“An Honest Liar” is a feature documentary about truth and deception and the life of world-famous magician, escape artist and master skeptic, James ‘The Amazing’ Randi. The film brings to life Randi’s intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con artists with quasi-religious fervor.
Randi’s dazzling acts of mind reading and mentalism convinced people he had psychic powers, giving him the opportunity to use these skills to take advantage of credulous people. Randi saw many others doing just that. He discovered faith healers, fortunetellers, and psychics using his beloved mentalism and magic tricks — not to entertain, but to steal money and destroy lives. Enraged by this, Randi would devote his life to protecting the public from such thieves.
A master deceiver who came out of the closet at the age of 81, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even turned his partner of 25 years, the artist Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru named Carlos. But when a shocking revelation in Randi’s personal life is discovered, it isn’t clear whether Randi is still the deceiver — or the deceived.
“An Honest Liar” relives these twisted tales of deception through interviews with people such as Penn & Teller, Adam Savage, Bill Nye, Alice Cooper, and many of the original participants in his adventures. The stories are brought to life through a wealth of rare, behind-the-scenes, and never-before-seen footage.