Just been getting into this show after originally hearing about it from little YouTube clips that show up from time to time (usually the Proposition Bet bits). Watched through all of the first series and am about halfway through the second.
I find it an enjoyable show, though obviously the veracity is somewhat questionable. According to Wikipedia either the marks are in on it, or at least their friends and family are. Doesn’t much matter to me actually, since it’s filmed in such a way as to make it believable. I still think at least a couple scams are real, though the quality of the “spycams” and availability of different angles is usually way too good.
The other thing is that many of the scams revolve around Jess, and (to me at least) lose a little bit of cleverness since a lot of guys would do just about anything for a gorgeous girl and certainly let their guard down. That’s somewhat of the point, I suppose.
My favorites are the pickpocketing/slight of hand/quick-switch ones.
Anyone else like this show? Anything more you Brits out there could tell me about it? Are any of the three hosts famous in the UK? Did this show get popular or just a luke-warm reception?
It’s only shown on BBC3, which is one of the BBC’s newer digital-only channels and is aimed at a youth audience. Ratings, while good for the channel, are not huge so none of the presenters are household names, although I’m sure they get recognised in the street.
That’s one thing that makes it look more and more like at least some of the scams are staged, actually, because the show’s been running for a while now so it must be harder to find “marks” who don’t recognise them. And they had one this wek where they set up a fake cash register in a store and took cash off customers for a couple of hours, all filmed in reasonably high quality. I just can’t see how they can have pulled that off without the store being in on it, and how did they track down all the duped customers to give them their money back?
I’ve been getting them from the internet. In accordance with Board rules I won’t explain any further, though I should mention that I check my email frequently.
That’s a good point. Even the ones that are likely staged, they do a good job of at least making it feasible – i.e. “while Paul distracts them with…this gives Alex a chance to set up a couple of our hidden spy cams so you can see the action”. So, yeah, it’s probably set up, but at least you aren’t left to just believe the cams magically appear.
I sort of know one of the three presenters. I’m a magician and Paul Wilson is very well-known and respected in the magic world. I’ve met him several times at magic conventions and other get-togethers, here in London and also in LA at places like the Magic Castle. He is highly respected as a sleight of hand expert and an authority on gambling moves and gambling-related scams. Paul has also released a number of books and DVDs for the magic community, principally concerned with card magic. All I can tell you about him is that he’s very likeable, very intelligent with a good analytical mind, and an excellent performer.
I haven’t actually seen the show, because I don’t get BBC3. But I’ve heard good things about it and seen some clips on the interweb. I don’t know anything for sure about how legit some of the set ups are. Based on what Paul has told me, and what little I know about the people who make the show, I would suggest that all the scams are probably filmed as close to real as possible. There are ways of getting round the ‘but people will notice the cameras’ problem. It’s also worth remembering that sometimes shows like this use a very high shooting ratio. What you see might be condensed from twenty times as much material.
The fake till scam must have been set up with at least the head office of the company being involved.
Although I find the show interesting, I have to wonder if it’s a good idea on the whole. If everybody watched it, then it could be said to be doing a great public service in educating people about potential scams, but there will be plenty of innocent, gullible people out there who have never heard of the show, meanwhile it’s teaching would-be scammers how to find them, take advantage of them and get away with it.
I spotted a fake setup =)
In one of the first episodes of the first season they pulled a scam at the airport. If you go back and look at the guy who picks up the laptop case which was in fact the ringer, you can see on his face that he knows it’s not the one. But to be a good sport he maintains his poker face and keeps on walking.
The thing I love with this series is the Proposition Bets. Man oh man am I going to be getting free beer in the future
Yeah they make a good point about the Proposition Bets – if you have a good enough trick that seems adequately impossible, people will often pay just too see how it’s done. I won $5 off someone doing the whiskey --> water one just because he was so damn curious how it could be done.
Yeah, I figured I could pull that one off. But since I’m not a whiskey drinker and there are easier bets to pull off I think I’ll just trust my senses that it works =) But I gotta admit it looked cool.
I liked the poolball one. He just nonchalantly licks his finger and makes the ball roll like a bat out of hell (in comparison to the other guys weak attempt).
