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No he's not!

The Atheist said:
I'm somewhat annoyed at the Beeb's headline: Israeli 'psychic' Uri Geller still baffling fans at 75

Ok, they put quotation marks around the psychic bit, but he's only baffling morons. It does go to show how nothing short of death stops these charlatans.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59609232
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I suppose he may be baffling his "fans" but to those of us with even a half a brain he is a lying phony.
 
alfaniner said:
That would appear to be a ripoff/direct copy of
Spoonbridge_and_Cherry, made 30 years earlier. But it's two feet longer, so...
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Interesting.

Spoonbridge and Cherry measures 30 by 52 by 13 feet (9 m × 15.7 m × 4.1 m)
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(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonbridge_and_Cherry).

By the entrance to the new Uri Geller Museum, overlooking the sparkling sea in Jaffa, lies, appropriately enough, the world's largest steel spoon - 16.18m (53ft 1in) long.
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(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59609232).

I wouldn't be surprised if the Minneapolis giant spoon had actually been inspired by Geller:
In 1973, spoon-bending "psychic" Uri Geller appeared on The Tonight Show -- and walked into a trap set by host Johnny Carson and the magician/skeptic James "The Amazing" Randi.
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(https://groovyhistory.com/amazing-randi-uri-geller-tonight-show).

There may be a certain meaning in all of this.
 
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BillC said:
They gave him a lot of money -- Geller had a huge house in Sonning, a very expensive village to begin with. It went on the market with an asking price of £15 million a few years ago when he moved to Israel.


ETA: though when he finally left, someone erected a statue to him, "The Golden Cock": https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/berkshire-history/mystery-new-uri-geller-statue-18304230
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It’s not there now, I was there the other week, there’s just the tree stump.
 
Pixel42 said:
Didn't he pretty much admit that he was just a showman a few years back?
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There’s an interview with Randi on YouTube where he says Geller tried to “apologize”, but Randi refuses to accept. “You’ve ruined lives, live with it.”
 
Bikewer said:
There’s an interview with Randi on YouTube where he says Geller tried to “apologize”, but Randi refuses to accept. “You’ve ruined lives, live with it.”
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Is there a list somewhere of the lives Geller ruined? I didn't follow him that closely.
 
Pixel42 said:
Didn't he pretty much admit that he was just a showman a few years back?
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Well, he may still baffle people. I saw an illusionist some years ago at a company event. His tricks sure baffled me.

... No I never suspected for a second that he was doing magic, which certainly made his tricks even more baffling. I mean, if there is magic, you can do anyting, so what's the big deal?

Hans
 
Warp12 said:
Is there a list somewhere of the lives Geller ruined? I didn't follow him that closely.
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I don't think he ruined many lives, but he sure as hell scammed hundreds of thousands of people, at the very least.

He's a crook and charlatan that in any sane society would be shunned.
 
The Atheist said:
I don't think he ruined many lives, but he sure as hell scammed hundreds of thousands of people, at the very least.

He's a crook and charlatan that in any sane society would be shunned.
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What do you think about his skills at his peak? He had a pretty good game, right? I mean, in some ways, perhaps his best illusion was getting people to believe it was real.
 
Warp12 said:
What do you think about his skills at his peak? He had a pretty good game, right? I mean, in some ways, perhaps his best illusion was getting people to believe it was real.
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Getting casual audiences to buy into a trivial feat of legerdemain is an incredibly low bar to set. If that was his best illusion, he's just an amateur-hour magician with a really good publicist.
 
theprestige said:
Getting casual audiences to buy into a trivial feat of legerdemain is an incredibly low bar to set. If that was his best illusion, he's just an amateur-hour magician with a really good publicist.
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I don't know. He obviously had an engaging persona, which is all part of the act. It's not as thought everyone could do what he did. There are likely many, many more talented illusionists...but Geller had something extra, above that. I'd consider it all part of his act. And he seemingly had a lot of success because of it.
 
Warp12 said:
I don't know. He obviously had an engaging persona, which is all part of the act. It's not as thought everyone could do what he did. There are likely many, many more talented illusionists...but Geller had something extra, above that. I'd consider it all part of his act. And he seemingly had a lot of success because of it.
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You're arguing for for the charlatan's craft. I'm not buying it in Geller's case because in my view he was succeeding on easy mode with amateur tricks. He succeeded at being a celebrity psychic, but that's not very impressive to me. Kim Kardashian succeeded at being a celebrity celebrity. If Geller's achievement impresses you, my response isn't, "well then I guess it is impressive". My response is, "up your standards and save your amazement for something truly amazing."
 
theprestige said:
You're arguing for for the charlatan's craft. I'm not buying it in Geller's case because in my view he was succeeding on easy mode with amateur tricks. He succeeded at being a celebrity psychic, but that's not very impressive to me. Kim Kardashian succeeded at being a celebrity celebrity. If Geller's achievement impresses you, my response isn't, "well then I guess it is impressive". My response is, "up your standards and save your amazement for something truly amazing."
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Well, I am not really too passionate about it. He was very successful, considering the "easy mode with amateur tricks", though. And that is indicative of a different sort of talent. Some may not like it, but even being a good con man is a talent. You don't have to respect it, but you have to recognize it, at least.
 
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