Howdy Illusionists,
 

Well, it seems I overestimated my own deviousness. This week's puzzle turned out not to be so hard after all - we had six correct solutions submitted, tripling last week's total.

You were asked to identify " a well-known entertainment act". The theme entries were fairly obvious:

  20A) Rhode Island & "Rumpelstiltskin"? [STATE AND STORY]

  40A) Trevi & Wells Fargo? [FOUNTAIN AND BANK]

  55A) Babe & riches? [PIG AND FORTUNE]

Successful solvers (and at least two unsuccessful ones) deduced that this implied a duo. But which one to choose?

It turns out that each of the words to the left of "and" in the theme answers can be paired with a particular word to make a common phrase:

  State PEN (some solvers chose "PENn State" here)

  Fountain PEN

  Pig PEN

...and similarly for the right side words:

  Story TELLER

  Bank TELLER

  Fortune TELLER.

And so the meta answer was none other than PENN & TELLER.

I admit that certain solvers had an unfair advantage, being on rather friendly terms with the lads.