‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ UNLV Hall of Fame honor, Marty Allen’s birthday — the Year of Penn is keeping Jillette on the move

By John Katsilometes

Sunday, March 25, 2012 | 6:04 p.m.

For Penn Jillette, the lessons of “Celebrity Apprentice” were first laid out in a book written by the only shrink to win a Nobel Prize.

The book is “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” and it was written by Daniel Kahneman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. How the work of a psychologist and Nobel laureate factors into a famous entertainer’s role in a network TV show is best explained by the famous entertainer.

“Kahneman’s book is written, from my perspective, about ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ ” Jillette said Thursday night before his longtime performing partner, Teller, and he were inducted into the UNLV Entertainer & Artist Hall of Fame at UNLV’s Student Union Ballroom. “It talks about something called Ego Depletion, which is, if you put someone on camera for more than 4 hours, it’s like putting them on heavy drugs.”

There is an explanation, even from a man who has never experimented with heavy drugs.

“Once you have censored yourself for over 4 hours, you can’t do it anymore. The ego gets weak,” said Jillette, who has been exposed to such intense on-camera scrutiny during the current season of the NBC competition series hosted by Donald Trump. “Kahneman talks about all these studies that have been done, so when you watch these shows, you think you’re dealing with stupid, narcissistic celebrities -- which you are -- but anyone would do the same thing under those conditions. Being in the middle of this behavior is sort of nutty. People you’ve known for years are acting in ways that are appalling.”

Penn & Teller were joined in the UNLV Hall induction by the late Peter Foy, known as the “Father of Theatrical Flight” and founder of Flying by Foy who most famously gave flight to Mary Martin in the stage adaptation of “Peter Pan”; and KGA Architecture founder George Garlock. Also honored were Edward Smith, who received the College of Fine Arts Dean’s Medal for “continually demonstrating commitment to education and extraordinary contributions to the College of Fine Arts,” and David Howrlya, president of Marnell Architecture, as the College of Fine Arts Alumnus of the Year.

The pointed, crystal trophies doled to honorees are called the Sidney Awards, named for the Hall of Fame’s first inductee, three-time Academy Award-winning director George Sidney, a regular guest lecturer at UNLV’s film classes. Sidney’s widow, Corrine, is a strong supporter of the university and was again on hand for the presentation, which was emceed by KTNV Channel 13 anchor Casey Smith.

A few moments from the event: Siegfried Fischbacher was in attendance -- he tries to make the dinner every year - and said Roy Horn and he just returned from a vacation with 15 friends in Cabo. Magician Lance Burton, who was a headliner at Monte Carlo for 16 years and is now retired, showed up in support of Penn & Teller. Vera Goulet, widow of inductee and entertainment legend Robert Goulet, looked great in her trademark red hair. And UNLV President Neal Smatresk worked the room, looking far leaner than a year ago, as he has dropped 40 pounds. Intentionally.

The event always presents a fascinating mix of sensibilities -- the year the Killers were inducted, UNLV College of Fine Arts Dean Jeff Koep needed to explain to many in the audience just who the Killers were and why they merited such a prestigious honor from the university. On Thursday, the boundary-pushing comic magicians were brought to the stage by Hall of Fame member Lorraine Hunt-Bono, the onetime Las Vegas lounge singer who opened, and closed, the Landmark hotel-casino and also served for eight years as Nevada’s lieutenant governor. Hunt-Bono is married to longtime Las Vegas variety-TV and radio show host Dennis Bono and owns Bootlegger Bistro, a haven for some of the city’s best singing showcases (including Kelly Clinton’s open-mic nights on Mondays).

I’ve not known Penn & Teller to perform, ever, at Bootlegger, but after seeing the duo share the stage with Hunt-Bono on Thursday, anything is possible. Teller even spoke, a rarity, blurting “Thanks!” into the mic after accepting his award.

Jillette was typically more verbose than his partner of 35 years, a tandem that has spearheaded one of the city's best stage shows -- at the Rio -- for the past decade. I’d joked that 2012 was shaping up as the Year of Penn, given his ubiquitous-ness in the first 4 months of this year. Jillette even showed up at Marty Allen’s 90th birthday party celebration at Palace Station on Saturday afternoon, joining a similarly odd collection of celebs and newsmakers onstage at Louie Anderson Theater that included Allen, Mayor Carolyn Goodman (presenting Allen with a key to the city), former mayor Oscar Goodman, Anderson and Allen’s wife, Karon Kate Blackwell.

Jillette is using his “Celebrity Apprentice” platform to benefit his chosen charity for the show, Opportunity Village. That effort mitigates the acute strangeness of competing with such celebs as Lisa Lampanelli, Lou Ferrigno, Clay Aiken and Aubrey O'Day. Jillette has delivered $40,000 to the Las Vegas foundation, which provides vocational training to those with intellectual disabilities.

Jillette says he had never watched the show before he was a cast member and even since then has viewed the proceedings only from the inside.

“The biggest revelation, for me, is how fair they are,” he said. “I’d expected the producers to cheat, to control the outcome, but it turns out, from a Vegas point-of-view, they don’t have to cheat. It’s the house’s advantage. If you’ve got Donald Trump, who is crazy, and you put people in this purely existential situation, telling them, ‘You have to do this task. There’s no reason for it, you’re not good at it, you just have to do it. And you have to win this task for your charity.’ If you have all that, you have a winner.”

Jillette says the benefit of the show can be measured in more than pure dollars.

“If I worked all the time I was on ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ and gave all that money instead to Opportunity Village (laughs), they would do better,” he says. “But I give them a lot of attention, no question about that, I have raised awareness. So you can’t be too cynical about it … But on ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ you’re placed on a team of people put who are put together in order to have trouble. They pretend it’s a real business environment, but it isn’t. If you were to work at Apple with someone who was not good, they would move that person out and fix that problem.

“Here, if you’re really not good, your chances of getting fired go to ‘zero.’ (laughs).”

Jillette’s fate on the show is still unknown. He could be fired tonight, but that would not be a tragedy. In the Year of Penn, the opportunities are limitless.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.