Date of Birth
7 August 1928, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Birth Name
Randall James Hamilton Zwinge

Nickname
"The Amazing"

Height
5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world's most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.

Randi has pursued "psychic" spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water "with a memory," and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public's eyes in the name of the supernatural.

He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1986.

On October 19, 1993, the PBS-TV "NOVA" program broadcast a one-hour special dealing with Randi's life work, particularly with his investigations of Uri Geller and various occult and healing claims being made by scientists in Russia.

He is the author of numerous books, including The Truth About Uri Geller, The Faith Healers, Flim-Flam!, and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. His lectures and television appearances have delighted - and vexed - audiences around the world.

In 1996, the James Randi Education Foundation was established to further Randi's work. Randi's long-standing challenge to psychics now stands as a $1,000,000 prize administered by the Foundation. It remains unclaimed.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Randi

Trivia

Has successfully debunked claims by self-professed psychics, faith-healers, and conspiracy theorists.

His original claim to fame was as a stage magician and escape artist.

Once traveled with the Alice Cooper Band.

He re-created Houdini's milk can escape.

Randi once escaped from a straitjacket while suspended over Niagara Falls.

Randi broke Houdini's underwater record when he was sealed in a metal coffin at the bottom of a swimming pool for 104 minutes.

Randi drives a 2002 teal blue Miata named Sophia.

Randi used to have a pet Kinkajou named Sam.

Personal Quotes

"If Uri Geller bends spoons with divine powers, then he's doing it the hard way."

It's a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense.

The New Age? It's just the old age stuck in a microwave oven for fifteen seconds.

If the audience likes you, they want you to win. It's not a case of: "We'll see whether he can do this. No. We'll see him do this. We want him to be successful. He's up against the odds." They're pulling for the underdog.

I don't expect that the million will ever be won, simply because there is no confirming evidence for any paranormal claims to date.

Heroin also makes people feel better, but I wouldn't recommend using heroin.

Where Are They Now

(April 2004) Currently in charge of the James Randi Educational Foundation which promotes critical thinking. The Foundation also offers one million US dollars to anyone who can show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.

Birth Name
Raymond Joseph Teller

Height
5' 9" (1.75 m)

Trade Mark

Never speaks

Trivia

With partner Penn Jillette, half of comedy-magic team Penn & Teller.

Teller taught Latin at a high school near Trenton, NJ. He graduated from Amherst College in Amherst, MA. He went to Central High School in Philadelphia, PA.

Driver's license reads "NFN Teller." "NFN" is short for "No First Name."

Changed his name to Teller legally, and has one of the few US passports issued with a single name.

Despite his trademark of never speaking, Teller has appeared in speaking roles in several films and television shows, including The Learning Channel's "Mysteries of Magic," in which he appeared for an interview, as himself, without stage partner Penn Jillette.

Extremely talented painter.

His green room at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino was redone by Penn Jillette and the crew from the show "While You Were Out" on TLC.

Plays the vibraphone.

Many assume Teller is a very short man, but he's actually 5' 9". He only appears short because he's often seen standing next to Penn Jillette who stands at a rather towering 6' 6".

Has had essays published in the New Yorker magazine.

Taught Latin at the same high school that Jon Stewart and Thom Bray attended.

Teller, like Penn Jillette, is a staunch atheist with a libertarian political philosophy.

He and stage partner Penn were contestants on an episode of celebrity "Fear Factor" (2001). Teller performed all of the stunts while Penn was left out of the action. In the end, the duo was beaten by Keshia Knight Pulliam.

Of Russian and Cuban descent.

Personal Quotes

Magic is the art of creating false (but funny or beautiful) cause-and-effect relationships. That's our area of expertise. When we do it on a stage, the audience is fooled, but only for the moment, only in the theater. They know they're watching a show. They know it's all tricks. They do not go home and try to float in the air or catch bullets in their teeth. [But] When we see scam artists peddling false cause-and-effect as reality; when we see the tools of theater and poetry used to victimize the vulnerable; when we sick people submitting to "medical procedures" that belong in a Three Stooges movie; all this enrages us.

If there existed even one psychic who had predicted that disaster, we'd be very, very interested. But, nope. What haunts me about 9/11 is the horrible knowledge that those who did the deed did it to further the divine will. Whenever we hear a politician bless killing, we should think twice.

Where Are They Now

(2003) Performing a nightly show at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Date of Birth
5 March 1955, Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA

Birth Name
Penn Fraser Jillette

Height
6' 6" (1.98 m)

SpouseEmily Zolten (23 November 2004 - present) 2 children


Trade Mark

The taller, non-silent half of Penn & Teller

Trivia

With partner Teller, half of comedy/magic team Penn & Teller.

