RIP James Randi aka The Amazing Randi

[and one]

Randi was a magician, escape artist and conjurer, most known as a debunker of various paranormal claims. He had a late night NYC talk show for about a year in the late 60s and appeared on the Carson show on occasion. He was a funny and smart guy. A friend and I went to the studio he broadcast from (at Rock Center I believe) and watched his show from the sidelines. He couldn't have been more welcoming to a couple of stray teenagers. For some reason he would frequently throw in an aside about people who kept monkeys as pets. It wasn't a matter of if your monkey would bite you he'd say, it was only a matter of when.

He frequently was on the Long John Nebel show, also a late night NYC show. I don't know how many of you listened to Nebel, but his show was wildly eclectic and entertaining. I don't know if either Randi or Nebel would ever get air time today or past the mid 70s for that matter.

 

[Scud49]

He was great, really made a fool of those paranormal and religious tele cure-all, heal-all types. RIP James Randi, we need more people like you in today's world.

 

[and one]

He was great, really made a fool of those paranormal and religious tele cure-all, heal-all types. RIP James Randi, we need more people like you in today's world.

The thing about Randi was he wasn't a shock jock. He was perfectly polite to the wackiest of his guests, at the same time making clear their claims or beliefs were bullpoop.

 

[topogigio]

One of my all time favs from childhood! Great documentary, An Honest Liar”. Check it out!

 

[Bigboote]

Geez, that’s a bummer. In addition to seeing him on TV, I attended a few colloquia he gave.

 

[and one]

Geez, that’s a bummer. In addition to seeing him on TV, I attended a few colloquia he gave.

That's intriguing @Bigboote. What kind of coloquia did he give?

 

[MTHusky]

Not familiar with Randi, but listened to Long John for years. Loved it when he always claimed the Empire State Building was on a turntable, revolving 360 degrees daily. Nebel was Art Bell before Art Bell. Also listened to Brad Crandall who I think came on before Nebel.

 

[chj001]

The mention of Long John Nebel brings to mind my favorite radio host, Jean Shepherd. I listened to Shep's 45 minute show every night under the covers on my transistor radio from the age of 11 in the early '60s. I always marveled at how he could tie up the loose ends of his unscripted monolog just as his theme song, the Bahn Frei Polka by one of the Strauss boys, was ending.

Back to the thread topic, there was another occasional guest on the Tonight show whose first name was Amazing---the Amazing Kreskin. Kreskin was much too full of himself for my tastes, compared to the Amazing Randi, who was down-to-earth. I always made sure to watch when Randi was a scheduled guest.

 

[and one]

The mention of Long John Nebel brings to mind my favorite radio host, Jean Shepherd. I listened to Shep's 45 minute show every night under the covers on my transistor radio from the age of 11 in the early '60s. I always marveled at how he could tie up the loose ends of his unscripted monolog just as his theme song, the Bahn Frei Polka by one of the Strauss boys, was ending.

Back to the thread topic, there was another occasional guest on the Tonight show whose first name was Amazing---the Amazing Kreskin. Kreskin was much too full of himself for my tastes, compared to the Amazing Randi, who was down-to-earth. I always made sure to watch when Randi was a scheduled guest.

I was in high school when I started listening to Jean Shepherd so I don't think I was under the covers while listening. Saturday night was broadcast from the Limelight. Jean's stories mostly (as far as I remember) revolved around his childhood in Hammond, Indiana and two year Army stint. His cast of characters was long and as a superb storyteller he brought them all to life. When the movie A Christmas Story came out Jean got the noteriety (and hopefully money) he deserved, although the first of many watchings took awhile to get used to as it didn't line up with how I had imaged them to look and sound.

When I was in high school to be hip (or a nerd, depending on your perspective) you had to check some boxes:

Listen to Jean and Long John and Randi.

Read Downbeat and The Realist.

Hate rock and country, dig Bill Evans, appreciate classical.

Read the beat poets - or at least have their books in paperback - as well as John Cheever.

Be a bit holier than thou in most matters of taste.

 

[Bigboote]

That's intriguing @Bigboote. What kind of coloquia did he give?

They were general-interest talks, largely about recognizing and debunking charlatans. In one he nicely painted the similarity between being a performing magician and drawing people in to invest in, say, your perpetual motion project.

The second time I saw him, Bob Park spoke the same year about similar stuff, from a physicist’s point of view. Park died earlier this year.