On Stage Now: Play Dead

Always wanted to see a magician eat a light bulb, then disembowel an audience member? It happens every night at Play Dead – a ghoulish haunted house of a magic show Off Broadway. It’s the creation of Teller (the short, silent half of Penn & Teller) and longtime Coney Island entertainer Todd Robbins. Kurt Andersen talks – yes, talks – with Teller about death and darkness, ghosts and the power to summon them.
During the show, Robbins delights in pointing out that illusions are merely that.   Mind-reading: fake.   Audience members disappearing in plume of sulfuric acid: fake.   But he performs one trick that’s shockingly, horrifyingly real.
The video below speaks for itself, but it always bears repeating: don’t try this at home.
  
  
  
Video: Todd Robbins, Star of Play Dead, Eats a Light Bulb