Happy April Fool’s Day to all the idiots participating, and it’s the most appropriate day for the Netflix launch. The Magic Joke Show with Justin Willman. A reality TV star, game show host, touring magician, and all-around funny guy, Willman is best known as the Magic for humans guy who performed close-up magic for people on the street for three successful seasons, also on Netflix. This new series takes the concept a step further, as Willman designs elaborate magic trick-inspired scenarios for fans hoping to get revenge on someone who pulled a hard prank on them. The concept sounds a little complicated, sure, but the execution in the debut episode is quite effective and fun.
THE MAGIC PRANK SHOW WITH JUSTIN WILLMAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: A shot of Willman seemingly lifting himself off the ground with a car wash spray hose as onlookers gape.
The essence: Justin Willman has a lot of fans and many of them need a little HELP WITH PRANK. Before moving on to sweet, sweet revenge, Willman explains how it will work: request direct messages from his fans on Instagram, pick a scenario that needs some old-fashioned “karmic justice,” and come up with a prank with his foursome. compatriots – Stuart MacLeod, Kyle Marlett, Austin Janik and Kim Congdon – in their “magic laboratory” in Hollywood.
The first applicant is Vincent, whose sister Valerie has tormented him many, many times by putting a false head in his bed while he sleeps. Every time he wakes up and sees it, he freaks out. It’s a hideous old mannequin head that his mother used to practice hairdressing, and now it’s a totem for Vincent’s trauma. So Willman and Vincent plot to get her back during a brother-sister spa day for her birthday, and karma dictates that she’ll have to make Vincent look like he’s been decapitated. Willman and his friends start with a little guillotine (think Alice Cooper’s trick), then move on to something really gross that could happen during a massage. When that doesn’t seem to be enough to torment Valerie, they realize that the spa offers extravagant cryogenic chamber treatments that seem ready for a truly original prank.
The second is Kendrick. Twenty years ago, his brother Kendale read his diary and revealed that he was gay to his entire family. Wow, I say. Oh. Maybe Kendrick is over it, because he seems too cheerful to be nursing two decades of bitter resentment. But there’s no doubt that Kendale deserves it. something – something that exploits his deep fear of robots and AI. Does it require Willman to don creepy contact lenses and pretend to be a sinister, hyper-intelligent machine? And will it be hilariously complicated and involve 3D printing Willman’s face and some good magic show? It seems like a safe bet.
What shows will it remind you of? The magic joke show takes Willman’s magical abilities and adds them Myth Busters-brainstorming style and is built with the banter of Eric Andre o Punk and classic hidden camera setups Indiscreet camera.
Our opinion: Prank shows can be mean-spirited if not executed correctly, but Willman’s genial personality and persuasive insistence that the victims totally deserve to be scared for a minute or five are the key elements that The magic joke show effective and fun. If the tone veers too close to cruelty, it contaminates the formula, and Willman avoids it; It’s about revenge in all its childish, very funny glory, and in at least one case, returning a prank to a prankster. We’ve seen plenty of movies and TV shows that show us that revenge is sweet until it’s not (Westerns, John Wick, etc.), but there is no bitter aftertaste here, or at least that’s what we see. The episode implies that a score has been settled, but just as violence begets violence, jokes beget jokes, and I feel that The magic joke show It’s fun in the short term, but it can make things worse in the long term.
But we’re not here to think about that. We’re here to watch people’s reactions when they’re in a crazy situation and they don’t know they’re being filmed. Hidden camera comedy is a lot like fart jokes: simple, basic, immature. But we laughed anyway. Sometimes I can’t help it. It just spills out. And Willman’s relatively cheerful and intelligent tone makes inspiring laughs seem easy enough. There are moments when his deeply silly antics seem also It’s deeply silly to hold back, but he and his companions execute their jokes with an impressive level of conviction, and I laughed a lot in spite of myself.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting Shot: Willman teases the theme of the upcoming episode: “Anyone who’s in a romantic relationship right now better watch out.”
Sleeping star: Willman’s “magic lab” co-workers don’t leave much of a lasting impression in the pilot episode, but Congdon shows some impressively unhinged sensitivity when he suggests that pretending to make Vincent’s head explode during a massage just isn’t enough. It’s not enough to truly torment Valerie.
Most pilot line: Willman inspires big laughs, playing a spa employee during the cryogenic chamber gag: “Call 911, but don’t tell them why!” he shouts.
Our call: Willman’s winning streak continues with The magic joke show. TRANSMIT IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
