Scam School
Season 2010
TV-PG
If Harvard offered a PhD in deceit, this would be it. Award-winning magician Brian Brushwood takes viewers on an inside tour of bar tricks, street cons, and scams. If you watch carefully, you'll never have to pay for a drink again!
Where to Watch Season 2010
52 Episodes
- Blow Hard ScamE1
Blow Hard ScamBottle bet makes 'em look goofy AND win you a free drink We've said it before: you just can't know too many ways to win a free drink. This time, the setup is simple: fold a bottlecap in half and place it inside the lip of a bottle set on its side. Tell them all they have to do to win a free drink is blow the bottlecap into the bottle. However, once they start, every puff of air only blows the bottlecap out of the bottle! - Use Non-Transitive Dice to cheat your friends!E2
Use Non-Transitive Dice to cheat your friends!Math paradox lets you cheat your friends The Setup: First, make yourself a set of "non-transitive dice". These are dice that are completely ungimmicked, but they have a different set of values on each side of the die than you would normally find. All you'll need is 6 dice and some model airplane paint. Paint 2 of the dice completely green, 2 completely red, and 2 completely blue. Next, assign number values as you see here: Red: 1 4 4 4 4 4 Green: 2 2 2 5 5 5 Blue: 3 3 3 3 3 6 ...if you don't want to spend the time to make your own, google "non-transitive dice" and you'll be able to buy some pre-made online. Just make sure they're the same style as the ones we're making here. - Psychic Matchbooks
E3Psychic Matchbooks3 simple matchbooks for a mental miracle and an easy free drink! Effect: three matchbooks are set in front of the mark. While you turn around (or even leave the room!), he's invited to grab any matchbook and sneakily remove one match from anywhere, and replace the matchbook on the exact same place. Once you turn back around, you pick up each matchbook and weigh it in the palm of your hand. After holding up each one in turn, you boldly (and correctly) reveal which matchbook is missing a match! - Heads-Tails Trick! Read Ther Minds Using the Change in Their Pocket!E9
Heads-Tails Trick! Read Ther Minds Using the Change in Their Pocket!Amazing trick reads minds with NO trick coins, NO secret helpers... and no cheating! While you look away, your friend flips over a bunch of coins to a random assortment of heads and tails. Next, she covers up one coin and thinks about whether it was "heads" or "tails" side up... and you tell her exactly what she's thinking of! - Olive SnifferE36
Olive SnifferThe Setup: place 2 napkins a decent length apart (even better, have them on different tables!). Grab a brandy snifter and an olive. The Challenge: without touching or moving the landing pads, use the snifter to pick up the olive from launchpad A, and safely deposit him onto launchpad B. No touching anything except the snifter, and the olive must take off from the one pad, and land on the other. - Cheat Your Friends At A Fair Coin Toss!E37
Cheat Your Friends At A Fair Coin Toss!The Setup: using a totally fair quarter, you and your friend will place bets on which sequence of coin tosses are most likely to come first... while it looks totally fair, you'll have up to a 7 to 1 advantage over them! The Scam: This is an old math problem called "Penney's Game". In this game, each player chooses a 3-digit sequence of coin flips... a coin is flipped over and over again, and whomever's sequence of heads and tails comes first, wins. in other words, player 1 may choose HTH (heads, tails, heads) as his sequence, while player 2 would choose HHT. when the coin is flipped, the results may be: TTHTTHHT, in which case, player 2 would win. - Over The WallE38
Over The WallThe Setup: grab two straws and an empty beer bottle. On the straws, mark a "no man's land" of about 2-3 inches in the middle. The Rules: Neither you, nor anything else is allowed to touch anything in this "no man's land" area on either straw. Each independent side of each straw can touch either you (your fingers), or the beer bottle... but no one side can touch both you and the bottle at the same time. The Challenge: Staying within these rules, use the straws to pick up the bottle off the table, carry it over the wall, and land it safely on the other side. - How to SWITCH CARDS to Trick Your Friends! - The Card SwipeE39
How to SWITCH CARDS to Trick Your Friends! - The Card SwipeIf cards is your game than Card Swap is one for the players. Ever do a card trick and have everyone sweat it out only to discover the way to win is not in the cards at all. Enjoy this week's episode of Scam School you won't want to miss! Card Swap: The Setup Brian plays card swap with 2 lucky subjects! Lay 13 cards out, from Ace to King. Below, lay 13 more cards from King to Ace. Trying it Out: The Game Brian watches the guys play card swap to see if they can figure out how it's done. Each turn, a player can swap any two cards they like. Whenever a card from the top layer lines up with its match on the bottom layer, the cards are "locked in" and cannot be moved again. Winner is the LAST one to lock in a card. - Word PlayE40
Word PlayThink you are good with words? What if I took a bunch of letters and ripped them away from the alphabet could you still spell words? Let's find out? The Setup: Find any two people at the bar, and find out which of the two is the better wordsmith. Give them both 90 seconds to think up as many words as they possibly can without the letters A, B, C, or J, K, M, or P. The Bet: After the wordsmith takes his turn, offer a twist: not only will you bet that Ms. not-good-with-words will win, but that she'll be able to come up with 50 words in less than 90 seconds. You'll help her only by contributing five words to her list. - It's Time to Get All Tangled Up!E41
