‘Magicians are the most honest people in the world. They tell you they’re going to fool you, and then they do it,” the Amazing Randi says at the start of “An Honest Liar,” a documentary that picks up with the investigative magician at age 17, when he left his Toronto home to join a carnival, and follows him into his 80s, into his affecting personal life.
Randi was not always immediately forthcoming about his own deceptions, but he has spent his life debunking those who never came clean at all.
Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge in 1928, Randi went from renowned magician, mentalist, and escape artist to TV-ready skeptic, proving that the psychics, faith healers, and channelers who have caught the public’s attention are no more than sleight-of-hand artists themselves.
The real joy of Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein’s documentary is not the copious amount of file footage — such as clips from “The Tonight Show” when Johnny Carson could still smoke at his desk on camera — or Randi’s inherent charisma, or even his acts of escape and magic. No, it’s his relationship with his partner of 25 years, Jose Alvarez.