Guns and Comedy
Penn and Teller cannot do one of their signature tricks in New Jersey due to gun laws:
“You can’t do guns in Atlantic City,” Jillette lamented. “Even bribes couldn’t [help]. They get very jumpy about .357 Magnums in Atlantic City.”
Interesting. Quite a few states have exceptions in the law for dramatic expressions and entertainment. Guess NJ is not one of them.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:21 am
If I ever have to fire my gun in self-defense, you’re definitely going to hear some dramatic expressions!
May 27th, 2009 at 10:00 am
The Sopranos and Law & Order: SVU both had/have to jump through hoops to use theatrical firearms when filming in NJ.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I love the episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullsh*t! they devoted to calling B.S. on gun control…that was awesome.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:33 am
So could one stand across the state line in PA and shoot at the other in NJ to record their bullet catching trick for NJ viewers?
I’m thinking that the first 1000 government officials to review the request for the stage prop thought the same thing: “New Jersey residents are so stupid there will be hundreds of deaths immediately following this magic trick.”
May 27th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
NJ – the armpit of America
May 27th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Ten years ago I saw P&T do their .357 magnum trick at the Warner Theater in D.C.
Penn gave a long and hilarious spiel about bringing a pair of revolvers into The District:
“Well, it’s not a real gun, is it?”
“Oh, yes, they’re both real guns.”
“But it’s a stage prop, right? It’s not a REAL, real gun?”
“No, they’re not stage props, they’re actual guns. Both of them. They’re both REAL, real guns.”
He said that they had to surrender the guns to the D.C. police before entering The District. And then he introduced the police officer who was holding the guns, who brought them onto the stage so that the trick could proceed.
May 27th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I saw the trick about 10 years ago in Ohio, and there were no such theatrics. 🙂
May 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
“They get very jumpy about .357 Magnums in Atlantic City.”
He’s probably giving them too much credit for knowledge of firearms and calibers. Chances are they wouldn’t know .357 mag from .38 special, or any other scawy, scawy caliber, except that if it has the word “magnum” or the word “fifty” attached to it, it must be especially scawy.
May 28th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Too bad. Their version of the trick is far better than most. I have no idea how they do it, but it’s great. I once saw one of those “Magic secrets revealed!” shows with a masked magician explaining how tricks work, and he explained how to do the bullet-catching trick. But his version was easy to pick apart even before seeing the explanation; none of the tricks he used would explain Penn and Teller’s trick.