Always wanted to see a magician eat a light bulb, then disembowel an audience member? It happens every night at Play Dead — a ghoulish haunted house of a magic show Off Broadway. It's the creation of Teller (the short, silent half of Penn & Teller) and longtime Coney Island entertainer Todd Robbins. Kurt Andersen talks — yes, talks — with Teller about death and darkness, ghosts and the power to summon them.
During the show, Robbins delights in pointing out that illusions are merely that. Mind-reading: fake. Audience members disappearing in plume of sulfuric acid: fake. But he performs one trick that’s shockingly, horrifyingly real.
The video below speaks for itself, but it always bears repeating: don’t try this at home.
Video: Todd Robbins, Star of Play Dead, Eats a Light Bulb
Incidental Music from the off-Broadway show "Play Dead"
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Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC Radio, and is funded in part by Ken and Lucy Lehman and the National Endowment for the Arts. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Our Science and Creativity series is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Comments [3]
It is my opinion that Buddy either has deluded himself and truly believes the dead talk to him or he is a fraud. He's one of the other, or maybe a bit of both. When it comes to mediums, there is a ton of anecdotal reports, but absolutely no irrefutable proof.
There are those that talk to the dead, but the problem is that the dead don't talk back to them.
I saw this performance the other night and it was by far the most fun I have ever had in a theatre. I'd suggest going with someone you want to snuggle up with for protection when things start getting scary.
Sure. All these guys (many of them magicians) act as though ALL mediums are fake -- tricksters like them. And then there are those people who really do communicate with folks on the other side. No, really. I'm one of them. The truth -- and the proof -- would amaze you.
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