James Randi Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

All it takes is one mention of the phrase “found footage” to elicit a reaction typically leaning in the direction of an eye roll. For decades, this genre, once brimming with promise, having produced now-classics ranging from the likes of “Cannibal Holocaust,” “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield” has worked its way into an oversaturated avalanche crushed under the weight of countless imitators and slew of “Paranormal Activity” follow-ups.

From Harry Houdini to David Blaine, magicians have never ceased to hold audiences enraptured, turn the impossible into possible and spark the pervading question: “How did they do that?” The latter—however—is not solely a part of spectator speculation after a performance. A magician like the late James Randi utilized his craft to demonstrate how charlatans such as Uri Geller, Peter Popoff, and James Hydrick successfully duped individuals into believing they possessed psychic powers.

eclipsed by his work as the country’s foremost skeptic, has died.The Florida-based James Randi Educational Foundation announced its founder died Monday at 92.As The Amazing Randi, the performer escaped from a locked coffin submerged in water and from a straitjacket as he dangled over Niagara Falls.

James Randi, the magician who escaped from jail cells, underwater coffins and straitjackets before becoming a scientific skeptic bent on debunking those who peddle in the paranormal and supernatural, has died. He was 92.