Today's Uri Geller

[Gord_in_Toronto]

From the Skeptic Magazine mailing list the following partial article:

“There’s no way,” gasped NFL star Russell Wilson as mentalist Oz Pearlman seemingly plucked an ATM pin code from his mind on 60 Minutes. The venerable news program, known for hard-hitting journalism, looked more like awestruck children at a magic show as Pearlman dazzled correspondent Cecilia Vega with his “psychic” feats.

I don't have a subscription to Skeptic to read the rest so I Googled over to https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mental...ell-seems-like-psychic-60-minutes-transcript/ to see what the fuss was about.

Oz Pearlman claims to be a mentalist.

Oz insists he does not have supernatural powers — he reads *people*. He reads them so well that when we met him this past spring, his head games had me jumping out of the chair mid interview, and mystified celebrities, billionaires and athletes.

Sure!

A bit more Google and I arrived at

revealing all of oz pearlman's secrets (complete guide to mentalism) by Stevie Baskin

It is an embarrassingly thorough debunking - 2 hours and 47 minutes. You don't have to watch all of it but as part of his act the "mentalist" Pearlman uses a gimmicked slate (available from magic stores) that he pretends works using his mentalist abilities. If he does this, why trust him about anything else?

The rest of his act is just the standard mishmash of holding, folding misdirection, and sneak peeking. Mister P is very good at all of this but he is only a regular, bog standard stage magician. Admittedly, a good one.

(You can Google for a magic slate if you want one but it's going to cost you.)

to Stevie. He deserves a prize.

As Penn says Stage Magic good. Phony Mentalism bad.

 

[Darat]

No I don't think he is a Gellar - Gellar claimed to have supernatural powers. He reminds me more of a Darren Brown type. And we have had conversations about him regarding his act, some say he pretends to have real magic powers in his act and others say it's a magician's act and that is part of the patter.

The issue I do see with him is that he doesn't really say "this is entertainment, I'm a Penn and Teller" and so on - he allows his volunteers to draw silly conclusions.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

No I don't think he is a Gellar - Gellar claimed to have supernatural powers. He reminds me more of a Darren Brown type. And we have had conversations about him regarding his act, some say he pretends to have real magic powers in his act and others say it's a magician's act and that is part of the patter.

The issue I do see with him is that he doesn't really say "this is entertainment, I'm a Penn and Teller" and so on - he allows his volunteers to draw silly conclusions.

Oz insists he does not have supernatural powers — he reads *people*. He reads them so well that when we met him this past spring, his head games had me jumping out of the chair mid interview, and mystified celebrities, billionaires and athletes.

He does not "read people" he uses standard stage magician techniques and props.

The people he's fooling obviously think he's doing something mentalistic. He is fraud. As Penn says this wrong. We don't need more credulity in the world we need more rationality and skepticism.

 

[jadebox]

I am bothered a little by his claiming not to use standard magic "tricks," but certainly not as much as I was bothered by Uri Geller claiming he had real powers.

As James Randi sort-of said, if he's not using typical stage magic techniques then he is doing it the hard way.

Perlman reminds me of when I was about twelve and I saw Orson Welles perform a card trick on a talk show. Welles claimed that it wasn't a trick, that it was "real magic." That really angered me. I knew it was a trick and I had a pretty good idea of how it was done. I am sure that event helped me on my path toward being a more critical thinker.

 

[EHocking]

That’s not an unusual path, jadebox.
For me as a preteen, it was reading Chariots of the Gods.
All those remarkable, intriguing things in the world - only to arrive at “aliens”.

If I’d known the phrase at the time, FFS, would have been my response.

 

[jadebox]

That’s not an unusual path, jadebox.
For me as a preteen, it was reading Chariots of the Gods.
All those remarkable, intriguing things in the world - only to arrive at “aliens”.

If I’d known the phrase at the time, FFS, would have been my response.

It was a documentary about those "ancient aliens" books that really got to me. It was probably an episode of Nova that looked into the claims from those books. I vividly recall the documentary showing a couple of things. First, how what one of the books described as an ancient runway carved in the desert was really a cropped image of the foot of a bird. Second, was how local artisans were making (and selling to tourists) the supposedly ancient artworks featuring "ancient astronauts" shown in the books.

 

[Darat]

It was a documentary about those "ancient aliens" books that really got to me. It was probably an episode of Nova that looked into the claims from those books. I vividly recall the documentary showing a couple of things. First, how what one of the books described as an ancient runway carved in the desert was really a cropped image of the foot of a bird. Second, was how local artisans were making (and selling to tourists) the supposedly ancient artworks featuring "ancient astronauts" shown in the books.

I vaguely remember that episode, the series was called Horizon over here. Bloody hell that was broadcast back in 1977

https://archive.org/details/BBCHorizonCollection512Episodes

 

[jadebox]

I vaguely remember that episode, the series was called Horizon over here. Bloody hell that was broadcast back in 1977.

Yeah, I was about 15 back then. I don't remember many other things from that long ago as clearly as I remember the effect that show had on me. Before seeing it, I was deeply into the whole UFO thing.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I vaguely remember that episode, the series was called Horizon over here. Bloody hell that was broadcast back in 1977

https://archive.org/details/BBCHorizonCollection512Episodes

Just in time from Michael Shermer.

Did Lost Civilizations Really Exist? An Archaeologist Explains

 

[Olmstead]

I don't think I've ever seen a mentalist act I liked. There's always this sense of someone wringing a somewhat interesting effect out of a painfully boring set up.

 

[jadebox]

I don't think I've ever seen a mentalist act I liked. There's always this sense of someone wringing a somewhat interesting effect out of a painfully boring set up.

I almost posted yesterday that I think Perlman's act would be more interesting and entertaining if it incorporated more traditional magic elements.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I almost posted yesterday that I think Perlman's act would be more interesting and entertaining if it incorporated more traditional magic elements.

When watching a stage magician I think gosh that's' clever I wonder how he does that. When watching a "mentalist" I think what a fraud.

 

[I Am The Scum]

I don't think I've ever seen a mentalist act I liked. There's always this sense of someone wringing a somewhat interesting effect out of a painfully boring set up.

Mentalists always reminded me of salesmen.