GELLER A FAKE, SAYS EX-MANAGER

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 . 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              Since Uri Geller first challenged extracted a number of personal details from the visitc
 is a member of the scientists five years ago, he has       and repeated them close to the active telephone, Gelb
 Inner Magic Circle,      been widely branded as a fraud    came bursting into the room and repeated the conversatio
 London, and author of    and equally widely hailed as a    which he pretended had come to him by telepathy. TI
 The Magic of miracle worker. Last week, for the            publisher was very impressed.
 Uri Geller (Ballantine). first time, someone from inside   One of Geller's standard tricks, recreating a drawing,
 the Geller organisation has pro-  done in several ways. Sometimes, Katz noted that Gelli
 vided an answer. Yasha Katz, Geller's manager when he      would simply pretend to write down a guess of what tl
 first came to Britain in 1973, admitted on RAI-TV, Rome,   subject was thinking, then when the subject made tl
 on Saturday, that he helped Geller cheat.                  drawing, Geller would quickly sketch an approximatic
 When Geller was still in Israel, Katz signed an agree-     surreptitiously and show it as a previously-made imprc
 ment to manage Geller outside the US for a percentage      sion. Geller always showed great excitement and satisfy
 of Geller's income. He now says Geller never paid him and  tion at the results. At other times, Katz actually had
 sent him packing after Geller really got rolling in the US. help when Geller found he could not see through a heal
 Bitter and angry, Katz finally told his story.             envelope used to conceal a drawing. For a TV programn
 At first, he said, he believed in Geller. Even after he    in San Francisco, Geller instructed Katz to secretly opt
 became aware that Geller at least sometimes used tricks,   the envelope while Geller distracted the staff at the f
 Geller continued to perform for him as if it were all real. side of the studio. 'Katz did so, and told Geller just befo
 Eventually, however, Geller announced to Katz that he      he went on the air,
 would have to act as a confederate by sitting in the       In Palm Beach, Florida, Katz first saw Geller sneak ti
 audience and signalling to the stage. Katz realised that it lenscap off a "sealed" camera lens to create a "psychi
 was because Shipi Shtrang (Geller's main assistant in these photo effect.
 matters) was not there on that occasion. He was given the  When Geller was due to appear in Birmingham, wo
 gesture code, which was done by the position of his        arrived backstage that the ' front row was packed wi
 cigarette (pointed up to designate the colour "blue", down magicians. Geller, said Katz, turned white, and refused
 for "green", etc) and the hand signals as well. He served  go onto the stage. He begged Katz and Werner Schm
 in this way many times at public performances, and Geller  the impressario, to tell the reporters, management a-
 presented it as genuine ESP.                                                      audience that there had been a bomb scare. Katz w
 Katz observed that Geller took notes, assisted by Shipi,   appalled a little later to learn that he was being blam
 of the licence-numbers of cars driven by members of the    for the cancellation, and that Geller was saying that
 audience as they arrived. He was able to reveal these      wanted to perform, but Katz would not allow it. The shi
 details to the spectators as if he obtained them by ESP.   was cancelled.
 Once, Katz watched Geller take down a description and      While they were in Italy, Katz had a bad scare. Togeth
 plate-number of a special-model Porsche, and he waited to  he and Geller visited a jewellery shop to price expensi
 see if Geller would use the information at the press con-  watches. They left without buying. Moments after th
 ference being held. He did.                                had rounded the corner, Geller exclaimed that a "te
 Geller took Katz entirely into the fold when he stationed  portation" had taken place; a new wristwatch was on
 him at the door of the theatre to note details about seating arm. Said Katz, "I knew he had stolen it".
 and possessions of certain people. Thus, Geller could tell    Although he now says he was brainwashed, it is curie
 a lady that she had some sort of object in her purse, and  how simple the tricks were that Geller used to convir
 identify her by the seat number. All of this was relayed to Katz. Two remained complete mysteries until I interview
 Geller backstage just before the show started.             him for RAI-TV. One involved the "teleportation" of
 heavy potted-plant holder that he claimed had been fou
 Flying spoons                        outside the apartment he shared with Geller, when K
 In Paris, while Geller was being interviewed by a          returned from buying a newspaper. He said that it wot
 reporter for L'Express, Katz was instructed to throw a     have been impossible for Geller to have lifted this, since
 spoon in the air to hit the ceiling, to create the effect of a took the two of them to replace it inside the apartment aga
 "teleportation". The reporter was impressed, and wrote it  The same planter was there in his apartment with him
 up as a miracle. Frequently, says Katz, he saw Geller throw Tel Aviv, and against his protestations, I easily lifted
 objects from behind his back, over his shoulder, unnoticed, a couple of plants, moved the planter several feet, and
 to create the "teleportation" effect.                      the extra pots back. He dropped his claims on the mat
 Geller and Katz visited the wife of a well known       at that point.
 entertainer in Hollywood. She offered Geller a piece of    He went on to describe an event which he had forgot
 heirloom jewellery, a valuable "fork" used in family       having told me about several years before in New Yc
 ceremonies at her home. Katz reports he saw Geller         and I was astonished to hear how much the story 1
 snap it in both hands while she was not looking, and he    gained in that time. It involved a theatre chair arm-r
 presented it as a psycho-kinetic effect.                   that he claimed had been "levitated" and allowed to fall
 In London, at a hotel, Geller was trying to impress a      a puddle. He had the arm-rest with him there, and asser
 publisher who was attempting to pry him away from          that after he'd lifted it from the puddle, it had been be
 Doubleday, with whom he had signed for the publication of  dry! I poured a glass of water over it right before h
 Dr Puharich's book Uri. Geller arranged a subterfuge with  and showed him that the vinyl plastic arm-rest was just
 Yasha. When Geller got up and left to go to his room and   dry then as it had been when the Geller miracle took ph
 leave  atz and the visitor to talk alone, Katz was to call As the Geller myth finally disintegrates, Geller
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 ..1-d it on the floor so that the conversation a ler e 1   e s. o o      ~~{
 ' 11 --- 1Y.1-n >-a  other miracle workers.