02:31:23 am on
Sunday 13 Oct 2024

Amazing Randi
Streeter Click

“I loved you, Johnny,” said James Randi, magician, “we all did.

“Yes, I'm rambling because I just don't know what else to say. I will miss Johnny Carson, like no other person in my life. He was such a good man, one of my minor gods and a good friend that I regret to say I did not meet again in person after he left television, so long ago.

"Just one small example, if I may, of how generous he was. When I called to ask if he might place a telephone call to Martin Gardner, on [Gardner's] 90th birthday, John had no hesitation agreeing.

"I've got most of his books," he told me. "It'll be fun to speak with him." They did speak, on the afternoon of Martin's birthday, for some 20 minutes. That's the kind of [man] ... Johnny Carson was.

“John, I will miss you, as will so many millions here and around the world, but your legacy lives on. I've just run out of words.”

Streeter Click is editor of GrubStreet.ca.

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