# HOW Do I Channel Harry Houdini This Halloween? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665 "2004-10-17T13:56:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/1 "2004-10-17T13:56:25Z")
I’ve always been interested in stage magic, and I have quite a few questions o ask the great magician Harry Houdini, who shuffled off this mortal coil on Halloween, 1928. Do I need a professional medium? Or can ido this myself? Anybody have any ideas? I heard that harry’s wife couldnot get through to him-is this true? Finally, will harry be angry with me for disturbing him? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/2 "2004-10-17T15:26:31Z")
You cannot talk to the dead. Period. You can stage any conversation inside your head that you want, however, and then lie to the public about it. Your choice. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/3 "2004-10-17T16:08:34Z")
You should probably start by channeling Sir Charles Blake Cochran, Houdini’s agent. Any appearances would have to go through him anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/4 "2004-10-17T16:13:06Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > You cannot talk to the dead. Period. Of _course_ you can. You can talk yourself blue in the face. Now, if you’re expecting an _answer_ . . . ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/5 "2004-10-17T16:15:56Z")
That’s sounds all-too-much like the SDMB as it is. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/6 "2004-10-17T17:14:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Of course you can. You can talk yourself blue in the face. > > Now, if you’re expecting an answer . . . “I can call spirits from the vasty deep!” “Why, so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call them?” –Henry IV part I, III, i, 50-52 And wasn’t Houdini a notorious exposer of fraudulent mystics, much like Randi today? ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/7 "2004-10-17T17:24:32Z")
I could hook you up with Harry it you want. It’s $25 an hour though 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/8 "2004-10-17T19:15:23Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I heard that harry’s wife couldnot get through to him-is this true? Houdini and his wife had a prearranged message which, if she heard it from a medium, would indicate that she was really talking to ex-Harry. Needless to say, no medium ever got it right. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/9 "2004-10-17T19:32:35Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I heard that harry’s wife couldnot get through to him-is this true? Yes, yes, that is quite true. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/10 "2004-10-17T19:36:22Z")
Yes, in his day, Houdini exposed dozens of mediums and mystics as frauds. The difference between him and Randi, however, is that Houdini apparently HOPED to find one who was legitimate. He had been devoted to his mother, and wanted desperately to find a true clairvoyant who could contact his deceased mother in the next world. But of course, Houdini was a professional magician who KNEW every trick in the book, and recognized instantly when a phony medium was using props, gadgets, sleight of hand or special effects to pretend she was in contact with spirits. Houdini gained a lot of fame by exposing such frauds, but he broke his own heart each time he did. So, for what it’s worth, Houdini would probably be furious to think someone was actually paying some charlatan to try to contact HIM, of all people. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/11 "2004-10-17T20:34:31Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > So, for what it’s worth, Houdini would probably be furious to think someone was actually paying some charlatan to try to contact HIM, of all people. Although it would be a really cool plot for a sequel to GHOST- Whoopi Goldberg is back as Rita and _Queer as Folk’s_ [Fab Filippo](http://www.gaywired.com/scene/images/fabrizio_filippo007.jpg) as [Houdini](http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/conversations/houdini/resources/nude2s.jpeg) (and Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2004, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/12 "2004-10-17T22:17:39Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > Yes, yes, that is quite true. “Harry, take out the garbage.” “Harry, stop leaving your socks all over the house.” “_Harry_, for chrissakes, you said you’d be home at six o’clock!” She just could _never_ get through to him. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-channel-harry-houdini-this-halloween/269665/13 "2004-10-18T09:17:56Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > “Harry, take out the garbage.” “Harry, stop leaving your socks all over the house.” “_Harry_, for chrissakes, you said you’d be home at six o’clock!” > > She just could _never_ get through to him. That’s because he was too tied up in his work. \