This is World's Greatest Con. I'm Brian Brushwood.

Here's the thing about scoundrels.

We love them. We love them in our books and our movies and our comic books.

And to be clear, we don't hate to love them the way we would an anti-hero,

somebody we don't like but feel we have to go along with.

We love scoundrels.

Folks who are naughty, who skirt the very edges of propriety.

But if there's one thing we love more than a scoundrel,

it's a scoundrel who begrudgingly does the right thing.

I spent 20 years touring all over the United States as a stage

magician and whenever I had the choice I would never use the M word. Because when I say the word magician you're

already thinking of birthday parties and somebody who has a plan to make you

look like a fool.

And it's an unfair bias.

I love magic.

When I pitched Scam School, an entire channel dedicated to learning the fundamentals of magic. I refused to ever admit that it was a magic show.

And in fact for the first few years you'll never hear me say the M word on this show. Instead we positioned it as how would you like

to be the coolest guy at the bar the one who was always drinking for free. Now when you phrase it that way, there's only one

archetype you're thinking of and it isn't a magician. We love a scoundrel.

Now there are several ways a movie can make you love a scoundrel.

First is to make him handsome.

Chisled symmetrical face, your Danny Oceans, your Han solos, Dream Boats, all of them.

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