I’d like a cite for a major magician who, like Geller, 1) denies he’s a magician and 2) claims (or strongly implies) that his tricks are done by psychic powers.
Then he’s a liar for denying he’s a magician.
Very well, I’ll ask YOU.
Tell me what was wrong with it as a magic act. Be specific. Don’t complain that he claims it’s real, unless you are going to make the same complaint against every other magician who does the same.
Once again, you change what I said. The “by psychic powers” part is your addition.
There’s a massive difference to Geller’s claims. When Doug Henning said “It’s MAGIC!” he was lying and expected any audience members older than, oh six or so, to know he was lying.
When Geller claims ‘I have psychic abilities.’ he is trying to get the audience to believe him- so that he can then part fools from their money.
I disagree. Telling his audience that it’s real is just part of the schtick. Most of them know it’s a trick and just enjoy the show.
The ultimate spoon bending video.
You’re quite a piece of work. You claim I didn’t read your post, but you apparently didn’t read mine. I already said what I thought of the trick:
I’ll add that in the context of what appears to be a talk show, the lighting and sound effects, which would be expected in a “real” magic show, are jarring and hokey, and give a lie to Geller’s claims that it’s an “experiment” or demonstration of unusual powers, since he clearly has the cooperation of the show’s production staff.
And once again, you’re a liar. I let you get away with it the first time, but now I’m calling you out. In my first response to you, I did not, as you claimed, “cut out a large and important part” your post. I simply quoted the portion to which I was responding.
And in the post to which the quote above refers, I didn’t claim to quote you or refer to anything you said. I was using my own words. If you falsely accuse me of misquoting you again, I’ll report you to the moderators.
By the way, I’m still waiting for the cite I requested.
Please cease the personal insults. No warning issued.
**Gfactor **
General Questions Moderator
You invented a strawman, then demanded that I provide a cite for it.
That suffers from the fact that Fry & Laurie are almost funny.
I disagree. Both Henning* and Geller go on TV shows, perform tricks, and tell their audience that it’s magic. Both of them get money for it. The audience paid for entertainment, and got it. They are doing exactly the same thing.
The frauds are the people who claim that if you pay them thousands of pounds then they will use their psychic powers to trace missing children. Has Uri Geller ever done something like that? Be prepared to provide evidence if you claim so.
- in DH’s case, this should be read in the past tense.
In the linked video, Geller says, in the first minute, “No, I’m not a magician, and I never have been.” (That is a verbatim quote.)
I completely agree with you that they are doing the same thing: stage magic. Except that Geller explicitly denies that he’s doing magic!
That’s not the only way to be a fraud.
If I said I was a magician, asked someone to pick a card from a deck, and then couldn’t tell what card he had picked, I’d simply be a bad magician. If I charged money to do the trick, I’d be a fraud for taking money under false pretenses.
Geller claims he is **not **a magician while doing magic, and gets paid for it. That makes him a fraud.
[Moderating]
Peter Morris and commasense, while discussion of how Uri Geller might accomplish the trick is relevant to the OP, debate about other aspects of his stage performance are a bit of a side issue. If you want to discuss that, please open up another thread in GD. Let’s stick to the method of the trick here.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Although I’m reluctant to get involved in the dispute between Peter Morris and commasense, and I have read Colibri’s comment, there seems to some confusion here that can be remedied. Or, that I can at least try to remedy. I also want to mention one minor correction to something I wrote previously.
Peter Morris linked to a clip of Uri Geller on a TV show and invited my opinion. Commasense suggested it looked like a talk show. In fact, this clip is taken from a show called ‘The Best of Magic’, that was broadcast on the ITV network here in the UK some time ago. This particular clip comes from September 1990. (Over here, we file dates as dd/mm/yy.)
It was essentially a light entertainment show featuring magicians from all over the world, but the show did feature other kinds of acts and performers as well. For example, they once featured Jerry Andrus demonstrating various optical illusions that he created.
