"Teller Speaks" must be the most overused headline for a Vegas entertainer. It seems some law of journalism that if you interview Teller that phrase must appear in bold type.

Teller is the half of Penn & Teller who does not speak on stage. For 35 years (the Rio wrap, pictured, is to celebrate their show-business anniversary),  Penn & Teller have worked that into their act in a variety of ways. On Teller's Wikipedia entry, you can see a list made of attempts to play off Teller's presumed silence by having him speak. On a late-night television show, goaded to speak, Teller put his hand over his mouth and supposedly swore, resulting in his voice being covered over by a bleep -- to give one example. The headline for that section of Teller's entry on Wikipedia: "Teller Speaks."

Penn & Teller have been so successful at working the illusion of Teller's silence into their act, many don't realize that Teller not only talks in his private life, but he also talks to people in his public life when off stage and screen. If you don't believe me, go see their show at the Rio, or if you don't want to spend money, just wait for the show to let out. Penn and Teller both stand in the lobby after each show and talk to anyone who comes up to them. Or, please, if you feel so inspired, read this story I wrote recently on Teller. The editor was nice enough not to title it "Teller Speaks."

Anyway, Penn's verbosity is well documented. He has more than 700,000 people following him on Twitter.  Penn's most recent tweet: "Changed all my settings so I'm writing from Iran. I don't know if it'll really confuse any bad guys, but maybe if we all do it."

Still, if you think about it, Teller is the natural for a medium that allows him to speak publicly without using his voice. Twitter seems invented for this purpose. Yet, until recently, I could not find Teller on any of the social-networking sites. That has changed, I have found and confirmed that there is the authentic Teller on Twitter. (The person using the identification "Teller" on Twitter seems to be a guy in Estonia.)

Teller so far has only done nine updates, and I am proud to be among his first five followers, beating even his partner Penn there.

Photo: Sarah Gerke