 Massimo Polidoro is our next speaker. Like I said, there's a switch in the program. So Massimo is one of these effortlessly stylish continental guys and I just hate him. He just always looks so cool. He's going to give a talk about his book that he's writing about James Randy. The talk is called Amazing. The book is going to be about James Randy and his life. So here is his limerick. I asked Massimo when I stressed, if Italian culture possessed any limericks or such, and he said, no, not much. We're just stuck with the food that's the best. Here he is, Massimo Polidoro. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. As we said, we're going to talk about James Randy's story and why we think that we need an amazing Randy story. Have you seen An Honest Liar? Isn't it a great movie? I mean, you have everything in it. You have drama, you have suspense, you have love, you have emotions, strong emotions. And it's a fantastic movie. Justin and Tyler, they did a stupendous job in researching and interviewing new people. They are doing festivals all over the United States and abroad. And in the fall, the movie will come out in theaters. And if you haven't seen it, please do go because it's worth it absolutely. So they have interviewed friends and foes from, I know, David Pena, who is Randy's long-time partner, to Arch Nemesis for a Geller. There are interviews just prepared for this special occasion and archival material, a lot, a lot of stuff, really, that got into it. But still, it's a 90-minute movie. And you can only really give a glimpse into the life of such an extraordinary person as Randy is. Right. So that's why we need a biography to tell James Randy's story. The good news is that the work is already well underway. The idea is originated with Penn, Penn Gillette, of the duo Penn and Teller, our friend. In 2005, he was able to convince Randy that a biography of his life was needed, and he started interviewing him. Then he involved talented Kim Schimber from New York who did an incredible amount of research for years. She uncovered all kinds of forgotten material, but especially people, relatives and friends and foes, of course, going back 60 years, an incredible amount of material, I'll tell you, for years he went on. By 2010, the research was overwhelming. So both Randy, Davey, Kim, and everybody who has invested time and money in this project asked me if I could be involved in actually writing the book. As if you were here last year, I told you how I was Randy's apprentice in 1989, 1990, and so on. We shared many adventures, many investigations and research and travels, but especially when we shared a strong friendship, which is much more than what it is between mentor and apprentice. I consider him like a second father, and we've always been very close. But apart from this and from my role in the skeptical movement, let's say, I was asked to be involved in the project because since 1990, when I got back to Italy, I've become a professional writer. I write for believing. And so far, I've published over 42 books. Thank you. Some have been translated in various languages, and I wrote two specifically in English for Prometheus books. So I have, I think, both the knowledge of the subject, which is Randy, and the techniques to tell the story and to make it into a reality. So in the past year, I went through, again, through all these materials, specifically that Kim and Penn generously shared. I went with Kim, we spent a long time in New York going through every paper, every single story. And then also Justin and Tyler, they shared their material for the movie. There was really an incredible amount of material. And myself, I've always been a fan as well of Randy. So since 1989, today, I've collected tons of materials on him. So this is the situation at the moment. The book will be made. I can tell you that. I will share, of course, the credit with Kim. And Penn Gillette will write an introduction. But we still haven't searched for a publisher. We plan to do this by the end of the year. We find a publisher by the end of the year. And if you are a publisher, or if you work for a publishing house, or you know somebody who does, this is a good moment to think about buying those rights. However, as I told you, I make my living from writing. So I can only devote so much time to this project until we find a way to sponsor my work. And I think that if I can be completely immersed in this incredible and fantastic and inspiring story for a whole year, I can have the book finished in one year. So we're thinking maybe in the fall to try a crowdfunding campaign in order to sponsor this work, or maybe another possibility could be to release parts of the book as they are ready through the Kindle Direct Publishing system. We'll see. There is still time to decide and to see what's best. But as you've seen, first of all, do you like the idea? And if you like to help make it a reality, and if I can ask the lights to be turned up for a minute, you've seen me maybe during these days at the