Raymond Joseph Teller was born on the 14th February 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA, of British and Russian ancestry. He is best known for being a magician, illusionist and comedian, who is half of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, together with Penn Jillette. He is also recognized as an actor, and the author of several books on magic. He has been an active member of the entertainment industry since 1974.
Have you ever wondered how rich Teller is, as of mid-2016? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that the total size of Teller’s net worth is currently as high as $175 million. He has been accumulating this sum of money through his successful career in the entertainment industry as an actor and magician over more than 40 years. Another source is coming from his career as a writer of several books on the subject of magic.
Teller Net Worth $175 Million
Teller was raised in a Jewish family by his father Israel Max and his mother Irene B. Teller. He attended Central High School in Philadelphia which he finished in 1965. Afterwards, he enrolled at Amherst College, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1969. Later during his career, he taught Latin and English at Lawrence High School. Teller`s career began in the early 1970s, befriending Weir Chrisemere and founding The Othmar Schoeck Society for the Preservation of Weird and Disgusting Music. The two performed together until 1974, when Penn Jillette joined them. They soon changed their name to Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, and continued as a trio, withtheir first act was performed at the Minnesota Renaissance Fair. However, in 1981 Weir left them, and Penn and Teller continued as the duo they are today.
Throughout the years, the two have become one of the best entertainment acts, receiving numerous awards for their performances, including a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. Some of their notable works include “Penn & Teller Get Killed” (1989), “The Unpleasant World of Penn & Teller” (1994), “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” (2003-2010), “Penn & Teller Tell a Lie” (2011), and most recent “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (2015), all of which have added to Teller`s net worth.
Teller has also been recognized as an actor, appearing in several TV series and films, including “My Chauffeur” (1986), “The Fantasticks” (1995), “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” (1996-1997), “The West Wing” (2004), “Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike” (2014), and “Director’s Cut” (2016), among others, all of which have increased his net worth by a large margin.
To speak further of his accomplishments, Teller has also released five books; his first book was in collaboration with Penn, entitled “Penn and Teller’s Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends” (1989). The two continued in the same fashion, writing together which resulted in books “Penn and Teller’s How to Play with Your Food” (1992), “Penn and Teller’s How to Play in Traffic” (1997), and “”When I’m Dead All This Will Be Yours!”: Joe Teller – A Portrait by His Kid” (2000).
Thanks to his skills, Teller has received numerous prestigious nominations and awards, including several Primetime Emmy nominations in the category of Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming for his work on “Penn & Teller: Bullshit!”.
When it comes to speak about his personal life, little is known about Teller in the media. In free time he enjoys painting and playing the vibraphone. Regarding his religion and political views, Teller is known as an atheist with a libertarian political philosophy. It is interesting that he is also recognized for legally changing his birth name to the mononym “Teller”.
WGA Award for Best Comedy/Variety - (Including Talk) Series - Television, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Illusions/Magic Design, WGA Award for Best Comedy/Variety - (Including Talk) Series - Television, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Illusions/Magic Design
Nominations
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program, BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing - Nonfiction Programming, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program, BAFTA Award for Best Do...
Movies
Whiplash, War Dogs, Fantastic Four, Bleed for This, Divergent, The Spectacular Now, Insurgent, That Awkward Moment, Two Night Stand, Rabbit Hole, Get a Job, 21 & Over, Allegiant, Project X, Footloose, Granite Mountain, Divergent Series: Allegiant - Part 2, Thank You for Your Service, My Chauffeur, P...
TV Shows
Penn & Teller Tell a Lie, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Wizard Wars, Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour, Behind the Scenes, VGX Award Show, Penn & Teller Tell a Lie, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular, Penn & T...
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Trademark
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Never speaks
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Quote
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To most people who have a point of view, merely being on TV is an intrinsic good.
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People take reality for granted.
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Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology. If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful.
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The Boy Scouts of America is no longer entirely what people think it is. Essentially, it has been hijacked by religious conservatives.
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The place we want to explore unpleasantness in the real world is in art.
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People do not come to a Penn & Teller show to see a magic show. They just don't. They come to see weird stuff that they can see no place else, that will make them laugh and make the little hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.
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People come up to me on the street and make some little joke - like they'll say, 'Excuse me, sir, what time is it?' And I'll say, you know, '5:15,' and they'll say, 'Hey! Made you talk!' And that's merely a way of saying, 'I know your work and I like you.'
