7:10 - Powerline vs. Penn and Teller

[UMPIRE]

SEASON 7, ROUND 10

Powerline

Slot: The Team Entertainer
Season Wins: 1
Season Losses: 2
Fantasy Team Page
Read more about Powerline at Wikipedia
Official Site: Disney

Penn and Teller

Slot: The Team Entertainer
Season Wins: 0
Season Losses: 3
Fantasy Team Page
Read more about Penn and Teller at Wikipedia
Official Site: Penn and Teller

Battle Terrain
Entertainer: Variety Show

[Fox]

This one is interesting.  They each have two strong categories and two weak ones - diametrically opposed.

Penn & Teller:

• Comedy Opener - A
• Song - B
• Magic Trick - A
• Dance Finale - B

Powerline:

• Comedy Opener - C
• Song - A
• Magic Trick - C
• Dance Finale - A

I think Powerline's weak areas are weaker than Penn and Teller's.

Who would I, personally, select if I had to put on a Variety Show?  The Las Vegas legends - Penn & Teller of course.

 

[DSkillz]

P & T finally pull their specialty for a terrain.  

I think the duo pulls this one out.

[Peypeypeypey]

I know this is gonna shock everyone, but I disagree with what everyone else has said lol. I think Powerline doesn't just win the song and dance categories, he obliterates them. Penn has been shown to play instruments before, but I can't find anything about him singing. And we know for a fact that he's not a good dancer. So as far as I can tell, Powerline, a charismatic and energetic celebrity, should do as well in stand-up as Penn, a musically talented man with no notable singing experience, would do in a singing competition, and from there, Powerline presumably fails the magic trick hard, and we know Penn can't dance well at all, so I think it's a wash

[Bergy_Berg]

12 hours ago, Peypeypeypey said:

I know this is gonna shock everyone, but I disagree with what everyone else has said lol. I think Powerline doesn't just win the song and dance categories, he obliterates them. Penn has been shown to play instruments before, but I can't find anything about him singing. And we know for a fact that he's not a good dancer. So as far as I can tell, Powerline, a charismatic and energetic celebrity, should do as well in stand-up as Penn, a musically talented man with no notable singing experience, would do in a singing competition, and from there, Powerline presumably fails the magic trick hard, and we know Penn can't dance well at all, so I think it's a wash

It's not really a singing competition, it's just a song as part of the variety show. So Penn, while not an amazing singer by any stretch, can do enough with his talents to get the job done.

The dance is rough for Penn and Teller, but then they blow away comedy and magic.

So where Powerline does well in 2 of 4 categories, P+T do well in 2 and are passable in a third. Ultimately, the magicians with the longest running ever Vegas show put on a better variety performance.

[Peypeypeypey]

30 minutes ago, Bergy_Berg said:

It's not really a singing competition, it's just a song as part of the variety show. So Penn, while not an amazing singer by any stretch, can do enough with his talents to get the job done.

The dance is rough for Penn and Teller, but then they blow away comedy and magic.

So where Powerline does well in 2 of 4 categories, P+T do well in 2 and are passable in a third. Ultimately, the magicians with the longest running ever Vegas show put on a better variety performance.

So I don't mean to demean Penn Jillette. I actually really respect him and enjoy his show (Fool Us I think it's called). However, if you play this at a variety show, you're going to lose a lot of the members of the audience. He's not terrible, he's not even really "bad," but he's also nowhere near good, and I genuinely believe he would lose a lot of the audience if he tried to pull this out in between his comedy and his magic. There's a reason why he's not known as a singer/magician. 

I agree that's it's obviously not a "singing competition" per se, but it is a competition between the two groups, and the singing is going to be an important factor in determining a winner. A major problem I have is that it's not really clear how these are supposed to be judged. If it's some ephemeral, "objective" assessment of how good the show overall is, then Fox's initial breakdown would make some kind of sense, but it's also wildly subjective. As much as I think Penn and Teller are entertaining, I've never honestly found them to be top tier comedians. They're funny, but take away the magic and I wouldn't ever really tune in to them. And I know that's subjective, but that's kind of my problem with trying to rank it in some "objective" way.

