Thursday, August 11, 2016
8pm
8pm
Penn Jillette
in conversation with Matt Donnelly
in conversation with Matt Donnelly
discussing his upcoming book,
Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales
Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales
Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
New Roads School
Herb Alpert Educational Village
3131 Olympic Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404
PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission Section Seating
$43 Reserved Section seat + a copy of Presto!
$95 Reception (6:30-7:30pm) + Reserved Section Seat
+ 2 books (Presto! and Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday!
Penn Jillette is a cultural phenomenon as a solo personality and as half of the world-famous Emmy Award-winning magic duo Penn & Teller. His commentary has appeared in the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared onDancing with the Stars, MTV Cribs, and Chelsea Lately, Howard Stern, Glenn Beck and hosted the NBC game show Identity. As part of Penn & Teller, he has appeared more than twenty times on David Letterman, as well as on several other TV shows, from The Simpsons and Friends to Top Chef and The View. He cohosts the controversial series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, which has been nominated for sixteen Emmy Awards. He is currently cohost of the Discovery Channel’s Penn & Teller Tell a Lie and the author of God, No! and Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday! Penn Jillette appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles in 2012 and interviewed Richard Dawkins in 2015.
“Penn Jillette is a 21st-century Lordof Misrule: big, boisterously anarchic, funny, Rabelaisian, impossible—andunique. There isn’t—couldn’t be—better not be—anybody like him.” — Richard Dawkins, (The Greatest Show on Earth and The God Delusion)
In Presto, Jillette takes us along on his journey from skepticism to the inspiring, life-changing momentum that transformed the magician’s body and mind. He describes the process in hilarious detail, as he performs his Las Vegas show, takes meetings with Hollywood executives, hangs out with his celebrity friends and fellow eccentric performers, all while remaining a dedicated husband and father. Throughout, he weaves in his views on sex, religion, and pop culture, making his story a refreshing, genre-busting account.
Jillette tells how he lost 100 pounds with his trademark outrageous sense of humor and biting social commentary that makes this success story anything but ordinary. He was approaching his sixtieth birthday. Topping 330 pounds and saddled with a systolic blood pressure reading over 200, he knew he was at a dangerous crossroads: if he wanted to see his small children grow up, he needed to change. And then came Crazy Ray. A former NASA scientist and an unconventional, passionate innovator, Ray Cronise saved Penn Jillette’s life with his wild “potato diet.”
Matt Donnelly is a fellow “cro-nut” with Penn who also lost 74 pounds following Ray Cronise’s plan. Matt currently co-hosts the Penn’s Sunday School podcast with Penn as well as the “Best Comedy Podcast”, Matt and Mattingly’s Ice Cream Social. When Matt isn’t writing for Penn & Teller Fool Us on CW, you can catch him performing in 50 Shades the Parody at Bally’s, or performing in the “Bucket Show” at the Art Square Theatre in downtown Las Vegas.