James Randi
retired magician and the subject of the new documentary “An Honest Liar.”James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928) is a Canadian-American retired stage magician and scientific skeptic best known for his challenges to paranormal claims and pseudoscience.Randi is the co-founder of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). He began his career as a magician namedThe Amazing Randi, but after retiring at age 60, he chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls "woo-woo."
Although often referred to as a "debunker," Randi dislikes the term's connotations and prefers to describe himself as an "investigator."He has written about the paranormal,skepticism, and the history of magic. He was a frequent guest onThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit! The JREF sponsors the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challengeoffering a prize of US$1,000,000 to eligible applicantswho can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event under test conditions agreed to by both parties.