What is on my audio device this week: Presto! by Penn Jillette
Presto!: How I Made over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales
by Penn Jillette
Penn and Teller have always sort of been around, they show up as guests on TV shows and movies, both great and not so great (Babylon 5, Hackers, multitudes of their own specials). And they were the magic act that managed to not be a magic act. They were not for old people or kids, they were cool. They were not normal performers, they were a bit dangerous, and funny. They had the whole hip court jester thing going on.
And, having seen Teller’s play (Play Dead) and read a good number of their essays in strange places like books and magazines, I knew that they were interesting freaks outside of their magic shows as well.
But, I did not know if a whole book of Penn Jillette talking about how he lost a ton of weight would be all that interesting. And, well though it does drag a bit, and gets a bit preachy (in the way only a hardcore libertarian atheist is preachy), but those few bits are more than made up for by both the insanity of what Penn did, and his exuberance for what he managed to do.
Now as an audiobook, it really works. One, because Penn knows the material, and secondly, has a great voice.
I don’t know if I will be doing the potato only diet (how Penn lost all the weight) or whole vegetable diet (how he is keeping it off), but while entertaining me along the way, it did give me a ton to think about.
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