By Michael Shulman, Photographs: Francis George

s people who epitomize the personality of the "new" Las Vegas go, few do so with the aplomb or individual style of Penn Jillette. He's the outspoken half of the comic duo Penn & Teller, the maverick entertainers who over the last 30 years have parlayed their unique sensibility into everything from writing for publications (The New York Times, Playboy) to portraying themselves on Fox's The Simpsons (one of popular culture's greatest honors) to delving into academia, lecturing at Oxford University and the Smithsonian Institution as well as MIT, where they serve as Visiting Scholars. The dichotomous pair, whose popular show at the Rio hotel was just renewed through 2010, also had their Emmy-nominated series on Showtime picked up for a third season. Vegas decided to interview the acclaimed writer, art collector, television producer and Las Vegas headliner while he was shooting a movie on location in the Caribbean.

VEGAS: What can you tell us about the next season of Bullshit!, and what topics can we look forward to you addressing?

PENN JILLETTE: Well, lots of people work together to decide, but I'm gunning for the Boy Scouts. There's a lot of bullshit there, don't you think? You know, throwing out people for being gay and/or not having the right religion. And they meet on public property. And I'm not sure that way of starting a fire works. But they still have my knot board up at Troop 5 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, so I don't want to piss them off enough that they would take that down. Also vitamins…and luck would be good.

Word on the street is that you've co-written a book, How to Cheat Your Friends at Poker [St. Martin's Press], although you are a relative newcomer to the game. What so fascinates you about it -- let alone qualifies you to write a book on the subject?

I didn't actually write the book: I edited it. But it was written by a real -- no kidding -- card cheat whom I've known since I was a kid. He convinced me notto play poker at all. His stories are amazing, but his writing is bad enough that I did write most of it. But the scummy, evil ideas are his. It wasn't until I met [professional players] Andy Bloch and Howard Lederer that I knew anyone played poker seriously without cheating. It's not a book about poker -- it's a book about cheating. I know a little about that; my friend knows a lotabout it.

Your documentary The Aristocrats has received unequivocally fantastic responses (except from AMC Theatres, which really only served to increase the film's indie street cred). Were you and [director] Paul Provenza expecting such widespread approval?

No, we made it for the people in it and for people who love comedy and jazz. We thought we'd sell it on DVD from a web page and sell a few thousand. We were shocked and very pleased. It's nice to know others love comedians and the culture of comedy as much as us.

Was it as much fun to make as it is to watch?

No matter how much fun you had watching, we had more fun making it. The time with those people was really great. You hear me laughing a lot in the movie, and we cut out most of my laughs. I did nothing but laugh.

Who provided your favorite takes on the joke? Also, whose take in particu- lar surprised you the most?

Of course Carlin is the greatest, and Gilbert is the best, but I like Taylor Negron, because after the words mean nothing, he makes them mean what they mean again, and that's really a weird turn. Paul Reiser surprised me the most. I didn't know much about him -- he was Provenza's friend, but he killed me. I love everything he does in the movie -- and in the room live he was even better.

I love the clips of you and Teller per- forming on Saturday Night Live in the mid '80s. How has your style changed over the last 20 years?

We've changed a lot. Most people mellow, but we've gotten more 'us.' We've become more skeptical and hardcore and we trust the audience more. We used to think maybe we had to be a little careful, but now we just really tell the truth as we see it. No matter how smart we think the audience is, they're really smarter. It makes me sick that anyone plays down to an audience that's always smarter than we are. Still, people don't notice too much of a change, because I'm so big and loud and Teller is always quiet. The big things stay the same, but we always write new stuff. We've done almost six hours of different material just in Vegas, and I'm very proud of that ...

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