Scam School (2008)

From nowhere, you produce billows of smoke out of your mouth...it's like you've manufactured smoke in your lungs!

Effect: a hard-as-balls puzzle, that will drive everyone nuts and win you some free booze!

Effect: Your friend beats his head on the bar repeatedly, to everyone's delight.

For this effect we've dressed up a straight-up old school bar scam. Here's the simple presentation for the classic "you do as I do" effect: Bet a friend he can't copy everything you do.

This clever trick uses a pint of beer and two willing thumbs to handcuff your friend (or enemy) to the bar, while you take his keys, wallet, girlfriend and more.

Effect: Defying all laws of leverage, you summon a ridiculous amount of strength.

Effect: Bet your friend that you can drink 2 pints of beer before he can drink two shots of his favorite liquor.

Effect: Play a game with your friend that you can always win.

Placing a lit match inside your mouth, you do a very convincing impression of a grinning jack-o-lantern...all without burning yourself.

This episode tests your visual perception. Which is more? The circumference of the rim of a pint glass, or the height of the pint glass from the bottom to the top?

Effect: Despite being an insulator, Brian is able to charge a match with static electricity which then causes another match to jump into the air.

Effect: Amaze fellow bar patrons by picking up two straws using only one other straw.

This one's like a playground dare gone too far...

Brian opened for the live Diggnation show in New York, and we have it here for those who missed it!

This is the second and final half of Brian's opening act for Diggnation in NY.

A guaranteed, never fail way to get the hottest girls at the bar to talk with you for at least 20 minutes.

Effect: Surprise your friends by telling them you have X-ray vision

Watch the Master finally get beat at his own game!

Apply high school physics to amaze your friends and win free drinks.

It's Magic 101. Can you mimic the master?

All you need is a match, two pint glasses and a quarter, and you'll be drinking free all night!

This game goes by a bunch of names: "fast and loose," "pricking the garter," "the endless chain," "the strap..." The object is simple: a chain is laid in a figure-eight configuration. One of the holes is the true center of the chain and will hold "fast," while the other will not hold, and is instead "loose".

Effect: Let an entire cigarette burn without the ash falling.

This week Brian steps out of the bar, and into the Revision3 studios to deliver an episode straight from the Forums!

Effect: This card trick is quite possible responsible for more free beers than any other in history. It's not just a magic trick, it's a cleverly-laid trap guaranteed to win you a frosty cold one.

A stumper of a puzzle‚ using only 4th grade math.

As you know by now, we here at Scam School pride ourselves on giving you only the very best bar scams. Today we break our streak, and instead present you with four stupid beer gags.

A brand new illusion that will trick your friends into believing in MIND CONTROL.

A new take on an old-time match trick

We've taught you how to scam, swindle, and steal... but we have yet to give you any actual talent. That all changes in this episode. We're going to teach you not only how to control a card to the bottom of the deck, but how to use that talent for a sweet little card trick.

What's better than a card trick? Predicting the FREAKING FUTURE, which is exactly what you'll do in this scam. We call it Pigment Prediction.

If you liked the four-quarter puzzle from Episode 2 (appropriately named, "The Puzzle"), you're going to LOVE the 11-Cent Slide. It's every bit as diabolical and unsolvable as the 4-quarter puzzle, but it has an added twist that should net you TWICE the beers of any other puzzle.

This week Brian is back in the Revision 3 studios another "From the Forums episode"!

This week we've got another puzzle with a setup that sounds absolutely impossible.

We present the atomic bomb of sucker gags: The Funnel!

As a conversation starter, Brian shows you how to use two toothpicks to detect a pulse.

Memorize a few configs and you'll hold the key to another unbeatable game and loads of free drinks!

No matter what the setup, the very best scams are the ones that let the mark think they're on top, only to get punked in the end. That's what makes the penny prediction so great!

Remember Brian sticking a 4-inch nail up his nose? This time he shows you how it works!

This episode, we're turning to the dark side and learning actual CRIME. Remember, the following is for INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!

A while back, we taught you the importance of using easy, beatable puzzles to keep girls talking to you at the bar. Our Holiday gift to you is another set of "getting the girl" routines!

The tables are turned on Brian, as he is the student learning from the ultimate master of strength!

We've covered a few magic tricks, and we've covered a few street crimes. This episode we're going to combine the two and get a magic trick that acts as a smokescreen for an actual crime.

It's true: you can never have too much money, have too many friends, or know too many ways to predict the freaking future.

We're back with another dirty trick, designed to teach you how to FAKE your way into (almost) duplicating the feats of the world's strongest men.

Brian introduces a new diabolical coin puzzle to stump your friends.

Watch Brian scam Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley with a few coins, and some algebra!

Watch Brian make you think he can use his bare hands to bend a horseshoe and to roll a frying pan!

It's rare to find a trick that you can actually fool yourself with...and that's exactly what you get with this episode!

We made it! 50 episodes of Scam School! YEE-HAW!! You learn fake ESP powers and we show you the Mind Control trick from outer space!

Welcome to graduation! This is your senior year of Strength School, co-hosted by world record holder and supreme bad ass, Dennis Rogers!

Make everyone believe you can move an object with your freakin' mind!

Watch Brian open for Diggnation with an unforgettable live show from Austin, TX at Stubb's Bar-B-Q!!

Impress everyone at the next party you attend by learning a simple fire eating trick!

Brian performs some magic tricks in front of some big wig web celebs!

Learn how to make a card vanish and land in the most unlikely location.

It's crazy to say it, but we're a year into Scam School, and only now are getting around to addressing one of the biggest, most popular items in any bar: the pool table.

This week, a card effect that requires no dexterity or skill whatsoever, and (best of all), uses only 10 cards out of the deck!

From Scam School fan "Cowboy" in the UK, comes the most insidious, diabolical, GENIUS prank Brian has seen since the quarter-on-forehead scam!

If you're comfortable with taking a little risk for a chance at a HUGE reward, you're going to love this week's episode.

This week, we've got a simple puzzle with an impossible-sounding setup.

Brian hangs out with the crew from CO-OP and schools them on how to uncover a conspiracy theory!

Get ready to learn how to scam your way into anything, or anyone!

The second half of Brian's "Scam Your Way Into Anything" panel record from SXSW Interactive!

Because sooner or later, every scammer finds himself in a pair of handcuffs.

Here it is! Our final SXSW episode, where you'll see Brian scam and be scammed by Digg CEO Jay Adelson and astronaut/ubergeek Richard Garriott.

This week a puzzle (involving nails) that stumped Brian!

Bottle bet makes 'em look goofy AND win you a free drink

Math paradox lets you cheat your friends

3 simple matchbooks for a mental miracle and an easy free drink!

This week: a killer card trick, complete with a twist at the end... this card trick works BETTER because it screws up!

It's a real-life Vulcan mind-meld!

For our 100th episode, we've got a statistical scam that sounds impossible.

Get two puzzles for the price of one!

Use leverage to make your friends look dumb!

Amazing trick reads minds with NO trick coins, NO secret helpers... and no cheating!

Easy trick fools magicians!

Hurl playing cards 50 feet at a time! Fling them hard enough to break water balloons, or even embed them into aluminum sheeting!

Check out Brian's live show from Austin, as he opened for Diggnation!