Uri’s appearance on the show was certainly atypical for him. The routine was a marked departure from the kinds of demonstrations and routines that he normally performs when he appears on TV. My opinion, since Peter asked for it, is that’s a fun enough routine, competently presented, and I think the audience liked it and found the theme intriguing. It had some originality about it, and it worked well in the context of the show.
I know Uri well. The discussion as to whether or not he is a magician rather depends on how you define the term. He doesn’t belong to any magic society, doesn’t read or study magic books and is genuinely unaware of how the majority of magic tricks are performed. He doesn’t work or perform as a magician, and when he appears on TV he is usually referred by a title such as a ‘mystifier’ or a ‘paranormalist’. The routines that he performs on TV don’t seem to be the same as those performed by any of the literally hundreds of magicians that I know all around the world, and are often just demonstrations of interesting psychological or scientific principles (such as the ‘Levitation’ trick we’ve all tried at parties, wherein four people can lift a fifth person into the air just using their fingertips.)
Uri has little or nothing to do with what you might call ‘the magic scene’. While I am open to correction, I believe that in the past 30 years, he has been to exactly one magic show (he saw Siegfried & Roy in Vegas), has never visited the Magic Circle or subscribed to any magic magazine, and has attended a grand total of two magic conventions, on both occasions as an invited VIP guest to do a sort of ‘question and answer’ session with the audience. The most recent of these was in London last November, where he was given a very friendly welcome.
I don’t presume to speak for Uri, and he’s perfectly capable of speaking for himself. However, when he says that he is not a magician, perhaps the above facts are what he is referring to.
There seems to be some (rather heated) discussion about magicians who stand on a stage and say ‘It’s magic!’ (pace Doug Henning) and whether this constitutes ‘lying’. Each to their own opinion, but it seems to me that people are failing to recognise that context makes a difference. In everyday life, if I tell you something of significance that turns out to be untrue, you call this as a ‘lie’ and would refer to me as a ‘liar’. When an actor appears in ‘Measure for Measure’ and says ‘My name is Lucio’, is he lying? When Hugh Laurise utters a medical diagnosis on ‘House’, is he lying? When Paul McCartney sings ‘Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away’, and if he is not, actually, pining for lost love at the time, should we consider this to be ‘lying’? I think most people would say, no, it’s not lying, because of the context. The audience know they are seeing a show, and these lines are spoken in the context of entertainment, which we understand not to be ‘reality’.
All of which is by way of making a simple point: there is more to the allegation of ‘lying’ than just ‘saying something that isn’t factually correct’. Context and circumstance have to be taken into consideration.
This post is more than long enough already, but I must just correct one point. It’s true that during a recent visit to Chicago I gave an informal performance for a few friends (by way of thanking them for their hospitality), including CK Dexter Haven and Ed Zotti. However, this particular performance did not feature spoon-bending. But it is nonetheless something I’ve done literally hundreds if not thousands of times, in many different countries around the world.
[Moderating]
No problem. My main concern when I posted last night was that the discussion was becoming a bit too heated for GQ, and in my opinion was threatening to derail the thread. We do often allow discussion of side issues in GQ. As long as the discussion remains civil, it’s OK.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The number of continents you have visited is an important facet of the trick. I’m glad you told us that.
Apologies to you, Candyman74, and to all for the needless repetition and seeming irrelevance. Typing too quickly, too late at night.
FTR, I’ve never bent a spoon with my mind. Hell, I rarely use my mind for it’s intended purpose! (I have, however, bent several spoons in the garbage disposal, does that count?) 
But I wish to thank you, ** ianzin**, for your input in the thread.
Just tell the audience, “Hey, look over there!!”
And while their heads are turned, quickly bend the spoon with both hands, and then resume holding it in the hand you originally held it in.
Then tell the audience, “I guess it was nothing, you can turn around again.”
Audience sees bent spoon, and they erupt into wild applause!
Just say, “Ta Daaaaaaa!!”
In your best Bullwinkle Moose voice, say “Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!!”
Ahh, showbiz!!!
It’s not the spoon that bends. It’s yourself.