God, No!
Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales
Published on 16. August 2011
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-4516-1036-9 (ISBN)
Description
God No!has a range of stories--funny, tender, sad, and nearly all autobiographical--from a writer, who has been inside the showbiz whale for more than thirty years, travelled the globe performing magic, and lived for a decade in the dark heart of American greed, commercialism and filth: Las Vegas. Some of the essays illuminating Penn's First Commandment (The highest ideal is human intelligence, creativity, and love. Respect those above all.) includeSiegfried, Roy, Montecore, Penn, and Leather Pants,and You Can Be Bruce Springsteen Too!As he says of Commandment #4 (Put aside some time to rest and think): "If you're religious, that might be the Sabbath; if you're a Vegas magician, that'll be the day with the lowest grosses." Commandment #5 (Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children),includes an astoundingly funny and heartfelt essay about Penn's mother, a late-in-life Atheist herself, and Shirley, the local lesbian pastor. And of #8 (Don't steal): "This includes magic tricks and jokes--you know who you are!" Penn's hard-earned and worldly experience combined with self-taught wisdom and plain common sense make this absurdly funny collection a heartfelt and hysterical read.
Reviews / Votes
"Penn Jillette is a 21st-century Lordof Misrule: big, boisterously anarchic, funny, Rabelaisian, impossible-andunique. There isn't-couldn't be-better not be-anybody like him." -Richard Dawkins, bestselling author ofThe Greatest Show on Earth and The God Delusion "There are few people in the country who question more boldly, brashly and bravely than my friend Penn Jillette. This book is funny, provocative and profane. But is it right? God, no!" -Glenn Beck "This planet has yielded exactly one mutual friend for Glenn Beck and me and that friend has written a brilliant book called God, No!. Penn reveals `the big secret of magic,' tells you why tattoos are perfect expressions of atheism and exactly what to eat when you know you're going to vomit later." -Lawrence O' Donnell "People who say that libertarians have no heart or atheists have no soul need to read this book. Because Penn Jillette has a lot of both." -Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park and award-winning Broadway musical The Book of Mormon "Jillette has made a career as a provocateur, and it is tempting to dismiss this book as another piece of carny shtick, but there is a forceful intelligence at work here that demands to be taken seriously. He has shaped his argument with care." -Daniel Stashower, Washington Post Book WorldMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
425 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4516-1036-9 (9781451610369)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2011
1st Edition
Simon + Schuster LLC
€13.84
Available for download
Person
Penn Jillette is a cultural phenomenon as a solo personality and as half of the world-famous Emmy Award--winning magic duo Penn & Teller. His solo exposure is enormous: from Howard Stern to Glenn Beck to the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, MTV Cribs, and Chelsea Lately and hosted the NBC game show Identity. As part of Penn & Teller, he has appeared more than twenty times on David Letterman, as well as on several other TV shows, from The Simpsons and Friends to Top Chef and The View. He cohosts the controversial series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, which has been nominated for sixteen Emmy Awards. He is currently cohost of the Discovery Channel's Penn & Teller Tell a Lie and the author of God, No! and Presto.