But when you’re out in the world, I’m on their turf and there’s kind of an inherent authenticity to that. “When it comes to magic, unless it’s like ‘Penn and Teller: Fool Us,’ this whole studio thing could be rigged in your favor and not trusted. Not in some prefabricated studio,” Willman said. “I think the big takeaway from ‘Sleight of Mouth’ was the strength of the field pieces, the strength of the clips that I would toss to as being the most in the real world. The show aired as a special, but Willman took away one key lesson when he finally had the chance to make a full series. In 2015, Willman filmed a pilot called “Sleight of Mouth,” which brought a “Chappelle’s Show” format to his live standup/magic hybrid act. I just think you have to be delicate with it.”Īlthough some TV viewers may recognize him as the host of “Cupcake Wars,” it was another of his former series that helped hone what makes “Magic for Humans” a success. When that kid cried, that was not what I was going for. And I feel like, you know, by leaving that kind of thing out, it almost makes it not real,” Willman said. “I like to be very careful when I am doing a bit involving kids. That’s just not cool.’ And then once we were cutting it together and I watched that, I was like, ‘Man, it really is real, it is real. “My heart broke, I ran in there and I was like, ‘Oh God, let me make this right.’ And at first I thought, ‘Well we can’t show a kid cry. It’s clear that this leaves him visibly shaken. In the show, one kid follows the rule exactly, but through a designed trick, his marshmallow disappears. In the first episode, Willman leads a variation on the classic marshmallow experiment, where children are given one marshmallow and told that if they hold off on eating it, they’ll be rewarded with another one at the end of the experiment. That word of warning comes in part from another lesson in working with kids that “Magic for Humans” brings up. Read More: ‘Derren Brown: Miracle’ Shows Netflix Is Still Figuring Out How to Bring Live Theater to Living Rooms But I think it’s all been done in good fun,” Willman said. So I hope that people use care and make sure that they aren’t causing any psychological damage. It could potentially be traumatizing, where the person you trust more than anyone in the world is lying to you to freak you out by telling you they can’t see you. “There are a lot of videos with parents convincing their kids they’re invisible. As Willman points out, even the other half of the “Magic for Humans” segment, “That second guy, Brandon, really didn’t take it well in the moment.” For those looking to pull off their own version, Willman wants them to consider who ends up going through the process. The original “Invisible Man” was designed with adult participants in mind. Willman is aware that same feeling of warmth is not entirely true for some of the family members that find themselves as unwitting subjects. The fact that it’s become kind of an international sensation, it just blows my mind and kind of makes me warm and fuzzy.” “I’ve seen videos from all over the world. So it is nice to know the people have the appetite for longer-form, more elaborate stuff like that,” Willman said. Normally you think of things that go viral as being very bite-sized. It’s kind of rewarding that we distilled it to a clarity so refined that people could wrap their head around it and do this themselves. “For the show, we worked for a year to distill that whole routine down into a five-minute segment, where all the necessary material is right there in a succinct spot. The fact that the simple exposition and execution in these far-flung prank videos (Willman’s responded to many of them on Twitter) can all happen in the span of a few minutes is its own form of vindication. What once began as a half-hour stage piece was slowly winnowed down, as he learned how exactly to equip his audiences to play along and what pieces of “evidence” prove most effective. The “Invisible Man” trick is something that Willman’s honed as part of his live show. “I wish I could say that I knew this would be an Internet challenge, but I really had no idea,” Willman told IndieWire. Where to Watch This Week’s New Movies, from ‘The Little Mermaid’ to ‘You Hurt My Feelings’
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