Local teen recounts experience on Penn & Teller show

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A high school student from Rock Canyon High School is continuing to amaze friends, family and people across the world after he appeared on a nationwide television show called Penn and Teller: Fool Us.

The show features magicians who try and fool Penn Jillette and Raymond Teller, two world-renowned magicians.

Being on the show is something 16-year-old Liam Abner had always aspired to do ever since he stopped in the Reinke Brothers shop in Littleton six years ago and met a then-famous magician, Richard Nakata.

"He asked, you know, ‘You want to see a magic trick?’" Abner said. "Then he asks, you know, ‘Do you want to know how it’s done?’ And that’s when you sort of go down the rabbit hole and Richard gave me an eight-volume set of books. They’re called the Tarbell Course in Magic."

Then, he started performing in front of friends and family, learning as much about the art as he could.

"I do practice more than anything. If you’re my parents listening to this, I don’t. I do school more than anything," Abner said with a laugh.

He admitted he practices hours a day, and it has paid off since he now does paid performances.

"Things like birthday parties or cocktail hours. I mean, you name it I’ve probably done it," Abner said. "It’s tremendous. I mean, it’s grown more than I could’ve hoped."

Finally, last year, he committed to making a performance for the Penn and Teller show, then sent it in. He said he was in a band concert playing his instrument, the tuba when he got a notification on his phone. While another group was playing, he glanced at his phone and his eyes widened.

"I see ‘Penn and Teller Fool Us: Producers,’ and I look at it and I go, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the Penn and Teller’. You know. World of excitement and then the email is, like, the shortest it possibly could’ve been. It’s just, ‘Liam, can you hop on a Zoom call at 10:30 tomorrow?’"

That was what he did. Months later, he found himself on stage in front of the biggest audience up until that point he had ever performed in front of.

"Taking it all in because that’s, you know, that’s what you should do and that’s what they tell you to do," Abner said.

He performed his trick, and while he wasn't able to fool the great Penn and Teller, the other half of the duo found him backstage.

"Teller says something I’ll probably never forget." He said, "'In this trick, you have achieved the highest form of magical causality you possibly could have.’"

He explained that is magician lingo for saying that everything leading up to the moment the magic happened was weaved together and timed perfectly.

"To receive that from a master of magic, a true legend is, I mean, I probably stood there, I probably shed a tear if I’m totally honest," said Abner

Now, Abner said his goal is to become a professional magician and continue to bring people together through this unmatched art form.

"However long I’m with an audience or with participants you know, with guests, nothing else matters. There’s no stress, there’s no worry, for me and the audience," Abner said. "It's just truly, truly amazing what happens in that moment, in that interaction. And that’s the reason I do what I do."