An Honest Liar Page #9

I said, "Are you sure, are you sure?"

But it was just a gesture of complete honesty out there.

And, morally, having built a life

around the fact of telling truth,

he needed to come out publicly.

Thank you so much, thank you so much for coming to Randi's birthday,

and for being our friends, for being supportive of both of us.

And that's it. That's all I got to say.

APPLAUSE:

'Before, it was all about becoming invisible.

'Now it should be exactly the opposite.'

I was here in the house

and I looked out the window and I saw a uniformed officer outside.

They were all over the place.

US Marshals and FBI personnel, as well,

circling around, trying to prevent anyone from escaping.

I was terrified.

I had no idea why they were there.

I heard rapid knocking at the door.

I went to the door and they pushed their way in

and said, "Where is Jose Alvarez?"

And they put handcuffs on him and marched him out the door.

I just saw him put in a car and driven out the driveway.

What a situation. What a situation.

It's so...

very disturbing.

When the police showed up and arrested my partner

and took him away in handcuffs, I was desperate.

I just... I was standing at the edge of the dock

and there were no ships around and I was about to fall into the water.

I didn't know what to do.

No matter what his name is, I know who he is,

and I know what he is as well.

And he's my partner.

He's very, very important to me.

For the last 25 years, everybody has known me as Jose Alvarez.

But, in reality, my real name

is Deyvi Orangel Pena Arteaga.

I was born in Venezuela.

I was raised in Caracas.

And in Venezuela, to be gay

is the most despicable thing that you can be.

You knew that everybody that was your friend,

or your loved one or whatever, they would turn against you.

That's for sure.

I just knew that I should hide it.

When I was 16 years old I was at a party

and three guys came and grabbed me from behind

and one of them put a gun to my head

and started just yelling all kinds of things.

"The little f*ggot," and so on, and so on.

I said, "I have to get out of here or I will be killed."

And I came here to study art

and I started seeing like, wow.

I don't have to be like, you know, who is looking at me? I have to hide.

But still it stays in your brain,

that in order to survive, I needed to pretend.

But I just didn't have any way to stay in this country.

And then I met Randi.

So, I actually found someone who got a name for me...

..and they told me that this person was deceased,

and that this name didn't belong to anyone.

So I wrestled with that situation for quite a while

whether to go ahead with this.

But I just didn't have any choice.

So I decided to do it, to take the name.

But I wasn't really that aware of what I was doing, you know.

The thing snowballed.

One of these three men pretended to be possessed.

Number two, what is your name, please?

My name is Jose Alvarez.

Only one of these people is the real Jose Alvarez

and is the only one sworn To Tell The Truth.

Trying to escape such a terrible situation,

I kind of got jailed in a different one.

With the Jose Alvarez identity,

I applied for a passport under that name

and then I went to Australia to play the Carlos Hoax.

And I just set off to train him to be a so-called channeller.

I have lived through many reincarnations.

My last one was in Venezuela.

Also keep very wide, keep very wide,

cos you're going to be on a big stage.

He learned fast and we were using the Peter Popoff method.

I've heard you described as a fraud and a charlatan.

That's a very rude comment.

Well, that's a very rude comment.

He did a wonderful job,

but, after all, that's the kind of thing he does well.

I am using this body, Jose Alvarez.

He is an artist in the United States.

The whole thing was totally against my persona.

I knew that I was playing this fictitious character.

I just felt, I just felt like a phoney.

You know, but I have to go on with it.

No! No!

It turned out that there was a real person named Jose Alvarez...

..and he decided to apply for a passport after 25 years of me

living with this identity.

The moment of truth is about to arrive.

Will the real Jose Alvarez please stand up?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The problem is, once you start to tell people that you're genuine,

it's really hard to step away from that because you've lied to people.

You've lied to their face.

It was extremely difficult when I was fooling the scientists.

You know, at first I saw them as the enemy. It was me against the enemy.

- But over time, they become your friends.

- Were we violating laws?

Probably. Was it fraud in some cases?

Most definitely.

Did we look at it that way at the time?

I don't think any of us did,

because we thought the ends justified the means.

Deception has so many layers.

I mean, you have the zenith of deception

and people go to jail for that.

But then you have magicians.

They manipulate the truth.

They are in the business of deceiving people.

Alpha and Carlos and Popoff,

these incredible revelations of deception,

they're actually sort of giant cons in their own sense, right?

But they're cons on the right side.

This is what it means to be an honest liar.

It's the difference between using deception to conceal the truth,

and using deception to reveal the truth.

Up until now, you haven't really said

anything about Jose being Deyvi.

- Here's where I'd like to start.

- OK.

I think it would be good if you said something like,

"I feel I should come clean."

- No, no, no, no. That admits guilt.

- OK.

I should make something clear.

That's much better.

Are you afraid of the ramifications?

I have all kinds of fear of that, yes.

Fear of what? I'm not clear.

If I don't have to say, "Yes, I knew that he had a false identity

"and he perpetrated it... on the American nation"...

..I don't want to say that!

Look at what he was going through.

He was going through hell.

If he went back to Venezuela, he would...

He would be constantly victimised and abused and

attacked.

No, I couldn't see that.

I...

I had to accept what I saw happening.

No, none of this must be used. I mean, really. I...

If I thought that any of this would be used,

I would abandon the film entirely.

- No, no, no, no.

- But I'm being honest with you.

Now, I'm being taped at the same time and I have to trust you.

- OK, well...

- And I will and I do.

- But we had discussed this.

I'm willing to say the story that I gave you on this camera.

That's fine, OK. I'm not asking you to do anything else.

- But I want the rest of it to vanish, please.

- This last part?

Yes, understood, understood.

No worries.

- I trust you or I wouldn't be doing this.

- Thank you.

We all spin personal narratives.

And so when an event happens that doesn't fit this idea that

he's this amazing truth-teller and so on,

then something has to happen to that event and, like everyone,

he may well change a few facts around or rub it out completely.

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