Friday, May 02, 2008

THE AMAZING RANDI



As most Theory Corner readers know, The Amazing Randi is a professional magician who's made a second career out of debunking charlatans. Randi's the reason you don't hear about the psychic key bender Uri Geller anymore. Now if you already know this, why am I bothering to talk about it?

The reason is that this video is the best debunking video I've ever seen. Uri actually bends the key -- I mean physically bends it, not mentally -- right in front of your eyes, and if you're like me you won't notice it until Randi runs the film back and shows it to you! When it's pointed out it'll seem obvious, but up until then you'll be puddy in Geller's hands, just like I was. It's proof that you can't always trust what you see.





The post is really about key bending, but I can't resist throwing in a couple of other 3 0r 4 minute videos. Here (above) Randi takes on Philippine psychic surgery. This was a very big deal a while back and it had a big following in this country. I'll bet some of the people reading this were taken in by it.





Here's (above) Randi exposing Peter Popoff (spelled right?), a popular faith healer on TV a while back. Randi exposed him and he vanished from TV for years, but he's back again, this time selling healing water. You'll hear Popoff's wife transmitting information to him at the very same moment that you'll see Popoff receiving the same information from heaven on the stage.

16 comments:

Trevor Thompson said...

Do you ever get a chance to see Penn & Teller's show on Showtime, 'Bullshit'? It's like this, only they debunk everything from the war on drugs, psychics, PETA, swear words, all the way to love.

I've heard of Randi before, but never gotten to see his work. Thanks, Eddie!

- trevor.

Trevor Thompson said...

In fact, in 'Bullshit' season one there's a few episodes where Randi's masterful deduction ability is utilized in interviews with him.

You should pick up a copy of the show if you haven't already, Eddie.

- trevor.

Michael Sporn said...

Locally, in New York, in the 1960-70's there was a Sunday kids' show called "Wonderama". It was a four hour program full of cartoons and guests and kid audiences and other kid nonsense. About once a month, the Amazing Randi would come on to do some "trick" such as hanging upside down - in cold, winter weather - by a rope for four hours from a nearby fire escape. He also did a lot of sleight of hand tricks with cards and coins. He seemed like the poor man's Uri Geller. (Today it would be David Blaine.) How far he's come?

The Horns and the Hawk said...

holy cow. i watched this guy at 3 am in high school talk about the miracle spring water from russia. that's wild.

i like randi. he has a really good voice for narration. i would like to see what he thinks of david blaine. that would be a really neat debunking.

Mr. Trombley said...

Dear Sir, I have to admit, I did see the trick. Did you know, Richard Feynman was once given a personal show by Geller. Feynman was less than impressed saying "I'm smart enough to know I'm dumb."

What Feynman meant is that the reason that these acts fool you is that you look so hard for a trick that you miss the obvious. Avoiding this kind of thinking is what science was to Feynman, a laborious process of not fooling yourself.

Mr. Trombley said...

PS. I almost forgot tot mention what a wonderful showman Randi is! Just listen to the crowed coo in the psychic surgery bit. He's a real vaudevillian, and given wide and deserved praise in theatrical magic circles.

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff! I've never heard of the Amazing Randi before - thanks for posting about him.

Penn&Teller have been favorites of mine since I was in grade school.

Anonymous said...

Bullshit is a good show, but I call Bullshit on their "debunking" of global warming, especially since Penn is paid by a thinktank owned by Exxon Mobil

Jennifer said...

The Amazing Randi is really good.

I agree with the other posters who recommend Penn and Teller's Bull#@&* on Showtime. It's in the same tradition as the Amazing Randi with debunking things as well.

Guess what? Peter Popoff is back! He has infomercials now trying to hock this "miracle manna bread". Apparently this bread will heal my ills and make me rich....

Trevor Thompson said...

I forgot all about Popoff. And just like a cancer in the testicles that went into remission twenty years ago, he's back.

What a piece of shit. I hope Hell exists solely for people like him.

- trevor.

David Germain said...

Not only is Detatchable Penis......... oh um I mean Peter Popoff selling his own brand of holy water, he's also selling (as he says) the same manna bread that God dropped on the Isrealites in the dessert. However, if you're at all familiar with the Bible, you'd know that the manna that was left for even one day had an infestation of worms in it. And how many days would it take for this "holy bread" to be mailed to you?

Yep, Peter Popoff and his crap sounds like a sophomoric joke that is sadly too true to be funny.

Jordan said...

Hey cool, I've been a James Randi fan for a little while now.

Last year I did sound on a PBS shoot. It was a "psychic" giving a reading to an old woman about her dead relatives. It was all bullshit, and I wrote up the account (and what went wrong) in a very detailed analysis. James Randi posted it on his website and congratulated my observational skills -- I was very honored.


-Jordan

J. J. Hunsecker said...

I saw the Amazing Randi on a television special 15 years ago. It included not only the debunking of Uri Geller on the Tonight Show, but the same "psychic surgery" example seen in the 2nd clip. I felt that Randi was kind of a hero for exposing those frauds. A friend of mine vehemently disagreed and we got into a big argument about it.

Comedian/prankster Andy Kaufman supposedly fell for that phony psychic surgery as a last resort, after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1983. It's ironic that a comedian known for elaborate pranks would fall for one himself.

Has anyone seen the movie Nightmare Alley? It has a character who becomes a phony psychic, whose wife feeds him information about audience members by using coded words, similar to Peter Popoff's method. I guess that type of hucksterism has been around for a long time.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Hunsecker: Nightmare Alley!? That's a great film! really well written!

lastangelman said...

if you're gullible enough to believe, you're gullible enough to be taken

Andreas said...

Amazing Randi is great! But wasn't there a show last season Phenomenon hosted/judged by uri geller? I think it is based on a show he did out of Israel. Sadly geller is still doing his thing.