Penn Jillette on Celebrity Apprentice: "If There Were Rules, I Would Have Cheated"

Penn Jillette said it plainly: "I saw people who were willing to do anything to win — they had let go of their morality completely — and they still didn…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On January 4, 2012, NBC held a press call for Celebrity Apprentice Season 12, premiering Sunday, February 12th at 9 p.m. on NBC. Four contestants joined the call: Adam Carolla, Lou Ferrigno, Penn Jillette, and Aubrey O'Day. Premier Guide Miami was among the outlets on the call.

I saw people who were willing to do anything to win — they had let go of their morality completely — and they still didn't win. It's like a guy who decides to rob a liquor store with a shotgun and everybody looks at him and goes, get out of here. He's already done the moral transgression and he still failed at his task.

Why you can't cheat at Celebrity Apprentice

Asked why he didn't simply use mind games or magic to win, Jillette went straight to the philosophy: "Because no one knows what game you're playing. It's an arbitrary game without rules. I cannot tell you the rules of Celebrity Apprentice — it's an arbitrary, capricious thing. So if there aren't rules, you can't cheat. If there were rules, I would have cheated." He did, however, put his skills to use: "It turns out I did do magic, I did do juggling, I did do fire eating. But in terms of mind games it was mostly just being in a tiger cage and numb."

On morality, strategy, and Mike Tyson

Jillette's framework for the game came from an unlikely philosopher: "My plan was actually from Mike Tyson, who said everyone has a plan until they get hit. And everybody does have a plan until they get hit. And the instant that something doesn't go the way you planned — especially with this particular group of people — all plans go out the window." What depressed him most was watching people abandon their ethics for nothing: "I believe that what is a little bit depressing about working on the show is that even people who suspend their morality completely and are willing to do anything don't do it well enough to do damage. I saw people who were willing to do anything to win — you could see clearly that they had let go of their morality completely — and they still didn't win. It's like a guy who decides to rob a liquor store with a shotgun and everybody looks at him and goes, get out of here. He's already done the moral transgression and he still failed at his task."

The Elvis charity — and why he was fighting for it

Jillette's charity was Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas organization supporting intellectually disabled adults — but his reason for choosing it was pure Elvis: "My charity was Opportunity Village. It's a real important paradigm — a new way of thinking about getting people back into the culture. But all of that is just the intellectual justification. The real reason in my heart is that it was an Elvis charity. All those scarves that Elvis gave out from the stage were made at Opportunity Village. Every time Elvis kissed one of those scarves and threw them out into the audience, that was something made by Opportunity Village. So I was on Celebrity Apprentice fighting for the charity that Elvis Aaron Presley would have fought for."

On reality TV, the Loud Family, and watching people act worse on camera

Jillette came to the show as a genuine outsider to the genre: "Unlike the other people, I don't watch these shows. It's just not part of my schedule. I had never really seen a reality show." But he had a theory he wanted to test: "Since the Loud Family in 1971, when PBS kind of invented this format, they found out that people did not act better on camera than they would in regular life — but rather acted worse on camera, which is a fascinating thing. And I wanted to kind of see it. It's really nutty to feel that as opposed to just watching it. It's really funny to see people that you know acting unpleasantly just because there are TV cameras on." On what Celebrity Apprentice actually is: "What you're seeing on shows like Celebrity Apprentice is not any sort of documentary — you're seeing an improvised soap opera by professionals." Celebrity Apprentice Season 12 premiered Sunday, February 12, 2012, on NBC.

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