Uri Geller is an Israel-born performer who calls himself a psychic and now lives in the United Kingdom. He has worked as an illusionist for about four decades. His best-known trick is spoon bending, which he says he does through psychokinesis and telepathy. Nobody has proved it, and that is why so many skeptics treat him as a prankster.
What he claims to do
- Bend a metal spoon using only his mind.
- Reproduce pictures or drawings that were hidden from him.
- Make stopwatches run, speed up or stop.
Our old write-up says the spoon bending scene in The Matrix, with a young monk, is said to be inspired by Geller's performances.
The Tonight Show moment
Geller's career is often tied to an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where the tricks were put to a test. Our archived article describes this as the moment his hoax was exposed and says his career went into a nosedive afterward. He kept performing and kept making the same claims.
Why he belongs on a pranks site
A prank asks an audience to believe something for a moment. Spoon bending asks them to believe it for good. That is the difference between a joke with a reveal and a claim that never gets one, and it is why Geller is a standard example in discussions of hoaxes and stage tricks.
