O.C. POP MUSIC REVIEW : Wise Guys Deliver Jokes to Rock Beat

Penn Jillette is a wise guy. An often wise wise-guy but still a wise guy. With his usual partner, the small and silent Teller, he’s turned magic into comic art--their magic is good magic, but it’s a sendup of magic. They send up a lot of things in the act, and Jillette is mostly responsible.

Steven Banks is a wise guy too. He’s not as noisy as Jillette, but he’s a lot noisier than Teller. He’s the witty, almost sweet wise guy who had critics gushing over his stage show, “Steven Banks’ Home Entertainment Center.” In it, he plays out a dream world to which anyone who has sung in the shower can relate.

Put these two together and what you get is plenty of wise guy, set to a messy rock beat. They left Teller at home for their Coach House show Thursday, but that was OK. Jillette and Banks aren’t about magic--they’re about rock ‘n’ roll, getting noticed and goofing off. Jillette plays bass, Banks works the guitar. They both sing musical jokes.

They’re also about being pretty clever and making barbed points on everything from the commercialization of classic tunes to gun control to religious extremism. Through a 90-minute set that featured their own songs and sarcastic-satiric-savvy lyrics grafted on to old hits (Peter, Paul and Mary’s 1967 number “I Dig Rock and Roll Music” became the nasty “I Dig Guns N’ Roses”), these hipsters were able to serve up some imagination and fun while acting out their own rock-star fantasy.

Almost from the start, Jillette let the audience know that making music isn’t the best thing these guys do. He’s right. With only the two of them providing the riffs, it was a minimalist experience. Banks’ guitar playing was, well, methodical, with a lead style that brings slow-moving things to mind. Jillette’s bass involves a fair amount of thumping.

But they did stay in key a lot, kept the melodies clear and got liberating help from their backup singers, two spunky women attractively outfitted in groovy polka-dotted minidresses.

Banks’ voice isn’t bad. Jillette’s growly voice is, uh, interesting--sort of like how Tom Waits’ voice is interesting. But you don’t really pay attention to their voices after a while because the words intrude, with gratitude. Good stuff can come in weird packages.

Like when Banks sang about all those rock legends who died young. Forget all the mythologizing--it’s just the way things turn out sometimes. “Buddy Holly died at 22,” Banks wailed, “and if your plane hits a mountain, you will too.”

Then there was “Disney on Ice,” an ode to Uncle Walt’s interest in cryogenics and, by extension, a little self-deprecating tweak at Banks’ involvement with the Disney studios (which is turning his “Home Entertainment” show into a regular series).

There was mordant sport in “Song for Pete Best” (the original Beatle who was dumped in favor of Ringo), “I Wear the Clothes of the Dead,” and AIDS-generation symbolism, with a cartoon thrust, in “Party Like It’s 1922.” They even found inspiration in Dylan’s moving protest against boxing--”Who Killed Davey Moore?”--to create a parody of Elvis and family in “Who Killed the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll?”

Thursday’s gig marked the end of the Jillette-and-Banks tour, a six-day expedition that took them from San Diego to San Francisco. The word is that both will soon return to their usual careers, with Penn and Teller going on the road next year. That’s good, but hey, don’t forget this music thing--wise guys should never limit themselves. That’s why they’re wise guys.