As a longtime fan of Penn & Teller who has seen every episode of their CW show, “Fool Us,” I wrote this in 2021:
Here’s an idea they haven’t exploited yet, to my surprise. Why not put together a traveling stage show with some of the acts that have fooled P&T over the last decade? Model it on “The Illusionists,” a show that had a successful Broadway run before going on National Tour. We saw it when it came to the Fox Theater in St. Louis with about a half-dozen magicians each doing 20 minutes or so. Not every act was great, but on the whole, it was a very enjoyable evening. Though not every magician would be compatible with such a tour, there has certainly been enough talent among the “foolers” to compile a similar stage show.
At the time, we were in the middle of the pandemic, when producing such an event was impossible, but now they’ve done it. A stage show called “Foolers Live,” featuring four magicians (but not Penn & Teller), has been touring since early this year and has dates scheduled into the fall.
However…
The website says that in the show, “The Foolers pay homage to the classic magic of Penn & Teller.” In the video embedded on that site, I spotted a couple of them doing the Casey At The Bat straight jacket escape I first saw P&T do in 1985 at the Westside Arts Theater in New York. Someone else seems to be recreating Penn’s fire-eating act from that same era. And it looks like they’re duplicating another trick which originally had Teller’s head encased in a block of concrete.
Granted, despite P&T headlining in Las Vegas for thirty years and at theaters around the country for even longer, most of their fan base has never seen them live, so they may not have experienced those routines in any form. They may have never seen any stage magic in person. But all four of The Foolers have their own full-length acts, which is what their segments of this touring show should be drawn from.
It’s one thing in music for a cover or tribute band to perform someone else’s songs, but I wouldn’t want to see other magicians doing Penn & Teller material anymore than I want to see another comedian doing Jerry Seinfeld’s act.