Owned an over-sized sport-utility vehicle painted bright pink (he nicknamed it "Pink Death"), with a Nevada vanity license plate that read "6SIX6". He reportedly spent several thousand dollars on a customized sound system for it. He sold it in 2005, to raise money for J.R.E.F. (the James Randi Education Foundation).

Is a Cato Institute H.L. Mencken Research Fellow.

Nail of the ring finger of his left hand is always painted.

Plays the upright bass in his show in Vegas. He also helped compose some of the songs for the show.

Never knew how to play poker, until 8 days before his appearance on "Celebrity Poker Showdown" (2003) 15 July 2004.

The original announcer for cable channel Comedy Central.

Jokes that the reason for him painting his fingernail is because he "Shot a man for asking him personal questions!". The real reason is that it is a joke between him and his mother.

His daughter was born on Friday, June 3, 2005. Her name is Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette.

Never drinks or smokes.

Son Zolten Penn Jillette was born 22 May 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and joins his 11-month-old sister, Moxie Crimefighter Jillette.

Knows how to do fire eating, and has shown this talent on an episode of his new hit game show "Identity".

High school classmate of Michael Moschen.

Attended Ringling Brothers Clown College.

Personal Quotes

"Zolten is a common Hungarian name, it's my wife's maiden name and most importantly, it's the name of Dracula's dog." - on his son's name

Where Are They Now

(2003) Performing a nightly show at the Rio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(July 2004) Had his first work of fiction titled "Sock" published.

(January 2006) Hosting a live 1-hour radio show five days a week on Free FM.

(March 2008) Partnered with Kym Johnson on the sixth season of "Dancing with the Stars".

Date of Birth
1948, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Birth Name
Richard Jay Potash

Height
5' 6" (1.68 m)

SpouseChrisann Verges (? - present)


Trivia

Famous for his astounding ability to throw playing cards, and is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for throwing a playing card a hundred and ninety feet at ninety miles an hour. From ten paces he can throw a playing card into the flesh of a watermelon.

Serious scholar of unusual performances and the author of 'Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women' which chronicles the bizarre performers found in circuses, sideshows, and other odd places - a copy of which appears prominently amongst Stanley's volumes on a table in Magnolia (1999). Also the author of 'Extraordinary Exhibitions', 'Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck', 'Jay's Journal of Anomalies', and 'Cards as Weapons'.

He is noted as one of magic's expert card technicians. He was the curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts.

Sleight of hand expert.

Date of Birth
14 October 1952, Newport, Rhode Island, USA

Birth Name
Harry Laverne Anderson

Nickname
Harry the Hat

Height
6' 4" (1.93 m)

SpouseElizabeth Morgan (2000 - present)
Leslie Pollack (1977 - 1999) (divorced) 2 children


Trivia

Magician turned actor

His former wife, Leslie, is a certified witch.

Incorporates pickpocket techniques in his magic act.

Before he became an actor, he taught a course on how to detect frauds and confidence ("con") artists.

Reportedly was once a Three Card Monte dealer on New York City streets.

When appearing on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) in 1982, he performed a "geek trick" by sticking a long needle through the skin of his forearm. He said to some squeamish audience members "It's just a trick!" Then to show that it wasn't "real," he moved the needle back and forth and blood began to pour out of the "wound.".

Graduated as valedictorian of North Hollywood High School, 1970.

Before television and movies, was a live performer for the Green Show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon.

In the summer of 2005, he opened a nightclub in the French Quarter of New Orleans called "Oswald's Speakeasy," where he is often featured as a performer.

Father of Eva Fay and Dashiell.

He and his wife survived Hurricane Katrina by remaining in New Orleans but have planned to migrate to Asheville, North Carolina.

Where Are They Now

(July 2003) Owns a store in New Orleans called Sideshow.

(June 2005) Opened a speakeasy called Oswalds in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.

(August 2006) He and his wife are moving to Asheville, North Carolina.

Harry Anderson was born in Newport, Rhode Island, although his parents came from Manistee, Michigan. Much in Anderson's childhood was unusual, to say the least. His father was a salesman who was rarely around. He spent his younger years with his mother (mostly in Chicago). To reports that his mother was a hooker, he responds, "She was a hustler, yeah; she did a lot of things. We moved around a lot, and she had a lot of men friends." Yet he vehemently rejects the notion that his home life was a tragedy. "I respect my mother; she was very concerned with taking care of us. She did what needed to be done to try to keep us together. People find my criminal days amusing, but they find her background shocking. I don't draw any line." (People) He has a brother, sister, and half-sister. Both of his parents were gamblers, his mother subsequently became one of the first female card dealers in Las Vegas during the 1950's. By the time he was 17, Anderson had lived in a dozen states, moving from city to city between his mother's various jobs.

