(be warned, I'm about to YouTube your eyes out)

Penn & Teller were the first magicians that really caught my eye (pun intended - see below). They had a limited run on UK's Channel 4 at about the same time I was recommended "The Royal Road to Card Magic" by a magician working the floor in Harrods. Seeing them in gory, humourous action was such a departure from the stiff, well-mannered methods presented in the book. Consider the following two examples from 1994's "The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller":

Since then, I've always kept the duo in periphery - they are perhaps most famous now for debunking all sorts of common misconceptions in their Emmy award-winning show, "Bullshit!" in the US (sadly, not available here in the UK on DVD - else I'd have 'em all). Penn also went on to host his own radio show on Free FM (archives of which can be found on PennFans.net), and his own video channel on Sony's Crackle, which unfortunately has no RSS feed at present, so I can't get it delivered which you can subscribe to in iTunes here. All this and two shows a night in Vegas.

Of course, most recently, Penn Jillette was on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars", the US-alike of our "Strictly Come Dancing" and was voted off on the second show. Here's the entirety of his performance from the first outing to the Kimmel interview and then Penn's final say.

Penn Jillette remains one of my favourite people in the world. If I ever go back to the States, I'm making a side-trip to Vegas just for the Penn & Teller show.