The Genii Forum

Besides tonight's appearance by Orson Welles, on the schedule is Uri Geller, to air on 3/12, and Harry Anderson on 3/18.

This episode with Geller was the one where Randi helped the production staff prepare for tricks Geller might pull. From the NYTimes:

"Soon afterward, when Geller was invited to appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” the producers approached Randi, who had been a frequent guest, to help them ensure that Geller could employ no tricks during his appearance. Randi gave Carson’s prop men advice on how to prepare for the taping, and the result was a legendary immolation, in which Geller offered up flustered excuses to his host as his abilities failed him again and again. “I sat there for 22 minutes, humiliated,” Geller told me, when I spoke to him in September. “I went back to my hotel, devastated. I was about to pack up the next day and go back to Tel Aviv. I thought, That’s it — I’m destroyed.” But to Geller’s astonishment, he was immediately booked on “The Merv Griffin Show.” He was on his way to becoming a paranormal superstar. “That Johnny Carson show made Uri Geller,” Geller said. To an enthusiastically trusting public, his failure only made his gifts seem more real: If he were performing magic tricks, they would surely work every time."

In today's world of Pow! Zing! Shebang! TV "entertainment," those segments would never play and Mr. Geller would never get a callback.

Mr. Geller had Ricardo Montalban hold a spoon which in the end had a slight bend.

Did Uri study the props on the table and notice that the spoon already had a slight bend and took the opportunity?

(By the way, Orson Welles lamented that he left his magic props in his other jacket so there was unfortunately no magic in that appearance.
And - don't forget - Harry Anderson's appearance is this Thursday, St. Patrick's Day.) (Thanks, Dustin!)

http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tv/johnny-c ... =antennatv

So I just saw the Uri segment - OMG, what a painful thing to watch. You can almost see the gears spinning as he thinks, "I'm f*cked."

It's also amazing to see the pacing of the overall show back then. Nobody seems in any sort of hurry.

On last night's repeat of the Johnny Carson Show (Antenna-TV: Wed, March 16, 2016) - Dick Cavett was a guest, and he showed Johnny the NATE LEIPZIG "SUSPENDED CANE" routine (i.e. cane clings to fingers).

(ala "A Few Grips with a Cane" - in Vernon's "Tribute to Nate Leipzig" by Lewis Ganson)

Johnny didn't seem too impressed, as Dick made it look as if he were simply balancing the cane on the fleshy part of his thumb (which I guess, in part, he was).

When done correctly, and not as a throw-away party stunt --- the Leipzig routine is one beautiful "suspension illusion" to witness.

If someone can find a video of the Carson & Cavett segment, can you please post it here?

The shows were best when they were 90 minutes and Johnny really had a chance to talk to the guests, and the guests interacted more with each other. There were also more sketches.

They run the 90-minute shows on the weekends.

On last night's airing (Thursday March 17, 2016), guest Harry Anderson presented Johnny with an Abbott catalog #6 (1940), which led to Carson reminiscing about ordering from Abbott's during his youth.

Carson always mentioned Chicago Magic and National Magic.

Harry read an item from the Abbott catalog, and did a comedy jumbo "marked cards" trick...and then presented Carson with "Terror-Eyes" novelty eyeglasses.

Johnny was beaming like a child while reminiscing about his childhood days & Magic.

I read somewhere (maybe in this forum) that the turban Carson wore as Carnac the Magnificent was the actual one worn by Alexander The Man Who Knows - true?

John Mendoza is on Carson tonight - starting now on the east coast.

...Oops. They just said Mendoza was a comedian, so it looks like there won't be magic on there after all.

observer wrote:I read somewhere (maybe in this forum) that the turban Carson wore as Carnac the Magnificent was the actual one worn by Alexander The Man Who Knows - true?

No.

Smurf wrote:John Mendoza is on Carson tonight - starting now on the east coast.

...Oops. They just said Mendoza was a comedian, so it looks like there won't be magic on there after all.

Yes, not our John Mendoza. However, Kreskin will be on the episode that airs Sunday night.

Another thing one needs to be wary of is who Johnny says will be on the next episode, so you might hear--as a friend of mine did and he got rather excited--that (for example) Mike Skinner will be on "tomorrow's show." That may have been true 35 years ago, but not now: they are not running these in any particular order.

Here is a handy upcoming episode guide from the network:
http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tv/johnny-c ... =antennatv

Dustin Stinett wrote:

No.

