James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi," is an expert magician who now puts his skills towards "debunking" those who claim to have psychic or otherwise supernatural abilities. I am of the view that such folks are all — 100% of 'em — frauds. Some are perhaps harmless frauds but some clearly do great harm and that harm is not always limited to bilking their victims of vast sums of money. So I applaud what Randi does through the James Randi Educational Foundation.
Lately, he has been showing up for little chats at the Magic Castle. He sits down with Max Maven — who plays a psychic to entertain, not to defraud — and they discuss Randi's work as both a magician and a debunker. Their first chat was last September and I linked to it in this message.
I was in the audience for that one and I was there last month for the second conversation, which is embedded below.
At the end, there is a ceremony where they unveil something that is now hanging on a wall in the Magic Castle. It's a framed poster of Randi back in the days when he was exclusively a magician and escape artist. In the video, you'll note that Randi says it was drawn for him by a comic book artist whose name he has forgotten. The artist was Jay Disbrow, who worked for Fox Comics and other publishers starting in the late fifties.
This runs almost an hour and a half. If you didn't watch the first one, I suggest you go watch it first. If it's of interest to you, come back and watch this one…