The Magician Dynamo Walks on Water:

Read more about this here.

Video posted by Nilda Afra Pinto:

Submitted by Emerson Dameron:

American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi examines gurus and gullibility. In the process, he goes undercover as Kumaré, an enlightened spiritual leader from the East who develops a following in the West. His documentary The True Story of a False Prophet premiers in the US this summer. Read more here.

Movie Trailer:

Read more…

Ministry’s ‘secret’ employees turn to superheroes
by Yoav Zitun
Israel News
May 17, 2012

Defense Ministry employees in classified roles use actors in superhero disguises in order to protest against worsening in terms of their employment

Dozens of employees at a secret unit within the Defense Ministry chose an original way to protest in front of the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, using actors dressed up as Batman, Superman and other superheroes.

The employees could not protest in person due to the secrecy that is imposed on their role and identity. Read more…

Joey Skaggs will join the May Day Unity Rally at Union Square in NYC, Tuesday, May 1st at 4:00 p.m. with his Mobile Homeless Home and a pack of pissed-off muppets. Come visit and hold signs!

Photos from Skaggs’ Monday, April 23, 2012, action in front of Goldman Sachs in New York:

Read more…

From Joey Skaggs:

Some early photos from yesterday’s demonstration at Goldman Sachs in New York to protest greed and corruption in the financial sector.

photo: Deborah Thomas

Event Summary:

A police van filled with officers parked across the street from our staging area and waited for us to depart. As we did, officers on foot walked with us, but across the street. When construction caused us to change our route, I approached an officer and asked the best way to go. From that point on, they functioned as a police escort. When we hit West Street, which is a highway with heavy traffic, the police van, with lights flashing, stopped the traffic for us. We entered the bicycle lane and it was a clear shot down to the Goldman Sachs office at 200 West Street. The police van, with flashing lights, accompanied us the entire way. They were amazingly coordinated, without every having talked with us. Read more…

At 11:00 a.m., April 23, 2012, artist Joey Skaggs will lead a band of outraged costumed muppets down to the Goldman Sachs offices at 200 West Street in NYC. Skaggs will be peddling his Mobile Homeless Homes prototype — a low cost alternative living space for the millions of upside-down, underwater or foreclosed homeowners who have lost their houses due to the banking crisis that caused the real estate collapse.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Outraged Homeless Muppets to Converge on Goldman Sachs

“Homelessness is a great American tragedy. Our financial system and government have let us down and we, together, must take a stand to change the way the system works. With over 11 million homes underwater and millions in foreclosure, people are frightened, distressed and angry,” says Joey Skaggs.

Although not a cure, Mobile Homeless Homes (MHH) offers a temporary solution — low cost alternative living spaces for the millions of upside-down, underwater or foreclosed homeowners who have lost their houses due to the banking crisis that caused the real estate collapse. The MHH centerpiece is a camouflage, stealth, mobile home made from a series of connected plastic garbage cans, propelled by a tricycle, that will be undetectable by authorities. It blends into any urban environment. Read more…

From Joey Skaggs:

Mobile Homeless Homes

Submitted by Ivan Petrovic: Perfect prank/activism from Serbia

The Art of Joining the Party
Balkan Insight
Nemanja Cabric BIRN Belgrade
April 13, 2012

Two playwrights who joined a number of political parties, using a modified speech by Goebbels as their agenda, have turned their experience into a performance called Oni Zive, (They Live).

Annoyed by unsolved burning issues in Serbian cultural policy as well as in society in general, Maja Pelevic and Milan Markovic, artists with no permanent job, came up with an unusual idea – to become members of almost all political parties at once and tackle them from the inside.

Their artistic performance resulted in a dramatic text, audio-visual materials, and a blog.

“Our main thesis is that political parties have taken over the space for performing arts and have contributed to the fact that there is almost no budget for culture. In these circumstances, when theatres face bankruptcy, and the independent scene lacks financial support – we decided to turn political parties into our space for performing arts,” Maja Pelevic told Balkan Insight. Read more…

Walk the Prank: Secret Story of Mysterious Portrait at Pentagon
by Adam Entous
Wall Street Journal
April 17, 2012

Navy Man, Lost at Sea in 1908, Surfaces at Parties; ‘The Project’

Washington—In a Pentagon hallway hung an austere portrait of a Navy man lost at sea in 1908, with his brass buttons, blue-knit uniform and what looks like meticulously blow-dried hair.

Wait. Blow-dried hair?

The portrait of “Ensign Chuck Hord,” framed in the heavy gilt typical of government offices, may be the greatest—or perhaps only—prank in Pentagon art history. “Chuck Hord” can’t be found in Navy records of the day. It isn’t even a real painting. The textured, 30-year-old photo is actually of Capt. Eldridge Hord III, 53 years old, known to friends as “Tuck,” a military retiree with a beer belly and graying hair who lives in Burke, Va.

