James Randi shows his ESP & Performs a Magic Trick
Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, includes claimed reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind.
James Randi was a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. He was the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation.
Born: August 7, 1928, Toronto, Canada Died: October 20, 2020, Plantation, Florida, United States
Question: Why did you decide to come out publicly at age 81?
James Randi: Oh, well. I did it, first of all, my next book is to be called, this is a plug, “A Magician in the Laboratory.” And I’m working on that currently right now and it’s more or less autobiographical because so much of my life is spent running around the world and sitting around in laboratories and watching, in many cases, watching scientists make total fools of themselves. But I forgive them for that, they’re just not informed. I tried to inform them and such. And I thought, “Well hey, before I publish the book, I should really come out and say to people, yes, I’m gay. I’ve been gay all of my life.” I don’t have any problem with that whatsoever. The point that I came out so late in my life is only due to the fact that I never got around to it. All my friends and family have always known. All of my office people and such have always known about this. And I’ve never made any refusal to discuss it, and if anyone has every asked, I said quite frankly, “Yes, that’s the situation.” And for 25 years now, I’ve had a faithful companion and we get along just fine. We’re very attached to one another, I’m very happy in that relationship and it doesn’t enter into my work at all though.
Question: How has the public reaction been?
James Randi: Oh, the public reaction has been wonderful. I anticipated that it would be, frankly, but it’s been much more, much better than I even dreamed it could be. I’m still getting emails months after this happened. I’m still getting email from people who say, “Oh I just found out about so and so, and bang on, that’s the way to go.” And these a people who can or cannot be gay one way or another, it doesn’t make any difference. They all accept it. And a couple of sour grapes out there, but I could ignore them safely. But a very, very small minority. People have understood and we are in an enlightened age. Now, when I was a teenager, oh, that would have been the last thing I could have possibly have done. I would have gotten stoned, I would have gotten beaten up every day, I’m sure, by the kids at school. But not anymore. That day, I hope, is passed.
Question: Will coming out be easier for the next generation?
James Randi: Yes. And not only that, in that respect as a matter of fact. I’ve found one thing that I did not anticipate. I’m getting a lot of correspondence from young gay people who say that I’ve served as an example of how it can be done and they’ve determined that they’re going to do it too. And that’s very encouraging. I think that relieves them of a bit of a burden, you feel somewhat freed up. Now, I didn’t notice the difference at all because I’ve been out all of my life if anyone asked. That’s all there is to it. And nobody ever… well some people did ask, or sort of hinted at it. And I would come out with it right away. I had no problem with that. I still have no problem with it whatsoever. Here I am. And people often will say, “But you named your car Sophia, after Sophia Loren.” A little blue Miata, a beautiful little jobbie. And they said, “Well, you keep on talking about Sophia Loren.” And I say, “Yes. You see, I’m gay, but I’m not blind.” After all, you know, that is not Oil of Olay that Sophia uses. That’s got to be witchcraft.
JAMES RANDI: James Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician, but when he retired at age 60, he switched to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls “woo-woo.” Although often referred to as a “debunker,” Randi rejects that title owing to its perceived bias, instead describing himself as an “investigator”. He has written about the paranormal, skepticism, and the history of magic. He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and is occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Question: Would you perform a feat of conjuring? James Randi: I’m a bit of an amateur at shuffling cards. Ho, ho, ho. But when a deck is as thoroughly mixed up as this one is, many people think that there’ll be a red, black, red, black. I’m not talking about suits, now just the color, you see. Red, black, but it doesn’t happen that way. For example here, we’ve got three reds; we don’t need the joker in there. James Randi: Yes. And we’ve got oh, there’s another three reds. No, this is pretty good, the colors – I’m just looking at the colors now. The colors are pretty well mixed in here other than here’s another joker that we won’t use in there. All right. Now. What I’m going to do is, first of all. We suspect that the colors would be pretty well sorted, or alternated all the way through the deck. But I’m going to show you something rather remarkable. Here we have a well shuffled deck, very well shuffled deck. And I want you to come over here and just give me your hand, if you’d be so kind. Step over and join me on the set. Okay?
