welcome back our next guest james randy
is a magician and escape artist he's
also a skeptic best known for
challenging claims of paranormal
activity and pseudoscience one of
randy's most famous targets was
celebrity psychic eurogela who became an
international spoon bending superstar in
the 70s it was the 70s
it collected this heated exchange on the
don lane show which has become part of
australian television history
you're offering five thousand dollars to
people who say people are fakes you said
doris stokes is not fake no you say
eureka is a fake you came here and
you're giving everybody a lot of lip
service i don't know and you haven't
done anything except show us a lot of
tricks
magician you said he was
what i am defending is you you come over
here with this big reputation you give
us a lot of lip service about all the
stuff that you're going to prove you go
against the lady like dora stokes who
never harmed anybody in her whole life
and you call her a charlotte and a fake
you know you said deal about it yes i do
you said that she was a liar on the
radio you called her a liar no and that
woman wouldn't lie to anybody and i
don't know whether she's right or wrong
but she wouldn't write anybody we're
going for a commercial break and you
can't
well it wasn't really a conversation was
it there was no con about it apart from
yuri gala it was a tyrannosaur it was a
tie race yes and you know he was banging
that american accent on he wasn't
american and i just church
james randy is in australia at the
moment to present his show an evening
with james we're delighted to have him
in the studio great to have you here
james um
somewhat taken aback by don's reaction
oh no because i'd already been warned
and you know we had agreed the night
before less than 24 hours before that i
wouldn't be asked to do any of this
stupid spoon banding things and he wrung
it in on me at the last minute and tried
to tried to deceive me and didn't quite
work
well speaking of stupid spoon bending
yeah um
you're going to show us now uri geller
was his big star in the 70s and 80s
and he said that he could bend spoons
with his mind and you have proven you
did prove eve and he tried to sue you
several times and he lost every time
that he tried to uh sue you for
defamation uh that you you've proved how
you can do it yes
you're gonna show it how do you do it
would you like to see oh please james
you should ask
you just happen to have free spoons
you got me oh three spoons good all
right uh this looks like
what is it stainless
stainless stainless steel my favorite
material of course now a stainless steel
spoon we're all familiar with oh that
brings very nicely i like that uh i need
some help would you just lean forward
and hold on to each end of the spoon
please
bring your beautiful fingers and turn to
the camera all right now i'm just going
to stroke very gently here like this
and uh
hold on firmly now
you're going to wiggle it like oh look
at that and don't hold it too tight just
hold on tightly but don't don't flex the
spoon because that would be cheating is
he
and
what's actually going on from a
scientific perspective
oh look at this it seems to be getting
it's flexible look at that
isn't that straight let go now
and this was one of the spoons that
we've just provided for you yes and look
at this
look at the hats
how did that happen and i hardly even
touched that so how does it happen
what's going on just
you're heating up the molecules inside
the thing so it becomes unstable is that
what happens oh i like you very much
i could fool you anytime i think
no it's a it's a simple trick now mr
geller now i'm 86 sure i can hold seven
or eight spoons in one hand all by
myself without assistance but when mr
geller picks up the spoon he picks it up
like this from the table in both hands
and then he turns away from him and says
come over here
and when you come back oh it's better
it's not a miracle
it's so simple to do while he's saying
he can do it all
in his mind
why has it been so important to you to
really make part of your life's work uh
to disprove people that are that are
lying because they're doing a lot of
harm to people out there people who tend
to believe these things and believe in
paranormal and psychic powers
supernatural powers and it takes a lot
of money from people
specifically and it also destroys their
self-confidence and i i think
particularly the faith healers out there
uh on television they're always striking
on the forehead and making it better but
not one of those ends up being a healing
that's the the terrible thing about it
there's this um you know renowned
brazilian faith healer john of god who's
touring australia at the moment and
people claim to have been cured of
cancers and all sorts of illnesses oh
yes uh what what's going on there i mean
just our desire to believe well the
james randy educational foundation that
i head up as you might have guessed uh
offers a one million dollars that's
american dollars now uh prized to any of
the psychics any of the sanctuary
governor or john of god anyone who can
prove what they say is really true now
john a god has one favorite trick by the
way i have an illustration of it here
this is a cross section
of one's head
and you see a pair of forceps that are
stuck up the nose
now this can be done in carnivals it's
called
the
the former forceps trick or brain buster
it's called many different names and
it's a simple thing because there is a
stretch of material right here and this
is the pineal gland in here and one
prominent doctor in the united states
said oh it probably affects the pineal
gland
doctor this is a layer of bone you would
have to punch that thing into the
fellow's head and absolutely kill him in
order to do that but this is an old
carnival stunt anymore
i would easily demonstrate it for you
except that at 86 uh i've got to be very
careful about pineal gland
i never bring it out in public if you
puncture a penis
you're out here doing this tour with
your show and evening with james randy
what do people get out of that show what
they get out of it is uh i hope a sense
of beginning to be critical critical
thinking is the secret of the whole
thing
doubt these things don't
poo-poo with them right away don't say
no that's not true and i never do myself
i say i'm going to investigate it i'm
going to look into it in every case when
we look into it it doesn't happen
otherwise that million dollars would
have been gone long ago yeah indeed have
you seen that great film um
oh
now you see me
uh no no i have not oh you should check
it out yeah it's about four sort of las
vegas you know spiritualists and
psychics and whatnot pulling the great
heist
of our day i'm very impressed already
james randy absolutely wonderful to have
you in a great pleasure and thank you
we'll do it again next time in australia
you notice i say it throughout the
scenario
come and see our movie an honest liar
yes if you can see that i think you'll
learn a great deal about the skeptical
movement and about the people who are
behind it to reveal i hope we'll have
all your audience showing up in droves
all you theosophists get along uh
james's tour kicks off in adelaide
tomorrow and travels around the country
our website has all the details and
incidentally he's only 22. hmm
stay with us up next a biblical battle
for the box office
we have to bring something we so do
cadbury favorites what to bring to a
merry thing
this year give a gift that in
