HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

James "Jim" Underdown (born October 9, 1960) has been the executive director of The Center for Inquiry (CFI) West in Los Angeles since 1999. The Center for Inquiry is a non-profit educational organization with headquarters in Amherst, New York, whose primary mission is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...
values. CFI West is the largest facility in the organization outside Amherst. Underdown founded the Center for Inquiry Investigations Group (formerly the Independent Investigations Group), a volunteer-based organization, in January 2000 at the
Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...
West in Los Angeles, California. The Center for Inquiry Investigations Group (CFIIG), investigates
fringe science Fringe science refers to ideas whose attributes include being highly speculative or relying on premises already refuted. Fringe science theories are often advanced by persons who have no traditional academic science background, or by researchers ...
,
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...
and extraordinary claims from a rational,
scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence f ...
viewpoint, and disseminates factual information about such inquiries to the public. The original Center for Inquiry Investigation Group is located in Los Angeles, and has a sister group, the CFIIG San Francisco Bay area. The CFIIG maintains field investigators in Washington D.C., Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, Edinburgh, Scotland, London, England, Milan, Italy, Cape Town, South Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, and Alberta, Canada. Altogether, the CFI Investigations Groups are the largest paranormal investigations team in the world. The CFIIG offers $250,000 to anyone who can prove paranormal or supernatural ability under test conditions, and has in the past administered preliminary demonstrations for the
James Randi Educational Foundation James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an American grant-making institution founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. As a nonprofit organization, the mission of JREF includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of a ...
(JREF) $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge. James was made a Fellow of the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "prom ...
in 2020. Underdown is a 1982 graduate of
DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is ...
in
Greencastle, Indiana Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylv ...
, where he received his B.A. in English with an emphasis in composition. He was also the starting defensive end for the DePauw Tiger football team which recorded a 9–1 record in 1981. That team was ranked 9th in the final 1981 Division III football poll, and was inducted into the DePauw University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. Between 1982 and 1999, he worked as a school teacher, truck driver, painter, limo driver, hotel clerk, furniture mover, football coach, carpenter, and bouncer. In the late 1970s, Underdown tried to win a $500 prize by wrestling a bear .


History

After moving to Los Angeles in 1992, Underdown taught comedy traffic school for the Improv Traffic School and worked as a carpenter until he joined the Center for Inquiry in May 1999. During his time in Los Angeles, He wrote and directed 2 short films: ''A Day in the Life of Frank Sinatra'', a docushort about a homeless man with a famous name, and ''Dear Father'', a black comedy about a priest who gets a letter from a man he molested 20 years before. He also wrote and directed a one-act play called ''Party of 13'', a secular retelling of the Last Supper. ''Party of 13'' has run 3 times in Los Angeles. He is also the host and creator of "The Peep Show", a humorous roundtable discussion that ran for 2 dozen episodes on public access TV in the mid-1990s. Regular guests on the show included Phil Lamar, Joe Manno, Robb Wenner, Colleen Wainwright, Patrick Collins, and Rob Guillory. In 1988 James declared himself
Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
of
Calumet City, Illinois Calumet City ( ) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 36,033 at the 2020 census, a decline of 2.7% from 37,042 in 2010. The ZIP code is 60409. Etymology The word ''Calumet'' is the Miꞌkmaq and French word for ...
, and began touring Midwest comedy clubs as Jim U-Boat, a moniker from high school. In response to Underdown's claim to being Calumet City's poet laureate, its mayor Robert Stefaniak stated that Underdown was "a
lousy poet Poetaster , like rhymester or versifier, is a derogatory term applied to bad or inferior poets. Specifically, ''poetaster'' has implications of unwarranted pretensions to artistic value. The word was coined in Latin by Erasmus in 1521. It was f ...
" who was "not recognized by the community". Interviewed by
WKQX WKQX (101.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, featuring an alternative rock format known as "Q101". Owned by Cumulus Media, the station serves the Chicago metropolit ...
radio station in front of City Hall, Underdown states although he has never lived or worked in Calumet City, it "reflects the blue-collar nature of my poems". Notable shows Underdown performed in during the late 1980s/early 1990s include the Serious Art Comedy Show at the Roxy (Chicago), "The Best of Blue Collar Art" at the Elbo Room (Chicago), and "Mr. Saigon" also at the Elbo Room which featured Matt Walsh and
Matt Besser Matthew Gregory Besser (born September 22, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, and writer, best known as one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy ...
of the Upright Citizen's Brigade. In the play written by Terry Curtis Fox, Underdown played a uniformed police officer in ''Cops''. NoHo LA writes "one wishes his role was a bit longer". Underdown created the Steve Allen Theater in 2002 and hired Amit Itelman to be its founding artistic director soon after. According to the NY Times, "...the Steve Allen Theater is not just any theater...it is known for its willingness to embrace controversy. (In June -- 6/6/06 to be exact -- it held a Satanic High Mass for leather and tuxedo-clad devil-worshippers.)"


