Say it ain’t so!
A hack magician is threatening to sell the secret behind a famed Penn & Teller trick performed by the comedic magic duo’s non-talking half, Raymond Teller, according to a new lawsuit.
The classic sleight of hand, copyrighted by Teller in 1983, involves a spotlight casting the shadow of a vase with a rose in it onto a white screen. As part of the act, Teller then “slices’’ the shadow’s leaves and petals with a knife so that they fall to the ground.
Teller’s suit, filed in Las Vegas, where he and Penn Jillette regularly perform, accuses Dutchman Gerard Dogge of posting a YouTube video of his trick and offering to sell its secret for $3,050, Reuters reported yesterday.
Teller said he found out about the ruse last month and offered to pay Dogge the dough to avoid going to court.
But Dogge only jacked up his price further, the lawsuit said.
Teller claims in his suit that copyright infringement laws prevent Dogge from selling the trick — and he wants damages, too.
According to the complaint, the trick, “Shadows” is “the oldest, most venerated piece of material in Penn & Teller’s show.”
It is a “gothic pantomime has been performed by its creator over 1,100 times since 1976,” according to its humorous January 1983 copyright certificate. “It’s about time he registered a copyright, don’t you think?”