Now just hold, like that with the palm up, a little closer—I see you have a rich future. Yes, well in any case. I want you to hold half of the cards for me, would you please. And I’ll hold the other half. And I’m going to show you something rather remarkable. Look at this. When I turn the back over, watch this. One black card on the top and then all of the rest of them red. Every last one. Wow! And taking a look. Hold those for me, please. One black card on the top just to disguise it, but in this case, each and every one of them black. Recorded April 16, 2010 Interviewed by Austin Allen
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Question: How did you become an escape artist? James Randi: I took up the escape artistry thing on a peculiar sort of event. I was working in Quebec City at the Fleur Le Royal, I think it was called; a nightclub there. And a couple of cops came by and were eying me from the side of the stage and they came to me afterwards and showed me a pair of handcuffs and said, “Could you get out of these?” And I said, “Oh, yeah sure.” They were simple locks and, well we’ll see you after the show. And I said, yeah, sure, okay, thinking I would never see them again. And I packed up and was leaving the dressing room and suddenly they showed up in the stairway. I said, “Oh, I forgot about that.” So, I went downstairs and they put a pair of handcuffs on me out in the street, much to the amusement of people passing by, I can assure you.
And they opened the squad car door for me; I got in one side, and got out the other side with the handcuffs off. Now, that got their attention. They hadn’t seen that before, but I will confide in you that handcuff locks are very, very simple locks. And I was pretty well set up for it and ready for it. But as they looked at me in some astonishment and said, “Well, do you think you could break out of our jail?” And I said, “Well, show me the jail.” Oh, they put me in the back of the squad car and off we went. And the next morning the headlines in the Quebec Soleil, was the name of the paper, came out with, “[…] Randi [..] de la Prison de Quebec.”
That means, the amazing Randi, and I had never used that title before, up until then I was “The Great Randall,” you see. But the Amazing Randi Escapes from the Jail of Quebec, or the Quebec Jail. It made a bit of news and when I went to the nightclub that night, the Manager met me at the door and he said, “Forget the birds and the rings and all that sort of thing.” He said, “Do something in the escape business.” So, I went out there and I did a thing and that’s how I got into it. But it made a good reputation from me; I broke out of 22 jails around the world in my career. All legally that is. Yes, I’ve never actually been locked up in one where I – well there was one occasion. I won’t get into the details.
Question: How did it feel to break Houdini’s record for submersion in a coffin? James Randi: Well, it wasn’t much of a feat really at the time, I must say, because I was much younger. He as 52 at the age when he did that, and I was, I think 22. So, I had the advantage, the physical advantage over old Harry. And so I took a certain amount of credit for it, but I did break his record by a few minutes. And I did it several times after that around the world and different countries and in different venues and increased my record to one hour and 44 minutes of being sealed up on a steel coffin under water.
Question: What kind of mental and physical training do escape artists undergo? James Randi: Well it’s a matter of using some common sense to start with. You don’t want to use up a lot of oxygen. I got a very good night’s sleep. I did it on the “Today” Show on NBC with Dave Garroway, as a matter of fact. He was the host at that time. That was many, many moons ago. And I rested up very thoroughly; I stayed at the Hotel Shelton where there was a swimming pool, in New York City. I slept well, and I must say when I got into the coffin there, I was starting to think, well maybe I’ll make an hour or so. I made an hour and 31 minutes in that particular episode. But I just breathed in a very shallow manner…
Question: Have you ever personally been tricked or duped? James Randi: Well, there’s this one girl, and I don’t want to get into the details. No, you know, the interesting thing is, that since I started this about the age of 12 to 14, I’ve got to know more and more about how people are fooled and how they fool themselves—the two things that magicians must know—I don’t think I’ve ever been fooled by an illusion… although sometimes when I first see it on stage, I’ll say, “Whoa, how about that.” Oh yeah… and I’ll think about it and I’ll say, okay, yes, right. There you go. I will come up with the solution eventually. As a matter of fact, when sitting at a Copperfield show, for example, and he always puts me in the fourth row or so, and I always move a little bit further back if I don’t want to be looking straight up his nose, you see. And what happens is, I’ll sit with a magician friend and we’ll nudge one another at a certain point and say, “Oh wow, how about that!” And people around me will say, how about what? They didn’t see anything happen, see. But we saw the moment of truth you know, when he might have done something like this, or it looks innocuous, but that’s when the thing happened. You see? And we recognize that. That moment of truth is something we spot and the people around don’t. And then when the girl jumps out of the box, they’re all surprised and we knew it all along.
