It's not magic, it's camera cuts and bottom of the barrel acting. It doesn't take you watching even a single full episode to deduce how he does his "magic tricks". He says one thing or another, there's a terribly edited camera cut so you can't see what is happening, then the camera pans back and "magic!" If that alone doesn't give it away, notice how in 99% of any scenario that it's just Michael and the plant, even in a business during the middle of the day, there is never anyone standing or sitting right there who's not a part of the act. It is just terrible and I wish TruTV would compensate me for the time I've wasted watching some a terrible, terrible show.Edit: The overwhelmingly "not helpful" votes for me review show you that it's real. The positive reviews are beyond fake to the point I'm embarrassed for the people who think they're fooling anyone.

When I first saw the show its just looks like any other magic TV show. But the people who have done the negative reviews on this show should research it Before writing a review. I found out that he finds people who need work and then He does magic tricks on them. They are people who see the trick fail, but they have to pay them money any, then there are people who got fooled by the trick but don't want to be on TV but still get paid, the last people get the biggest sums of money are the people who get tricked and say it's okay to be put on TV. Some of his tricks are really clever which makes you wonder how he did it, others you notice at once and wonder how people fall for it. I just love seeing how the react to the trick. What people are most skeptical about are the zoom in on the victim. They usually do that so you can't see them make a switch while the person is distracted to keep it a mistake. The only reason I don't give it a 10/10 is because they sometimes but this is rare, they do tricks so obvious that it makes you wonder how people could fall for it. Give it a try you might just like it.

If you accept this show for what it is at face value, you'll probably be very entertained by it finding yourself exclaiming, "How did he do that?! That's amazing!" Carbonaro's tricks are pretty funny, and the people's reactions are also amusing.However, if you look past that, you'll find a hollow shell of a show made up of simple camera tricks and cut-aways along with poor actors in order to make you think that all of the tricks are legitimate. The tricks are too elaborate to be sleight-of-hand as in most magic. For example, there is an episode where Carbonaro is working at a sporting goods store, and a "random woman" comes into the store to return a sleeping bag that's too small. She places the bag on the counter, he inspects it by opening it up, and after a few cut-aways later, there's a giant snake coming out of the bag, and of course, the woman is shocked. In the same episode, a "pizza delivery woman" brings a pizza to the counter, he says that he ordered the wrong kind of pizza, he places the pizza on a spinning chair, spins it a few times, and then after a couple cut-aways, he opens the pizza box, and suddenly, it's a different pizza. Even if these people were not actors, the props would still need to be set up in advance so that the trick could be effective. Carbonaro has to know about the pizza box and the sleeping bag in order to make a trick out of them. These types of circumstances are common across all the episodes.If these tricks were done with one long continuous shot, then yes, they would be very convincing. Unfortunately, his "magic" essentially consists of showing you one thing, telling you to close your eyes for five seconds, and then suddenly showing you something else and asking you to act amazed. If you try really hard to suspend your disbelief, you will find entertainment in the show. If you look past that and analyze Carbonaro's "tricks," you'll easily see that it's just actors pretending to be impressed regular people trying to convince you to be entertained.

David Blaine did it much better. Blaine's initial Street Magic videos showcased practical magic that could be performed in the audience's hand. Having experience with this myself, I know the reactions Blaine got were genuine. Blaine used editing on his show, but it was to enhance what the television viewer saw, while the reactions from those in attendance to the unedited illusion was real.This show is ALL editing and camera-work. I don't believe the audience reactions for a minute. Perform these illusions live and I'd be impressed, but I'm not seeing anything that I couldn't do with a camera and a good software program.That being said, it's worth watching because it is entertaining in moderation.