Penn and Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour – Prestidigitators Penn Jillette and Teller – notable for their blood and humor magic shows – leave their Las Vegas venue for visits to China, Egypt, and India in search of the ancient origins of magic tricks. In Beijing, China, during the winter they find performers outside in subzero temperatures as well as inside an otherwise vacant, unheated complex for magic performances; in the countryside nearly every rural village has its magicians.

In Cairo, Alexandria, and elsewhere in Egypt they seek street magicians performing the centuries-old cup-and-ball sleight of hand and discover inside a 4000-year-old tomb hieroglyphs that depict jugglers and possibly the cup-and-ball trick. (On one occasion the usually mute Teller actually explains a trick.) Finally in the slums of New Delhi and Calcutta and behind the Taj Mahal in Agra the pair look for an Indian who can do the famous rope trick.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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