A clip showing a “shrinking man” illusion being performed on Westminster Green behind Sky reporter Ashish Joshi apparently during a live broadcast has been viewed more than 180,000 times on YouTube after going viral on social media.
But it emerged on Friday that the clip was staged, and was not part of a live Sky News broadcast. Acting independently of his employers, Joshi allowed the magicians to film the stunt outside parliament. Graphics closely mirroring the channel’s text and branding were added afterwards.
News organisations such as the Huffington Post, the Metro and Sun Nation were duped by the viral video, initially reporting that Joshi had been pranked live on air by the two magicians, Richard Young and Sam Strange.
Sky News confirmed in a tweet that the video was “not a Sky News report”.
We’d like to clarify that the Ashish Joshi video with the magicians in the background is not a Sky News report
— Sky News PR Team (@SkyNewsPR) July 24, 2015
Joshi said on Friday afternoon that the film was designed to generate publicity for Young and Strange, in the hope it can help them land a TV show. “They’re friends of mine. I was happy to help,” he said.
Joshi insisted he was not in any trouble with his bosses. “Sky has been brilliant. Everyone’s laughing.” Asked whether that was the case, a Sky News spokesman declined to comment.
The faked news report shows two magicians rolling their equipment into the background of the shot as the Joshi stands in front of parliament speaking about the government’s NHS plans.
The duo appeared to carry out a shrinking illusion in front of Westminster as the unsuspecting reporter carried on with his report.
Midway through the report there is close-cropping of the frame, yet not quite cutting out the act from view, suggesting the camera crew were well aware of what was going on.
The journalist praised the magicians for their illusion and tweeted: “Brilliant! Loved it!”
@YoungandStrange Brilliant! Loved it!
— Ashish Joshi (@ashishskynews) July 22, 2015
The illusionists, who are both 30 and from Oxfordshire, said they did not expect the response.
“We thought it might get a few hundred views! Videobomb videos are boring, everyone just makes faces or waves to their mum, we wanted to try and take it up a level.”
Strange said: “It was surprisingly easy to make it happen and performing in the background of a news report is easy to do.” He insisted no camera tricks were used during the Sky News stunt.
The comic magicians shared the behind-the-scenes footage of how the hoax was done on YouTube.
