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July 12, 2015

Though it’s been four decades since they first teamed up, Penn and Teller are looking terribly of-the-moment these days. Never mind that their latest entertaining exercise in populist hocus-pocus — “Penn & Teller on Broadway,” which opened on Sunday night at the Marquis Theater — includes some of the oldest tricks in any conjurer’s book, including the extraction of a rabbit from a top hat and sawing a woman in half. These are the magicians, after all, who for years have been telling us not to believe in the magic they do. How appropriate that credo feels in the early 21st century, when everybody seems to be in on the joke that everybody else is a fake. Penn Jillette, left, and Teller in Times Square.Penn and Teller, Reconjured on BroadwayJUNE 17, 2015 It’s hard to hear a pop star’s hit record now without thinking of the technology that smoothed and sweetened the vocals, or to listen to a politician without imagining a team of speechwriters, or to watch special effects in an action movie without wondering about green screens. As much as we may be amused or even enthralled by such spectacles, it’s become a point of honor to know that they’re only illusions. Or, to use the delicate language of Penn and Teller, it’s all BS, a term that the audience at the Marquis yells out (in its unabbreviated form) on a cue from Penn (the stage name of Penn Jillette; Teller is always just Teller, for professional purposes). “Penn and Teller: BS” was the title of this team’s long-running series on Showtime, devoted to the exposure of professional frauds.

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