Penn Jillette on the similarities between stage magic & politics
…Now, I don’t know jack about politics or economics. But what’s starting to worry me is just how much what I do resembles American politics and maybe all government. Let me teach you a bit about magic here, and see if you can’t see some similarities.
My stage partner, Teller, says that magic is “the unwilling suspension of disbelief.” When you’re watching Shakespeare and the actor says he’s a king, you just make-believe, the suspension of disbelief is willing. To enjoy the play, you need to feel like this guy who’s done three appearances on “Law & Order” and a Viagra commercial is actually a king. If you don’t, you can’t follow the play. You lose. There’s nothing there…
…Is our entire political system built on this unwilling suspension of disbelief? We don’t really have a choice, so it’s sure unwilling. We know somewhere in our hearts that our political saviors are not really magic, but we so want them to be. We could bust every one of them if we just broke the rules for a moment. It’s all hanging by a very hard-to-see little thread.