I spoke to Penn Jillette, one half of the Las Vegas perming duo Penn & Teller, about how his personal health has impacted his career, what his morning routine is, the biggest influences on his career, why he thinks his Vegas show has become so successful and his best pieces of advice.
Jillette is a cultural phenomenon as a solo personality. His solo exposure is enormous: from Howard Stern to Glenn Beck to the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, MTV Cribs and Chelsea Lately and hosted the NBC game show Identity. As part of Penn & Teller, he has appeared more than 20 times on David Letterman, as well as on several other TV shows, from The Simpsons and Friends to Top Chef and The View. He co-hosts the controversial series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, which has been nominated for 16 Emmy Awards. He is currently co-host of the Discovery Channel's Penn & Teller Tell a Lie and the author of God, No! and his new book Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales.
Dan Schawbel: How has your personal health impacted your career? What have been your results from losing so much weight?
Penn Jillette: I lost over 100 pounds and I knew that would make a change in my health. I didn’t think it would make a change in who I am. It did. I move differently on stage. I move less. I don’t push. I’m calmer. And the really embarrassing thing is that I’m happier. And I’m not happier because I’m thinner, like I’m not proud of being thinner or more confident because I’m thinner or anything like that. It’s physical. When I did the Vomit Comet (the airplane that does parabolas to train astronauts for space) and did 0G and 2G, I found I was happier when I was floating and sadder when I weighed twice as much. It seem like physical weight has an emotional effect. “Light” and “heavy” are not just metaphors, they’re literally true. I’m happier and that makes me do better shows. It’s nutty.
Schawbel: What is your morning routine that you do before you perform?
Jillette: Well, morning is a long time from when I actually perform my Vegas show. It’s like 12 hours, so I have more then enough time to brush my teeth. I weigh myself and never have breakfast. I use Headspace.com to be mindful for 10 minutes to clear my head. I read my journal for this day 20, 10, and 1 years ago and write my journal for that day. I do business email and interviews and stuff like I’m writing right now. I practice juggling. I practice card tricks. I practice music. I read the paper, which isn’t paper, it’s the New York Times on my giant iPad. I then pick up my children from school and I have supper with them ... then I go to work.
Schawbel: Who have been the biggest influences on your career and how have they helped you overcome obstacles?
Jillette: My mom, dad, and sister loved me, and my wife and children love me — that gets me through all the obstacles that matter in career and life. James “The Amazing" Randi taught me that magic could be done honestly. He taught me not to hate magic and not to hate science just because some people lie. Johnny Thompson taught me magic. Lenny Bruce and Bob Dylan taught me that to live outside the law you must be honest. And Teller got me over the obstacle of not having that much talent, by having more than his share and sharing with me.
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Schawbel: Why do you think your Vegas show has had so much longevity and success? What makes or breaks a show in Vegas?
Jillette: Well, the most important quality of a Vegas show is to make sure the audience doesn’t need to speak English to understand it. You must have the overseas tourist market. I screwed that up by my talking. Oh, well. We are still way more successful than we ever had planned. This was not our goal. Our goal was two orders of magnitude lower. We do stuff that matters more to us than anything else in the world and we work harder and practice more than people think our show is worth. That’s the only magic secret. Being willing to work hard on things people would never believe anyone would work that hard for.
Schawbel: What are your top three pieces of career advice?
Jillette:
1. Read everything.
2. Be honest.
3. Keep going in the face of fear.
