If there are three things that I appreciate in this world, it's truth, sarcasm and magicians. And finally there's a show that combines them. Unfortunately, this show has an unpublishable title, but I can tell you to look on Showtime for "Penn & Teller: Bull----!" you'll probably find it in the listings.

The program, which airs Fridays at 11 p.m., with additional play times listed on the show's Web site, located at http://www.sho.com/ptbs. The program features "master showmen" Penn and Teller confronting a variety of bogus topics -- everything from alien abductions to speaking with the dead to Nostradamus-esque predictions of the end of the world.

Penn and Teller may seem like somewhat unlikely candidates to run a program devoted to debunking what are considered by many to be "conspiracy theories," considering that, after all, as illusionists, their job seems to be to pull wool over the eyes of their audience. But consider for a moment that, in their Las Vegas stage show and in any of a number of their television specials, the two explain history's most perplexing magic acts by recreating them, and that at no point does the duo ever take themselves so seriously that they forget to emphasize what they are doing is nothing but a trick. Their intention never seems to be anything short of honest, sometimes comedically so.

Most importantly, though, they feel the "principles of magic" can be applied to debunking these myths the public is so eager to accept readily and without question -- just like a good magician's illusion, the gullible public buys into the truth without asking "why" or "how."

The series hasn't been running terribly long, and the episode that I recently caught concerned the mystique surrounding so-called alien abductions. The show started out with taped interviews of individuals who recounted details of their own abductions -- and then showed how nearly all "accounts" of being abducted could have come straight from sci-fi movies made from the '50s up to today. Also presented was a "hypnotherapist" who uses "regression therapy" to "retrieve" memories of alien abductions; a licensed counselor watched the taped therapy session and pointed out how, rather than retrieving memories, this so-called hypnotherapist was actually creating memories in the mind of the client -- who shelled out for a three-hour session.

Later the program sent cameras into the midst of a UFO convention to try and ferret out some semblance of scientific evidence or truth, but they found absolutely nothing.

Sure, there were plenty of shifty and shady characters around, and plenty of hearsay and speculation, some "I can't give you that information because it's classified." Even Penn dressed up in drag to look like a frighteningly realistic old overweight woman, but not a single shred of truth, not a shard of evidence and not a speck of reality was discovered.

I was getting so into the program that I wished it lasted longer. It struck me as just as credible as anything that Discovery Channel would present, but with a snide yet honest running commentary provided by Penn. All of the experts featured on the program are listed on the program's Web site, along with links to their respective Web sites or research, depending upon their specialties, so it's not too difficult to confirm anything seen on the program.

As Penn recently said on The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, "This show will be on forever, because there's no end to the bulls--- out there to de-bunk." Let's hope that's the case -- it's about time that someone who's not afraid to say anything -- and someone else who never says anything at all -- to take a stand on the real issues.