“The Next Uri Geller” 2008 – 6th show: opinion, tricks, explanations

This is about a show from the first German season of “The Next Uri Geller” from early 2008. You can also:
» Show all my reports from the first season.
» Show everything about the second season 2009.
» Show really all articles about Uri Geller.

:arrow: General reading tips (German): GWUP info page; and the blog with explanations and discussion already during the shows: The contestants’ tricks, explained in an easy way. English: CSI (ex-CSICOP).

Introductory remarks

The sixth show from 12 February

From the preview on ProSieben.de:

Germany goes off into the air: Weightlessness at “The next Uri Geller”

I’m going off too during this show sometimes, too, especially due to Geller’s statements – but not the way they mean it. Especially if they continue like this (my translation):

“The technique I will demonstate on Tuesday is called semi-levitation in professional circles: This method was already used in ancient Egypt for building the pyramids to bring umpteen million tons of rocks to Gizeh”, Geller said.

He may look a bit younger than he is (61), but he certainly wasn’t there in ancient Egypt. :) Well, in the interview (I already mentioned my article) he already made other strange statements (“We were brought here 15000–20000 years ago from other planets”), so this nonsense shouldn’t make one wonder too much. Though one can be angry about it; hopefully he doesn’t repeat this bosh in the show.

Don’t ask me now why my recorder didn’t start to record – at any rate, I missed the start of the show and only joined in during the celebrities’ introduction. But I don’t think I missed anything really noteworthy…

Celebrity guests

“Stromberg” actor Christoph Maria Herbst (German version of “The Office”), actress Andrea Sawatzki and presenter Joey Grit Winkler. Well, at least I knew one of them before…

Konrad Adenauer – grandson of the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany with the same name – also wants to spoil his good name along with C.M.Herbst and play “student of Uri’s flying lessons”. He is also one of the three notaries who are stooping to be the alibi surveillants, the pseudo-“incorruptibles” – the others are Dr. Florian Braunfels and Dr. Daniel Kevekordes.

Contestant 1: Nicolai Friedrich

Wants a mental date with one celebrity – well, soon it’s florist’s Valentine’s Day. Andrea is to think about a date, in a (known) town of her choosing which she is to whisper to Chrisptoph. In her mind, she’s going window shopping, whisper a dress into Joey’s ear. The third section of the imaginary journey, he wants to predict – with a hotel key he puts on a glass block. She’s to think about a fountain, rose leaves, finally a two-digit number.

Then he asks for the town’s continent, wants her to always say No while he stares at her – her left eyebrow supposedly told him it’s in Europe. Herbst confirms it. Country: speak after him. France. Herbst first says no, confusion, then yes. Poor geography knowledge, or what was that about? Then to the town – he tells about local places she supposedly thinks about and watches her closely, and thus he can isolate Biarritz. Well, if he recognizes how her facial expressions react (even if minimal), that’s probably possible.

Similarly with the dress’s color: He lists colors, watches her, and finds lilac.

Then the hotel key indeed shows “Biarritz” and the number 45 which she thought about. Was she in the loop, or was that told her before (indirectly)? Or directly on stage? Or via display in the key pendant? At least as far as the number is concerned, he might have found something about Biarritz before on the internet. Well… we’ll see what the guys at the German gellerentlarvt blog find out.

Geller praises him and considers him a master in reading body language.

Contestant 2: David Goldrake

First, Kaa(?), the green bamboo viper (Trimeresurus gramineus, “very venomouus”), together with its trainer and an emergency doctor with an antidote are introduced. David’s “got a bad feeling” and doesn’t want to do it – Uri may stand up, takes him aside to encourage him, “well, it’s a live show”, Stefan (the host) says, and this little game is like created for the commercial break…

Afterwards, he “brought himself” to do it. Joey may join him in a acrylic-framed circle with five large urns on a table; she then is to signal the animal keeper in which of these he is to put the snake – David keeps distance and turns around while the two also cover the four empty urns with paper. The table then is rotated several times. David acts quite nervous – and then punches through the paper covers of the four empty urns one after another, of course with the usual mentalist talk in between, spiced with nervous breathing.