In 1962, Harry went to go live with his father in California, a very different atmosphere than "City life." He became interested in magic and participated in a magic club in Junior High. Apparently he was valedictorian of his 1970 class of North Hollywood High School, when he was only 16. Harry told Lefthander Magazine, "Mainly because I hung out with con men. It's interesting. When I was a kid, I had a real reading problem... and so what I did to compensate for that was to learn to write. I realized that the way you impressed the English teacher was not by reading books but by writing about them. It wasn't reading Melville but the report on Melville. I did fine by watching Gregory Peck play Ahab, then writing a report. In fact, not only was I valedictorian, I got a scholarship in English... and I couldn't read. Well, I could, but certainly not like my classmates could."

Instead of going an academic route, Harry began performing in front of thousands of people on the street. "You're a magician second; you're a street performer first. You watch other street performers; you live and breathe street performing. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I would never pick up a magic book or a trick to learn. I experimented some on the street, but it was my livelihood, and I had to make sure I was going to make money." (Passing the Hat)

While street performing, he met his now ex-wife (back then he called her "his future ex-wife") Leslie Pollock who performed a mentalism act. According to a TV Guide article, she would be his SECOND wife. They got together, created an act, and had Eva Fay (named after Anna Eva Fay, an important woman from the spiritualism movement). It was while he was performing in one of the clubs -- Hollywood's Magic Castle -- that he was spotted by an agent. This led to a job in Las Vegas, which led to appearances on Saturday Night Live, which led to Cheers. Night Court was next and then Dave's World. (All together he did 13 seasons of both shows). Harry has done many TV specials, movies and performed all over the country!

Harry, 51 on October 14, 2003, is remarried and lives in the French Quarter of New Orleans, as he says, "only by a fluke." It seems he was told to invest in some property after selling some in Ireland: "My business manager just, you know, said it would be smarter to buy something -- if you're selling -- if you're buying something before the year is over. I didn't know where that would be. But I came to New Orleans and I hadn't been here to New Orleans in 6 – 7 years and in that time, condos had broken out -- people were selling their property. It just hadn't existed, so I bought my apartment, I bought my condo, came back. While I was here buying it, I noticed there was a magic shop on Dumaine, right down the street from where I had lived back in the 70's." (L.Wilson interview) This is where Harry took the old Amazed and Amused and turned it into Spade and Archer where he has his magic collection. He and his wife Elizabeth has opened a shop devoted to SIDESHOWs simply called SIDESHOW (see harryandersonfan.com for more details).
Harry has begun a 2003 tour with a new but familiar magic act.

If you have ever studied, watched enough or met Harry, he speaks fast. It's part of his act, and also his style of conversation. It may be a cover up for his being nervous. He has already said he is very agoraphobic -- like being afraid of answering the phone because he doesn't know who it might be. "To me, it's a little bit embarrassing to be in the public eye that much. People start asking me about what I think about the situation in the Middle East... just because I'm in the public eye... as if I have some kind of knowledge or opinion that matters. It's embarrassing. And after all those years I spent on the street, anonymous, and with intended anonymity, that was a jolt that I never quite adjusted to. That and living in Los Angeles. I don't want to offend any Los Angelinos, but it was a tough adjustment." (LH Magazine) Harry also speaks of his stage fright (Comedians usually use the term flop-sweat); "I am shy in many situations. Almost any performing situation panics me. Most of my bravura is quite false, but it's a well -rehearsed false bravura. My stage fright knows no bounds." (LH)

Harry admires Ted Anneman (Magician), Dai Vernon (the man who "fooled" Houdini), Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil (Card Shark) and Shari Lewis (Lambchop's mom). He is left-handed. He likes Mac computers. As well as good old Mel, he likes the Brian Setzer Orchestra. His collection of magical antiques spans from a ukelele that turns into a bouquet of feather flowers from 1902 (Chung Ling Soo) to an original copy of Ulysses.

For more on Harry:
harryandersonfan.com

Jim Tyler magically appeared on the Earth April 25th, 1970.
"I was born under Taurus the Bull and boy was he surprised!"

At the age of two Jim began mastering his future skills. "I wasted the first year of my life."

At the age of five Jim discovered a book on card tricks. "I saw my future cut out for me like a well tailored suit."

Whether at home, school or in between, Jim loved to entertain anyone who would watch. "Nothing up my sleeves."

For a short while Jim's magic took a backseat to his writing, sketches and other creative outlets.

But then in high school the magic was back and he was known as Diamond Jim. While in high school Jim began working for a local magic shop to perfect his craft.