Now part of the (in development) Museum of Television, founded by James Comisar ("A one-man Smithsonian of TV memorabilia", Forbes)

"'It's been ten years since James first called, and I found him to be genuine, sincere, and very passionate about what he preserved,' says Sanders [Helen Sanders, Johnny Carson's PA], who went to see highlights from Comisar's collection and realized he was an excellent conservator. Carson agreed to give him the Carnac turban, which he had already taken home, so he invited Comisar to come pick it up." (Los Angeles Times, May 2002)

I remember when my friend Doug Thornton, a Carson enthusiast/collector, showed me a magazine article about the guy who owns the turban. It was the way he came into it that bowled me over: he simply asked for it as I recall.

Arthur Brandon (Milo) contends that the Carnac turban (as we now know it) appeared after Milo & Roger's appearance on the Tonight Show. Milo, of course, wore an oversized, red, floppy turban.

Of course none of this--or what "Observer" quoted above--proves whether or not the Carnac turban once belonged to Alexander. Two things settle that question: One only needs to look at the many photos of Claude Conlin (Alexander) in costume and compare it to Carson's. They aren't even close. And finally, I have seen the Alexander turban. It's in the David Copperfield Collection.

None of what I posted was intended to "prove" that the Carnak turban is the Alexander turban. In fact, after reading your somewhat laconic response I did an image search; the turban in the iconic "Man Who Knows" litho is clearly quite different from the one Carson wore. A bit disappointing, cause I always liked the notion of Carnak's turban having such a history. So I thought I'd search around for info on the Carnak turban & found something that looked interesting enough to post - including the information that the person who now owns it got it by just asking.
Yours truly,
"Observer"

Here's the article that Dustin referenced:

http://www.museumoftv.org/American%20Way%20Magazine.pdf

After something of a pause in magic (not counting a couple appearances of Carnac the Magnificent), James Randi is scheduled to be on the Carson rerun this Friday (May 6). Check your local listings.

Doug Thornton wrote:Here's the article that Dustin referenced:

http://www.museumoftv.org/American%20Way%20Magazine.pdf

Odd that Comisar has Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs -- I remember seeing them in another collection of note.

Last minute update:

Harry Anderson is on tonight !

Coach Lou Holtz performed Gene Anderson's newspaper tear tonight. If you missed it, it's repeated @ 1:30 AM eastern time.

(And stay tuned if you wish for the lingerie fashion show.)

If you missed it, Harmon Baker was on this week and performed a Newspaper (Page) Tear and Restoration with reveal, and twist ending.

Last night (Sept. 27), Johnny's guest was 4 year old child actor Miko Hughes (a 1991 episode).

Miko talked about going to the Magic Castle, and being startled upon seeing a "witch's hand, with balls between the fingers, emerging from the wall, towards him" (he was referring to a spooky framed hologram of a hand with the multiplying balls, that is still on display).

More importantly, Johnny did a nice "3 coins from purse frame production", and immediately repeated it by producing one more coin.

As Miko examined the purse frame and tried to produce coins for himself, Johnny quipped: "If he pulls anything out of there, I quit!".

I try to watch these repeats as often as I can, and one never knows when Johnny will interject a conversation about "Magic" and/or about the "Magic Castle", while talking to guests. He often does.

It's been a while that I've been able to tell you to set your DVR: Michael Ammar on the "Here's Johnny" rerun on the March 9 airing (Antenna TV, check your local listings).

Tonight's rerun had Dick Cavett, who suspended a cane on his flat, vertical palm.

Antenna-TV/Carson Productions have been re-broadcasting the same "repeats" that they had aired all last year.

....great if you missed them the first time, but there are so many, many, many more performances that I hope will be shown again.

There have been about 3 - 6 "new" reruns each month. I wish Antenna TV would list the details. I contacted them through Facebook but they weren't helpful.
Yes, there are certainly many more episodes but I'm guessing Antenna TV has a small allotment.

Unless there are other details you want, here's the episode guide:
http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tv/johnny-c ... =antennatv

By "details," I was referring to which 2017 Carson broadcasts are ones that weren't broadcast in 2016. (Nevertheless, the link to the episode guide is most welcome and handy.)

Schedule for April 1 to 13: all "repeats" except for:
April 9 (9/27/84)
April 10 (7/24/91)
April 11 (2/23/84)