Question: What makes you feel wonder or awe? James Randi: Well, magic performances in many cases, and particularly some of the young folks that are sort of coming along these days are… particularly in Asia. Oh my goodness. Asia has pretty well taken over the magic business as far as numbers of people. Very, very competent people who are in the business, male and female. They really do a wonderful job. But I am an old fashioned fuddy-duddy, you see. I stand outside my home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and I could watch a sunset, and my eyes will fill up with tears. They can because that’s nature. And I see… oh, I see a raccoon cross the lawn and stop and look at me and I say hello. And he doesn’t know what I am saying, but he goes on his way and he does his thing. That’s wonderful. These are little things that I still take great joy… and I like seeing the world and how it works. That’s why… one reason why these people who try to sell us a false bill of goods about how the world really works, and how really wonderful it is. Oh my, I can’t stand that. I just find myself repelled by that idea and I want to drag kids out into the sunset and say, take a look at that, or a sunrise even better. At my age, you appreciate sunrises more than sunsets. You see?
But I’ve had… I have a very good quality of telescope, for example, at my home in Plantation, Florida. And I’ll get out the tripod to show some guest, oh if Jupiter is up there, or whatever, or the Moon, or Andromeda if it happens to be in a good aspect. I’ll show them that. And kids come back on bicycles and stop and say, “Whatcha doin?” And they look in there and they… “What’s that.” “That’s the planet Jupiter. And you know how far away it is?” And they’ll say, “Oh yeah, really?” And then I’ll show them Andromeda and I’ll say, “Now that’s not the way it looks now. No? No, that’s the way it looked quite a few million years ago. The light is just reaching us now.” And when you see them go, “Oh,” you know you’ve made a hit. That’s important. And if that kid comes by with a girlfriend the next day on another bike, “Can we see your telescope?” I’ve won a battle right there. That’s important. You’ve got to get the kids, you’ve got to get to them and say, “Take a look at this. This may surprise you.” And if you can do that and be successful at it, oh that makes my day, if not a week.
Question: As a “bright,” what do you believe? James Randi: The term “bright” I don’t much care for, but hey, we did the best we could with it. I was with Richard Dawkins in Clearwater, Florida and a few other people who brainstormed and came up with idea of having the “brights.” I think I was maybe the third or fourth person to sign the membership roster. And a “bright” is someone who thinks logically and rationally; bases his or her decisions on rationality, upon logic, and upon evidence—that’s the major thing right there. And if we don’t have evidence, we can express our belief or lack of belief in it, but it has to be provisional. I believe that this is probably true, though I don’t have any evidence for or against. It’s a perfectly safe statement. And so, brights base all of their decisions and their beliefs on logic, rationality, and evidence. That’s the thing in which they differ from the average person who takes anything that comes along that looks attractive. “Oh, I like that; I think I’ll believe in it.”
Question: As the scientific picture of the universe gets weirder, could any religious claims ever be verified? James Randi: Not that I know. I am an atheist, tried and true. I have been since I was, oh I guess about this tall. I’m only about this tall now. And I made up my mind that I was going to investigate all of these things and question them. I went to Sunday school. I was tossed out of Sunday school immediately. But it gave me 25 cents that I could have put in the contribution plate there, so when they pass the plate around, and I found out that at Purdy’s Drug Store, you could buy a two-flavored ice cream sundae for 25 cents. And that was a great discovery of my childhood, I must say, and I took full advantage of it. My parents, bless them, never found out and I went off every Sunday morning as if going to Sunday school, but I lied. And I’m ashamed to admit it now, and if my dad and mom are up there someplace, or down there someplace, I have no idea, I ask them to forgive me. Recorded April 16, 2010 Interviewed by Austin Allen
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