There’s probably a good chance you’ve already seen this viral video of magicians performing an illusion behind an unsuspecting news reporter. As it turns out, though, the clip was actually a well-planned publicity stunt.
In an effort to help British magicians Richard Young and Sam Strange land a TV show, Sky News reporter Ashish Joshi helped the duo create the appearance that he was getting videobombed during a report outside of Westminster Palace in London. “They’re friends of mine. I was happy to help,” he said.
To make the clip appear authentic, Joshi had his camera crew record him doing a report on a real piece of news. The magicians then went into the shot and performed their “shrinking man” illusion. Sky News graphics were then added to the video before it was uploaded to YouTube.
The network was unaware until afterwards that Joshi had made the video. Apparently, though, this wasn’t an issue with his bosses. “Sky has been brilliant. Everyone’s laughing,” he said.
The discovery that the video is a hoax hasn’t deterred folks from watching it, though, as it has received almost 390,000 views on YouTube as of early this afternoon.
Hopefully for the magicians, one of those viewers is a TV executive.
(Via Reddit, the Guardian)
