steve s
Philosopher
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
- Messages
- 5,865
I'm new here. Stumbled onto this site through snopes.com. I've been a fan of JR's for years but never knew he had a discussion board.
Anyway, I was home a day last week and saw the Ellen Degeneres show. She had on a "mentalist" named Gerard Senehi. Ellen kept stressing that he wasnt' a magician and that everything was "real." He came out and did a few lame tricks and everyone went "Wooo!!" The guy kept dismissing those who didnt' believe in him as skeptics. Ellen said that she'd have him back on the show to do some more stuff.
I sent off an e-mail to her show to describe how the tricks were done. I asked them to have a magician come on her show to explain to her and her audience how they were done (I even tossed out Randi's name as a possibility.) At the end of the e-mail I wrote, "Please, Ellen, give rationality a chance." Considering how basic the tricks were I would have to believe that at least a few others sent similar e-mails as well.
I was wondering if anyone here watches the show on a regular basis and whether she's mentioned that the guy was just a magician doing some simple tricks? I suppose it's doubtful that she ever will, but maybe she'll think twice about having him back on the show. Maybe if enough people from here e-mail her she'll feel compelled to mention he was a fraud.
Here were some of the tricks he did:
1)He had Queen Latifah hold out her hand and he set a cigarette on her hand so that it overhung her fingers by about an inch. He waved his hands around near the cigarettte and then quickly raised his hand, making the cigarette jump. He obviously had some monofilament suspended between his two fingers.
2)He took out a pencil and started to wave it up and down between his fingers to make it look wavey. As he slowed down and eventually stopped, the pencil was bent. Wooo!! Except he never gave anyone the chance to see that it was ever straight to begin with.
3)He did the old levitating-cigarette-between-two-hands trick, obviously done with monofilament.
4)He took out a spoon and pressed his finger into it causing it to dent. Of course it was his spoon and no one was allowed to inspect it beforehand.
[If you go to the Ellen Degeneres Show homepage and do a Search on Gerard Senehi it will take you to a page with a couple of pics of him doing his thing. The board won't allow me to link to it because I don't have enough posts.]
Steve S.
Anyway, I was home a day last week and saw the Ellen Degeneres show. She had on a "mentalist" named Gerard Senehi. Ellen kept stressing that he wasnt' a magician and that everything was "real." He came out and did a few lame tricks and everyone went "Wooo!!" The guy kept dismissing those who didnt' believe in him as skeptics. Ellen said that she'd have him back on the show to do some more stuff.
I sent off an e-mail to her show to describe how the tricks were done. I asked them to have a magician come on her show to explain to her and her audience how they were done (I even tossed out Randi's name as a possibility.) At the end of the e-mail I wrote, "Please, Ellen, give rationality a chance." Considering how basic the tricks were I would have to believe that at least a few others sent similar e-mails as well.
I was wondering if anyone here watches the show on a regular basis and whether she's mentioned that the guy was just a magician doing some simple tricks? I suppose it's doubtful that she ever will, but maybe she'll think twice about having him back on the show. Maybe if enough people from here e-mail her she'll feel compelled to mention he was a fraud.
Here were some of the tricks he did:
1)He had Queen Latifah hold out her hand and he set a cigarette on her hand so that it overhung her fingers by about an inch. He waved his hands around near the cigarettte and then quickly raised his hand, making the cigarette jump. He obviously had some monofilament suspended between his two fingers.
2)He took out a pencil and started to wave it up and down between his fingers to make it look wavey. As he slowed down and eventually stopped, the pencil was bent. Wooo!! Except he never gave anyone the chance to see that it was ever straight to begin with.
3)He did the old levitating-cigarette-between-two-hands trick, obviously done with monofilament.
4)He took out a spoon and pressed his finger into it causing it to dent. Of course it was his spoon and no one was allowed to inspect it beforehand.
[If you go to the Ellen Degeneres Show homepage and do a Search on Gerard Senehi it will take you to a page with a couple of pics of him doing his thing. The board won't allow me to link to it because I don't have enough posts.]
Steve S.
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