A tale of Teller and Teller

Jennifer K Mahal

When the first copies of “When I’m Dead All This Will Be Yours” came

out last year, Joe Teller was in the hospital. The scrappy father of

magician Teller -- the quiet half of Penn & Teller -- was not doing so

well.

“I said, ‘OK, you’ve got to survive long enough to sign these books,”’

Teller said.

The son, who wrote the book as a portrait of his artistic parents’

lives before their Bundle of Joy came along, made his then 87-year-old

father sit up and put his signature down.

“I said, ‘Sign one to me,”’ Teller said. “He said, ‘To our Kid, you’ve

done it again.”’

Teller will be the one signing books at noon Sunday at the Orange

County Museum of Art’s Satellite Gallery at South Coast Plaza.

“When I’m Dead” started when Joe Teller asked his famous son if he’d

ever seen his cartoons, drawn in 1939. Going through his father’s

portfolio filled with more than 100 drawings of funny situations and life

observations, Teller realized he knew nothing about his parents’ lives

before he was born.

Like the time his father, known to him as Pad, decided to try becoming

a professional cartoonist. Pad was rejected by the Philadelphia Inquirer

and put the cartoons away to become a professional “lettering man” for

advertisements.

Or like the times Pad rode the rails, living life as a hobo and making

it out to California and up to Alaska.

Going through Pad’s letters from those adventures were the biggest

surprise for Teller.

“To see how he describes his adventures with the cops and sights he

sees and peculiar characters on the road,” Teller said. “I think that was

biggest shift in understanding.”

Pad’s hobo days ended right before he married Mam -- Irene Teller.

“Right before he married, he decided to go away for one final week on

the road -- I thought that was really cool -- and thereafter he was

absolutely steadfast,” Teller said. “He had to have that one more little

squeak of rebellion and adventure out there.”

Pad and Mam met in art school and still paint in their studio to this

day. Because of the book -- which features Joe Teller’s cartoons and

paintings, along with a few paintings by Irene Teller -- Joe Teller has

burst onto the art scene.

“What this has meant to him is this is the extra inning he didn’t

realize he’s going to get,” said Teller, who calls his parents every day

and sometimes twice.

A number of museums in Philadelphia are vying for the collection of

cartoons, including the Atwater Kent Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of

Fine Arts and the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Joe Teller had his first gallery exhibition in October. The event was

held at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia.

“Joe Teller has been a painter for almost 70 years and until now he

has never had a gallery show,” wrote gallery owner Richard Rosenfeld in

the notes for the show. “That was never the point. He paints because he

loves to paint: because it is fun.”

That sense of fun and joy is captured by Teller in his parental

homage.

“Fun matters a lot in the world,” the magician said, “and I think that

one of the things older people forget is how important fun is.”

Children also forget that their parents were people long before they

were parents.

About 15 minutes after the phone interview with Teller is concluded,

he calls back to answer a question he’d been thinking about: What do you

want people to take away from reading this book?

“One thing they should take away is never underestimate your parents,”

he said. “I think that’s the biggest thing I took away from writing it.

When you’re a kid, you never realize how interesting and complicated they

can be.”

There’s a slight pause.

“That’s it. Bye.”

FYI

* WHAT: Teller signs “When I’m Dead All This Will Be Yours”

* WHERE: Orange County Museum of Art Satellite Gallery at South Coast

Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa

* WHEN: Noon Sunday

* COST: Free

* CALL: (714) 662-3366