http://bigthink.com<br /><br />This trick, which they debuted on Saturday Night Live in 1986, put an unexpected twist on Houdini's classic water tank escape.<br /><br />Question: Explain your famous water tank trick. Penn Jillette: We wrote the water tank for Saturday Night <br /> Live. We wanted to do something big, it was for the Madonna show, a <br />kick off show the year we were on and we want to do something big. And <br />we wanted to do something that... our favorite Penn and Teller stuff is <br />the stuff that the big trick is ignored. When David Blaine does a water <br />tank all he's talking about is, "I'm in the water. I'm going to drown. I <br /> might die." Our way of doing the water tank is "I'm going to do a card <br />trick, the card trick is what matters, I have supremely skilled hands. <br />I'll do the beautiful card trick and oh by the way Teller is holding his <br /> breath during it." That to me is much more interesting.So we <br />started with that and did it for the first time for "Saturday Night <br />Live" and then it was the bit we did the most. We did it on just about <br />every show. We did it on "Letterman." I mean, a bit that he did on <br />"Saturday Night Live" and on "Letterman" and a lot of other shows and <br />also we had our own show over in England called the "Unpleasant World of <br /> Penn and Teller." We brought John Cleese on as a guest and he played <br />the audience member part in the water tank.Recorded on June 8, 2010Interviewed by Paul Hoffman<br /><br />Question: Explain your famous water tank trick. Penn Jillette: We wrote the water tank for Saturday Night <br /> Live. We wanted to do something big, it was for the Madonna show, a <br />kick off show the year we were on and we want to do something big. And <br />we wanted to do something that... our favorite Penn and Teller stuff is <br />the stuff that the big trick is ignored. When David Blaine does a water <br />tank all he's talking about is, "I'm in the water. I'm going to drown. I <br /> might die." Our way of doing the water tank is "I'm going to do a card <br />trick, the card trick is what matters, I have supremely skilled hands. <br />I'll do the beautiful card trick and oh by the way Teller is holding his <br /> breath during it." That to me is much more interesting.So we <br />started with that and did it for the first time for "Saturday Night <br />Live" and then it was the bit we did the most. We did it on just about <br />every show. We did it on "Letterman." I mean, a bit that he did on <br />"Saturday Night Live" and on "Letterman" and a lot of other shows and <br />also we had our own show over in England called the "Unpleasant World of <br /> Penn and Teller." We brought John Cleese on as a guest and he played <br />the audience member part in the water tank.Recorded on June 8, 2010Interviewed by Paul Hoffman
