Penn & Teller are celebrating their 50th anniversary as a team by returning to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, the site where they first started working together.
“It’s just like the Beatles going back to the Cavern Club, except we’re not musicians,” Penn Jillette told the Star Tribune. “And we didn’t define a generation. And we aren’t superstars. And we’re both alive.”
Some might disagree with the idea that they’re not “superstars.”
The pair’s mix of magic and comedy has made them familiar faces on both TV and stage.
It all started in 1975, when mutual friend Weir Chrisemer introduced the two magicians to each other. The trio, which performed under the name the Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, debuted at the Shakopee-based event and later became known for their gigs at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco. Chrisemer retired from show business in 1981.
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival, which will be held Aug. 16-Sept. 28, isn’t known for booking celebrities. Its main lure is food and costumed re-enactors.
But it makes sense that organizers would make an exception for the renowned duo on opening day. The stage and time for the one-day-only show have yet to be announced. “I have a big place in my heart for the Minnesota RenFest,” said Teller, who rarely talks on stage. “It was the first place I actually earned my living doing magic. For me, it was showbiz boot camp, sweating in leather and velvet, swatting gargantuan mosquitoes, the poignant silent moments in my show, shattered by blasting bagpipes as shrieking hippie children climbed my leg. Once you’ve held a crowd there, Broadway and Las Vegas are a cakewalk.”
For ticket info, visit renaissancefest.com.
