Ordinary situations. Extraordinary illusions.

Michael Carbonaro is a magician by trade, but a prankster by heart. In truTV’s comedic series THE CARBONARO EFFECT, Michael performs baffling tricks on unsuspecting people in everyday situations, all caught on hidden camera.

As someone who has always been fascinated with magic and as someone who loves a good prank, I knew I had to check out truTV’s new series, The Carbonaro Effect. And I was not disappointed. Magician, comedian, and improv artist, Michael Carbonaro takes his skills to the street to prank the public with quite the unfair advantage if there ever was one and boy does it make for entertaining TV!

First, viewers follow Carbonaro in a supermarket as he rings unsuspecting customers out. He tricks quite a few customers at this location. One customer is shocked to learn that avocados now have security tags in them. You won’t believe how Carbonaro gets them out! Or perhaps you will. This trick was the easiest to see how it was done but the reaction of the unsuspecting customer is still priceless. This is probably the only trick that viewers can see right through. The tricks get more complex as time goes on.

Next, we follow Carbonaro at the post office. My favorite trick here? Watching Carbonaro ask a customer if he definitely wanted to mail the lit birthday cake that was inside of the package he brought in. Yes, a lit birthday cake. And let’s not forget about Carbonaro informing an elderly woman about vortex shipping! But not just informing her, demonstrating it! Hilarious! Carbonaro’s third task involves being a hotel concierge and if the license swap trick doesn’t make you worry laugh, I don’t know what will.

The Carbonaro Effect is truly mind blowing. You’ll want to know how Carbonaro pulls these tricks off just as much as you’ll want to know how Carbonaro picks his lucky victims! Or maybe Carbonaro is the lucky one. There are so many different personalities that he plays with and luckily, all of his tricks fair well with them. My favorite reaction? Never letting up on the crazy. Watching a man try to figure out the logic in Carbonaro walking out of a building with a spare key after watching Carbonaro get stuck in a trunk was probably the highlight of the episode. The man probably thought superheroes existed for a moment. That’s not all that will have these people doubting themselves, what’s real and what’s not. This is only the beginning so tune in for back to back episodes tonight and get ready to laugh!

The Carbonaro Effect premieres TONIGHT at 10pm on truTV.