In the media

Underdown is one of the co-hosts of the Center for Inquiry's flagship podcast
Point of Inquiry
He and co-host Leighann Lord are the new interviewers on the longtime show. Underdown is also the co-host, along with Tony Ortega and
Jerry Minor Jerome Charles Minor Jr. (born October 4, 1969) is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his comedic roles in numerous television programs such as '' Mr. Show'', ''Saturday Night Live'', '' Trigger Happy TV'', '' Delocated'', '' Brickl ...
, of ''The Cult Awareness Podcast'' that discusses Scientology, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other subjects. Underdown was billed on the Dr. Phil show as a ''professional skeptic'' wrote about his experience as the lone skeptic, "Maybe the show is afraid of challenging the views of so many of their viewers. But it would have nice to have a fair chance to do so". First Underdown read for a small audience as a psychic, then a professional psychic read the same group. This was the first time he had tried to do a group cold-reading and left 3 of the 10 participants in tears. When later it was revealed to the participants that James was a fake psychic, they stated that the professional psychic had given a much better reading. Underdown's response was "of course she is, she is much better practiced". Another psychic claimed that James was actually a real psychic and bitter, to which he responded that he is not bitter but "you make money doing the same thing he can do for free." On the
Oprah Winfrey Network Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is an American multinational basic cable channel jointly owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Harpo Studios that launched on January 1, 2011, replacing the Discovery Health Channel. The network is led by talk show h ...
''Miracle Detective'' show Underdown was called in to investigate an angelic apparition that people claim cured a 14-year-old severely disabled child at Presbyterian Hemby Children's Hospital in
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
. The "angel" was shown to be sunlight from a hidden window, and the little girl is still severely handicapped. Lecturing at skeptical events, Underdown has spoken on the topic "Are there similarities between the paranormal claims people make today and the miracles found in the Bible?" Underdown looked at 5 miracles in the Bible and relates them to real-life paranormal investigations at ReasonFest May 2011. Using only invisible thread, a very long pole and a Mr. Coffee pot lid Jim Underdown shows the audience at JREF, The Amaz!ing Meeting: TAM9 From Outer Space how to fake their own UFO photographs. Underdown joined the cast of "Battle of the Psychics" in Kiev, Ukraine in 2012, for the taping of the show's 10th season. He appeared on the show as one of the jury members who analyze the performance of the alleged psychics who are competing for prize money. The show's website reads: "For the first time in history, ''Battle" in the jury - an outspoken skeptic, internationally known researcher of paranormal phenomena, American James Underdown.'' Joining Underdown as judges on the show are host Paul Kostitsyn, well-known Russian actress Alika Smekhova, and world famous spoonbender and illusionist,
Uri Geller Uri Geller ( ; he, אורי גלר; born 20 December 1946) is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other il ...
. When asked why he would participate in a show that assumes psychic ability is real, Underdown responded, "This is an opportunity to square off with the world's most famous (alleged) psychic in one of the world's biggest hotbeds of psychic belief. Why not try to bring some skepticism where it is so sorely needed?" Speaking to the
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
College's newly formed skeptic club, Underdown said, "'Critical thinking skills, not just with this stuff, the idea of being able to know the difference between what's true and what isn’t, will serve you very well in your life in many different ideas"'.


References


External links


centerforinquiry.org

cfiig.org
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Underdown, James American skeptics 1960 births Living people