Penn Jillette

From Penn Jillette of the legendary magic duo Penn & Teller: a rollicking crime caper that will bend your mind like a spoon.Two weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out he’s inherited a crushing gambling debt from his scumbag father. The debt is owed to an even scummier bag named Fraser Ruphart who oversees his bottom-rung criminal empire from the classy-adjacent Trump International Hotel. Bobby’s prospects of paying off the note, which comes due the day he turns twenty-one, are about as dim as the sign on the hotel’s facade.The two weeks pass in the blink of a (snake) eye, but before Bobby’s luck runs out, he stumbles upon enough cash to pay off Ruphart and change his family’s fortune. More importantly, he finds himself with a new, for lack of a better word, faith.Bobby does not consign his big break to a “higher power”—what Penn Jillette hero ever could? Instead, he devises and devotes himself to Random, a philosophy where his life choices are based entirely on the roll of his “lucky” dice. What follows is a rollicking exploration into not so much what defines us as what divines us when we give over every decision—from what to eat to whom to marry to how or when to die—to the random fall of two numbered cubes.Random combines the intellectual curiosity of Richard Dawkins with the humor and grit of an Elmore Leonard antihero. Jillette’s up-on-his-luck Ingersoll is the character we need to help us navigate the chaos of the post-truth era.Well, unless his roll runs cold.

A scathingly funny reinterpretation of the Ten Commandments from the larger, louder half of world-famous magic duo Penn and Teller reveals an atheist's experience in the world: from performing on the Vegas strip with Siegfried and Roy to children and fatherhood to his ongoing dialogue with proselytizers of the Christian Right and the joys of sex while scuba-diving, Penn has an outrageous sense of humor and a brilliantly entertaining opinion on, well, anything you care to think of.

An unconventional weight loss tale from an unconventional personality—Penn Jillette tells how he lost 100 pounds with his trademark outrageous sense of humor and biting social commentary that makes this success story anything but ordinary.Legendary magician Penn Jillette was approaching his sixtieth birthday. Topping 330 pounds and saddled with a systolic blood pressure reading over 200, he knew he was at a dangerous if he wanted to see his small children grow up, he needed to change. And then came Crazy Ray. A former NASA scientist and an unconventional, passionate innovator, Ray Cronise saved Penn Jillette’s life with his wild “potato diet.”In Presto , Jillette takes us along on his journey from skepticism to the inspiring, life-changing momentum that transformed the magician’s body and mind. He describes the process in hilarious detail, as he performs his Las Vegas show, takes meetings with Hollywood executives, hangs out with his celebrity friends and fellow eccentric performers, all while remaining a dedicated husband and father. Throughout, he weaves in his views on sex, religion, and pop culture, making his story a refreshing, genre-busting account. Outspoken, frank, and bitingly clever, Presto is an incisive, rollicking read.

The larger, louder half of legendary magic act Penn & Teller, and New York Times bestselling author of GOD, NO!, is back with a new collection of spiritual rants and hilarious ravings -- the perfect year-round gift, when you consider that EVERY DAY IS AN ATHEIST HOLIDAY.

Twisting the buddy cop story upside down and inside out, Penn Jillette has created the most distinctive narrator to come along in fiction in many years: a sock monkey called Dickie. The sock monkey belongs to a New York City police diver who discovers the body of an old lover in the murky waters of the Hudson River and sets off with her best friend to find her killer. The story of their quest swerves and veers, takes off into philosophical riffs, occasionally stops to tell a side story, and references a treasure trove of 1970's and 1980's pop culture. Sock is a surprising, intense, fascinating piece of work.

What kid of any age can resist a book guaranteed to make fellow diners blanch at restaurants or at the family dinner table? Mean, disgusting, vile, hilarious. The book that makes CRUEL TRICKS look like an etiquette guide. 35 black-and-white photos.

Penn & Teller impart their priceless secrets for conning, scamming, and fooling your closest personal friends. And even they're suprised how many copies of this we've 120,000 to-date.

