Alyson Hannigan Gets Magical Again, This Time With Penn & Teller

PENN & TELLER: FOOL US
From left: Jacob Kepler/The CW; Michael Bezjian/GettyImages; Jacob Kepler/The CW
Teller, Allyson Hannigan, Penn Jillette

Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will join magicians Penn Jillette and Teller as the Season 3 host of the CW’s Penn & Teller: Fool Us.

The magical reality competition challenges magicians and illusionists to perform their best trick for the legendary comedy duo and a live audience. If Penn & Teller can’t figure out how the trick was done, the magician earns the opportunity to perform as the opening act in Penn & Teller’s world-famous Las Vegas show at the Rio Hotel & Casino.

Hannigan reveals that she and her oldest daughter are major fans of the family-friendly series and gushes, “Penn & Teller are genius entertainers so any opportunity to work with them is amazing. And, of course, I’ve always wanted to play Vegas!”

Jilette looks forward to the addition of the charmer, whom he calls “talented, smart and funny.” And he has pledged to put Hannigan’s talents to good use: saying “She has promised us that she loves magic and can’t get enough. She’d better not be bluffing, because we’re going to give her more than enough.”

This won’t be Hannigan’s first foray into magic; her career has a bewitching trajectory. If you look waaaaay back at Hannigan’s first major TV role, she starred in the short-lived comedy Free Spirit, as a member of a family who plays host to an immortal witch. The actresses’ character Willow Rosenberg on Joss Whedon’s popular Buffy The Vampire Slayer also held us spellbound as a geek-turned-magical-witch.

Hannigan also conjured success on CBS’ smash comedy How I Met Your Mother, where her job as a kindergarten never resulted in making the classroom rabbit disappear. But perhaps Hannigan has reached out to her HIMYM co-star Neil Patrick Harris — a talented magician — for advice.

Speaking of making things disappear… Hannigan’s role in the American Pie franchise included a NSFW quote that began, “This one time, at band camp …” I have a feeling that we see more than one piccolo this season.

Season 3 of the variety and magic competition will premiere summer of 2016 on The CW.