This week’s Double Exposure documentary duo has con artists as its theme; a term usually reserved for architects of Ponzi schemes and long lost relatives “trapped” in Nigeria. The pair showcased in this week’s are from quite a different world entirely, and even more fascinating to watch.
The first is Thursday night’s AN HONEST LIAR, which is a compelling – and at times amusing - documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con artists with quasi-religious fervour, and exposes his own deceptions along the way.
A master deceiver
This week’s Double Exposure documentary duo has con artists as its theme; a term usually reserved for architects of Ponzi schemes and long lost relatives “trapped” in Nigeria. The pair showcased in this week’s are from quite a different world entirely, and even more fascinating to watch.
The first is Thursday night’s AN HONEST LIAR, which is a compelling – and at times amusing - documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con artists with quasi-religious fervour, and exposes his own deceptions along the way.
A master deceiver of the highest possible order, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even amazingly turned his partner of 25 years, the artist Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru named Carlos. He coached Alvarez in spouting the right supernatural mumbo-jumbo on a tour of Australia, and even created a brilliant spiritualist’s media kit to distribute to local press that was full of fake articles from non-existent newspapers and the like. Randi visibly enjoys scornfully pointing out that not one Aussie journo bothered to fact-check the sources, and amazingly, the tour was a big success until Randi went on TV and revealed that the whole thing was a sham. It’s all a bit depressing how easily it is to impress the vulnerable, and also highlights how seriously underwhelming the average media outlet is in these troubling days.
It all makes for a great watch, and everyone from Alice Cooper to Penn and Teller weigh in on the 86 year old’s influence, and the movie also contains rarely seen archival footage of Randi appearing on everything from “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” to “Happy Days.”
Like Harry Houdini before him, Randi has devoted a good part of his life to exposing those he regards as frauds, and one of the film’s big coups is getting an interview with Uri Geller. For years, Randi would imitate his tricks to show there was no psychic ability involved, and the two were engaged in a heated rivalry.
Randi says, “Houdini hadn’t had enough of his career to really get into it (exposing frauds) because he was travelling all the time. He was too busy professionally as a magician,” he noted. When asked about why he feels he himself the need to reveal fakes, he says quite simply that, “these people do positive damage to believers.” He talks about one faith healer who collected so much money, he threw out checks worth $20 or less. “He was cashing the $500 and $1,000 ones — and there were a lot of them.” When asked whom he would like to expose today he names televangelist Benny Hinn, and he is also working on his next book, “A Magician in the Laboratory,” which will include a takedown of anti-vaccination believers.
I think it’s ironic that in Randi’s own life, there are also very different levels of truth and illusion on a personal level. He met Alvarez, his accomplice in the Australian “channelling” adventure, when he was in his late 50s and the young artist was just a teen. The two have been partners now for a quarter-century, but Randi only came out of the closet as gay when he was 81.
The second doco in the Double Exposure duo is ART AND CRAFT, which is about Mark Landis - one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His body of work spans thirty years, and covers painting styles and periods including 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. Amazingly, the troubled Landis isn’t in it for money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, the executor of a family member’s will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest (!), he has given away hundreds of works over the years to a huge number of institutions across the United States. But after duping a certain Matthew Leininger, who then sets out to expose him, Landis must confront both his personal motives and the screaming chorus of museum and art world professionals yelling for him to stop. It definitely feels very David and Goliath, and you can sympathise with both sides.
Landis is clearly a very frail man and the whole thing gets a bit melancholy at times – especially given his amazing abilities coupled with mental health issues. He lives in a fantasy of philanthropy, and who are we to deny him that happiness? The questions are all lined up ready for the answering in this, at times quite sad, documentary.