James Randi

opr

Someone else posted this in another thread on boards but i only got around to watching it today.

If you have a spare hour well worth the watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTPj9VlNzQ0

Opr

6th

Any comments on it yourself OP or care to say something about it? Posting a YouTube link with no info doesnt really inspire people to watch it.

I heart Randi.
He rekindled my love in magic and skepticism!
I love his explanations on homopathy

6th

King Mob wrote: »

He rekindled my love in magic

How and in what way?

I really enjoy figuring out tricks. Randi's tricks and philosophy really enhance that in my opinion.

6th

From the James Randi wiki:

Career as a magician

Randi worked as a professional stage magician and escapologist beginning in 1946, initially under his birth name, Randall Zwinge. Early in his career, Randi was part of numerous stunts involving his escape from jail cells and safes. On February 7, 1956, he appeared live on The Today Show remaining in a sealed metal coffin submerged in a hotel swimming pool for 104 minutes, breaking what was said to be Houdini's record of 93 minutes.[11][12]

Randi was the host of The Amazing Randi Show on New York radio station WOR-Radio in the mid-1960s.[13] He also hosted numerous television specials and went on several world tours. Then Randi appeared as "The Amazing Randi" on a television show entitled Wonderama from 1967 to 1972.[14] In the February 2, 1974 issue of Abracadabra (a British conjuring magazine), Randi defined the magic community saying, "I know of no calling which depends so much upon mutual trust and faith as does ours." In the December 2003 issue of the The Linking Ring, the monthly publication of The International Brotherhood of Magicians, Points to Ponder: Another Matter of Ethics, p. 97, it is stated, "Perhaps Randi's ethics are what make him Amazing" and "The Amazing Randi not only talks the talk, he walks the walk."

During Alice Cooper's 1974 tour, Randi performed as the dentist and executioner on stage.[15] Also, Randi had designed and built several of the stage props, including the guillotine.[16][17] Shortly after, in February 1975, Randi escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside-down over Niagara Falls in the winter on the Canadian TV program World of Wizards.[18]

Early in his career, Randi was sent a contract for a tour in Florida. His friends in New York mentioned to him that he’d certainly be working before audiences segregated by race, so before he signed the agreement, he wrote in a clause specifying that the promoters could not deny tickets to blacks or segregate the audiences in any way. Upon arriving on scene, he found that the concert promoter had ignored this stipulation in his contract. He discovered that blacks were forced to watch the show from the balcony, and he immediately walked away from the tour. Appealing to the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), he was paid in full for the balance of the tour.[citation needed]

Randi was once accused of actually using 'psychic powers' to perform acts such as spoon bending. James Alcock relates this incident which occurred at a meeting where Randi was duplicating the performances of Uri Geller: A professor from the University at Buffalo shouted out that Randi was a fraud. Randi said "Yes indeed, I'm a trickster, I'm a cheat, I'm a charlatan, that's what I do for a living. Everything I've done here was by trickery." The professor shouted back: "That's not what I mean. You're a fraud because you're pretending to do these things through trickery, but you're actually using psychic powers and misleading us by not admitting it." The famous author and believer in spiritualism Arthur Conan Doyle had years earlier made a similar accusation against the magician Harry Houdini.

opr

6th wrote: »

Any comments on it yourself OP or care to say something about it? Posting a YouTube link with no info doesnt really inspire people to watch it.

I want out. I went too far too soon. I didn't know what I was gettin' into. I didn't know you had to follow a good idea with loads more little good ideas. I'm sorry

Opr

6th

Take a few minutes and then try again to make some sense.

monkeyfudge

It's a Father Ted quote!

opr

monkeyfudge wrote: »

It's a Father Ted quote!

Thanks Ted.

Opr

6th

But priests hate magic! Its a sin!

monkeyfudge

I don't know about that... When I was a kid the Parish priest would let me play with his wand.

Boo! Get off the stage! Tommy Tiernan whats his bit back!

Since my threads on this were closed, i suppose i can ask here.
do people think randi's magic training helped him in his debunking? did it give him a better perspective on frauds than scientists?

El_mariachi

I'd love to see Randi stunt escaping the straitjacket while suspended upside-down over Niagara Falls. Would kill to see the footage anyone know where it is?
its just anything i have seen is simple stuff as in spoon bending etc

Actually wait a minute..........

