Known as James “The Amazing” Randi, a professional magician and escapologist. Born and educated in Toronto, Canada, Randi moved to the United States and was naturalized a citizen in 1987. Subsequently, he became an amateur archaeologist and astronomer, author, lecturer, and founding member of the committee for the scientific investigation of claims of the paranormal (CSICOP), where for 40 years he has investigated many unusual and pseudoscientific claims. He has appeared in a great many TV specials and documentaries and lectured and performed his sleight-of-hand tricks all over the world, always making the distinction between his art of conjuring as a form of entertainment as opposed to its frequent use as a deception for the purpose of fraud. He has taught courses in many universities and has given seminars to surgeons on pseudoscience and medicine and to police officers on charity scams and on detecting fraud and swindle perpetrated by fortune-tellers and psychic operators. He received a special grant from the MacArthur Foundation to assist him in this work, especially with reference to the claims for supernatural, the occult, and the paranormal powers of the TV evangelists and psychics. He belongs to numerous humanist and scientific organizations, is a regular contributor to Skeptic magazine, and in 1995 was given a doctorate, honoris causa, from the University of Indianapolis. Randi is still single and now resides in Florida.
Randi has ruthlessly debunked what he considers to be pseudoscientific rubbish, and, like Harry Houdini before him, has used any method available in his efforts to unmask psychic or mystical claims, including offering a cash prize of $1.1 million to anyone who can prove paranormal powers. The prize remains unclaimed.