Were the urns marked, e.g. with different-shaped or differently aligned paper, or some other way by the animal keeper (which he seemed to know well)? Or was he able to see through it?

Geller is proud – and always scared that something like that could some time go awry. David then also thanks the audience for encouraging mails before the show.

Intermezzo

A viewer believes her 5 right numbers in lotto had something to do with putting her hand on the TV during the last show. Never heard of coincidence and probabilities? The winning probability in German lotto for 5 correct numbers or more is equal to 268 / 13.983.816 ≈ 0.00192%, i.e. with 1 million lotto playing viewers with one tip each, it is expected that 19(!) have won this! (Of course it’s hard to tell how many of the 2.79 million viewers aged 3+ or 1.94 million aged 14-49 actually played how many tips..)

Right down the alley for this show. So Uri may get rid of some more positive energy. And I’d like to get rid of the zoom control on the camera, who can stand this zooming in on him like that. Then a quick clip from a prediction trick from “Stars on Ice”.

“Live experiment”

Now “finally” on to “let’s levitate with Uri” – the old trick with one person (Christoph Maria) sitting on a chair and four people (Uri and the notaries) who lift him up (under arms and knees). Uri says . Sure. But that has nothing to do with them holding their hands above Herbst’s head (without touching each other – looks more mysterious that way) and – since it’s Geller – with the “achad shtaim shalosh” (“1, 2, 3”), but with the coordinated efforts to lift him (in contrast to the first uncoordinated attempt) – then each of them (with folded hands with their index fingers) has to lift less than 20 kg, that’s less than 10 kg per hand (Christoph weighs about 70–75 kg), which is possible without problem.

So that’s the big “unbelievable phenomenon” of “semi-levitation”?? Well, seems it’s still Uri who’s taking care of the cheapest tricks on this show. The pyramid construction (cf. preview) must have been done with other means than Geller’s numbers and stretched index fingers…

Verena Wriedt, today from the phone studio again, asks for calls, MMS etc. – the bar with the numbers that’s displayed could be a bit more transparent, I think. :)

Contestant 3: Farid

First he apologizes for going too far last time (nailgun) – today it’d get thrilling, too, but family-friendly. He wants to go on the prowl with a celebrity – C.M.Herbst – of whom he’s a big fan, go to a casino – well then, have fun, guys, bye!

Oh, he meant it another way. His ideal image of such an evening he claims to have written in an envelope standing on the table. Christoph fills a wall with photos of himself in different outfits, or better put, he completes it – all of them photos of him, back side up, and picks one – and puts it into a small envelope, next to the large one. On to he blackjack table, alledgedly cards are missing (seemed to be real, actually), “well, live”, time for smalltalk. Then the cards are brought, Christoph shuffles and spreads them; then pick two. Also into the bag with the envelopes.

Chips of various casinos, mix in a glass, pick one blindly and into the bag. Farid takes the large envelope with “his dream image” which of course says the matching things. Even more, for he forgot(?) to ask him from which star he wanted an autograph (Whitney Houston). Farid takes off his clothes and reveals the same badminton gear that Stromberg was wearing on the photo. Hmm… doesn’t have to have been the one that Christoph had actually picked (without seeing it too well or at all?), Farid could have taken one he selected beforehand.

Geller liked how he turned from mental danger to mental fun.

Contestant 4: Alexander Hartmann

He wants to serve Andrea a mental dinner – well, can you get full from that? He pours water into a bowl, Andrea confirms it. She’s supposed to, he says, taste more later when tasting the water. Heads together, eyes closed, snap, she tastes, he writes womething on a clipboard, shows in Clipboard, zeigt “foie gras”, she says “crème brûlée from foie”? Huh? Does that exist at all? And as appetizer? What do the gourmets among my readers say?

