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:

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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. (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:

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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. (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. (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.

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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). (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

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Egypt artists “reopen” street by graffiti protest
Nasser Nasser
Seattle Post Intelligencer
March 29, 2012

Cairo (AP) — After Egypt’s ruling military sealed off streets around Cairo’s Tahrir Square with walls of imposing concrete blocks, a group of artists decided to reopen the avenues on their own — in the public imagination, at least.

On one of the walls, they painted an exact trompe-l’oeil reproduction of the street behind it, as if it were open. The perspective painting matches up with the architecture of the neighboring buildings and even has some “pedestrians” strolling along the boulevard. The street’s new name is “No Walls Street.”

The graffiti piece is the work of the Revolution Artists Association, a group of young Egyptian artists who say the uprising against authorities in the country continues a year after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

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More great urban art from Street Art Utopia:

As seen March 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand:

Lace Fence by Demakersvan:

In Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Felipe Carrelli. A car was abandoned 2 years ago. It burned and Filipe and his friends decided to make a garden on it. Before, during and after the intervention!

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From Mike, Linda, and Ed:

Floris Kaayk: ‘Birdman’ Video A Hoax, ‘Jarno Smeets’ Not Real
by Natalie Wolchover, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer
Huffington Post
March 22, 2012

A Dutch man named Jarno Smeets became an Internet sensation this week after posting a video on YouTube in which he appears to fly like a bird.

In the video, he straps on a contraption that supposedly syncs the motion of his flapping arms to that of a huge pair of wings made of kite fabric, allowing him to flap the wings and take off into the air.

Except not.

As reported yesterday by Life’s Little Mysteries, CGI experts quickly found flaws in the footage of Smeets taking flight that revealed the video clip had been tampered with. Internet marketing experts suggested the video may have been a viral ad campaign — for Nintendo Wii, perhaps, as Smeets claimed to have used Wii controllers to operate his wings. By the end of the day, doubt surrounding the video had soundly overtaken belief in the amazing new invention it seemed to show in action.

And now, the jig is up.

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