"TELLERING TALES"

Teller actually speaks during a chat with the NY Post prior to Tursday's benefit, "Conversations with Penn & Teller: 35 Years of Magic and BS" to benefit the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation.

I had worked silent long before I knew Penn, because I loved the idea of lying without speaking. The idea that a magician has to tell you something in order to convince you is cheesy. I’d much rather have the audience look at what’s going on and put it together in a beautifully wrong way. I tried that out in college, and found I communicated better with the audience by shutting up. There’s something terribly naked about shutting up. It shows to an audience a level of authority that they almost automatically respect. Also, it’s very hard to heckle somebody who’s silent, because it’s like you’re firing at an unarmed man.