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Saturday 21 November 2009

What Jacko needed was someone to say ‘No’

4 July 2009

My defining memory of Michael Jackson — vulnerable, brilliant, otherworldly — is of watching him dance to the soundtrack of a movie.

This was early in our friendship, around ten years ago in New York. I visited Michael in his hotel room and was amazed to find it decorated with Hollywood posters and eight-foot cutouts: Anakin Skywalker peeping out from the folds of Darth Maul’s cape, ET bicycling over the full moon.

I told him he should see The Matrix, because of the spoonbending sequence, and he immediately instructed his aides to book a whole cinema. The response was instant: ‘Yes Michael!’ Nobody around him ever said ‘No’ to him... and during the tragedy that unfolded over the next decade, I often reflected that what he needed above everything was someone to tell him ‘No’ once in a while.

We took Michael’s little boy to the Sony cinema, and sat side by side in the empty auditorium with boxes of popcorn and candy. After about half an hour, Michael slipped out of his seat. I assumed this was his way of avoiding goodbyes, but after a few minutes I looked round and saw him silhouetted in the projectionist’s beam. He was dancing, lost in the moves that only he could make — the twists, the spins, the moonwalk. No one else on earth ever danced like that. Michael was absorbed in the soundtrack, unaware I was watching him. He was mesmeric.

He was in New York to record his album Invincible, a $30-million project that was intended to relaunch his career — but his confidence was so battered that he could no longer believe in his own musical genius. ‘The music is still in me,’ he whispered sadly, ‘but sometimes, when I sing, I don’t know how to reach down and touch it. Please — help me.’ But he wanted more than motivation — he wanted mental transformation. At last he decided that he could only break through his fears with the power of hypnosis, and he begged me to place him in a trance. I agreed to try a technique I have used many times on heavy smokers who are trying to quit. Within a few seconds Michael had surrendered his will. I have hypnotised many people, and it’s easy to tell if they are faking. A good subject can eat a whole onion in the belief that it’s a sweet apple. Jackson was an excellent subject.

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Chip Sviokla

July 2nd, 2009 6:42pm Report this comment

The Spectator will never be the same in my eyes. I'm dumbfounded that you printed this garbage.

Alan

July 3rd, 2009 11:54am Report this comment

Insightful! No, wait, the other thing. Clingy, creepy, hollow and entirely without merit. That's it.

cripesonfriday

July 3rd, 2009 12:00pm Report this comment

I am amazed that you could print something as trite, something as poor as this on your website, Uri Geller has said all this in TV interviews since an hour after Jackson's death.
Uri Geller is a charlatan, a publicity seeking sham artist who is so false that MICHAEL JACKSON saw through him.
All the anecdotes are 8 years or more old and have no relevance to the shell of a person Jackson became.
It is an absolute disgrace that Geller is getting yet another bite of the fame cherry because of the death of someone who once considered him a friend.
This isn't news, this is an ad for Uri Gellar's no doubt forthcoming book about him and his "friend"
Shame on you for publishing this.I say this, not as a Michael Jackson fan, but as a fan of good journalism.

Adam

July 3rd, 2009 12:10pm Report this comment

What utter tripe. Uri Geller clearly holds friendship in the same vein as Paul Burrell. Someone should certainly have said 'No' - the editor.

Alan

July 3rd, 2009 12:25pm Report this comment

Self-serving! That's the adjective I was looking for!

Ron White

July 3rd, 2009 5:21pm Report this comment

Hmm, well if Geller's treatment was so effective, how come he never used it to prevent Jackson's self destruction? As tacky as the crystal pyramids and globes chez Geller.

Daryll

July 5th, 2009 5:41am Report this comment

He only pretended to bend spoons, but this freak (clearly it's not only opposites who attract) really does bend the truth.

When Jacko left his seat in the cinema, Geller thought he'd left the theatre - "but after a few minutes I looked around and saw him silhouetted [dancing] in the projectionist's beam."

For this fable to be true, wouldn't you have first noticed it on the screen, fraud?

What Geller (and readers) needed was for the Spectator to say 'No' to such rubbish.

Man in the mirror

July 5th, 2009 2:06pm Report this comment

Geller personally arranged the ultimate betrayal of his 'friend', the Bashir documentary.

This was a finely-crafted and thorough, crude, manipulative hatchet job that led directly to the final, fatal persecution and destruction of the supremely gifted and sensitive human being, Michael Jackson.

Lest we forget.

Teledu (Future Poet Laureate surely)

July 5th, 2009 5:05pm Report this comment

Say what you like about Michael Jackson
But he's no Anglo-Saxon!

Tabi

July 6th, 2009 2:26pm Report this comment

Aye you are so right Uri Geller...but
No Never not ever .. maybe in another aeon

Kay P Hankinson

July 6th, 2009 3:35pm Report this comment

I sincerely suggest that critics should investigate Mr Geller with a more open mind .. generally one finds what one is looking for - if it is to prove that he is a fraud you will find that and if it is to prove that he is quite incredible you will prove that too.

Kay P Hankinson

July 6th, 2009 4:28pm Report this comment

Apropos my last statement about Mr Geller ( and although I am not of any particular religious leaning ) I would say that " As ye seek, so shall ye find' which means you see what you want to see and find what you want to find in all areas of your life.

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