Prankster magician and presenter Ben Hanlin is returning to ITV2 on 27 October with a Halloween special of his hidden-camera magic show, Tricked.
Tricked: House of Horrors will feature celebrity guests, including Jamie Laing, Marnie Simpson, and Danni Armstrong, who try to survive Ben’s House of Horrors. During the show, Megan McKenna witnesses some paranormal activity, and Blue’s Lee Ryan finally gets revenge on bandmate Simon Webbe for a caravan prank.
Ben describes the special to TenEighty as “a fun hour of me using my magic to scare the hell out of members of the public and a few celebrities.
“I really loved scaring people!” he affirms. “If I had to pick, I think my favourite bit from the episode is watching the celebs walk through my House of Horrors because they are so scared. It’s hilarious (even if I do say so myself).”
Ben’s love of horror films was a big influence on the show. “I wanted to see what would happen if you recreated similar scenarios in real life,” he says. “We have also filmed it in the style of a horror film, including scary music, which means that when viewers watch it they’ll be scared and laughing at the same time. I’ve not seen that too much on TV before.”
He also mentions his love of pranks: “The best thing about performing for TV is that I get to use magic to prank people – I get such a buzz at the end of the prank when they have just seen some magic and they have no idea that I’m a magician and have no explanation for what has just happened. You can see their brain literally scrambling for answers.”
Ben rose to fame through his series Magic Boy Finds on YouTube. “They were fun adventures and I ended up performing for celebs like David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre (I stopped his car and performed a trick through his window),” shares Ben. “We even ended up going to LA and did tricks to Mickey Rourke, Quentin Tarantino, and Corey Feldmen. The videos were shared and eventually people at ITV saw them. They thought it was a different way of using magic, and after a few conversations, Tricked was born. Without YouTube, there is no way those people will have ever known I existed.”
Tricked: House of Horrors airs on 27 October at 9pm on ITV2.
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