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The silent thing onstage allows for a kind of intimacy that no conversation can have. If I just shut up, we're forced to look at each other and really confront that moment.
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In America, magic has never been an important part of peoples' lives.
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If you read Shakespeare's stage directions, all the gore and violence is right in there.
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If there isn't at least the threat of violence in art, it tends to be kind of tiresome.
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Onstage, I find absolutely nothing but exhilaration in not talking.
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Magic's about understanding - and then manipulating - how viewers digest the sensory information.
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I believe in art.
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Given my absolute druthers, I would certainly like to see that every part of my body is used for spare parts for science.
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Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn't mean it is simple.
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Comedically, unpleasantness is great fun.
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I always assumed I'd spend my life happily performing in artsy-fartsy little theaters.
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Neuroscientists are novices at deception.
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Nobody who is a Penn & Teller fan thinks of us first and foremost as magicians, but as a comedy team.
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As a kid, I was a Hitchcock lover; I cared about the dark side of things.
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Magicians have done controlled testing in human perception for thousands of years.
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Generally, magicians don't know what to say, so they say stupid and redundant crap like,'Here I am holding a red ball.'
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Magic is an art form where you lie and tell people you are lying.
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Doing beautiful things is its own reward.
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I'm more apt to cry at something beautiful than at something sad.
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Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.
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I'm a lazy sod.
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Indian street magic tends to be very gory, blood and guts. One trick is for a magician to take a knife and appear to cut his kid's head almost off. The magician then says to the crowd, 'Well I can continue to cut off my son's head or you can all give me some money.' Then he wanders around and takes 10 rupees from everyone and restores his son.
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If you do something that you're proud of, that someone else understands, that is a thing of beauty that wasn't there before - you can't beat that.
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Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself.
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When a magician lets you notice something on your own, his lie becomes impenetrable.
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In real life, the most important decision you ever make is, where does reality leave off and make-believe begin? If you make a mistake about that, you're dead. You know, you're out on the street corner. You think there's no bus coming. You step out, you're dead.
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If there existed even one psychic who had predicted that disaster, we'd be very, very interested. But, nope. What haunts me about 9/11 is the horrible knowledge that those who did the deed did it to further the divine will. Whenever we hear a politician bless killing, we should think twice.
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Magic is the art of creating false (but funny or beautiful) cause-and-effect relationships. That's our area of expertise. When we do it on a stage, the audience is fooled, but only for the moment, only in the theater. They know they're watching a show. They know it's all tricks. They do not go home and try to float in the air or catch bullets in their teeth. [But] When we see scam artists peddling false cause-and-effect as reality; when we see the tools of theater and poetry used to victimize the vulnerable; when we sick people submitting to "medical procedures" that belong in a Three Stooges movie; all this enrages us.
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Fact
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He and Aaron Posner were awarded the 2016 Joseph Jefferson (Equity) Award for Director of a Play for "The Tempest" at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
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He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 7003 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 5, 2013.
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Performed a nightly show at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada (2003).
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Attended and graduated from Amherst College in Anherst, Massachusetts.
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Attended and graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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He spoke in his role in Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (2012) when he said, "Miss Taggart, maybe you should take the side door. It's getting pretty dicey outside.".
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On his guest appearance on The Simpsons (1989), he spoke five lines, a rarity for this usually silent actor.
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His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother had British Isles ancestry.
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He and stage partner Penn were contestants on an episode of celebrity Fear Factor (2001). Teller performed all of the stunts while Penn was left out of the action. In the end, the duo was beaten by Keshia Knight Pulliam.
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Teller, like Penn Jillette, is a staunch atheist with a libertarian political philosophy.
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Taught English and Latin at the same high school that Jon Stewart and Thom Bray attended.
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Has had essays published in the New Yorker magazine.
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Plays the vibraphone.
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His green room at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino was redone by Penn Jillette and the crew from the show "While You Were Out" on TLC.
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Extremely talented painter.
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Despite his trademark of never speaking, Teller has appeared in speaking roles in several films and television series, including the Learning Channel's "Mysteries of Magic", in which he appeared for an interview, as himself, without stage partner Penn Jillette.
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Changed his name to Teller legally, and has one of the few US passports issued with a single name.
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Driver's license reads "NFN Teller". "NFN" is short for "No First Name".
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Taught English and Latin at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville, Mercer County, New Jersey.
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With partner Penn Jillette, half of comedy-magic team Penn & Teller.
$300 Million