Collects practical jokes, tricks, and anecdotes for the armchair magician, including the "eternal card trick," "tattoo of blood," and "off the cuff"

From Penn Jillette of the legendary magic duo Penn & Teller: A street performer finds himself enmeshed in a crime and must outwit his fellow conspirators in his greatest juggling act yetIN THE EARLY 1970S, Poe―a quick-witted young juggler from rural Massachusetts―abandons the talent shows of his childhood in favor of a nomadic life. He hops trains, hitchhikes, lives on the streets, sleeps rough, and juggles to feed himself. A few years before, he would have been a hobo; a few decades later, he would have been homeless; but in 1973, he is just a street-juggling hippie. After roaming the country for a few years, Poe settles in Philadelphia and masters his street act before ever-growing crowds. In time, he runs all the busking around South Street like the don of a street-performing mafia. But his talent at manipulating crowds attracts the attention of a criminal organization who convince him to provide a diversion during a bank heist for a payday far greater than the coins he collects in his hat. Things go south, an innocent bystander is killed, and this peace-love talking hippie is now a felony murderer. He splits town and goes into hiding, but he can’t resist the lure of the crowd, and resurfaces under a pseudonym in Hibbing, Minnesota, drawing large crowds as a regular performer at a Renaissance Fair(e). Unfortunately, his notoriety outs him to the criminal organization who believes he took something of importance from them during the heist. Using all of the wit and misdirection that has made him the best street performer anyone has ever seen, Poe must outsmart and outmaneuver them in order to return to the peaceful life of juggling. Felony Juggler is an accurate depiction of the streets and street performing in the 1970s, told with the excursive and a-little-too-honest style of Penn Jillette―who was, just coincidently, in his own words, a street juggler and carny trash in the 1970s. Like his previous novel Random, Jillette’s intellectual curiosity, twisting morality, and honed stagecraft fuel a madcap narrative brimming with his renowned humor.

SPIDER-MAN & DEADPOOL MEET PENN & TELLER…and trade partners! Can Deadpool be Teller?!? Can Teller be Deadpool?!? Written by Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller, while Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness get ahead on their next issue!

Poker-mania is sweeping the nation, from the World Championship of Poker to internet poker and power poker. But home poker games shouldn't just be about they're about stripping your opponents bare without their ever suspecting a thing. Teaming up with Mickey Lynn, Penn Jillette gives a home poker player everything he needs to know in one tidy volume. Lousy with attitude, stylish with swagger, How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker delivers a lifetime's worth of card-shark knowledge, including how --pick your marks--mark cards--use "shiners" to keep track of other player's hands--cut cards--stash holdoutsThis is not a book about how to play poker-the shelves are already full of those-it's about how to cheat, make money, and win big. If you're in the game, you're either a fish or a shark. How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker is the ultimate shark's playbook.

From Penn Jillette of the legendary magic duo Penn & A street performer finds himself enmeshed in a crime and must outwit his fellow conspirators in his greatest juggling act yet.In the early 1970s, Poe is living a nomadic life, hopping trains, sleeping rough, and juggling to feed himself. He eventually settles in Philadelphia and masters his street act before ever-growing crowds. When one of his fellow buskers presents him with an opportunity—a bank heist—he should have refused, an innocent bystander is killed, and he splits town a felon.Unable to resist the lure of performing, he resurfaces halfway across the country as a regular act in a Renaissance Fair(e). Unfortunately, his notoriety outs him to the criminal organization who believes he took something of importance from them during the bank heist. Using all of the wit and misdirection that has made him the best street performer anyone has ever seen, Poe must outsmart and outmaneuver them in order to return to the peaceful life of juggling.Drawing from his own youthful experience as a nomadic juggler—before earning international acclaim as one half of the magic duo Penn & Teller—Jillette’s madcap thriller is an authentic and often hilarious glimpse into the pleasures and perils of performing on the street.

Penn Jillette explains his absolute atheism and why it makes him hopeful and optimistic. This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

A not-unexpectedly, very strange collection of stories and music from Penn Jillette and illustrated by Renee French (Penn is the tall half of the well-known team of Penn & Teller - the one who talks nonstop.)