Penn & Teller are one of the most iconic magical acts on the planet. For around half a century they’ve been thrilling fans, while always pushing boundaries and never relying on the same old tricks.

The pair have the longest running residency in Las Vegas, and are a must when visiting the city, offering something different to playing casino games with them making playing cards disappear rather than dealing them to you.

But like casinos and online casino sites, there’s much more to them than cards. They’ve produced some incredible illusions as well as some death-defying stunts. That’s why in celebration of the pair, we’ve decided to run down their very best tricks and stunts…

The Bullet Catch

The bullet catch stunt is not for the faint hearted and in fact a number of magicians have even died trying to do it. Penn & Teller add a bit more jeopardy to the mix too by firing guns at each other with the idea they’ll catch the bullets in their mouths.

Sadly, the trick can only be performed in certain parts of the world due to gun licensing laws, so it’s perhaps only in Vegas that anyone will really get to see it.

The Water Tank

This is a classic take on the famous Houdini escape, but they also add a card trick dimension to it. Teller once said of the Water Tank, “The idea of being in a water tank and not escaping seemed interesting.

“And the idea of someone taking a card trick so seriously he’d be willing to drown himself to prove his commitment to it seemed mightily funny.”

For the audience, the humour is there. But of course there is also the tension in the fact that they also might drown!

The Cups And Balls

Penn and Teller really do the classics well and that’s certainly the case with the cups and balls trick. It’s a trick that dates all the way back to Roman times, but this pair like to do things differently and in this case they do what all magicians shouldn’t do – give away their secrets.

The trick did anger some magicians for breaking the magician’s code, but for fans it was brilliant, and added a brand new twist on a trick we’ve seen all too often.

The Helium Escape

Another inspired by Houdini’s popular escape routine, Penn said of the helium trick, “We thought putting helium in the bag would prove it was untorn.”

The trick shows Teller sealed inside the bag of gas but in a split second escaping. Although it’s not always gone to plan with one performance seeing Penn take a little too much of the helium and finding himself “on a beach”. Of course, he was just as high as a kite and was actually in the middle of the stage with a number of staff and medics trying to wake him up!

Shadows

Shadows is perhaps our favourite Penn & Teller trick and sees Teller interact with the shadow of a flower which then has a mysterious effect on the petals. It’s almost like poetry and dance rolled into one. Except it’s magic. It’s long been a favourite of the pair and the theatrical piece always goes down incredibly well with a crowd, sending gasps throughout the theatre.

It was actually one of the earlier tricks they devised, with Teller first coming up with it in high school. It’s stood the test of time though and will go down as one of the true greats.