Uri Geller pops up again, this time in germany

[Blight]

Israeli news is reporting that Uri Geller "the successor" TV show format has been sold to german TV.

Managed to find this english reference (http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?area=74&article=36399).

[clerihew80]

How the mighty have fallen. From publicity man for Andrija Puharich and "The Nine" to reality TV clown.

I'm still waiting for those spaceships. Surely Uri must have bent enough spoons by now...

[Koebes]

Geller promoting his "new" show on TVTotal and failing all way long:

http: //tvtotal.prosieben.de/components/videoplayer/1123/1123-00-05-index.html

(some of it is in english)

[Michael C]

Thanks for the link, Koebes. Here's a clickable version: http://tvtotal.prosieben.de/components/videoplayer/1123/1123-00-05-index.html. It's fun to watch Stefan Raab handle Uri.

Two days ago I saw the first instalment of the show, which is called "The Next Uri Geller" here, on ProSieben TV. It's pretty nauseating.

Uri adheres strictly to his present policy of being totally unclear as to whether the tricks are paranormal or not. He pretends not to know how the contestants achieved the effects.

I was disappointed that German TV hadn't found somebody like Criss Angel to spice things up a bit. There was no high-profile skeptic to counter the general atmosphere of woo. Uri did his usual stuff (shout "one, two, three" in Hebrew and maybe make a spoon fall off the television, or get old clocks and watches to go again) and the contestants (I think they are all professional illusionists) showed standard mentalist illusions.

What bothers me the most is that the contestants all play along with the idea that there are really mysterious forces operating in their tricks. I can understand that an illusionist wants publicity, but I can't understand why an honest magician would want to be seen as "the next Uri Geller". A magician posting as "Armin" on a German blog obviously felt the same way, so he gave away most of the secrets of the tricks (for those who can read German): http://blog.toats.de/2008/01/08/fake-next-uri-geller-nicolai-friedrich-gedankenübertragung-berührung

[Magier80]

I am posting an article from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, translated by yours truly. It seems Geller has a nostalgic hold on many. See if you can figure out where the magic probably happened.

From the FAZ website...

Thank you, too, Uri Geller!
by Robert Wenkemann

I have a lot to thank my mother-in-law for, for example my watch. And I spoil her a lot. For example, when she would tell me with light in her eyes how an Israeli magician in the seventies on German television would repair clocks. Including her kitchen clock. “No doubt” she says. “Of course” I say. She would know: she sold clocks her whole life.

When my own watch didn’t want to run anymore, she put a new battery in it. She gave it a good talking to, took me into the store. Even there the good old thing wasn’t destined to go anymore. Since then it has been in the drawer. Now the unforgettable Uri Geller is back, Tuesday nights on Pro Sieben (TV station). And now the good old watch is on my mother-in-law’s mind again.

Tuesday evening. 8:10. My wife is on the phone. Then she calls me from the living room, where the old watch actually is. Where it should be.

8:15 Noise from the living room. A drawer is open and closed.

8:25. My wife calls me into the room. The TV is on. In front of it my wife has moved the white stool. On top of it sits a cocktail glass filled to the mark (nearly all German glasses are marked with a liter measurement). On top, hanging from the rim of the glass and underneath weighted down by the glass is my old watch stretched across. The watch face reflects the Stage with Uri Geller some 40 centimeters away.

8:27. My wife confirms that she has done nothing to the watch. At the beginning of the show she set the correct time. Otherwise nothing. I stay, as a precaution, in the living room, and don’t move anything. Time stretches. The show continues. The watch is running also. It is even ticking.

8.15. The show is over. I put the watch around my left wrist. What would my mother-in-law say to that? My wife grins broadly.

8.17. I remove, as a precaution, the plug of the TV. Did it glimmer longer than normal?

8.59. As a precaution I put my other watch on the right wrist. Both watches are synchronized. My blood pressure rises. I loosen the band a little.

12.12 a.m. Time to sleep. I go to bed with both watches on. Only as a precaution. The alarm is set, and all three clocks are synchronized. I am not at all tired. My wife has been asleep for a while.

2.46 a.m. A cold wind moves through the bedroom window. The cats are somehow more restless than usual. The three clocks are synchronized. The clock in the bathroom is three minutes behind, but it always has been. I close the window. Did my wife twitch in her sleep?

3:51 a.m. I awake bathed in sweat, having dreamt of my mother-in-law. I glimpse the hands of all available clocks as a reflex. The old one is still running. It is ticking louder than normal. In any case louder than all the others. I hear a tap on the ceiling, shortly after a second and then another in the same rhythm!

4:03.a.m. My arm is asleep. The one with the old watch. I had put it under the pillow so I didn’t hear the ticking. While I try to knead life back into my left arm with my right hand, my wife wakes up and looks at me sleepily. Is the basement door really closed? Of course not. I stagger up the stairs over the cats. From the living room I see a barely visible glimmer. I grab my son’s hockey stick. The basement door is closed. The cats look at me sadly. I let them out. I lock the door. Twice. I take the hockey stick to bed, as a precaution. My wife is again asleep.

7:05 a.m.. The alarm rips me form sleep. Now both arms are under the pillow, drained of blood, completely asleep and motionless. My wife is looking after the children downstairs. I am not getting up. The alarm is getting louder and louder. Nobody hears my calls. I manage to turn myself onto my side. “Get up!” shouts my wife from downstairs. From my side I manage to straighten myself up. The left arm slacks forward, hand falling in my lap. The time is correct. With an aimed strike from my head I silence the alarm, drag myself into the bathroom. A grey reflection stares back at me.

7:20 a.m. I get myself to the office. As a precaution, without the watch.

4.44 p.m. I called home. Line is busy. I try, as a precaution, the cell phone. “We were just talking about you” says my wife. Yes, the watch was still ticking. Yes, she is on the other line. Her mother says hi.

+++++++END ARTICLE++++++++++

Funny how things like this keep the Geller legend alive.

Magier

[Niobe]

Like I e-mailed Randi, he's doing Dutch shows as well, so he can have easy shooting schedules. They tout him as the paranormal fantastic phenomenon, but they outright state it was a huge success in the States and Israel, and my perception was that the show was a flop?

I've e-mailed Dutch skeptic sites to pick this up but with any luck the BS magnet things and tricks will be on youtube the next day.