Teller (born Raymond Joseph Teller; February 14, 1948) is an American magician, illusionist, writer, actor, painter, and film director. He is half of the comedy magic duo
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.
The duo h ...
, along with
Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured i ...
, where he usually does not speak during performances. Teller, along with Jillette, is an H.L. Mencken Fellow at the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...
in
Washington, D.C.
Personal life
Teller was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
[ Biography based on sources including "Email correspondence with Teller. 12–14 August 2007".] the son of Irene B. (''née'' Derrickson) and Israel Max "Joseph" Teller (1913–2004).
His father, who was of
Russian-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
descent, was born in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, and grew up in Philadelphia. His mother was from a
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...
farming family. They met as painters attending art school at
Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial. His mother was
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
, and Teller was raised as "a sort of half-assed Methodist". He graduated from Philadelphia's
Central High School in 1965, and in 1969 graduated from
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...
with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in
Classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
. He became a high-school
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
teacher.
Teller legally
changed
Change or Changing may refer to:
Alteration
* Impermanence, a difference in a state of affairs at different points in time
* Menopause, also referred to as "the change", the permanent cessation of the menstrual period
* Metamorphosis, or chang ...
his birth name of Raymond Joseph Teller to the
mononym
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...
"Teller".
Teller
taught Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
at
Lawrence High School in
Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Lawrenceville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Lawrence Township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. .
In 2001, he was inducted into the Central High School Hall of Fame.
Health
In 2018-2019, Teller had three back surgeries over 18 months.
In early October 2022, Teller underwent open-heart surgery.
Career
Performing
Teller began performing with his friend Weir Chrisemer as The
Othmar Schoeck
Othmar Schoeck (1 September 1886 – 8 March 1957) was a Swiss Romantic classical composer, opera composer, musician, and conductor.
He was known mainly for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles, though he also wrote a number ...
Memorial Society for the Preservation of Unusual and Disgusting Music. He met
Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured i ...
in 1974, and, with Chrisemer, they became a three-person act called Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, which started at the
Minnesota Renaissance Festival and subsequently played in San Francisco. In 1981, Jillette and Teller began performing exclusively together as Penn & Teller, an act that continues to this day. On April 5, 2013, Penn and Teller were honored with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...
in the live performance category. Their star, the 2,494th awarded, is near the one dedicated to
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American Escapology, escape artist, Magic (illusion), magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his Escapology, escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to ...
.
The following day, they were recognized by the
Magic Castle
The Magic Castle is a clubhouse for magicians and magic enthusiasts, as well as the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It is in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California and it bills itself as "the most unusual private club in t ...
with the Magicians of the Year award.
Teller rarely speaks while performing but regularly speaks in other contexts, such as interviews. Teller's trademark silence originated during his youth, when he earned a living performing magic at college
fraternity
A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternit ...
parties. He found that if he maintained silence throughout his act, spectators refrained from throwing beer and heckling him and paid more attention to his performance.
Writing
Teller collaborated with Jillette on three magic books, and is also the author of ''"When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours!": Joe Teller – A Portrait by His Kid'' (2000), a biography/memoir of his father. The book features his father's paintings and 100 unpublished cartoons which were strongly influenced by
George Lichty's ''
Grin and Bear It''. The book was favorably reviewed by ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
''. Teller's father's "wryly observed scenes of Philadelphia street life" were created in 1939. Teller and his father's "memories began to pump and the stories flowed" after they opened boxes of old letters that Teller read out loud (learning for the first time about a period in his parents' lives that he knew nothing about, such as the fact that his father's name is really Israel Max Teller). Joe's Depression-era hobo adventures led to travels throughout the U.S., Canada and Alaska, and by 1933, he returned to Philadelphia for art study. After Joe and Irene met during evening art classes, they married, and Joe worked half-days as a ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' copy boy. When the ''Inquirer'' rejected his cartoons, he moved into advertising art just as World War II began. Employing excerpts from letters and postcards, Teller successfully re-creates the world of his parents in a relaxed writing style of light humor and easy (yet highly effective) transitions between the past and present.
["Forecasts", ''Publishers Weekly'', August 15, 2000.]
Teller is a co-author of the paper "Attention and Awareness in Stage Magic: Turning Tricks into Research", published in ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'' (November 2008).
In 2010, Teller wrote ''
Play Dead'', a "throwback to the spook shows of the 1930s and '40s" that ran September 12–24 in Las Vegas before opening
Off Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...
in New York. The show stars sideshow performer and magician
Todd Robbins.
Directing
In 2008, Teller and
Aaron Posner
Aaron Posner is an American playwright and theater director. He was co-founder of the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and was the artistic director of Two River Theatre from 2006 to 2010. He has directed over 100 productions at major regional ...
co-directed a version of ''
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...
'' which incorporated stage magic techniques in the scenes with the
Three Witches
The Three Witches, also known as the Weird Sisters or Wayward Sisters, are characters in William Shakespeare's play ''Macbeth'' (c. 1603–1607). The witches eventually lead Macbeth to his demise, and they hold a striking resemblance to the ...
. In 2014, Teller and Posner co-directed a version of ''
The Tempest'', which again made use of stage magic; in an interview Teller stated that "
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
wrote one play that's about a magician, and it seemed like about time to realize that with all the capabilities of modern magic in the theater." In 2018, Teller and Posner co-conceived and directed a brand new production of ''
Macbeth
''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...
'' at
Chicago Shakespeare Theater in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
Teller directed a feature film documentary, ''
Tim's Vermeer'', which was released in 2014. He and Jillette served as executive producers, with distribution by
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produce ...
.
Books
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Film and television
See also
*
Harpo Marx
Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and harpist, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Grou ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Teller
1948 births
20th-century atheists
21st-century atheists
American atheism activists
American biographers
American humanists
American magicians
American male film actors
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Amherst College alumni
Cato Institute people
Living people
Members of the Libertarian Party (United States)
Nero Award winners
Schoolteachers from Pennsylvania
Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni