Farewell Penn & Teller... Again
After fifty years of performing together, Penn & Teller are taking their tricks on the road for another final time.
Penn & Teller are about to head out on an Australia tour and a UK run in 2025. These are not their first final farewell shows; those took place two years ago!
In 1975, a magician and a juggler performed together for the first time at a Minnesota arts festival. Little did they know that this partnership would be revered as one of the great magic acts of all time, with multiple TV shows, book deals, and world tours to their name, not to mention being lauded as the longest-running headline act in Las Vegas's history.
Of course, this is the incomparable Penn & Teller, who will celebrate 50 years of performing together—their golden anniversary—in 2025.
Considering the dynamic duo's combined age of 145 years, this 50th-anniversary milestone is doubly remarkable. They are currently shooting the 11th season of Penn & Teller: Fool Us, and are signed on to continue headlining at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas until 2026.
The pair will perform across Australia starting in January and then at The London Palladium for eleven nights of anniversary shows later in the year. This will be the first time Penn & Teller have performed in the UK since June 2023 as part of their "First Final UK Tour."
Yes, you read that right: Penn & Teller's last tour this side of the Atlantic was really billed as, well, their last—or at least the first of their last.
Did you go and see Penn & Teller in 2023, thinking you'd never get the chance to witness the iconic duo on British soil again, only to be caught hook, line, and sinker in their pedantic semantical ruse? More fool you, my friend.
The thing is, as well as being in line with their distinct sense of humor, the chance that they could return was always on the cards. When we wrote about Penn & Teller's first farewell tour, we noted that the ambiguous title seemed to be both a genuine possibility and a parody of other performers who milk their farewell tours til the cows come home.
The first time around, Penn Jillette had this to say: "Is this our last UK tour? We don't know, but you're welcome to buy tickets and hope for that, while we'll be hoping for more final tours than the Stones and Cher put together."
The upcoming run at the Palladium seems to be the only venue they will be playing in the UK, so it's not quite another nationwide tour – unlike their busy schedule across Australia in January and February.
Big names in Vegas rarely head abroad for significant runs. When they do, the reasoning tends to be much more specific. An act might want to give up on a market they know will come to see them. However, the reason could also be that Teller likes London, and Penn wants to see the Sydney Opera House.
The duo is working hard to sell out the run as soon as possible, appearing and performing in recent weeks on some of the UK's major channels, including Sky News and ITV News.
They even appeared on Good Morning Britain and performed their infamous Cups & Balls routine (a routine so infamous it scuppered their chances of getting into The Magic Circle for breaking the club's strict exposure rules).
Arguably, their biggest promotion for the anniversary show has yet to be broadcast, as they recently recorded an appearance on this year's Royal Variety Performance and got to meet the King (not Mac King—the "King" king, the one with the crown). It was very decent of him to allow them both to perform, given that the King is, in fact, a member of The Magic Circle!
The first chance to get a clearer idea of what to expect in the 50th Anniversary show is when the reviews come out from the Australian run, which ends in February. That assumes the same show will come to the UK.
Interestingly, no performer is scheduled to cover for them in their bespoke Penn & Teller Theatre while they're away. The last time they went on tour, Michael Carbonaro took over the Penn & Teller Theatre. There is no word yet on who will be filling in for them this time.
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