Did she understand it wrong what she’s been whispered to? Alright, let’s continue. Snap, water. Snap, main dish, same: “not well-done” → beaf fillet. Dessert, this time not written down, but Alex eats a real mousse au chocolat. Mmmh, I get hungry. Uri, teleport the mousse to me! What, you can’t? Damn.

How did that work – did he release the corresponding odor? Would that work with that strange appetizer at all? (Apart from being possible to have agreed upon before.)

Geller says something about influencing and tangible energy.

Contestant 5: Vincent Raven

Preview: “With the help of his raven Azrael, Vincent Raven contacts the beyond” – so far, nothing new (except that the bird now also officially is called Azrael) – “and tests live the difference between life and death.” So he’ll become a coroner? Does ProSieben now also want to produce a CSI clone? :P

He says he wants to manifest energy from the otherworld; the celebs are to think of an image of a (still alive) family member, and of one deceased. Vincent got three tarot cards – 2x sun (life), 1x death. Christoph on stage, may shuffle cards again while raven croaks, then put them on a hidden table in the back (back side up), write his name on it, turn it around, then write the name of the (matching) person, then card into an envelope. An assistant could have seen that easily…

Then Andrea (having only two cards left to choose), then Joey “has only the choice between one card”, Vincent says – great “choice”. ;) He lights three candles, puts the three envelopes in front of them. The person who picked death – Joey – is to get up, concentrate, look at the candles (overlayed on TV) – and the envelope in front of the one candle whose flame gets lower (probably no real candles, but remote-controlled ones) falls down (probably thanks to remote-controlled puff of aur). Is of course her correct card (could easily be marked e.g. with a transmitter). Blue light, they stand close, say “granny Mutt”, Joey was supposed to feel something, but didn’t – Raven “saves” himself by saying she should do more soul-searching… well, weak ending.

Geller thinks it’s uncanny, supernatural, very, very interesting. Also mentions hat it didn’t work properly…

“Evidence videos” and the decision

Geller grants Nicolai Friedrich immunity – and those who phoned in for him before wasted their money (still remain in the drawing of the 5000€ that’s drawn among all callers) – ProSieben and the phone companies will enjoy it…

Verena’s glittering cleavage presents two videos with laughing, surprised people who obviously didn’t get the trick, or rather, the physics behind it.

Uri announces that Natalie Geller, his daughter, will fly in from Los Angeles next week and perform.

Nicolai has an envelope with a “prediction” for a headline of a big German newspaper next tuesday.

And who’s kicked out this time (with 9 minutes overtime)? The high hair of Alexander Hartmann – and he himself right along with them.

Ratings

A little higher in the often mentioned target audience, a little lower in total:

Viewers aged 3+: 2.75 million, 9.1% market share (last week: 2.79/9.2%).
Viewers aged 14-49: 2.00 million, 15.8% market share (last week: 1.94/15.6%).

So they couldn’t compensate for the loss last week due to the carnival.


» Take a look here at all my posts about Uri Geller «

3 Comments
2 Trackbacks

  1. s

    ….und jetzt mal heute abend hier nicht nur labern und versuchen, sich selbst darzustellen,
    sondern genauestens schreiben,
    –wie arbeiten diese mentalmagiere in der 6. folge—und wie haben sie in den vorherigen acts gearbeitet !!!!!

    —und wer nix weiß, sollte auch nix schreiben!!

    –und dass keine verbindung zum außerirdischen besteht, wissen wir alle schon lange!!….oder einige nicht ?

  2. T

    Habe gerade gesehen, dass Du Dir echt die Mühe gegeben hast, um die ganze Show zu analysieren. Respekt, ich habe nach knapp der Hälfte abgeschaltet, da ich sonst durchdreht wäre. Mein persönliches Statement zur Sendung: » Link
    Gruß

  3. c

    Danke – das Schreiben hilft da auch als Ablenkung vom Durchdrehen… :)

    (Deinen langen Link hab ich mal gekürzt, der Optik wegen.)

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