Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Magic Prank Show with Justin Willman’ on Netflix, a Hidden-Camera Series That’s All About Sweet Revenge

Happy April Fool’s Day to all you jerks who participate – and it’s the most apt day for Netflix to launch The Magic Prank Show with Justin Willman. A reality-TV star, game show host, touring magician and all-around funny fella, Willman is best known as the Magic for Humans guy who performed close-up magic for people on the street for three hit seasons, also on Netflix. This new series takes the concept a step or two further as Willman devises elaborate, magic-trick-inspired scenarios for fans hoping to exact revenge on someone who pranked them hard. The concept sounds a little convoluted, sure, but the execution in the debut episode is pretty effective – and funny.

THE MAGIC PRANK SHOW WITH JUSTIN WILLMAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of Willman apparently lifting himself off the ground with a car wash spray hose while onlookers drop their jaws.

The Gist: Justin Willman has a lot of fans, and many of them are in need of a little PRANK ASSISTANCE. Before we get to the sweet, sweet revenge, Willman explains how this will work: He solicits DMs from fans on Instagram, picks a scenario in need of some good old-fashioned “karmic justice,” and brainstorms a prank with his four compatriots – Stuart MacLeod, Kyle Marlett, Austin Janik and Kim Congdon – in his “magic lab” in Hollywood. 

The first solicitee is Vincent, whose sister Valerie has tormented him many, many times by putting a fake 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 their mother used to practice hairstyling, and now it’s a totem for Vincent’s trauma. So Willman and Vincent conspire to get her back during a sibling spa day for her birthday, and karma dictates that it’ll have to make Vincent appear to have been decapitated. Willman and his pals start with a guillotine bit (think Alice Cooper’s shtick), then work their way towards something really gross that might occur during a massage. When that doesn’t seem like it goes quite far enough to truly torment Valerie, they realize the spa offers kooky cryogenic-chamber treatments that seem ripe for a truly original prank. 

The second is Kendrick. Twenty years ago, his brother Kendale read his diary and outed him as gay to their entire family. Yikes, I say. Yikes. Maybe Kendrick is sorta over it, because he seems a little too chipper to be nursing two decades’ worth of bitter resentment. But there’s no doubt Kendale deserves something – something that exploits his deep fear of robots and AI. Does it require Willman donning creepy uncanny-valley contact lenses and pretending to be a sinister hyperintelligent machine? And will it be amusingly convoluted and involve 3-D printing Willman’s face and some good ol’ magic-show misdirection? Seems like a safe bet.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Magic Prank Show takes Willman’s magic skills and adds in Mythbusters-style brainstorming and builds with the pranksterism of Eric Andre or Punk’d and classic hidden-camera setups a la Candid Camera.

Our Take: Prank shows can come off mean-spirited if they’re not executed correctly, but Willman’s genial persona and the persuasive insistence that the victims totally deserve having the bejeezus scared out of them for a minute or five are the key elements rendering The Magic Prank Show effective and funny. If the tone leans too close to cruelty, it taints the formula, and Willman avoids that; it’s about revenge in all its infantile, very hilarious glory, and in one case at least, pranking a prankster right back. We’ve seen many movies and TV shows showing us that revenge is sweet until it isn’t (Westerns, John Wick, etc.), but there’s no bitter aftertaste here – or at least that we see. The episode sort of implies that scores have been settled, but like violence begets violence, pranks beget pranks, and I feel like The Magic Prank Show is funny in the short run, but may just escalate things in the long run.

But we’re not here to think about that. We’re here to watch people’s reactions when they find themselves in a nutty-ass situation and don’t know they’re being filmed. Hidden-camera comedy is a lot like fart jokes – simple, base, immature. But we laugh anyway. Can’t help it sometimes. It just spills out. And Willman’s relatively lighthearted and clever tone makes inspiring guffaws seem fairly effortless. There are moments when his deeply silly shenanigans seem too deeply silly to hold water, but he and his cohorts execute their pranks with an impressive level of conviction, and I laughed very much in spite of myself. 

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Willman teases the theme of the next episode: “Anybody in a romantic relationship right now, you better watch out.”

Sleeper Star: Willman’s “magic lab” buddies don’t leave much of a lasting impression in the pilot episode, but Congdon shows an impressively deranged sensibility when she suggests that pretending to explode Vincent’s head off during a massage just isn’t quite enough to truly torment Valerie.

Most Pilot-y Line: Willman inspires a huge laugh, 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 Prank Show. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.