldest part of the show business profession. It can now be used as a forward-thinking tool to build a child's confidence. It has been an amazing part in many entertainers' lives, including Steve Martin and the late Johnny Carson.

The real secret of magic lies in the performance.

I love anything to do with ventriloquism and magic.

Magic is an art form where you lie and tell people you are lying.

I was considered a comedy magician. And - how do I put this without sounding egotistical? - it didn't take me long to realize that comedy magicians usually couldn't do comedy or magic.

A clever conjurer is welcome anywhere, and those of us whose powers of entertainment are limited to the setting of booby-traps or the arranging of apple-pie beds must view with envy the much greater tribute of laughter and applause which is the lot of the prestidigitator with some natural gift for legerdemain.

I think I'm just a comedian who's a pretty good con man, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

If you do magic, it's the quickest most fraudulent route to impressing people.

All magic is 'Here’s a quarter, now it’s gone. You’re a jerk. Now it’s back. You’re an idiot. Show’s over.'

When we go to play, you flip around and flash around and everything, and then they're not gonna see nothin' but what their eyes see. Forget about their ears.

Great liars are also great magicians.

Magic is the Special Olympics of entertainment.

The magician and the politician have much in common: they both have to draw our attention away from what they are really doing.

I consider myself a showman, and I love magic, and I love art, and I love performance, and they're all separate.

Hey, I fool the camera. I'm a liar, a magician.

One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane.

Penn & Teller stopped doing practical jokes, and the reason is we got much too good at it.

I think there's a huge amount of magic on television, which is slightly vapid: there's no real meaning or message behind it; it is simply a trick.

I grew up like Athena - covered with playing cards instead of armor - and, at the age of seven, materialized on a TV show, doing magic.