Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic (Paperback)

~ (Author), Teller (Author) "SOME PEOPLE GET TO BE IMMORTAL, AND some don't..." (more)
Key Phrases: guardian vegetable, genie nodded, comedy timing, Aye Jaye, God of Carbonation, Lou Reed (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

While Star Trek fans, role-playing game fans, and even comic book fans eventually find each other and develop something like social groups, teenage magicians are, due to the rarity of their particular geek kink, more likely to remain socially retarded than any other group. That isolation and talent for magic allowed Penn & Teller a great deal of time to devote to revenge, mayhem, and making others look foolish. Now they share their techniques, as well as the wisdom one gains from acquiring happiness only after being ostracized and ridiculed, in Penn & Teller's How to Play in Traffic. A mixture of tricks you can do in hotel rooms, cars, and planes, some ill-advised methods for screwing with the minds of airport security personnel, and a series of memoirs of the unusual people they've met on their B-venue journeys around the world, How to Play in Traffic is not only funny (as one would expect from Penn & Teller) but also oddly insightful.

Review

...their brilliant brand of carny-inspired hucksterism does not always translate to the page. So Penn Jillette--the voice of the duo--wisely intersperses the scams with surprisingly heartfelt essays about his cranky personal obsessions. -- The New York Times Book Review, Judith Newman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1 edition (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572972939
• ISBN-13: 978-1572972933
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #128,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read it for the Stories, July 6, 2001

By	buddyhead (Taxachusetts) - See all my reviews

I am pretty sure the tricks described herein wouldn't work with the people I know, as all of the stunts involve a lot of acting and dialogue as part of the set-up. That said, who cares? This book is hilarious, and as a simple work of comedy, it kills. The now-familiar Penn rants are hysterical, and the descriptions of the duo's friends and favorite places are quite interesting. In particular, the review of the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia (of anatomical and pathological specimens, medical instruments, etc.) is a dark and touching tribute. There is a confusing piece of fiction about a man granted three wishes that I found odd, but otherwise, the book's flow was nice and seamless. As with the live P & T show, there are a lot of great quotes and witticisms. No great work of literature, this, but an extremely effective piece of travel writing that is a hair more intelligent than other books similarly categorized.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leave a nickel on a moving sidewalk and watch it vanish., November 13, 2002

By	Jason Montgomery "Journ" (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Penn & Teller, the self-proclamed "bad boys of magic" and ripoff artistes come through again. This is a very funny book of travel stories plus antics that you, yourself can do, while on the road. Tricks include making the Virgin Mary appear in any photograph, doctoring the flight safety card, how to stop a shaken pop can from exploding in your face and make another one explode in someone else's instead, and how to make someone pick a card which is engraved on an actual cenotaph. Lots of mean fun to be had.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a *wonderful* thing to torture people with, May 18, 1999

By A Customer

even if you're not the hugest p&t fan (ha!) i swear on ron jeremy you'll start to fall in love after reading this book....besides some pretty dang good (well, entertaining) stories and twisted insights, you'll find a plethora o' tricks and scams that give life a nice, zany twist (it also makes people very afraid of you, which can be a very fun thing). penn's story about comedy timing and teller's bit on the mutter museum are two of my favorites. buy the goshdarn book!!!