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Approved For Release 2000/08/10enGIAGRDP96:00791R000100450002-7
CPYRGHT
Geller a fake, says ex-manager
Yasha Katz, who brought Uri Geller to England, admits he helped Geller trick the press and public
James Randi
is a member of the
Inner Magic Circle,
London, and author of
The Magic of
Uri Geller (Ballantine).
Since Uri Geller first challenged
scientists five years ago, he has
been widely branded as a fraud
and equally widely hailed as a.
miracle worker. Last week, for the
first time, someone from inside
the Geller organisation has pro-
vided an answer. Yasha Katz, Geller's manager when he
first came to Britain in 1973, admitted on RAI-TV, Rome,
on Saturday, that he helped Geller cheat.
When Geller was still in Israel, Katz signed an agree-
ment to manage Geller outside the US for a percentage
of Geller's income. He now says Geller never paid him and
sent him packing after Geller really got rolling in the US.
Bitter and angry, Katz finally told his story.
At first, he said, he believed in Geller. Even after he
became aware that Geller at least sometimes used tricks,
Geller continued to perform for him as if it were all real.
Eventually, however, Geller announced to Katz that he
would have to act as a confederate by sitting in the
audience and signalling to the stage. Katz realised that it
was because Shipi Shtrang (Geller's main assistant in these
matters) was not there on that occasion. He was given the
gesture code, which was done by the position of his
cigarette (pointed up to designate the colour "blue", down
for "green", etc) and the hand signals as well. He served
in this way many times at public performances, and Geller
presented it as genuine ESP.
Katz observed that Geller took notes, assisted by Shipi,
of the licence-numbers of cars driven by members of the
audience as they arrived. He was able to reveal these
details to the spectators as if he obtained them by ESP.
Once, Katz watched Geller take down a description and
plate-number of a special-model Porsche, and he waited to
see if Geller would use the information at the press con-
ference being held. He did.
Geller took Katz entirely into the fold when he stationed
him at the door of the theatre to note details about seating
and possessions of certain people. Thus, Geller could tell
a lady that she had some sort of object in her purse, and
identify her by the seat number. All of this was relayed to
Geller backstage just before the show started.
Flying spoons
In Paris, while Geller was being interviewed by a
reporter for L'Express, Katz was instructed to throw a
spoon in the air to hit the ceiling, to create the effect of a
"teleportation". The reporter was impressed, and wrote it
up as a miracle. Frequently, says Katz, he saw Geller throw
objects from behind his back, over his shoulder, unnoticed,
to create the "teleportation" effect.
Geller and Katz visited the wife of a well known
entertainer in Hollywood. She offered Geller a piece of
heirloom jewellery, a valuable "fork" used in family
ceremonies at her home. Katz reports he saw Geller
snap it in both hands while she was not looking, and he
presented it as a psycho-kinetic effect.
In London, at a hotel, Geller was trying to impress a
publisher who was attempting to pry him away from
Doubleday, with whom he had signed for the publication of
Dr Puharich's book Uri. Geller arranged a subterfuge with
Yasha. When Geller got up and left to go to his room and
leave Katz and the visitor to talk alone, Katz was to call
1 . . -. Trate had
extracted a number of personal details from the visitc
and repeated them close to the active telephone, Gell
came bursting into the room and repeated the conversatio
which he pretended had come to him by telepathy. Tl
publisher was very impressed.
One of Geller's standard tricks, recreating a drawing,
done in several ways. Sometimes, Katz noted that Gelli
would simply pretend to write down a guess of what tl
subject was thinking, then when the subject made tl
drawing, Geller would quickly sketch an approximatic
surreptitiously and show it as a previously-made impro
sion. Geller always showed great excitement and satisfa
tion at the results. At other times, Katz actually had
help when Geller found he could not see through a heay
envelope used to conceal a drawing. For a TV programn
in San Francisco, Geller instructed Katz to secretly ope
the envelope while Geller distracted the staff at the f
side of the studio. Katz did so, and told Geller just befo
he went on the air.
In Palm Beach, Florida, Katz first saw Geller sneak ti
lenscap off a "sealed" camera lens to create a "psychi
photo effect.
When Geller was due to appear in Birmingham, wo
arrived backstage that the front row was packed wi .
magicians. Geller, said Katz, turned white, and refused
go onto the stage. He begged Katz and Werner Schm.
the impressario, to tell the reporters, management a
audience that there had been a bomb scare. Katz w
appalled a little later to learn that he was being blam
for the cancellation, and that Geller was saying that
wanted to perform, but Katz would not allow it. The shi
was cancelled.
While they were in Italy, Katz had a bad scare. Togeth
he and Geller visited a jewellery shop to price expensi
watches. They left without buying. Moments after th
had rounded the corner, Geller exclaimed that a "te
portation" had taken place; a new wristwatch was on
arm. Said Katz, "I knew he had stolen it".
Although he now says he was brainwashed, it is curic
how simple the tricks were that Geller used to convir
Katz. Two remained complete mysteries until I interview
him for RAI-TV. One involved the "teleportation" of
heavy potted-plant holder that he claimed had been fou
outside the apartment he shared with Geller, when K
returned from buying a newspaper. He said that it wor
have been impossible for Geller to have lifted this, since
took the two of them to replace it inside the apartment aga
The same planter was there in his apartment with him
Tel Aviv, and against his protestations, I easily lifted (
a couple of plants, moved the planter several feet, and ]
the extra pots back. He dropped his claims on the mat
at that point.
He went on to describe an event which he had forgot
having told me about several years before in New Yo
and I was astonished to hear how much the story 1
gained in that time. It involved a theatre chair arm-r
that he claimed had been "levitated" and allowed to fal.
a puddle. He had the arm-rest with him there, and asser
that after he'd lifted it from the puddle, it had been bc
dry! I poured a glass of water over it right before h
and showed him that the vinyl plastic arm-rest was just
dry then as it had been when the Geller miracle took pli
As the Geller myth finally disintegrates, Geller :
Mexico. And
GellerApproved For Release 0000/08/10 POIA-RDP96-00791R009100450082 Have moved on-
-1. La nlared it on the floor so that the conversation
Geller believers? No"
other miracle workers.