Felony Juggler by Penn Jillette
Release Date: 5/6/25
Publisher: Akashic Books
By Matt Spaulding
Felony Juggler, the third novel by Penn Jillette, the bigger, louder half of famed magic duo Penn & Teller, is a funny, semi-autobiographical novel in which Jillette images what his life would have been like had he fallen prey to peer pressure and made a choice that would have altered his path forever.
I have been a big fan of Penn & Teller, specifically Penn, for a huge chunk of my life. I have been a weekly listener to Penn’s podcast, Penn’s Sunday School, since it first debuted in 2012. Because of that, I recognized the first several chapters of this book as being absolutely true, having heard Penn recount these same stories multiple times over the past thirteen years. It’s told exactly in his own voice, just as if he were really writing a straight autobiography. And that alone is incredibly entertaining, given the life Jillette lead from the time he “got out of high school on a plea deal” through his years hitchhiking around the country and street performing.
But, at a certain point, the “crime novel” part kicks in. The fictional Penn, named Poe in this story, makes a choice to get involved in a bank heist, and that changes his life forever. The rest of the novel is Poe on the run, he moves to Hibbing, Minnesota (because that’s where Bob Dylan is from) and begins a new life as “Tiny”. From here, we get to spend time with Tiny as he starts a new life and falls in love. That is, until his past catches up with him.
The fun part of the book is picking out what parts of the novel are being made up vs what parts of the story probably still reflect the life and thoughts of the real life Penn Jillette. As a Penn fan, I managed it pretty easily. But folks not as familiar with the man himself can still enjoy the meta, faux autobiographical nature of this tale.
Jillette’s voice is funny, unique, philosophical, and raunchy. He delights with stories about juggling, sex, hitchhiking, music, and clown college. He often takes tangents to poke fun at himself and at the reader. The novel is written almost, but not quite, stream of consciousness, like it was dictated as a bunch of stories and thoughts taken down word for word and not edited. Almost. It’s more readable than that. But it gives that vibe, and that’s part of the entertainment and charm. It also makes the pacing very brisk, as Jillette doesn’t get bogged down in language and descriptions. He’s telling a story on the page as if he’s telling it orally. He shares only the necessary details. And as much as I love rich, descriptive, incredibly detailed writing like in a Stephen King novel, there’s something wonderful about a story that’s in the vein of the oral tradition of storytelling. You can practically hear Jillette in the room with you telling this instead of you reading words on the page. It makes me want to revisit it with the audiobook (which Jillette reads himself).
If you thought a magician couldn’t be a good novelist, guess again. Pick up Felony Juggler and enjoy.