So what does James Randi do for a living?

zooterkin said:
Hardly, he's just this guy, you know? At least so he seemed when I spent some time with him in October last year. A very charming and well-informed guy, though.
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Rich people can be interesting I guess. I really don't know any which is nice actually. Having few friends means that you owe few favors.
 
MNBrant said:
Rich people can be interesting I guess. I really don't know any which is nice actually. Having few friends means that you owe few favors.
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I don't think Randi would be considered rich by most people but I could be wrong. I don't get the impression he makes huge money but he probably does ok.

He's pretty much mostly retired at this point, certainly from his main job of performance.

He probably has a few different income streams coming in but saying that the JREF is a lucrative business I think is a bit of a tall order. How much time and money did Randi invest in JREF before it got off the ground? He's obviously been personally working hard on this for many many years.
 
He's past 80. Most people around that age don't do anything for a living, since they're, you know, retired.

But hey, Randi is actually one of the rare ones who isn't completely retired. He still attends conferences and lectures, and he's currently writing a book. How about that!
 
MNBrant said:
Is he a carpenter like Jesus, or does he make his entire living by being a sceptic? If he is not working, how long has it been since he has had a real job? Personal response only please.
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Randi doesn't read the Forum very often so if you want a response from him (to your question) you would be better sending an email to jref@randi.org.
 
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I think these days Randi is mostly occupied with giving talks on skepticism around the world and writing (the last couple of times I saw him speak he said he's working on his next book--A Magician in the Laboratory). He retired from performing years ago. Not sure how involved he is in running the day-to-day operations of the JREF, but I think he still draws a salary.
 
zooterkin said:
Hardly, he's just this guy, you know? At least so he seemed when I spent some time with him in October last year. A very charming and well-informed guy, though.
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He's definitely a hoopy frood. Very pleasant and down to Earth. I met him when he came to the Lake Hypatia Freethought Advance and also a skeptic's conference in Tampa which also had Martin Gardner. At the former, he was resplendent in his black jeweled battle shorts. Although TAM is expensive, these were both nearly-zero-budget events, and so I do not think that he has made his fortune by the blood of the exploited working class.

He's written books, some of which are illustrated very prettily, and so I'm sure he still gets royalties. There's some money from the interest on the Million Dollar Challenge. And he's had a successful career as a conjurer.
 
MNBrant said:
I wonder if he has the satchel of money delivered to him once a week, or does he personally go get it himself.
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Or perhaps he uses one of those newfangled modern wireless money transfers called 'bank accounts'. But what do I know?
 
Ryokan said:
Or perhaps he uses one of those newfangled modern wireless money transfers called 'bank accounts'. But what do I know?
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Oh, I was imagining him conjuring it from a small child's ear. I suppose your way could work too. Less fun, though.
 
wow, how clueless. I also once thought of Randi as some sort of diety. And then, to my shock, I met him. Over the years, we've become friends. The weird part is the entire family has come to know him over the years and we're all his friends now. We're not important, not rich (far from it!), not famous...and get this...I'm one of those "God believers" (and open about it with him) and my husband isn't even much of a skeptic at all. My one daughter was an intern with Randi, and the funny thing is when I would call down to talk to her, guess who usually answered the phone? Randi. Because he would come in to work every weekend.

Hard to believe, but he's just a really nice person. I feel humbled that he is my friend, but I also feel happy that I am friends with someone that really is just darn nice.

...unless you charge people so that they can talk to their dead children...because he's not ok with that "oh, you can speak to your dead child, but I'm only going to have time to do it with a $600 an hour donation to my church...". Ripping off the bereaved and poor and uneducated and ill is a good way to bring out his not nice side. Also my not nice side. And that of most people with any sense of morality and fairness. Randi, he never blames the victim, he knows who is at fault.
 
MNBrant said:
Rich people can be interesting I guess. I really don't know any which is nice actually. Having few friends means that you owe few favors.
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Funny. I would have said that having friends means owing no favors.
 
MNBrant said:
Is he a carpenter like Jesus, or does he make his entire living by being a sceptic? If he is not working, how long has it been since he has had a real job? Personal response only please.
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What do you care?
 
It would have been nice if the OP had tried to make some sort of point instead of just asking a question with no reason attached.

My general impression is he's trying to say something like "see see! I told you so Randi makes ***money*** and therefore that means he's wrong, or not a skeptic or driven by some conspiracy". Maybe that's just my read on it though ;)
 
MNBrant said:
Is he a carpenter like Jesus, or does he make his entire living by being a sceptic? If he is not working, how long has it been since he has had a real job? Personal response only please.
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I wonder why someone would make the comparison between James Randi and Jesus. I mean, Jesus was not the only carpenter we know of. So why say "Is he a carpenter like Jesus"?
 
Not trollin at all, eh op?

How i could have ever thought that he is just taking the piss is beyond me.
 
I'll say "troll" if you say "crazy" or equivalent. :)

He's either someone with serious mental issues who doesn't like atheists much, so he's trolling, or

He's someone with serious, serious anger & maturity issues who doesn't like atheists much, so he's trolling, or

He's an unemployed actor/sociopath who is constructing an elaborate persona over a period of years in order to, whatever... or,

He's someone with serious mental issues and anger issues who half-wants to reach out to people and half-wants to dominate them and confound them. (like I've discussed.)

And it all comes out to the same thing, in a way, for us.

No-one's going to stick around, or give him money, or even give him that much advice, or pity.

But he ain't funny.

Oddly enough, it's easy enough to fool psychiatrists in person, as various documentaries have shown. Actors pretending to be mentally ill have gotten admitted to mental hospitals, only to really feel like they were going crazy.

These are doctors who have the person directly in front of them, to talk to.

How can we do any better than that? We can't.

Prisoners (in jail) simulate mental illness, sometimes, thinking that they will get transferred some place.

It really doesn't matter to us, since we're not responsible.

But whatever the case, it goes beyond just taking the piss.

Maybe we can all agree on that.

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Look, to go on a tangent about acting: I've never seen an actor actually simulate mental illness (or neurological damage) in a convincing, naturalistic way. Not DeNiro. Not Christian Bale in The Fighter. The actual guys that movie is based on, shown at the end of that movie, are a lot scarier. Same with autism. Rain Man? No.

Of Mice and Men? No. Malkovich has way too much of a gleam in his eye.

With actors, there's a lot more spark, a lot more presence. Joie de vivre. They are way more interesting, and well, dramatic.

Counter-examples?
 
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