Uri Geller's Articles

Anything can happen on live TV. My nerves have been frayed in recent weeks by a combination of the comic, the dramatic and the horrific — an escaped raven, a physical confrontation between a contestant and my co-host, a heart-stopping mistake during a gallows act, and countless other scares.

But I’ve never encountered anything like the situation that erupted on Saturday night when, just two hours before the launch of my show in Holland, the presenter was rushed to hospital.

We’re filming in Cologne, because my German series has several more weeks to run and it would be impossible to rehearse here and in Amsterdam simultaneously. But I have to treat the two shows as completely separate projects — my catchphrases are different, the acts are different, even the language is different. I feel like I’ve cloned myself.

My presenter on De Nieuwe Uri Geller is a Dutch superstar called Tooske. Her full name is Antonia Grietje Ragas-Breugem, and she’s a former beauty queen who has been a disk jockey and an actress — she starred in 06/05, the Theo van Gogh movie about the murder of Holland’s right-wing gay politician Pim Fortuyn. (Shortly after its release, Van Gogh was also murdered, shot eight times and repeatedly stabbed by an Islamic radical.)

Tooske wisely steered away from controversy after that, becoming a presenter and hosting reality shows such as Idols and Help! I’m Going To Be A Father. Last February she gave birth to her first child, a daughter called Helena and, when we met, she told me she was expecting another child in May.

I was speechless at her sheer energy. I know what it’s like to have young children, and the idea of caring for an 11-month-old while launching a national TV series terrifies me.

Our man in the control room, Henk-Jan Smits, reassured me: last year he and Tooske worked together on a show called Holland’s Best Idea, a reality show starring inventors. And as we tackled rehearsals, I was delighted by the way Tooske’s real-life charm translated into on-screen charisma.

Sometimes the liveliest, wittiest people don’t make great TV. The camera can’t capture their sparkle. But Tooske was projecting her personality, and as I settled into my ‘hot seat’ with a commanding view over the acts, I felt confident.

The cast list featured some outstanding performers, including a medium who claims to speak with the spirits through a ouija board, and a marksman with a laser-guided crossbow who can shoot a bolt through a gold ring hidden in an apple... an apple balanced on a celebrity’s head!

But at 6pm, with the opening credits just 120 minutes away, Henk-Jan brought me shocking news. Tooske had been rushed to hospital. There was no word on her condition.

There’s an adage in showbusiness: the show must go on. It sounds corny, but it’s a vital rule, because without it the performers would face intolerable pressure. Tooske’s first priority had to be for her own health — and that was our priority too. No show is worth dying for. But if she hadn’t known that, somehow, we’d be able carry on without her, the stress might have made her condition even worse.

A mood of panic spun through the studio like a tornado as the rumours spread. I acted quickly to calm everybody down, urging the team to think positive. “You’re asking if we can still screen the launch,” I said, “and that’s the wrong question. We go live in less than two hours — no debate. The big question is, what’s the best way to make this a fantastic show?”

The solution was to draft in an experienced presenter, who was simply introduced to me as Marianne, and let her play the show by ear. I spoke my ‘1, 2, 3’ catchphrase in Dutch, rather than in Hebrew as I have in Germany, but I was determined to use my native tongue somehow — it adds a crackle of mystery to events. So as each contestant stepped up, I urged them on with, “Habama shalcha!” — “The stage is yours!”

Somehow, all the fragments fused into an electrifying whole, and the producers greeted me with fervour as I left the stage. We had smashed live viewing records, comprehensively beating Pop Idol on the rival channel.

The chief executive, Guillaume de Posch, is also boss of ProSieben in Germany, and of the Hungarian station, TV2, where my show launches in March under the title, The Chosen. Guillaume was the first television head to see the potential of the format when its Israeli creators and I took it to the Cannes festival last year.

Guillaume assures me that Tooske is going to be OK, though I understand she isn’t strong enough yet to receive visitors. We’re hoping she’ll be able to join us for the next show, but I’m simply praying for her full recovery.

But she’s such a trouper that I can be certain of one thing: Tooske will be glad that, somehow, the show did go on!

My never-ending drive to prevent youngsters from becoming addicted to cigarettes moved to a new level when I was photographed for a national campaign in Germany. This shot left a nasty taste in my mouth... but it was worth it when the picture appeared in just about every newspaper.

I wrote last week about my appearance on Katerina Witt’s Dancing On Ice show, but we were so frantically busy with the launch in Holland that I didn’t get a chance to download this picture from our camera and email it to the Weekly News. So here it is... a week late, but Katerina is such a star that I don’t think the delay is very important!