Actors - Penn Jillette

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	Actors - Penn Jillette

Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts,) is an American illusionist and comedian known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller as Penn & Teller.

Biography

Penn Jillette, the larger (6'6"/1.98 m compared to Teller's 5'9"/1.75 m) talkative half of Penn & Teller once attended Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Clown College, for which he has since apologized. Jillette became disillusioned with traditional magic acts that presented the craft as real by watching The Amazing Kreskin on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. At age eighteen, he saw a show by illusionist James Randi (The Amazing Randi,) and became enamored with his presentation of magic as openly acknowledged deception as entertainment rather than a mysterious supernatural power.

Penn married television producer Emily Zolten during an impromptu ceremony at a Las Vegas wedding chapel on November 23, 2004. They welcomed their first child, daughter Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette, on June 3, 2005 and are now expecting a baby boy who they will name Zolten Penn Jillette, who is expected to be born on June 6, 2006. On a January 2006 episode of the radio show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Jillette explained that his wife suggested they use "CrimeFighter" because she herself does not have a middle name, people don't generally know other people's middle names, and they might as well "have some fun with it."

He occasionally notes with irony that although he lives and works in Las Vegas, he does not gamble (though he has written a book on how to win at poker), and has never had a drink of alcohol or done recreational drugs.

Projects

Penn appeared as "Drell" on the TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch and was a voice announcer for the U.S. based cable network Comedy Central in the early 1990s. One of his earliest guest roles was on Miami Vice
.

Penn was also a regular contributor to PC Computing magazine in the early 1990's, having a regular back section column. True to form, the columns were often as much about Uma Thurman as actual PC computing issues.

In July of 1999, Penn was granted for the "Jill-Jet", a hot-tub jet specially angled for a woman's pleasure.

Penn has collaborated with avant-garde musicians The Residents. Penn's own band is called The Captain Howdy. He was also a member of Bongos, Bass, and Bob, in which he played bass guitar. Penn is also the owner of the entire catalog of the band Half Japanese, headed by Jad Fair. He is featured in the Half Japanese documentary "The Band that Would be King". Penn and fellow Clown College alumnus Steven Banks collaborated in writing Love Tapes – a romantic comedy stage show which premiered February 2005 at Sacred Fools Theater in Hollywood.

Penn appeared as himself in the 2004 documentary Michael Moore Hates America
.

With actor Paul Provenza, Jillette co-produced and co-directed the The Aristocrats
(2005), a documentary film tracing the life of an extremely off-color joke of the same name.

Since January 3, 2006, Penn has hosted a live, hour-long radio talk show broadcast on the radio station brand known as Free FM: WFNY-FM New York, WCKG Chicago, KIFR San Francisco, WJFK-FM Washington, D.C., WKRK Detroit, KSCF San Diego, and WHFS Baltimore. The show is also broadcast on KSFN "Spike 1140" AM in Las Vegas.

Penn Jillette, along with his partner Teller, produce and host Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (currently, the 4th season is in production), in which the pair debunk supernatural and commonly believed urban myths, such as the claim that bottled water is superior to tap water and the claims that gun control prevents crimes.

Appearance

Speculation arises from Penn's red fingernail on his left hand. From a FAQ from , there are three common answers:

# It means he once shot a man for asking personal questions. # When Penn first began performing, his mother told him to get a manicure because people would be looking at his hands. In response to this, Penn had all of his nails painted red as a joke. The one remaining red fingernail is in honor of his dear mother. # The red fingernail provides excellent misdirection and is just plain cool.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Penn Jillette ]

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