“The controversy, the attacks on me, they helped my career. The sceptics built a mysteriousness, a mystery around me. They made me an enigma.”
Uri Geller is a man bursting with energy. At a very youthful-looking 75 years old, it’s not hard to believe the famous psychic can still bend spoons with the power of his mind. Even when speaking to him over the phone, he gives off enough energy to light up a room.
“I think that I was born a natural showman,” he says from his office in Tel Aviv. “As a child, I mesmerised people with stories. I acted them out. I knew how to use my vocal cords. How to build suspense into every story I told. I think a big part of my success came because I knew how to manipulate, how to use these natural abilities and talents that I was born with.”
We’re talking about the new documentary Uri Geller’s Secret Treasures which looks at the establishment of the in Tel Aviv’s Old Jaffa district. Located in a historic building with the world’s largest bent spoon out front and an ancient soap factory underneath (that Geller discovered himself using his dowsing abilities), it hosts Geller’s massive collection of collectables, trinkets, objects, and keepsakes gifted to him from many of the 20th century’s most famous faces.
As the documentary reveals, the walls and cabinets of the museum are lined with everything from traditional mementoes like signed posters and football jerseys to items from Geller’s performing career, sitting alongside personal items like his first car and the Vesper scooter he travelled around on when he was starting out.
The Uri Geller Museum Source: Coleman Television
Is that a Cadillac covered with bent spoons that they had to get a racing car driver to carefully manoeuvre into position inside the building? Yes it is. Does he have more than 500 hotel keys collected from five decades of touring? He sure does.
“Throughout my life, I have basically been a hoarder,” Geller admits. “I never threw things out. I still have my first Motorola telephone from 55 years ago. And because I collected all these gifts from very interesting and unusual and famous people, I thought a museum would be a great way to show the public what I have received, and to show respect to those people who gifted me these incredible items.”
Inside the museum: David Bowie memories (left) and the spoon-covered car (right). Source: Krishan Arora
In many ways, these hundreds of items were trophies from his high-flying lifestyle throughout the 70s, 80s and beyond. At one point in the documentary he says he was ruthless when he was younger, that he pushed himself into the lives of other famous people. He stands by that comment today.
“I came from a very poor background. I had no money. But I did have Israeli chutzpah and I wanted to make it, I wanted to be successful. I envied those people like Elvis Presley and John Lennon who made it, I wanted to emulate them and that triggered my chutzpah, my charisma, my shamelessness. I pushed myself to success. And that broke me down many times. I became bulimic. I had anorexia nervosa. I had panic attacks. I mean, my life was up and down.”
Geller in his Tel Aviv museum. Source: Coleman Television
Individually the often quirky items in the museum are definitely interesting. But it’s when they are taken together as a collection that they really become something special.
“I think that those exhibits and me, Uri Geller, we are gelled together. I'm the glue of these items. Without the story attached to the item, what’s the big deal? You can find a rock crystal in the crystal museum in New York. But the story that I tell and that is attached to these items, that is what makes this documentary so fascinating.”
There’s no thematic or chronological order to the museum. A lifesize statue of a horse made out of driftwood sits next to a Make America Great Again cap signed by Donald. But this lack of design is exactly how Geller designed it.
“It’s so fascinating to jump from John Lennon, to Donald Trump, to Clint Eastwood, to Sigmund Freud. I'm sitting now next to a very large sculpture of Darth Vader from Star Wars. Now, how did I get that? In one of my shows in England, I suddenly get a note from an usher that says ‘Mr Geller I heard that you’re a great Star Wars fan, if you want to meet Darth Vader come to the lobby’. That's where I met David Prouse, who was the actor inside the Darth Vader costume. I have stories like that from Qaddafi, from Elton John, from Salvador Dali, from Mick Jagger, and from Edgar Mitchell, who was the sixth man to walk on the moon."
As the documentary makes clear, Mitchell had a huge impact on Geller in the 70s, both as a friend and as the man who put him in touch with the CIA. The museum doesn’t shy away from the more controversial aspects of Geller’s life, including his work with spy agencies looking to study psychic phenomena and the appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show that almost ended his career.
A life with many curves: For many, Uri Geller's name is intrinsically linked to bent spoons. Source: Nikos Vardakastanis via urigeller.com
“Oh, I was hugely controversial. There are those who don't believe in me. There are those who tried to debunk me throughout my life, but those debunkers didn't understand what PR means. They didn't read what Oscar Wilde said 100 years ago, which was there is only one worst thing in life than being talked about, and that's not being talked about.”
Geller now lives two minutes’ walk from the museum, which, after delays due to Covid lockdowns, opened officially early this year. Geller takes tour groups through personally; he says if he’s ever hires guides, he’ll have to find actors who can capture the energy of his performances. When asked, he says that putting his collection on display isn’t about leaving a legacy. But nostalgia? That’s a different matter.
“Of course, every item evokes emotions. I remember the moment I met John Lennon, I remember the moment that Salvador Dali gave me a crystal that belonged to Leonardo da Vinci. I smile because my life was a roller coaster. People change, you know, I'm not the same person I was 55 years ago. Of course, it brings back memories. It's totally nostalgic.”
Uri Geller’s Secret Treasures premiered Sunday 25 December on SBS and is now streaming at SBS On Demand.
