Project 365 (318/365): James Hydrick

.:318/365: James Hydrick:.

One of the most popular pretenders to the throne of psychic abilities was the infamous and oft-ridiculed James Hydrick, who looked more like a serial child molester than a genuine psychic, and the pornstache matched with the McDojo costume certainly didn’t help things one bit.

A con man who decided that telling everyone he came from a Chinese master that taught him the mystical arts of telekinesis, Hydrick found himself quite the object of attraction in the now-defunct television show “That’s Incredible!” Here, he moved phone book pages just by gesturing towards it, and did more of the same with pencils and toothpicks. It seemed pretty impressive to anyone, to say the least, but when he found himself one on one with the great debunker, James Randi, he quickly folded, as you will see in this particular video.

Quite a waste, really. He could’ve just went ahead and become an entertainer, rather than an out and out fraud. And when I look at how he could’ve avoided this mess by doing just that, he’d probably be in a better place and his reputation in less disarray than it is now.

You see, when people ask me about my mentalism, I only tell them a few things, namely that it’s not a power, anyone can learn it, and there’s a science behind it. These are all genuine answers. If people ask me if I’m pulling their leg when I explain how all of these things work, well, I have to remind them that first of all, I’m not trying to start a religion, and second of all, I don’t expect anyone to believe my explanation. Thirdly, if there were some diabolical secret behind what I do, do you really think I’d casually tell you what it is?

Seriously, there’s an epidemic of fairy-killing going on, and it’s a tad disappointing.