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Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends
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.
203 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 1989
About the author
Penn Jillette
40 books444 followersPenn Fraser Jillette is an American comedian, illusionist, juggler and writer known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 20, 2023
Dunno how smart it is to start your book with a story where you think a 15 year-old is hot, but some of the other stories and anecdotes are actually pretty well written. The gimmicks are pretty good, too, though my copy was missing the phony scifi magazine, which sucks. Also, having every other page be an unreadable copy of your movie script for the sake of one dumb trick isn't worth the aggravation.
June 9, 2017
My copy didn't come with the supplies, but I was able to find them at a magic shop.
July 5, 2021
A book that is a series of tricks in and of itself. Amusing and entertaining.
December 16, 2008
What an awesome find in the "free bin" at the co-op! A discarded library book in perfect shape! I remember my brother playing one of many dirty tricks on me as a child...I think I was 11 and he was 18. He had me pick a card and bet me what was a large sum of money to an eleven-year-old that he could guess my card, making it seem impossible. After he incorrectly guessed and I smugly demanded my money, he played a Penn & Teller video that bored me, but destroyed my win. Penn or Teller held up my card! Cute, but it sucked!
Remembering this, I snatched this book out of the bin intending to read it and send it off to him. I could tell this would be a pretty interesting read, as Penn & Teller are much more brilliant than I had previously thought, but I could also immediately see that they share my brother's a-bit-too-dark humor, not mine. So I read a few pages and I'm sending it off to him.
I give it a 7/10 because I think it's good, just not for me. Enjoy!
Remembering this, I snatched this book out of the bin intending to read it and send it off to him. I could tell this would be a pretty interesting read, as Penn & Teller are much more brilliant than I had previously thought, but I could also immediately see that they share my brother's a-bit-too-dark humor, not mine. So I read a few pages and I'm sending it off to him.
I give it a 7/10 because I think it's good, just not for me. Enjoy!
November 4, 2007
Contains the entire text of the fabulous "Mofo the Psychic Gorilla" routine, but you'll need a magnifying glass to read it. Seriously. Still, it's there. Also, I'm pretty sure this book has Penn's story, "The Best Magic Trick I've Ever Seen," which is, aptly, one of the best stories ever.
April 23, 2016
I love Penn & Teller, but this is not my favorite of their books. i'm thrilled to have the entire script for their movie in the book, but it's so hard to read the script...and unfortunately, much of the material sandwiched between the script is not up to their usual standard.
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December 27, 2007another wonderful colin gift!
May 7, 2020
This book is amazing, but some of the scams are a little contrived and dated. Love these guys, though.
July 4, 2008
Only one word is needed for this review: Hilarious.
June 18, 2011
Reading this book will make you giggle like the evil monster you are - and it'll let you do so at the expense of suckers like your friends and family.
September 11, 2016
Clever and funny.
September 2, 2012
So great!!!!!
February 11, 2013
Hilarious.
March 18, 2013
The "fork in the eye" trick is worth the price of the book!
July 16, 2014
Heheheheheheh! They crack me up with their jokes, and they dazzle me with their skill.
December 2, 2014
Slightly dated and a bit contrived, but still enjoyable.
February 7, 2015
Excellent. Funny.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews