Richard Wiseman has posted the video of the spoon-bending stunt he performed at TAM6, with the assistance of 800 attendees in the crowd. It's funny to watch it again, but nothing like being part of seeing it done live. For one thing, the video is fairly shaky, and the shots from different angles of the crowd don't fully communicate that, yes, in fact, there are 800 people in that room, all doing a more-or-less synchronized spoon-bending trick with 800 pre-stressed spoons. (That's a detail that's already being commented upon over at YouTube. A lot of folks think the spoons would have to have been pre-cut, when in fact they were all simply pre-stressed, repeatedly bent until just ready to snap.)
So, while I don't think the whole gag really plays on video as well as it could, it's fun to watch. And for all you skeptics out there who've been unable to make TAM before, maybe it will prompt you to make a special effort to get there next year and join in the fun.
If there ever was a video debunking the spoon-benders, it has to be this one from my mate, Jason.
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Though the mass spoon-bend thing is cool too.
I have the rare honor of being in consecutive mass spoon bending records, having been in the Sydney Skeptics in the pub mass spoon bending video, and the TAM6 effort
see the original, Sydney version here:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/510096/mass_spoon_bending/
oops, the link to Jason's vid is http://youtube.com/watch?v=goB3NCJKSpM
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