Burbank

Uri Geller on the Tonight Show

By 1973 Uri Geller was bending spoons around the world and being tested at the Stanford Research Institute. On 1 August 1973 he was booked on the Tonight Show. Johnny Carson had begun as a magician and asked James Randi's advice: the props were prepared by the crew, the spoons and sealed cans of water sat on the table from the morning, and Geller's people were kept away from them. For twenty-two minutes of airtime Geller sat repeating that he felt no strength and that he was being pressed into it. Nothing bent and nothing moved. The tape has served ever since as the standard demonstration that preparing the props is the entire trick.