meeting, going around, asking for short stories and interviews with some of you brief statements showing that there is a strong interest in the life of Randy and also that it deserves to be told. And I would like to collect more afterwards. If you are here and if you are staying, I'm here. You can find me outside. But now that I'm here in front of you, I would like to take advantage of this situation and ask you if you can help me in a big, don't be afraid. It's nothing. This is the phrase. I would like you all to convincingly scream, we want to read the amazing Randy story. I want to film you, of course. And I make a count of three. And on my three, one, two, three. Don't say band. Don't say that. It doesn't work. Say we want to read the amazing Randy story. OK, are you ready? One, wait. Wait. One, two, three. We want to read it. Yes. Yes, a good one overall. You know what, just to be sure, let's do it again. One, two, three. Go. This is fantastic. Thank you. Thank you very much. So if you want to help, another way could be that spread the word. Talk about this project to your friends, to through your blog, to your podcast, to your social networks, whatever you like. I'm going to set up soon a web page and a newsletter. And if you want to receive updates, you just send me an email to this address, massimo.org1.gmail.com. And I will put you on the newsletter. You will receive how the project is going. You will know. And you will receive also sample chapters, stories, and material that I find through the files. You can also, of course, connect with me through Twitter, Facebook, or my web page, whatever you like. So this is such a fascinating and exciting story. You saw the movie. There was the alpha project, the pop-off, the Carlos Hawkes. But there is so much more, so much more to tell the Water with Memory, the Ben Veniste Fair, the Ted Sirius, X-Ray Vision, the James Hydrick episode, which is so heartbreaking once you know the full story. The Columbus Poltergeist, another sad story. The MacArthur Award, the million dollar challenge. And then there is the old escapes, the magic career, which is a book in itself. And then there are also the dark stories, the threats, the black male campaign, the libel suits, every kind of way to try to stop him, but they didn't work. And it's going to be great to tell this exciting story. And I would like now to join me on stage, Kim Scheiber, which surprisingly came here from New York, a big round of applause to Kim. Thank you. She called the I-Jones when we were going to the stage. I think I should call the I-Jones when we were going to the stage. Yes, this is a good word. Yes, as you can see, Kim with a very New York attitude. As a New York, yeah, you tell me. Does this work? Yes. I don't think Massimo teased the book properly. And to be fair, this was not my title. It's pens, and maybe I'm about to get in a bunch of trouble for this. But I'm going to tell you the opening story of the book along with the title, which is, I, James Randi, will die today. And the story is this, that when Randi was doing the mentalism bit through the Canadian provinces in the year 2, was it, Randi? In the year 2, he used to, every morning when he got up, take a business card size piece of paper and an ink, put the date on it, and then write, well, OK, this audience, I can actually tell the truth. What he actually wrote was, I, Randil Zwingi will die today. But for the sake of the book, we're going with I, James Randi will die today. And then he'd sign it. And he'd put it in his wallet, where if he were to get lucky, and a safe fell on his head while he was walking down the street, which, given one of the safe escapes that he almost didn't make it out of would be a fitting death for Randi, it would be the very first thing the police would find. And the headline the next day in the paper would be, mentalist predicts own death. The need to know about Randi is contained in that story, because it's the perfect promotional effort that he can't capitalize on even a tiny little bit. And it's a mystery that he gets to leave the world with forever. And it turns out, Geller never gets to be able to do anything better than that. So that's the title of the book, or at least it has been for the last, I don't know, five, six years that we were doing the work and the research. And that's just the first story. And it's not even close to the best of the bunch. There are another. We could just do a book of stories like that that would be the surely you're joking Mr. Randi, equivalent of the Feynman book. But there's way, way more than that that Massimo talked about. So I think he should try and go film you all saying that thing again, but twice was probably enough. And I look forward to reading it. And I hope you all do too. Thank you. So this is not a long talk. I said what I have to say. We hope you will help us to do it. And with the help of everyone loving and respecting Randi, this is going to be a great book. And I hope that you all will be a part of it. Thank you all.