Most military officers who climb the ranks or command daring battles only dream of having a portrait hang in a corridor of power at the Pentagon alongside the likes of Patton, Nimitz and Eisenhower. Capt. Hord’s made its way to the Pentagon’s C-ring hallway via several parties, an alliance of British and Canadian military officers and a clandestine, predawn operation later dubbed “THE PROJECT.”

The picture came into existence after Capt. Hord graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982. During a visit to then-Ensign Hord’s hometown of Kingsport, Tenn., his proud parents suggested he sit for a formal portrait. Wearing midshipman’s garb and an Annapolis class ring, he posed for the town’s best-known photographer in front of a cloth screen with his arms resting on an antique-looking chair. Read more…

Submitted by Emerson Dameron:

The pranksters at Chill Hill Media decided to treat one of their own like a celebrity, and mall security unwittingly signed on:

And now Thomas Elliot actually is sort of famous:

The eXile did a more elaborate version of this before:

Submitted by ABOVE:

Blood Diamond

Africa has had a devastating history of blood diamond wars. Blood diamond refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and then sold to finance an invading army’s war efforts, usually in Africa where more than two-thirds of the worlds diamonds are extracted. This site specific social / political word play was painted on the exterior wall of Johannesburg’s largest diamond trader Jewel City. Jewel City is a six-block mega-precinct that serves as a base for some 300 diamond traders as well as South Africa’s Diamond Board and State Traders Association. Jewel City is the largest diamond exporter in the southern hemisphere with over R7-Billion worth of Diamonds being exported every year.

I was able to get away with this diamond wall heist because I told the owners I would paint in big letters “Diamonds are a woman’s best friend” on the exterior of their building.

Read more…

From Alex Case:

SF Bay Area ‘Tacocopter’ Deliver Service (Unfortunately) Fake
by David Murphy
March 24, 2012

Never get between a Silicon Valley geek and his or her tacos. That’s the lesson learned from the flurry of reporting this week surrounding the rumored “Tacocopter”— a San Francisco Bay Area delivery service that was alleged to have been able to deliver one’s taco order by way of an unmanned quadrotor.

Any rational individual might start to wonder about the authenticity of a service that’s supposed to air-drop one’s lunch in any given location around the San Francisco Bay Area. First off, that presumes there’s an army of people sitting in a control room somewhere all practicing their flight skills across a roughly 50-mile stretch of land (assuming a Tacocopter could deliver from San Francisco to San Jose). Read more…

From TED TALKS about the role of the magician as storyteller, exploiting the way audiences think, and about why it’s fun to be fooled.

Marco Tempest spins a beautiful story of what magic is, how it entertains us and how it highlights our humanity — all while working extraordinary illusions with his hands and an augmented reality machine.

A magician and illusionist for the 21st century, Marco Tempest blends cutting-edge technology with the flair and showmanship of Houdini.

Related link:

, by Marco Tempest, July 7, 2007

Happy April Fools’ Day from The Art of the Prank!!

Here’s a list of goings on around the world. We’ve been adding to this post throughout the day:

MODERATOR’S NOTE: This blog post could go on and on. There’s oh so much more out there. Enough, you say! Well, we agree.




And, since the New York Annual April Fools’ Day Parade went off without a hitch and the revelers have just reached Washington Square Park, the after parade festivities are about to begin. So, get out, get some fresh air, and join in the fun!

Tom Tom announces a new navigation voice guaranteed to keep babies happy in the car:

On the 1st April 2012, we will announce the results of months of meticulous research in our NavLab. Our experts have found a solution to stop babies crying in the backseat. For a safe and stress-free journey, let Darth Vader entertain your baby in the backseat. A TomTom navigation voice, guaranteed to make your baby happy!

TomTom makes babies laugh

Sir Richard Branson to launch “Journeys to the Centre of the Earth” through Virgin Volcanic

Only 500 people have been to space, only three people have been to the bottom of the ocean, but no one has ever attempted to journey to the core of an active volcano. Until now. Using patented carbon-carbon materials pioneered for deep space exploration, Virgin is proud to announce a revolutionary new vehicle, VVS1, which will be capable of plunging three people into the molten lava core of an active volcano. In its first three years of operation, VVS1 will target the five most active volcanoes in the world: Etna, Stromboli, Yasur, Ambrym and Tinakula.

Read more at http://www.virginvolcanic.com/

Google rings in April Fools’ Day with over a dozen April Fools pranks in addition to those already mentioned, including:

The Google Fiber (bar)

and

Google Street Roo – exploring the outback one bounce at a time: Over the next four weeks, more than a thousand Big Red kangaroos will be equipped with a 360-degree head camera that will automatically capture images when the marsupial is on the move during daylight hours.



Conan O’Brien takes over Mashable.com

Conan O’Brien Buys Mashable, Ousts Pete Cashmore as CEO

Read more…