Quote

One thing you learn doing magic tricks for a living is how close every performance of every magic trick is to disaster. There are no robust magic tricks. They're all hanging from a thread - sometimes literally.

Penn Jillette

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Penn Jillette
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: March 5
Actor
Circus Performer
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Illusionist
Jongleur
Magician
Musician
Novelist
Podcaster
Radio Personality
Greenfield
Massachusetts
Penn Fraser Jillette
Sometimes
Tricks
Thing
Performance
Every
Disaster
Performances
Robust
Close
Hanging
Magic
Trick
Learn
Thread
Living
Literally

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I'm an amazing mama's boy.
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There are two things that have been true throughout history in big hunks. You can find differences in ten years, but in 50 year hunks, 100 years hunks, you'll find two things to be true. One, the world is always getting better. Two, people always think it's getting worse.
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Bob Barr is not crazy enough for my taste.
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I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.
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The whole world is pretending the breakthrough is in technology. The bottleneck is really in art.
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'Christian' used to be a throwaway word. People didn't used to use it much. People didn't start self-labeling or getting labeled Christian until the last part of the 20th century. Before that, you might identify as a Baptist, or a Southern Baptist or a Methodist. But there wasn't one identifier that put you in a fold with all the other believers.
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If I were trying to avoid embarrassment, I wouldn't have stumbled my way through 'Dancing with the Stars.'
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This I believe: I believe there is no God.
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Poker would have never gotten on TV when we only had three networks.
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If I had to imagine omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent power in the universe that chose to make my mother suffer, I don't know how I would make that make sense in the universe.
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Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision.
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In music, if you hit a wrong note, people forgive you. In magic when something goes wrong, the entire art is destroyed.
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My love of computers, besides being practical, is very direct and visceral. I love the way things look on the screen.
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Never ascribe to conspiracy that which can be attributed to ignorance.
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So many people say, ‘You know, your taxes aren’t taken by force,’ and that’s foolish. If you don’t pay your taxes and you don’t answer the warrant and you don’t go to court, eventually someone will pull a gun. Eventually someone with a gun will show up.
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The vast majority of the world knows there's no reason to circumcise. Someone should tell the doctors.
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When someone is trying to interpret something for you, they always have an agenda.
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I am a huge fan of proselytizing. I am a huge fan of speaking your mind. The only way we can share the universe... is by talking very strongly about what we believe.
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It wasn't success, because Teller and I, by the time Asparagus Valley got together - within a year, we had achieved all our goals. I mean, our goal was to earn our living doing exactly what we wanted. Which is many people's goal.
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Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people can see your lips moving.
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