The past couple of weeks
have been just P&T bliss. For the past few years most of
our TV chat show appearances have been either thrown
together or repurposed. We did some stuff I'm very proud
of, but we also just barely got away with a few. We started
to be punished for this decision: we were having more
trouble getting on shows and, more important than that, we
had fewer people saying the last thing we did was the best
thing they'd ever seen on television.
We're going to NYC for a short Broadway run and we would
need to do some TV to fill up the big old Beacon. We had a
hole in our schedule, so Krasher told us what we needed, how
many "big bits," how many "desk bits," and how many
boiler-plate "lotsies" (a clown term for easy walk-arounds.
Mac King's Creamer Trick was the best for us, and there was
Bean, Scleral Shells, and Neck Cracker. I'm not sure
there's a TV show in the free world that we haven't done
these on and we've also done them on the streets on China,
Egypt, and India. We need new ones.)
Every time it's time to put a project together, a new
dynamic develops. With Big Nathan Santucci as our
full-fledged Director of Covert Activities, and Wiley always
at the shop to help, but not really working, but sure not
not working, that set up a feeling. We brought Johnny
Thompson in every day to brainstorm and work. Man, he can
work. He knows everything. With Teller and Johnny working
together, you have so much experience and a brain trust that
holds everything written about magic. Those two can do
anything.
It was amazing. Just amazing. We were writing for TV
without pressure. We were just trying to come up with great
stuff and we had the time to do it. I believe this was the
first time we've ever had that. We started getting ideas
that we loved and figuring out how to do them. We're
getting everything done and ready, doing a run for video
with Nate as the host, giving that video to Krasher to book,
another copy to remind us how to do it, and then we're on to
something else. The purpose of this "Road Penn" is not to
detail every bit we're working on. Many of you will see
those on TV. It's just little impressions. I needed to
tell y'all about the mouse and that's coming along. We're
still working, we haven't taped yet.
We've taped "Dead Rock Stars," which was all inspired by a
great Johnny trick. We did Psychic Shredder, which is just
a way to beat psychics at their own game (Teller now has
real powers, swear to god, we're not kidding this time).
Jamy and I had come up with a couple tattoo bits and Teller,
Johnny, and I slapped those around and got stuff we really
loved. The punchline to one of them is going to be for sale
at P&T shows. It's a trick that lots of people will want to
do. Johnny gave us the highest compliment by saying that he
would really perform it. No kidding. I wonder if there's
any chance that Jamy will do it for real. How amazing would
that be?
So, there was one more trick to put on video today and then
we could forget about most of those (there are still
important things to be done on a couple) and concentrate on
new stuff. The one trick was "Tattoo of Blood." The idea
is very simple. A host picks a card very slowly and freely
while teller tattoos my arm. It's a for real "Tattoo of
Blood." That means a tattoo without ink, but with all the
pain. There is a twist at the end, but the idea is I'm
getting a real full of pain tattoo on TV.
So, Nate bought us our own tattoo gun and today was the day.
Now we can't rehearse this because the damage to my arm will
last about 3 years, and we want a virgin arm to start. But,
I had to feel good about it. So, I sat down with the gun
(Nate dipped the needles in bleach - hey, you're not playing
with kids). I took a quadruple needle to make a wide line
and sat down to work on myself. I wanted to learn first
before giving Teller a try. I thought it was better to hurt
myself. I had no idea what I was doing. Some guy on the
phone told Nate 1/8th of an inch would be good. I'm such a
nut. I was wearing shorts, so I figured I might as well
just use my upper thigh. Well, I started it up and stuck it
into my leg. It hurt, but I couldn't get the needle to move.
Wiley was watching and pointed out that we had the IN
position at 1/8th of an inch. So, well, it was never
leaving my skin. I was trying to pull a needle sideways
through my skin. We adjusted that and another thing on the
guard. I made a line. It's like cutting your skin with an
Exacto knife. I made these random lines and thought, "This
is stupid," (I'm not the fastest mind in practicality). I
decided to write something. I wrote "No God" in good size
letters right under the fringe of my cutoffs. It's hard to
do, because it doesn't bleed right away and you can't see
the lines in the skin. But, I did it. Man, it looked
jailhouse. It was so jailhouse and these stupid sloppy test
lines above it. But, I did it. Of course, I did it facing
me. So, well, I can read it. Most tattoos aren't done for
the POV of the canvas. I'm an idiot.
Now, it was time for Teller to practice. He wasn't thrilled
about it. He put on some sterile gloves that were lying out
on the table and got to work. I decided he should do the
same thing on the other leg, but facing the other way. He
did a fine job. Man, it hurts. We videoed Teller's work
(it seemed me cutting up myself just looked TOO sick).
We did our run-through for video and I just talked it down
and then we showed the two "No God"s to show them what they
would be getting for a finished card. It looks like it
would be pretty easy to fake, but the skin does welt out and
I'm hoping that it'll look real just because it is real.
Now, I look down at my legs and the left leg says, "NO GOD"
(upside down to me), and the right says "NO GOD" with a few
random lines and dots above it. It's that really pretty
blood and hurt color, but I guess it's okay. It better be,
it's going to be there for 3 years or so. So much for my
aphresis blood donating for about 6 months, but that's okay
because India knocked it out for a year. That's why this
idea came up now.
We have no idea if any show will let us do it. You know, to
some people, this seems a little crazy.
