Penn Jillette Biography:
Penn Fraser Jillette was born on March 5, 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. His popularity has grown due to his long career as an illusionist and comedian. He became interested in the art of illusion when he was 18 years old. He was inspired by famous illusionist James Randi and got a high school classmate from Greenfield to develop their own juggling act after graduation. In 1975, he got Teller to join the act and named their group Asparagus Valley Cultural Society. 6 years later, he and
Teller performed under the name “Penn and Teller” in an off-Broadway show. Since then, Jillette has gone on to perform for huge audiences, even occasionally bringing the stage act to television.
In 2006, Jillette was asked by NBC to host the unusual game show called Identity. The game show has Jillette presenting 12 strangers and 12 identities to a contestant. It is up to the contestant to decide which one of the 12 identities belongs to one of the 12 strangers. When a contestant has “sealed the identity” of one stranger, Jillette will then ask the contestant what he believes the stranger’s first name is, and then the stranger will either confirm or deny it.