Magician and escape artist James Randi dies
WASHINGTON: Escape artist and magician James Randi, who spent decades investigating and debunking faith healers, mind readers, psychics and other fraudsters and charlatans who claimed paranormal powers has died, his foundation said. He was 92.
“We are very sad to say that James Randi passed away yesterday, due to age-related causes. He had an Amazing life. We will miss him,” the James Randi Educational Foundation said in a brief statement.
Born Randall Zwinge in Toronto, Canada, in 1928, Randi was a child prodigy with an IQ of 168 and interested in magic from a young age, The Washington Post said.
From the 1940s he worked as a stage magician and escape artist, eventually calling himself ‘The Amazing Randi'.
As an escapologist he had held two Guinness World Records – for beating Harry Houdini's time for being sealed in an underwater coffin, one hour and 44 minutes, and for being encased in a block of ice for 55 minutes.
While he enjoyed amazing audiences with his feats of escapology and sleight of hand, Randi had no time for so-called psychics and faith healers, exposing numerous fraudsters with his inside knowledge of a magician's tricks.
As public fascination with the paranormal grew in the 1970s, Randi, along with scifi writer Isaac Asimov and astronomer Carl Sagan, cofounded what is now known as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry to investigate claims of paranormal phenomena and promote scientific inquiry.
One of his most famous targets was Israeli self-professed psychic Uri Geller, who claimed to be able to bend spoons with the power of his mind.
In 1973 Johnny Carson invited Geller on ‘The Tonight Show' and asked him to demonstrate his powers on a range of props but the flustered Geller was unable to, claiming he ‘didn't feel strong.' Ahead of the show, the skeptical Carson, who had been a magician himself, had asked Randi for advice to expose any trickery.
“I told them to provide their own props and not to let Geller or his people anywhere near them,” Randi said.