There are few performers out there that are doing anything worthwhile when it comes to magic. Techniques have evolved and continue to evolve at lightning speed in the field of magic, but it seems like most performers have yet to catch up.

Recently, I saw Penn and Teller perform in Atlantic City. As a writer and sometimes performer of magic, I can tell you that they made me totally rethink what it means to create a performance that is fun, thought-provoking and will fool the hell out of you.

After the show, I tried to deconstruct what was so good about the performance. How did they take something that is usually perceived as a novelty and elevate it to the level of artform? Following are my notes that I think can make you start pushing your art to the same place, regardless of what it may be.

1. The Teller Technique
In case you don’t know Penn and Teller, Penn is the big guy who doesn’t shut up and Teller is the little guy who never talks. Teller does some of the most beautiful sleight of hand around and manages to deceive and delight all without saying a word. It’s as if he disappears and lets the magic do the talking (and Penn).

When you get really good at something, whether it be writing, drawi ng, music or even magic, you elevate it to artform by completely disappearing. You don’t physically disappear, but your ego fades into the background and the thing that you’re doing moves to center stage. Get out of the way, close your mouth and let the thing that you’re doing get your point across.

2. The Sucker Effect
There is something in magic called The Sucker Trick. The magician usually shows you a trick. After, he tells you that he will be breaking the first code of magic and tell you how it’s done. He then goes on to give you a completely bogus explanation. When he thinks you’ve bought it, he does the trick again and fools your pants off because the way you think he’s doing it was totally bogus.

A variation of The Sucker Effect is pretending that the trick has gone wrong while the magician is in control the whole time.

These all seem like fun little scams but the problem is that you stop believing anything the magician has to say to you. Nobody wants to be a fool, nobody wants to be taken in. Penn and Teller don’t usually do this kind of thing because at times, they want to talk serious about things that are important to them. Once you’ve lost your credibility, especially as an artist, it’s hard to get it back.

Don’t fall victim to The Sucker Effect. Be honest and don’t lie to your audience.

3. Be Smart and Pretend Your Audience Is Too
This is somewhat similar to The Sucker Effect. Many magicians go into a performance of magic expecting people to be dumb and fall for stuff easily. I’ve hung around after other magician’s performances and heard people explain lots of magic. People aren’t stupid. They can figure stuff out.

Penn and Teller go the other way. They’re smart and they assume that you’re smart too. As a result, their magic has to be very good and it is. They will fool you badly. If you’re really smart and you do happen to figure out some of the tricks, it won’t make you feel taken in because you can appreciate how much thought and time went into putting one over on you.

The entertainment that our culture seems to enjoy at the moment assumes that people are stupid. You only have to turn on any current reality show that spoon-feeds viewers set-up situations that are hardly real and then explains every single piece of the show with interviews and voice-overs. They don’t let the audience do any thinking. Which ultimately leads to a stupider audience.

Do your audience a favor, don’t over explain whatever it is you do. Do your homework and make it smart and different and effective. Eventually, if it’s good enough, people will find it and seek it out. And those people are the kind of audience you want to find your work.

4. Dig The Knife Deeper (Just When You Think You’ve Gone Far Enough, Dig in Deeper)
If you haven’t seen Penn and Teller, you may want to skip over this one as it contains a description of one of their effects. It’s the Knife Throw and it’s one of my favorite things that they do.

Basically, Penn has someone stand against a wooden box that has the outline of a person drawn on it. While he stands across the stage, he has the person close their eyes. Then Teller grabs the knife from Penn and runs over to where the person with their eyes is standing. Penn counts to three and Teller shoves the knife into the board close to the person’s leg. Teller quickly wanders off to the back of the stage as the woman opens her eyes and sees Penn across the stage. It seems as if he’s really throwing knives at her and coming close. The audience howls with laughter, the person being thrown at is confused.

This would be a pretty good bit all by itself. But Penn and Teller push this scenario as far as they can. Most magicians would proabably have ended their but Penn and Teller push it into two more phases, each one more bizarre than the next. I won’t go into the other two phases, only to say they build on the first in ways you definitely can’t imagine.

The lesson to be learned here is, don’t stop at the surface. Keep pushing deeper and deeper. Think about what you’re doing, work hard on it, always be on the lookout for things to add or take away. Don’t be satisfied with the easy solution or the first thought. Keep pushing the knife in deeper. Your art can’t help but benefit from this practice.

5. Express Yourself
Finally, this is the probably the most important thing that anybody can learn.

There is a point in the show where Penn starts talking about his rights as an American. He and Teller do a trick involving the American flag (they actually expose the method sorta kinda) and you can tell that Penn isn’t telling you what he thinks you want to hear, or something that someone else thinks. He is expressing what he thinks and feels. He is being himself.

Even when Teller takes front stage and performs, without any words, you can get a sense of who he his from how he moves, how he acts. You don’t even need words to express yourself.

The easiest way to express yourself is to be yourself. Share what you’re passionate about, write about things that move you, draw things that have meaning to you.

In this way, everyone who expresses themselves is an artist.

If you have a chance to catch Penn & Teller (currently a regular gig in Las Vegas), you’re in for a treat. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite Penn and Teller bits: