Art of the Prank

6.5
2015 1 hr 22 min Comedy , Documentary

The great media prankster, Joey Skaggs, wants to fool the world media AGAIN, and, with the most complex hoax of his career in the pipeline, he now must use every trick in his prankster's arsenal to make it work. Art of the Prank is an emotional journey following the evolution of artist Joey Skaggs-a fierce proponent of independent thinking and the man who has turned the media hoax into an art form. With unprecedented access to the man and his archives, the 95-minute documentary interweaves a current unfolding hoax with a look behind-the-scenes at some classic performance pieces (all reported as fact by a wide range of prestigious journalists) plus commentary from co-conspirators and others. -IMDB

  • Cast:
    Robert Forster , Peter Maloney

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Reviews

Afouotos
2015/07/29

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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Matrixiole
2015/07/30

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

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Siflutter
2015/07/31

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

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Fleur
2015/08/01

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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arfdawg-1
2015/08/02

The Premise. Art of the Prank is an emotional and humorous journey following the evolution of Joey Skaggs, Godfather of the media hoax, as he tries to pull off the most challenging prank of his career. This is interwoven with amazing archive footage of his earlier escapades-all reported as fact by prestigious journalists. The resulting twists and turns provide unprecedented insight into Joey's work as an artist, activist and social satirist.I was REALLY ho[ping to like this movie. Unfortunately it's rather boring. It also shows that Scaggs hey day was 25 years ago and now he's all dried up of creativity.His stunts are silly and easily debunked, but the media could not care less about vetting. I forget the guy's name, but Scaggs is NOT the godfather of the prank. There was another guy before him who was so much better and a documentary was made about him a number of years ago by his daughter. Look for that one.

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katymayhudson
2015/08/03

Watching the Art of the Prank was a totally joy inducing experience. Marini takes us through 30+ years of the career and times of Joey Skaggs, performance artist, provocateur, culture jammer, and media hoax extraordinaire, in what is a fascinating study of not only Mr. Skaggs artistry but also a haunting look at how our current systems of information are warped and easily manipulated. While this documentary is a highly entertaining journey about the life and art of Joey Skaggs, more aptly it reflects how broken and unreliably modern media outlets are. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Highly recommend it. I laughed, I cried. It was better than "Cats".

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steffanimartin
2015/08/04

I found it both entertaining and containing more depth than I anticipated. Joey Skaggs has spent a lifetime satirizing life, politics, the arts and the media. More power to him. Anyone who believes that the world is a bit absurd will love this film. I am going to order a copy to show to my granddaughter. She needs to see this point of view.

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sal-91504
2015/08/05

Art of the Prank profiles the four decade plus career of media/art prankster Joey Skaggs. Skaggs would create hoaxes like saying he was creating a cat house (prostitution) for dogs just to have the media report on them, the expose that they'd be duped. The point? To cast a spotlight on the media, all with the intent that people should question what they read.The doc tracks a whole host of Joey's pranks going back to the Vietnam era to today. And it is drop dead hilarious and the way through, watching the backstory of how he creates and stages his events, and when the media, from the NY Times to CNN, have to eat crow and having been fooled.Again it's not only hugely entertaining but very timely, in this era where we have to deal with fake news coming at us from every direction.

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