Uri Geller - The Tonight Show

Geller was unable to bend any tableware during a 1973 appearance on The Tonight Show in which the spoons he was to bend had been pre-selected by Johnny Carson. When pressed by Carson, he claimed that he didn't feel "strong" that night. Earlier in his career, Carson had been an amateur stage magician, and he consulted James Randi for advice on how to thwart potential trickery. In 1993 Randi explained in "Secrets of the Psychics" for the NOVA television series: "I was asked to prevent any trickery. I told them to provide their own props and not to let Geller or his people anywhere near them." A clip of this incident was televised on the NBC show Phenomenon. This two-minute clip has been widely circulated on the Internet since James Randi acquired permission to use it from NBC, and Carson paid for the videotape transfer. In his television special Secrets of the Psychics, Geller is shown failing at psychic "hand dowsing" (i.e. locating sealed vessels containing water without touching them), not metal bending.