James Randi Speaks: Conjuring w/ Barbara Walters

back in the year mobile mobile many years ago I was challenged to replicate a trick that curry Yeller remember him did for Barbara Walters on TV now what you'll see her first is a very bad quality outtake from a video copy of this program done way back when Barbara Walters had a morning program called not for women only the two magicians you'll see on the set with me are Mark Wilson from the magic land of Alakazam and the late Doug Henning who is currently on Broadway at that time with his very successful live stage show Barbara's producer whose name I had mercifully forgotten long ago didn't care much for me and through every obstacle into my path as I tried to work my tricks somehow I persevered and rather surprised both mark and Doug who were in stitches laughing when I told them later how I'd done my sneaky stuff they'd missed it though they were right in close now Geller had bent Barbara's key a key about like this she described it as being done with psychic powers this trick and she was obviously very impressed with it let's look at the first part of this video and see just what this old codger somewhere around 33 years ago was up to a year ago we did on this program a week on psychic phenomenon we did it very seriously one of our panel members was a Yeller who is a young Israeli and has been tested by the Stanford Institute and by other scientists and is said to have psychic powers we had the former astronaut Edgar Mitchell on with us who believes in very much an early yella and Randi you've been going around the country some what is Houdini used to in the past trying to debunk those who say that it's psychic power you say it's magic right well barber you see in let you said just now is something rather revealing to me because you say that he's been tested by the scientists at the Stanford Research Institute first of all Stanford Research Institute is not connected in any way with Stanford University that happens to be on the grounds it takes its name from its locality and the Stanford Research Institute as an institute did not test a regular - scientists there whose specialty is lasers nothing to do with psychology nothing to do with conjuring certainly whose specialty as lasers went through some private tests with the reguar under anything but test conditions and since then the psychology department down there and I've read this in one of the psychological journals has tested him gave him a hundred envelopes that he was supposed to guess the contents of and he failed each and every out of the hundred let me show some things he did with me and I'm I'm a pretty honest person okay I mean we all know I understand the nation this is my house key very Gellar took it let's take this other one it's a matching key he went like this with it with his finger that's all no pressure and the key bent you can see that and I've carried it around because I found that I'm a believer now he also people in the audience said that their keys bent I can't prove that but I can't prove that mine did here is my identical keys touch it and make it Bend now we have another piece of metal I need another piece of metal use metal we just use this thing oh that's very true that's very true but I want I want to show you another case now this is the bent way now which camera is taking this can we can we get a close-up here now all right now you can see the bent one here there is a definite Bend here is that right okay now watch watch it very carefully I am going to see if I kiss is a different one for mission listen to duplicate am I correct right this one has a stamp on it saying to uh seven rest something this doesn't have a stamp on these little stamp on it there would you heard the end of it very likely in between your fingers Barbara and I'm just going to stroke it now I'm not putting enough pressure on to bend it yeah okay I'm just going to stroke it with my fingers very lightly like this now look at the bend that's in the other key no I won't take my eyes off this key very good I'm glad to hear you say that would you show it to the camera please now is it bent as much as this be or not are you going to keep this key - barber on your keychain next Barbara spoke about the drawing replication trick one of the only five tricks that Geller has ever been known to do her producer had challenged me to do it hoping for a failure of course Barbara had made a drawing to test me and carefully kept it in her hot little hand right until she showed it on the set both mark and Doug thought I'd go down in flames but I had a couple of twists for them and for the audience do you either hey we're gonna show tape okay Barry will show that this is where he read my mind and reproduced a picture that only I had okay just look at me visualize everything that you drew once more I'm gonna show what I got and if I'm wrong then I'm wrong but it really came very strongly I'll just I'll tell you what first I thought it wasn't what it comes to appear now first I thought there are two churches with peaks on our two houses then he turned to a letter M and then he it could be two mountains with the round thing on or two people yeah yeah am I wrong you're right all right you gotta let it end you may not be because of that but because my drawing is a drawing similar to one that my child does it's a mother and child o we have not had this dis envelope out of our sight randy has in no way been close but the closest you've been to it to my knowledge is right now we produce you put it back in the book I want to make sure that it is under good control all right Barbara I'm gonna ask you to concentrate on what's drawn inside there wanna concentrate I don't watch this lesson I'm a surprise everybody you're concentrating on what you're doing there I don't want you to see the end of the pen mover you may can say mmmm all right doesn't look quite right it's tragic I'm a very bad artist you have to pardon me barber but alright I've made what I believe to be an impression of it now it can't be altered in any way would you be kind enough to open up the envelope let's see how right I was oh I like Terry says thanks God I hope I'm right on this that's the way you said that you know well open it up and show it to the cameras could be so kind where's the canvas here's a cans and a host it's a little well I don't draw and it's a little house and his son and here's a little person a house that's the house that's the son in that semester well your pardon me for being a very bad artist Barbara but I didn't get the son at all I got the little person but I got the little person inside the house and the smoke coming out to the top here that's all we could get out of it this thanks God thanks thanks God I got dead yes yes we got the house I'm going to debunk this man and everybody believes tell you have to tell us how you do it I'm gonna add the son here to make the results a little better how about that folks yes you can't quite see the drawing that I made because it was made with a simple ballpoint pen not a broad marker as Geller had used I assure you it was very similar to Gellers but notice please that Barbara prayed right into Geller's hands when she revealed her original drawing by inventing the EM connection which he'd met to refer to the shape of the drawing in any case working through great difficulties I managed to come through now Barbara and I have met many times on many different programs since that event 33 years ago and we just don't talk about this I've never had to give her an explanation she's satisfied that she doesn't have an explanation and she's still confounded but that's the way it should be you don't explain these things to the people who experienced them because they say oh yeah I would have thought of that but Barbara wouldn't have thought of this at all some of you magicians out there if you watch very carefully you can see the gimmick that I used we thank you for watching this latest episode of James Randi speaks for more of James Randi and the Educational Foundation make sure you visit Randy's org

Channel: JamesRandiFoundation

Views: 598,768

Rating: 4.8114347 out of 5

Keywords: JamesRandiSpeaks, Barbara, Didnt, See, It

Id: JPt-7j3ahP0

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 09 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/uberneoconcert]

I love these videos. So I see how Randi reproduced the picture trick, but he does it differently: you can see him pick up and hold the paper before Barbara shows her picture. He has time to draw the whole thing with his right thumb while she is holding hers for the camera: you can see him looking up at her photo and back to his paper.

But Uri draws his own picture in front of Barbara and in front of the camera before she reveals hers.

[u/[deleted]]

That's a spectacular portrait of Asimov in the background of the intro.

Edit: Just wasted 30 minutes trying to find a place to buy one :(

[u/vankorgan]

As a continual skeptic, I know it's not magic. I know there's some reasonable explanation. But I'll be damned if the five year old inside me didn't just light up and yell, "Magic!"

[u/idrawinmargins]

A few weeks ago I was talking to a co worker about James Randi. Brought up Uri Geller and this nurse said that he is the real deal. Showed her the videos of Randi exposing Geller for the con he is. Watched her slowly digest how easily he fooled her.

The problem is that many people naturally take much for granted. I see this all the time, and do this myself sometimes.

[u/hornwalker]

I need to learn more about James Randi.

[u/[deleted]]

Damn, how old is James Randi!