Saturday, August 4, 2012

Magic is timeless: Fangirling over Penn & Teller


Recently and until this moment, I’m addicted to Penn & Teller. It started with watching Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Yes, I like the show very much.  I learned a lot from it even though I don’t agree to everything they show there. There are issues there that are happening in my country as well but their arguments won’t be applicable here. Sucks for us. Anyway, I’m not really good when it comes to holding on to statistics and any numerical information in my head so I’ll stop and won’t let this blog entry go to that direction. I won’t argue as well since I am bad at debates or any form of persuasion. So I’ll just turn this blog entry to a nonsensical ramblings of a fangirl, since that’s what I like doing and what I think I’m good at. *wink*

By the way, you can stop reading now if you dislike fangirling or anything related to it.



So let’s continue… like I said, I love Penn & Teller. Penn is the talkative half of the duo. He is really loud, opinionated and usually condescending. Meanwhile Teller is the quiet but scheming mastermind of it all. Together they complete this duo that does gory, eccentric magic that usually blows my mind off. I love magic and the two of them makes me love magic even more. I like the blood, the execution, the skill, the artistry and their passion. It sucks that I live oceans and miles away from them and I cannot watch them perform live …but you know there is something that is more disappointing than that… I am quite sad that I wasn’t born earlier. I am actually regretting something I have no control over. This is the first time (well first that I can think of) that I want to be born earlier.

This duo had a movie called “Penn & Teller Get Killed” it was shown around the year I was born. At that time the two of them were already shown in Public TV and were already rising stars. They were already making a bigger name for themselves while I’m still in diapers! (or lampin or whatever catches my poop)… but that didn’t stop me from appreciating the movie and from appreciating the two. The movie is even playing while I write this on my laptop. Teller is just so adorable. I have to be honest though, at the end of the film I have no idea what was the point of it all. Maybe after a few more times of watching it I’ll get it. Hopefully…
I’m thinking that maybe if I was born earlier, then by now I might be successful enough to actually go to Vegas and afford to be on one of their shows. Maybe I could even watch Exorcist while knowing Teller is one of the creative minds that helps in scaring the shit out of me.  

So after that I continued watching more Penn & Teller on YouTube, searching wiki and going to some of the websites that contain them. I even started tracking them on Tumblr and following them on Twitter. I do hope they are actively updating their Twitter so I can be a happy little fangirl again with every new tweet.  Heck! I even started caring about shows like “The Celebrity of Apprentice” because of them… and it made me dislike Clay Aiken more :P So yes, even though I didn’t live at the same time as they were younger, and even though I have no way of going to Broadway or Las Vegas or to London … I still manage to satiate my fangirling. THANK YOU INTERNET!

So as I continue on doing this, I realized something. It doesn’t really matter. The whole “I wish I was born earlier” is now senseless. So what if Teller is over 60? He is still the god of sleight of hand of his time plus he is still so adorable. And Penn is still one of the most fascinating minds I have ever heard; he is just kick-ass awesome. However, I have a bias over Teller because I like how he works behind the scenes and his facial expressions are priceless … but all in all I love them both to bits and pieces.

As long as I watch their performances, their skill put in front of an audience I feel like time won’t really be a problem for me. It wasn’t a problem for them. As they grow older they improve on their old acts and even make newer ones. I have seen the card-stab trick for a number of times now and it never fails to amuse me.
Magic will always be something that amuses me. No matter how many times magicians guess the card, or produce something out of thin air… even if I already know the secret behind cups-and-balls… I will always be amused. Magic tricks are simply astonishing. When I see a trick I’ve never seen before I feel like I’m a child again with eyes full of awe… then I would revert back to my old self and be amazed of the skill and talent behind the trickery. Even if they are tricks performed long ago or recently, since I just saw them they are all new to me.  Magic is timeless. The effect they have on people who ever they are will never change even if they are performed at any time or at any place.

I’m not sure how long this fangirling will last but until now this is all I ever watch and think about. I also have this undying urge to learn magic… but since I know I’ll be very very bad at it I managed to suppress it.  AND… I have this big desire to glomp Teller but since that is not good and frowned upon by society I managed to lock those desires somewhere under my bed.  

Finally, I have officially added: “Watch Penn & Teller live” as one of the things I would want to accomplish before I die…. Almost as equal as watching GR live and below “shake Eiichiro Oda’s hand”.

No comments: