It was the one disappearing act which caught magician Penn Jillette by surprise, when for the first time in nearly 50 years he found himself without professional partner Teller by his side.
The US magic comedy duo had been booked to join the judging panel on Britain’s Got Talent spin-off The Ultimate Magician, a one-off ITV Christmas special which airs on Sunday night.
But, just days before they were due to come to the UK for the show in October, 74-year-old Raymond Teller had to drop out to undergo heart bypass surgery.
Penn, 67, who joined judges Alesha Dixon, David Williams and Amanda Holden on the BGT panel, says he was surprised the show still wanted him.
“I don’t think I’m as desirable on my own, I really didn’t think they’d want me without him,” he says.
“It wasn’t a difficult decision for me, what kind of a**hole would I be to leave them in the lurch? But there’s apprehension – I’m part of a team.
“I really missed him though. My left side doesn’t feel right without Teller there. It’s been a good 47 years, it’s something I’m as used to as my left arm.
“But he’s doing tremendously well. Today, as we speak, he’s fighting with doctors furiously to be able to get back on stage a few weeks earlier that they wanted him to.
“I don’t do everything with Teller. I play music without him, write books and do signings and readings without him.
“But doing magic without him? That’s never crossed my mind.”
He compares their relationship to that of another famous double act, Ant and Dec.
The US magician says he doesn’t mind that many fans can’t say who’s Penn and who’s Teller.
“Like Ant and Dec, when we’re standing or sitting together it’s always in that order,” he says.
“I answer to Teller, absolutely. I mean, if someone calls me Teller I don’t flinch, I don’t even correct them. That’s probably true for them too.”
Considered two of the world’s greatest illusionists, Penn & Teller have amazed audiences everywhere from Broadway to Hollywood.
Famously, Penn does the talking while Teller remains silent while performing, something which has often led fans to wonder if he is a mute.
They hold the record for the longest-running residency in Las Vegas history, performing five times a week for over two decades.
The pair, who even have a Vegas theatre named after them, have also been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and nominated for 11 Emmys, winning one.
Some of their tricks are legendary, with their bullet-catching routine, in which each shoots at each other and catches the bullets in their mouths, voted the best magic trick in history.
Penn, who with wife Emily has two children, Zoltan, 16, and Moxie CrimeFighter, 17, has brought up his family up in Vegas, where he and Teller are some of the city’s most famous residents.
Penn, who grew up in rural Massachusetts, where his father was a jail warden, says: “I have had long and serious discussions with my children about [having a famous dad]. It really interests me. When you’re raising children, especially teenagers, you call on your own experience, and in this whole area I have no experience.
“I mean, on the school bus my children go by four billboards for Penn and Teller, and in their town there is a 300ft picture of their father.
“They have to deal with stuff like when they’re walking with their father in public and people come up and hand them their camera and stand next to me, without so much as an excuse me or please.
“These are not unkind or impolite people, these are wonderful people, but my children are invisible to them.”
The kids’ birthday parties were always interesting, he recalls. “I would hire a magician for their birthdays, because I don’t specialise in children’s magic, they don’t want to hear a 15-minute monologue, they want to see a bunny... but he was always a very nervous magician!”
Penn says they are now following in his showbiz footsteps. While Zoltan writes video games and comedy, eldest Moxie does magic and works at the Penn and Teller theatre shop, demonstrating magic tricks to show-goers.
Penn says: “People don’t know he’s my son, so when Moxie is demonstrating card tricks and stuff at the store, people go, ‘hey, you’re pretty good’.
“Someone asked him the other day, ‘have you met Penn and Teller, have you spent time with them?’ To which he answered, ‘I live with Penn’.”
With Teller already eager to get back to work, Penn believes their best magic is still yet to come.
He says: “Teller and I are extremely unusual among performers in that the older we’ve gotten, the more material we’ve written. We have even been doing it while he was in hospital.
“If you’d asked me when I was 15 what I’d like most in the world, it would be to have audiences come and see me to do tricks with the best magical mind alive, which is Teller.
“I’ve got that today, and it makes me work even harder.
“I’ve never understood artists who work hard to get what they want, a theatre, a budget, a crew, and then they go and play golf!
“I’d like to do better. Getting that kind of reaction from an audience is the best feeling in the world.
“I remember doing one of our most original illusions, when we turn an audience member into Teller, and hearing the collective gasps of 1,500 people. The audience reaction was the best I’ve ever experienced.
“I would like to do another 5,000 tricks that can get that reaction from an audience every single night. There’s nothing better. But I’ll die before that.”
*Britain’s Got Talent: The Ultimate Magician, ITV1, Sunday at 8pm