From there he put himself through college performing at private parties, local restaurants and for various company functions.

Now he is an accomplished entertainer who can compete with the best of them. "Look out David Copperfield."

Diamond Jim's close-up magic has been awarded by the Texas Association of Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians. His act has also been featured at the prestigious Magic Castle in Hollywood, California on numerous occasions.

Diamond Jim's book Pockets Full of Miracles: Secrets from the Repertoire of a Professional Close-Up Magician has become a magic best seller! He has recently released it as an instructional DVD.

Nowadays, DJ performs, lectures, invents routines and markets magic effects all over the world!

"I have been blessed with a talent that amuses and amazes people. I have a lifetime of experience under my belt and yet I continually strive to make myself and my act better than the day before. The artist in me has always loved magic and I know that it shows each time I perform."
Early on, Diamond Jim’s magic skills were prodigious. By the age of two, he knew every card in the deck, and by age six, he had pored through the daunting volume, Magic with Cards, by Garcia & Schindler. By age 16, Diamond Jim was performing close-up and stand-up magic professionally. That same year, he became a demonstrator for a local magic shop in Dallas, dazzling and absorbing for eight years. At age 22, his career heated up; he added fire-eating to his repertoire.

Diamond Jim’s ascent in the magic world has been as a meteor from the heavens. In September of 1999 he earned the prestigious Best Close-Up Performer trophy at the Texas Association of Magicians (TAOM) Convention in Austin, Texas. He has performed on television, at hotels, and in restaurants. He has appeared at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. And in the corporate world, he has performed at trade shows and other events for such top clients as AT&T, IBM, Mobil, Pepsi, and Time Warner.



The arrival of Diamond Jim’s first book has taken on the aura of An Event. Pockets Full of Miracles: Secrets from the Repertoire of a Professional Close-up Magician is packed full of Jim’s favorite routines and best kept secrets. Diamond Jim is perhaps best known as the inventor of the Diamond Deck, the greatest advance in trick decks in many years, which is sold in magic shops worldwide. His follow-up trick deck, the Millennium Pack, takes everything two big steps further, inciting rave reviews from his peers. Several of Diamond Jim’s routines have been featured in Genii, Magic and Linking Ring magazines.

Currently, Diamond Jim is at the top of the entertainer heap in Dallas, Texas. In addition, he performs at three restaurants in the Dallas metroplex: Tenaya's (in Plano), Slider & Blues (in Plano), and Pappadeaux’s (in Dallas). If you’re on the Web, Diamond Jim’s heavily trafficked Web site sits in the middle of everything magic. His domain www.diamond-jim.com has been prominently featured in Internet books and directories. If you visit the site, you certainly won’t be bored: The site features games, prizes, interactive magic and even excerpts from Jim’s new book.

On a personal note, Diamond Jim’s greatest accomplishment has been his recent triumph over cancer (Hodgkin’s Disease), of which he has officially been declared cured. That news is the magic community’s triumph as well, paving the way for ever-greater contributions to the art that Diamond Jim loves so dearly- sleight-of-hand magic.

One of the most sought-after illusionists and magic lecturers in the world today, Jeff McBride was raised in Upstate New York, and still maintains a home studio there, in addition to his primary home and studio in Las Vegas. He first gained prominence in 1992, when his "Mask, Myth, and Magic" tour included a stop in Barcelona, Spain, for the Barcelona Olympics Arts Festival. In 1993, McBride performed his trademark, award-winning Mask routine on World's Greatest Magic 2, which originally aired on NBC.

He's been named Magician of the Year by The Magic Castle, has gone on tour as the opening act for such performers as Tina Turner and Diana Ross, and has been featured on countless magic specials and documentaries such as PAX's Masters of Illusion, ABC's Champions of Magic, PBS's The Art of Magic, and all three episodes of The Learning Channel's Mysteries of Magic. Additionally, his role as Joran Belar on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) was created specifically for him.

Aside from performing, McBride has lectured and led workshops for such diverse groups as The Smithsonian, The Disney Institute, the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Center for Symbolic Studies and others.

McBride is founder of The Mystery School, a unique experiential retreat for magicians (and subject of an acclaimed 1994 CBC-TV documentary hosted by Arthur Kent), and creator and co-founder of the WorldMagics Festivals. His Las Vegas studio is home to "McBride's Master Class" which he co-created with magic expert Eugene Berger. Past students include such luminary magic professionals as Lance Burton, Mac King (of Mac King's School of Magic), The Pendragons, Siegfried (of Siegfried and Roy), Teller (of Penn and Teller), Luna Shemada, and Fielding West, as well as countless fans and magic enthusiasts.