Famed magicians Penn & Teller are creating a Las Vegas-themed haunted house for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios.
The storyline of the maze will be involve the duo’s new trick featuring a nuclear warhead, Penn Jillette said this week.
“We blow up all of Las Vegas. It goes terribly, terribly wrong,” said Jillette, the taller one of the twosome.
So, the house, called “Penn & Teller New(kd) Las Vegas,” will have a radioactive feel and include Vegas staples such as showgirls, slot machines and an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The idea is “to take all the lights and the sounds and all the clichés of Las Vegas and turn them upside down into a fun nightmare, which is what haunted mazes are supposed to be,” Jillette said.
Universal Orlando officials approached Penn & Teller with the Halloween Horror Nights proposal early this year, said Jim Timon, senior vice president of entertainment. Both Penn and Teller have made multiple trips to Orlando to work on the project with Universal’s creative team.
“They’re not just putting their name on a haunted house,” Timon said.
They liked being working in the same room as Universal’s Horror Nights veterans, Jillette said.