It's Time to Get All Tangled Up!No matter where you are, it helps to know a couple of sweet tricks you can do with totally borrowed objects... and this week we've got one on loan from world champion magician Michael Ammar! The Setup: borrow two hair bands from any two girls, and hook them onto your index fingers and pinkies. The Effect: after reaching forward and rubbing two bands together... your mark is shocked to find the two rubber bands completely linked! the effect is repeated and both bands are shown to be completely ungimmicked. - How To Spot A LiarE42
How To Spot A LiarThis week we're joined by an expert in microexpressions, lie detections, and negotiation: Clark Freshman of UC San Francisco. Find out how to tell when someone's lying, when they're hiding something, or when you're secretly annoying them at the bar! Find out more about Clark's work at http://clarkfreshman.com - Playing with Matches Without Catching on Fire!E43
Playing with Matches Without Catching on Fire!This week we've got two super simple, killer matchstick puzzles! This week we've got two super simple, killer matchstick puzzles: For starters, set up matchsticks to make the roman numeral expression "seven equals one". Obviously no matter how you read it, this equation is wrong... But by moving just one match you can make it true. Next up: Use matchsticks to create a grid of sixteen squares (as seen in the video)... The challenge is to remove just 9 matches, and end up with absolutely no squares)... Watch the episode for the solution! - How To Spot A Liar (Part 2)E44
How To Spot A Liar (Part 2)This week we complete our interview with an expert in microexpressions, lie detections, and negotiation: Clark Freshman of UC San Francisco. Find out how to tell when someone's lying, when they're hiding something, or when you're secretly annoying them at the bar! Find out more about Clark's work at http://clarkfreshman.com - Want to Be A Street Performer?E45
Want to Be A Street Performer?So by now you've got well over 100 kick-ass tricks you're learned from scam school, and I get a LOT of letters from people asking how to hone their skills as a performer. Everyone's different, but I know that for me, street performing was an invaluable experience. It forced me to learn how to build a crowd, how to recognize when people were getting bored, and gave me an opportunity to hone my skills without having to book a "real" show. In this episode of Scam School, we take it to the streets and try to discover the ins and outs of street performing. - 'Couple' of PuzzlesE47
'Couple' of PuzzlesThis week we've got two match puzzles that should leave them stumped! Puzzle 1: You've got two pieces; a bucket filled with a couple of matches, and a "tent" made from the unwrapped outer cover of a matchbox. The Challenge: get the tent over the matches without touching anything, and without leaving your seat. Puzzle 2: start with a simple 2x2 square made of matches. The Challenge: to cut the square into two, perfectly equal sides with exactly the same shape... using 4 matches. - Two Quick and Dirty PuzzlesE48
Two Quick and Dirty PuzzlesPuzzle 1: draw 9 dots in a 3x3 grid, surrounded by a box. The goal: by drawing just 2 squares, get each dot (rattlesnake) in its own, complete separate "cage" Puzzle 2: Bite the heads off of 2 matchsticks, and arrange them in the shape of a "T" (as shown in the episode). The question: which stick is longer, the horizontal, or the vertical? - The ScoopE50
The ScoopThis week we've got a bar room classic-- learn it now so you don't get punked at the bar!! Setup: Pour about a shot of water into a saucer or small plate. The challenge is to use a few standard bar items to get as much water into the glass, in as little time as possible. (warning: make sure you don't have a ton of napkins around... They'll just soak everything up and throw it in the glass) - Bad Ass Origami Magic with Adorian Deck!E51
Bad Ass Origami Magic with Adorian Deck!Brian scams YouTube sensation Adorian Deck with his math and origami mastery! The effect: by thinking of a random number and doing some more randomizing, your friend will think of a totally random animal, which he will keep secret from you. Behind your back, you start folding a bill into an animal origami shape, trying to guess the animal they're thinking of. Amazingly, not only do you fold it into a perfect origami animal, but it perfectly matches the animal they're thinking of! - We Discover the Dark Lord of the Scam!E52
We Discover the Dark Lord of the Scam!This week we've got two easy tricks guaranteed to get a reaction from your friends: WARNING: both of these involve fire, so be CERTAIN to take proper safety precautions! Straw Rocket: Take a bottle of tequila, gin, or vodka, and leave only about a half teaspoon of alcohol in the bottom. Seal the bottle and heat it up (for example, in a dishwasher). SLOWLY open the cap and insert a straw that's been cross-pierced with a toothpick (as seen in the episode). finally, drop in a match and... WHIPOW!!! Instant straw rocket! Napkin Rocket: This one's super simple... fold a napkin into four vertical segments, and "roll" it into a triangular tube. Set this tube up vertically on the table and light it from the top on all 3 sides. After it burns down to the bottom, the rising hot air will cause all the ashes to rise 10-15 feet toward the ceiling!
