Penn’s Sunday School podcast is not for everyone but if you are an adult, into magic and, most importantly, into logistics, it is for you.
To say we love logistics would be an understatement of unwieldy proportions.
If logistics were a woman, we would flirt with it and hold our eye contact for an uncomfortably long period of time. If it were a child, we would adopt it, put it in special schools to be taught by singing nuns and far from all evil. If it were a dog, we would also adopt it and send it to special obedience schools with singing nun trainers. We really love logistics.
We have seen David Copperfield on tour in cities all over America (that makes us a fan not a stalker – the clump of his hair that we bought on eBay makes us a collector, not a stalker either. We have no innocent explanation for our ownership of a salad fork he once used, however).
The Copperfield show is always great but our favorite part is watching the load-in and load-out from and into the huge semi-tractor trailer bearing Mr. Copperfield’s face. We cannot see that much because his crew is very discreet in their moving of the big crates and rigging. Still, it holds our attention for a good hour or so.
When we were very young, we got to work for a day as a roustabout for the Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus during its performance in Vero Beach, Florida. We spent the morning helping to set up the grandstands, moving chairs, lifting things, pulling things and watching the big tent appear like magic. We admired how the bosses knew exactly what to do and in what order. We imagine they learned from experience to put all the stands and chairs into the area before they erected the tent walls; or figured out in advance to get the tent poles up and positioned within the holes before hoisting the canvas up. They were pros and they knew logistics. We were in love.
When Penn Jillette describes the behind the scenes of the Las Vegas Penn & Teller show on his weekly podcast, Penn’s Sunday School, we smile involuntarily.
This week’s podcast made us smile like a goof – as our Irish grandmother would say.
We usually listen whilst walking great distances to get our cardiovascular workout and test the range of the court-ordered anklet we wear. We used to think that people were intolerant and judgmental but now realize that the strange looks we received were likely because of our glowing goofy smile – and probably the anklet (autographed by Lindsay Lohan).
In his latest episode, Penn recounted an experience from a recent show at the Rio Resort and Casino’s Penn & Teller Theater. We won’t ruin the story for you but it has to do with a specially gimmicked jacket that resulted in him being fooled twice unbeknownst to the audience. He recounted his internal dialogue as he tried to figure out what was happening whilst he was on stage performing a different effect. An incredible story and if you love logistics, you too will smile with the best of the goofs as you listen.
As we mentioned, his podcast has adult language and themes (whatever an adult theme is) so we do not recommend it for our younger readers or those who are easily offended but for those of us with very thick skin – in our case, from the incessant rubbing of the anklet – it is a wonderful chance to hear about the preparations and logistics of a big time magic show.
You can subscribe to the podcast through Apple’s iTunes store or directly through Penn’s Sunday School here.