If, however, you were to poll random members of the audience as to which show was more enjoyable, or which they preferred, or whatever way you want to phrase it, Powerline would probably win. Penn and Teller have an audience, and they would play well to the crowd I'm sure, but ask the general public if they would rather watch a Penn and Teller show with really bad dancing and passable singing, or a Michael Jackson/Prince show with average/bad comedy and laughable magic acts, I genuinely can't see MJ/Prince/Powerline losing that competition. And I know Powerline isn't MJ/Prince, but he's clearly based on them and is his universe's equivalent of that. Again, in some objective sense, you could probably make a compelling argument that the Penn and Teller show is on the whole "better" because the averages of each segment are better, but I simply don't think that's how most people consume media at all. They don't pour over the show as a collective objectively to determine how much they should have enjoyed it on balance, and neither Penn's singing nor especially his dancing would do anything to win the audience over to his side

[Bergy_Berg]

These two definitely get comedy, so I disagree with any criticism against their comedic skills.

And if you consider how important rhythm and timing are to song and dance, then I feel Penn and Teller can be plenty entertaining there.

Powerline has one song in one movie, and while that shows him a capable singer and dancer, he's not really a well rounded entertainer like Penn and Teller are.

If you go to a variety show and you don't get variety, the show was bad. Powerline doesn't have variety. Penn and Teller do.

[Peypeypeypey]

22 hours ago, Bergy_Berg said:

These two definitely get comedy, so I disagree with any criticism against their comedic skills.

And if you consider how important rhythm and timing are to song and dance, then I feel Penn and Teller can be plenty entertaining there.

Powerline has one song in one movie, and while that shows him a capable singer and dancer, he's not really a well rounded entertainer like Penn and Teller are.

If you go to a variety show and you don't get variety, the show was bad. Powerline doesn't have variety. Penn and Teller do.

Again, we know Penn is not a good dancer, and in that video, I found him an incredibly lackluster singer as well. He won't bomb either, sure, but he's just not good. If you personally think he's good at either then fair enough, but myself, and I believe the vast majority of people, would completely disagree. So no, as per the four acts in the scenario, Penn and Teller really don't have more variety than Powerline.

And you can disagree when I say I don't find them exceptionally funny, and that's fine, but you can't change my opinion on them. In my opinion, they're good showmen who are only fairly funny, which plays heavily into why I don't think they overwhelmingly sweep this match

[JohnnyChany]

On 2/14/2021 at 1:34 PM, Bergy_Berg said:

These two definitely get comedy, so I disagree with any criticism against their comedic skills.

And if you consider how important rhythm and timing are to song and dance, then I feel Penn and Teller can be plenty entertaining there.

Powerline has one song in one movie, and while that shows him a capable singer and dancer, he's not really a well rounded entertainer like Penn and Teller are.

If you go to a variety show and you don't get variety, the show was bad. Powerline doesn't have variety. Penn and Teller do.

I am obviously biased because Powerline is my guy but I do want to add a couple of things.

1. Powerline has two songs in one movie, don't forget the great "Stand Out" song as preformed by Max at the school assembly. Which leads to 

2. Powerline has cross generational appeal. Stand Out was a big hit at Max's high school and they were a lot of middle aged looking characters at the concert. I don't know if the same can be said about Penn and Teller unless you are talking about the older crowd and the very young.

I am with PeyPeyPey in that I believe Powerline does his one thing better than anything Penn and Teller do as far as putting on a good show that I would enjoy, but I know that is subjective.

[UMPIRE]

Match Final Results

Powerline: 5
Penn and Teller: 6

[Bergy_Berg]

Penn and Teller finally snag a win this season. Phew.