Penn & Teller Go Network
With a pot of tea and a chicken sandwich, Teller retreated back to his office to go be an adult and process order forms. An ad for the shop had recently run in Magic magazine, and now they were getting more orders than they knew what to do with.
But lots of orders meant lots of quiet time. With Chopin playing quietly in the background, Teller was able to disappear into his own little world full of paperwork and soft sounds.
“Hey, Teller!” Penn slammed into the office, which was quite a feat, considering it had no door.
The noise made Teller jump, and he glared up at his partner. What could possibly be so important?
“Hey, the Cryptic guys want me in San Francisco next month for something,” Penn said excitedly. “I guess they got a new project they’re working on, and want me to collaborate again. They said you can come with.”
Teller shrugged as he waved Penn away. Truth be told, those Cryptic guys drove him nuts. But they paid well, and he and Penn went Dutch on everything. A few weeks in San Francisco always more than made up for the shop being closed in that time, even after the cheque was split in half.
With Penn back out in the front of the shop where he belonged, Teller was able to get back to work. If they were expected to be in San Francisco next month, there was a lot of work to be done. These orders had to be processed, notices had to be made, bills had to be paid in advance; plenty of excuse to hide in the dark like a vampire.
“Hey, Teller!” Penn said as he came crashing back into the office.
Teller looked up at him, going out of his way to breathe calmly. His clenched jaw told a different story though.
“Listen, Mom wants us up there for supper tonight. We’ll leave soon as we close up, all right?”
Teller nodded calmly and pointed at the way out of the office. It took a few moments, but Penn finally obliged. Well, at least he’d be getting supper out of this arrangement. Any night he didn’t have to worry about messing up his kitchen was a good night.
Maybe now, he’d be able to actually get something done. Looking down, he realised that he hadn’t even finished his first order form. At this rate, it would take all damn year to fill these requests. Sighing, Teller picked up his pen and went back to work, determined to finish this order before lunch.
“Hey, Teller!”
“What!?” Teller shouted, slamming his hand down on the desk to punctuate his utter exasperation with his partner.
“Uhm, you’re busy,” Penn said quietly. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
Teller watched as he quietly backed out of the office. Moments later, the stereo out in the front of the shop was turned on, which generally meant Penn would be preoccupied for the rest of the day. Good.
A few minutes later, Penn quietly crept into the office, sliding a small scrap of paper onto the desk before sneaking right back out, Teller barely looking up at him. It wasn’t until it was time to turn the record over did Teller even look up to see what Penn’s note had to say. Not sure if he should be annoyed or terrified, he unfolded the note and read it.
And then he read it twice more, just to be sure. He took the note out to the shop front, holding it up questioningly.
“Yeah, they called when you were working,” Penn said when he noticed Teller standing in the doorway. “Some talent scout for NBC. I guess they saw us at that dinner party last month. They want us not this week, but next. Is that do-able?”
Teller read the note again. An appearance on national television? Hell, he’d do it at a day’s notice. This was huge.