magic – The Movie Gourmet

The enjoyable documentary An Honest Liar tells the at times surprising story of magician James Randi – “The Amazing Randi”. A staple of television talk shows for decades, Randi relished exposing and debunking fakirs who claimed that mere trickery constituted some supernatural power.

Randi became famous for hounding celebrity spoon-bender Uri Geller (and good sport Geller shows up in the movie). I didn’t know that magic fan Johnny Carson had reached out to Randi before Geller’s appearance on The Tonight Show with satisfying results.

The Can’t Miss segment of this film is Randi’s elaborate unmasking of Peter Popov, the Christian “faith healer” – it’s priceless.

Finally, An Honest Liar takes a VERY unexpected turn when there turns out to be a deception at the heart of Randi’s own personal life. This makes the movie’s ending especially heartfelt.

An Honest Liar is available streaming on Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, YouTube and Google Play.

In tracing the development of the great magician Ricky Jay, the documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay explores the fascinating history of 20th century American magic. We get to see performances by Jay and his mentors, with comments by Jay himself. Ricky Jay’s mysteries are the secrets of 1) his illusions and 2) his family – both unrevealed. Whether expansive about his mentors and his passion for magic, or tight-mouthed about his relationship with his parents, Jay is a fascinating character.

Because the audience gets to see lots of amazing magic, Deceptive Practice is attractive as a performance film. But Jay is an unsurpassed raconteur, one of my favorites, and when he holds forth, it’s as entertaining as any of his illusions.

(I was fortunate to see Deceptive Practice at the San Francisco International Film Festival sitting next to bunch of real magicians.)