There was two previous threads about Randi and 6th closed them.
Why is this left open and the others closed?
That seems unfair and biased.

Any explanation 6th?

Edit : guess it was mob who started them.

Voodu Child

King Mob wrote: »

Since my threads on this were closed, i suppose i can ask here.
do people think randi's magic training helped him in his debunking? did it give him a better perspective on frauds than scientists?

Definitely.

There is an inextricable between medium debunking and magic. Actually, the two have been tied since the days of Houdini, and even before.

Probably why so many magicians are outspoken skeptics, Randi P&T and Criss Angel.
But does this come form the fact psychics and the like are using magicians tricks for evil or because magicians have too much time on their hands?

SkepticOne

King Mob wrote: »

Since my threads on this were closed, i suppose i can ask here.
do people think randi's magic training helped him in his debunking? did it give him a better perspective on frauds than scientists?

It obviously helps him. As he says in the video, what he saw being done by charlatans looked to him exactly like stage magic. As a magician therefore he was in a good position to replicate and then explain how it might be done.

6th

King Mob wrote: »

Since my threads on this were closed, i suppose i can ask here.
do people think randi's magic training helped him in his debunking? did it give him a better perspective on frauds than scientists?

You were told discussion of skepticism is for the skepticism forum. Last time I am telling you this.

El_mariachi wrote: »

There was two previous threads about Randi and 6th closed them.
Why is this left open and the others closed?
That seems unfair and biased.

Any explanation 6th?

Edit : guess it was mob who started them.

The 2 threads where about Randi the skeptic and where only posted here because he couldnt post it in Paranormal.

If you have a problem with the modding of this forum take it to feedback, helpdesk or drop r3nu4l or me a PM. The charter already says this - I suggest you read it again.

Now, lets keep this on topic. I'll let the topics go a bit broader but if its gonna turn into a discission on skepticism and psychics then is gonna get locked/moved and warnings/bans will be handed out.

6th

SkepticOne wrote: »

It obviously helps him. As he says in the video, what he saw being done by charlatans looked to him exactly like stage magic. As a magician therefore he was in a good position to replicate and then explain how it might be done.

Just cos something can be done by magic doesnt mean that is the only way to do it. You can get the same results for many things by doing it different ways.

SkepticOne

6th wrote: »

Just cos something can be done by magic doesnt mean that is the only way to do it. You can get the same results for many things by doing it different ways.

Very true. That is why I said "how it might be done". No one can prove absolutely, for example, that Yuri Geller does does not use psychic powers. That is logically impossible. What Randi can demonstrate, however, is that psychic powers are not the only way to achieve those effects.

6th

I think a few of us have seen those Uri clips at this stage. If he turned his hand to magic he might actually be pretty good.

rubadub

King Mob wrote: »

do people think randi's magic training helped him in his debunking? did it give him a better perspective on frauds than scientists?

Yes it helps. I expect he looks at all of them as a trick and looks for the simple solution. There was a youtube video of him showing Uri bending a key right in front of the cameras. The scientists might be blind to this, and go off examining the mechanical makeup of the metal etc.

Uri's film biography was on TV a few years back, it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen, I thought it was a pisstake, but it was all done with him. He was teleporting dogs and stuff in it. He really is a mentalist, in the slang way.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113826/

6th

rubadub wrote: »

I expect he looks at all of them as a trick

I suppose he would but then again starting off presuming thy are tricks is hardly starting from a neutral stand point - I'd imagine that would be impossible to do, we're human after all.

rubadub

6th wrote: »

I suppose he would but then again starting off presuming thy are tricks is hardly starting from a neutral stand point - I'd imagine that would be impossible to do, we're human after all.

Yes, I like his videos, I like the youtube one showing the challenge with the guy blowing the phone book. He never said the guy was a liar or anything, just came up with his own method of doing it, and put a control in place to stop him being able to do it. It is like SkepticOne was saying -"how it might be done".

The question was

do people think randi's magic training helped him in his debunking?

It could be turned around to be do people think randi's debunking investigations helped him in his magic acts?

I would say yes to both. He has probably found out some guys secret who never took up the million dollar challenege, and twisted the method to perform and apparently different trick, while never publicly debunking the other guy.

It's possible, but randi probably is more famous for debunking people these days.
Anyone know when he did his last purely magic show?