by Steven Doyle
We are a food and entertainment website, so what are we doing reading a book? It was a bit entertaining and included bits about bacon, so it greatly qualifies. We are not making judgment on Jillete but thought this was entertaining, and the visuals tore me up. The book “Oh, God” is otherwise fairly mundane except for the passage where Penn Jillete explains how he was partially responsible in converting a Hasidic Jew and sharing his first non-kosher meal.
The Hasidic man had listened to Jillete on the radio for some time and enjoyed the Penn Radio program that was formerly on Free FM and ended in 2007. His show was known for more than a few on-air antics such as the time when during Lent, Penn requested his listeners go to McDonalds on Friday morning and purchase all the Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, thus forcing Catholic families with screaming children to eat beef. Penn hoped that the children would realize that eating meat would not send them to hell.
Jillete’s irreverence and atheism is quite well-known, and the magician took great pleasure in making sure the former Hasidic Jew enjoyed this non-kosher meal. After a show in Las Vegas at the Rio where he appeared the man had ventured to meet both Penn and Teller and this thrilled Jillete to no end.
The gentleman (who was not named) was invited to join magical pair at a restaurant in the hotel, and the group proceeded to order everything that would have been formerly forbidden including clam chowder, shrimp cocktail, lobster tails, oysters Rockefeller, raw oysters, a Jamaican pork chop, crab legs, crab cakes, and a bacon cheeseburger. All non-kosher.
Jillete describes the man as ‘trembling’ as he took a bite of the bacon cheeseburger and pronounced him as brave for partaking in this formerly forbidden act. Jillete has also referred to bacon cheeseburgers as the ultimate atheist food.
Read about this and other antics in Jillet’s book “Oh, God” now on sale.
