Nathan Penlington On … The Top Three Uri Geller Collectables
Nathan Penlington: Uri and Me is an exploration of the spoon-bending magician Uri Geller. Exploring Geller’s
psychic magic and deconstructing the icon, Penlington brings telepathy, clairvoyance and more to the
stage.
Uri Geller is world famous for his ability to bend cutlery with the aid of his mind. This ability helped
make him one of the biggest brands of the 1970s and an enduring cultural icon. Throughout his 40-year
career, Uri has produced a mind-blowing variety of memorabilia, including a psychically energised teddy
bear, six different board games, a range of decorative plates and a folding bike. Here is my guide to the…
Top Three Uri Geller collectables that everyone should own:
1 – Uri Geller, the album
In the early 1970s, Uri started writing poetry, “some of them dealing with love or loneliness or sadness
or cosmic intelligences”. He showed them to the composer Byron Janis and the result is this awe-
inspiring, epic, melancholic new-age pop album released in 1974. I can think of no other album with
lyrics of this quality: “Like a tiny drop of tear / that has fallen off the eye of a molecule / yes, it is that
little”.
2 – Matturi™ Kickboxing Fitness Video
This VHS is a collaboration between martial arts master Matt Fiddes, who takes you through the exercise
sections, and Uri Geller who takes you through psychic warm-up sessions. I still feel stupid for not
realising that Matturi™ is not a particular kind of kickboxing – but just a combination of the names Matt
and Uri. This video also confirms Uri’s position as the leading practitioner of motivational poetry: “You are
alive / kick out into the sky / you are alive / punch the clouds / you are alive / leap for the moon”.
3 – Positive Energy Watch
Uri first appeared on the home shopping channel QVC in July 2000 with his debut range of crystal-based
jewellery. His recent designs incorporate Egyptian, mathematical, scientific and religious symbols of
many denominations, often to confusing effect. As to be expected from a man who is known for his
ability to stop and start watches it is a very unreliable timepiece, but it does have his name on it five
times which makes up for it not working.
Nathan Penlington: Uri and Me can be seen at Udderbelly’s Pasture at 16.10 from 3-29 August (excl 15).
